How to fix iTunes dupes, exclamation marks, and other fun stuff.

studley · « **on:** 22 Mar 2009, 09:51 pm »

Help! I've done something and I don't know what but most of the songs in my library have an exclamation mark against them and if I click on them it says the song file can't be found. All my music is on a separate hard disk and is still there safe and sound (cos my Squeezebox can still stream them) but for some reason itunes can no longer "see" the files.

Is there a cure?

PS. I've made sure that in Preferences > Advanced the location of my itunes music folder is coreectly set for the external disk.

Crimson · « **Reply #1 on:** 22 Mar 2009, 11:21 pm »

Somehow your library index file got corrupted. From within iTunes, delete ALL the songs in your library but DO NOT move to trash when asked. Once done, click File -> Add to Library and point to the folder on your drive that contains all artist sub-folders, click OK. It'll re-index your library.

Edit: I'd like to make this a sticky topic as it comes up from time to time.

srb · « **Reply #2 on:** 22 Mar 2009, 11:27 pm »

You might first try and 'Change' the iTunes folder location and reselect your external drive & folder, even if it is showing the 'correct' location.

Steve

Watson · « **Reply #3 on:** 22 Mar 2009, 11:28 pm »

Quote from: Crimson on 22 Mar 2009, 11:21 pm

Somehow your library index file got corrupted. From within iTunes, delete ALL the songs in your library but DO NOT move to trash when asked. Once done, click File -> Add to Library and point to the folder on your drive that contains all artist sub-folders, click OK. It'll re-index your library.

Edit: I'd like to make this a sticky topic as it comes up from time to time.

This works, but be aware that if you do this, you will lose some of your metadata, including play counts, "last played", and ratings. This information is stored in the iTunes database, not in the ID3 tags.

Crimson · « **Reply #4 on:** 22 Mar 2009, 11:29 pm »

Quote from: Watson on 22 Mar 2009, 11:28 pm

Quote from: Crimson on 22 Mar 2009, 11:21 pm
Somehow your library index file got corrupted. From within iTunes, delete ALL the songs in your library but DO NOT move to trash when asked. Once done, click File -> Add to Library and point to the folder on your drive that contains all artist sub-folders, click OK. It'll re-index your library.

Edit: I'd like to make this a sticky topic as it comes up from time to time.

This works, but be aware that if you do this, you will lose some of your metadata, including play counts, "last played", and ratings. This information is stored in the iTunes database, not in the ID3 tags.

You are quite correct. Thanks for bringing it up.

studley · « **Reply #5 on:** 22 Mar 2009, 11:52 pm »

Quote from: Watson on 22 Mar 2009, 11:28 pm

This works, but be aware that if you do this, you will lose some of your metadata, including play counts, "last played", and ratings. This information is stored in the iTunes database, not in the ID3 tags.

That's fine, I don't use that data. Big breath and I'll give it a try. TIA!

Steve: already tried that thanks, no good I'm afraid.

studley · « **Reply #6 on:** 22 Mar 2009, 11:58 pm »

OK I "selected all" and then pressed delete from Edit menu. A dialogue box came up asking me I am sure I want to "Remove" all the files.

I presume I click Remove (gulp) ?

srb · « **Reply #7 on:** 22 Mar 2009, 11:59 pm »

Quote from: Watson on 22 Mar 2009, 11:28 pm

This works, but be aware that if you do this, you will lose some of your metadata, including play counts, "last played", and ratings. This information is stored in the iTunes database, not in the ID3 tags.

As well as any added or modified playlists and customization of fields and field order in each folder view.

I re-read the original post and now realized it said MOST songs, but apparently not all, so the re-slection of the library path won't help.

Re-indexing is probably the answer.

If you want to avoid this in the future, you might want to do what I do, which is to run a simple batch file after any updating of iTunes to backup and copy to another location the .itl, .itdb and .xml files located in the iTunes folder in your user profile.

Let us know and good luck!

Steve

srb · « **Reply #8 on:** 23 Mar 2009, 12:02 am »

If you say REMOVE, you are removing them from the Library, but another dialog SHOULD then appear, asking if you want to delete them from the iTunes folder and send them to the Recyle Bin, in which case the answer is NO!

Steve

studley · « **Reply #9 on:** 23 Mar 2009, 12:20 am »

I tried it with one album and it works! Many thanks indeed guys.

Now to do everything.

Crimson · « **Reply #10 on:** 23 Mar 2009, 12:36 am »

Quote from: srb on 22 Mar 2009, 11:59 pm

If you want to avoid this in the future, you might want to do what I do, which is to run a simple batch file after any updating of iTunes to backup and copy to another location the .itl, .itdb and .xml files located in the iTunes folder in your user profile.

Great advice. Whether it's a batch file or an Apple script (

), even manually copying the index files to a backup location can help alleviate this issue.

low.pfile · « **Reply #11 on:** 23 Mar 2009, 12:47 am »

Quote from: Crimson on 23 Mar 2009, 12:36 am

Quote from: srb on 22 Mar 2009, 11:59 pm
If you want to avoid this in the future, you might want to do what I do, which is to run a simple batch file after any updating of iTunes to backup and copy to another location the .itl, .itdb and .xml files located in the iTunes folder in your user profile.

Great advice. Whether it's a batch file or an Apple script (), even manually copying the index files to a backup location can help alleviate this issue.

I was just thinking about an Apple Core FAQ item: How to (manually or auto) back up Playlists for iTunes.

I know it is one of the 'library', 'database' or 'xml' files. Not too long ago, I temporarily lost my Playlists but was able to recover. It took a bit of trial and error, I replaced the related files mentioned using a back up file - but I've since forgotten. Losing my playlists would be a pain as I am starting to use them regularly.

ed

Crimson · « **Reply #12 on:** 23 Mar 2009, 09:32 am »

Ed,

The playlists (as well as all other iTunes-specific info (play count, rating, etc.)) are stored in the iTunes Music Library.xml file in the User>Music>iTunes folder. As a matter of routine, it's wise to backup this file (as well as all other files in the iTunes folder) as part of a backup job.

low.pfile · « **Reply #13 on:** 23 Mar 2009, 03:27 pm »

Thanks Crimson!

studley · « **Reply #14 on:** 23 Mar 2009, 11:20 pm »

It worked. Many thanks guys, big relief

jtwrace · « **Reply #15 on:** 30 Nov 2010, 03:39 am »

Long story short. I copied my drive to use on another computer.

When I plugged my original drive back in after changing the directory to test the old drive it duplicated the tracks. What a mess!

Luckily I use a backup with SuperDuper! so I've restored my drive. The question is this. Itunes seems to cache the display. How can I be sure that this doesn't happen again? I'm not quite sure what my directory was.

What should I do so the same thing doesn't happen?

OK. I think I got the directory back to what it was. Every album shows two songs though.

If I go to the album on the hard drive it is correct.

How do I fix that?

Phil A · « **Reply #16 on:** 30 Nov 2010, 03:58 am »

So did you re-import the files into iTunes or did you change where the files are on iTunes to search for?

skunark · « **Reply #17 on:** 30 Nov 2010, 04:12 am »

Close iTunes and restore just the *.itdb and *.xml file in your Music/My Music directories. As long as the music file location and the original *.xml/*.itdb files are in place it should be simple. One key thing to note is that where you point iTunes to save the music file is not the location that the iTunes keeps it's book-keeping files.

If the files are not in the same location as before, your best bet is to delete(move) the itdb/xml file have itunes import the music files mimicking a fresh iTunes library.

You might pop on the Apple forums to get detailed advice/steps on how to migrate the library.

Crimson · « **Reply #18 on:** 30 Nov 2010, 04:15 am »

Click here.

jtwrace · « **Reply #19 on:** 30 Nov 2010, 12:20 pm »

Thanks Crimson.

Is the music folder normally pointed like this?
desktop > user > myname > music > itunes

or is it usually volume > itunes > music

My problem now is that I can't remember how I had the directory set.

This has turned out to be such a mess as I deleted my HD last night and used the backup. Well turns out that I'm about 21 albums short somehow.

I want to