[Jonathan]

Sorry for the long sad story, but I've managed to confuse myself completely, so I'm hoping one (or more) of you smart people can help. Last spring I ripped about 300 CDs to a Seagate external USB hard drive (stored as AIFFs). I also kept a copy of the same files in iTunes on my 2009 Mac Mini. I was using a Berhinger DEQ 2496 as a DAC connected via the optical output; all was working well. I also was trying out demos of all the aftermarket playback programs and settled on the free version of Audirvana for the time being until I can save up some money.

For some unknown reason, the Mini began running very slowly and was taking forever to boot up. I decided to do a clean install of OS X 10.6.8 from the original DVD. This worked perfectly and the computer is now running great. But the the extra copy of the music files that had been on my computer were gone (as I knew they would be). No biggie--as I said, I had (and still have) them on my Seagate hard drive.

After completing the clean install, I held down the option button while launching iTunes and pointed the program to open the most recent version of the iTunes library I could find on my external hard drive (I see a few on there, although, honestly, I'm not sure where they all came from). All continued to work fine and I was able to access all the song files on the external hard drive using the standard iTunes interface. I could also still access the files directly with Audirvana Free.

I recently sold the Behringer and am awaiting a new Parasound ZDAC. Since I have no DAC, I connected the headphone output of my Mac into my preamp. All was still working fine until today when I updated to the most recent version of iTunes (11.1.3). Although the entire library of 300 CDs shows up (including artwork and track info), if I try to play a file, I get a message informing me that the original file cannot be found, and would I like to locate it? If I locate it on the hard drive it will play, but, obviously, to do this for every song is silly.

As mentioned, I can still load playlists into Aurdirvana, but, for now iTunes is useless. I want to use the Remote app and iTunes interface, at least in the short run. I have tried pointing iTunes to several of the older libraries I see on the external hard drive, but nothing works and I keep getting the same message.

So, my questions (FINALLY!) are: 1) how do I get iTunes to once again find the songs that are located on the hard drive? and 2) what happened that this problem occurred? I'd really like to avoid it happening in the future. Thanks in advance for your help!!

[JohnR]

Hi, check the Preferences option for the library location? My guess is that's what's gone awry.

[Jonathan]

Hi, check the Preferences option for the library location? My guess is that's what's gone awry.

I have multiple versions of the libary (.itl) file on the external hard drive, but none seems to be working when I tell iTunes to use one of them. The album info is "there" (titles, songs, etc.) but it isn't really there. If I go to preferences and reset the location to the where the music files are on the external hard drive, it appears to be doing something, but then it doesn't work. I'm just screwed, I think. What is the easiest way to start over? Can I just drag all the files from the hard drive to iTunes and wait (hour and hours) for it to copy them again?

[JohnR]

OK, please do Get Info on the track (right click) and post the location ("Where" at the bottom of the Summary screen) Tunes thinks the file is at:

...

Please post the actual location of the file that you want to use:

...

Please post the "iTunes Media folder location" (from Preferences -> Advanced):

...

[Jonathan]

Okay, John R.:

iTunes  thinks the file is here:
file://localhost/Users/JonsMacMini/Music/iTunes/iTunesMusic/iTunesMedia/XTC/Wasp Start (Apple Venus Volume 2)/11 Church of Women.aiff

The file is actually here:
/Volumes/Seagate Backup Plus Drive/music files/XTC-Wasp Star

In Preferences, the iTunes Media Folder location is set to here:
/Users/JonsMacMini/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/iTunes Media

Thanks again for your help.

Jon

[srb]

This illustrates that as a backup strategy for iTunes, how important it is to also backup the .itl and .xml library files found in the Users/username/Music folder.

The .xml library file contains much of the information found in the .itl library file including songfile locations.  Although its main use is to enable importing library information to other programs, it can also be used to repopulate a corrupted or erroneous .itl library file.

The .xml library file contains a location path for each songfile.  If the location path is not where the songfiles currently reside, you can use a text editor to perform a "Find and Replace All" to point each songfile to its actual location.  In this particular case you would Find the string

localhost/Users/JonsMacMini/Music/iTunes/iTunesMusic/iTunesMedia

and Replace All with

Volumes/Seagate Backup Plus Drive/music files

Making sure that the existing .itl library file is either renamed or moved to another folder or the Trash, you can open iTunes where it will create a blank library file, then import the .xml library file with File > Library > Import Playlist.

Steve

[JohnR]

Steve, the directory structure does not match though, "XTC" is a directory level in the iTunes database, but part of the directory name in the file system.

 

[JohnR]

Jon, you said you have multiple versions of the iTunes library on your backup drive. Is there one that makes the music file above appear at

/Volumes/Seagate Backup Plus Drive/SOMETHING/XTC/Wasp Start (Apple Venus Volume 2)/11 Church of Women.aiff

?

[srb]

Steve, the directory structure does not match though, "XTC" is a directory level in the iTunes database, but part of the directory name in the file system. 

John, XTC is the Artist folder and Wasp Star is the Album folder.

Steve

[JohnR]

Yes, but look at the location of the file.

[srb]

Yes, but look at the location of the file.

Yes, the artist/album folder structure differs in the two, so it is a bit confusing.

In the database filepath, "file://localhost/Users/JonsMacMini/Music/iTunes/iTunesMusic/iTunesMedia/XTC/Wasp Start (Apple Venus Volume 2)/11 Church of Women.aiff", I assumed that the path was typed into the forum reply (not copied and pasted), with a typo of "Start" instead of "Star"

In the actual file location, "/Volumes/Seagate Backup Plus Drive/music files/XTC-Wasp Star", I assumed that the artist/album folder path was incomplete when typed into the forum reply

If the actual artist/album folders are different, then certainly my method won't work, and that was assuming that there was a valid .xml library file hanging around anyway.  That is how I have resolved library location problems quickly in the past, but in this case, adding the external drive music folder to an empty library might be the best fix regardless of the importation time.

Steve

[Jonathan]

Steve and John, I really appreciate your time with this. I entirely deleted iTunes and associated files on my computer and reinstalled it. So at this point it is as clean as it can be and there are no music files there at all. All of my music files reside on the Seagate, in a folder I named Music Files. There is an individual folder for each artist, and in most cases, album. As you can see from the screen shot, there are a ridiculous assortment of past .itl and .xml files. Can't I use something there to get it all going again?

[WC]

At this point you should go into preferences and point iTunes to your files on the external drive. It will then ask you if you want to rebuild the library. Click OK. Depending on the size of your library it may take a while.

[Jonathan]

Thanks again for all who tried to help.  WC, your solution was the simplest, but took the longest to figure out. 

I had forgotten to look under the iTunes file menu for just re-addding the files to the library from the hard drive. It only took a few minutes and all is back and working, except the artwork for multiple albums is not showing up. No big deal to find it again online. Thanks again.

[jparkhur]

Thanks again for all who tried to help.  WC, your solution was the simplest, but took the longest to figure out. 

I had forgotten to look under the iTunes file menu for just re-addding the files to the library from the hard drive. It only took a few minutes and all is back and working, except the artwork for multiple albums is not showing up. No big deal to find it again online. Thanks again.

select all - and do get artwork- some will be taken care of, the rest you will have to add.  iTunes is ok, but TuneUp is better for finding artwork and fixing issues with non imported music. 

JP