Importing music into iTunes

yankeeclipper747 wrote:

It is in the library but iTunes can't find the file. I'm trying to reimport the files.

The "missing file" issue with exclamation marks happens if the file is no longer where iTunes expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the file, one of its parent folders, or the drive it lives on has had a change of drive letter, or you've moved a non-portable library to a different path (see Make a split library portable for details). It is also possible that iTunes has changed from expecting the files to be in the pre-iTunes 9 layout to post-iTunes 9 layout, or vice-versa, and so is looking in slightly the wrong place, or that you've been too aggressive when deleting duplicates. See Getting iTunes & Windows Media Player to play nicely if you're trying to access your media with any other media players.

Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to Get Info, then click No when asked to try to locate the track. Look on the file tab for the location that iTunes thinks the file should be. Now take a look around your hard drive(s). Hopefully you can locate the track in question. If a section of your library has simply been moved, a folder renamed, or a drive letter has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions. If the difference between the two paths is an additional Music folder in one path then this is a layout issue. I can explain further if that is the case. If everything is where it is supposed to be try Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows.

In some cases iTunes may be able to repair itself if you go through the same steps with Get Info, or when playing a track, but this time click Locate and browse to the lost track. It may then offer to attempt to automatically fix other broken links. Although it says something like "use the same location" I think it expects to find the tracks in the same artist & album layout they were in previously, with one systematic change to the path.

If another application like Windows Media Player has moved/renamed the files, or the library has been moved from OS X to Windows, then the chances are that subtle differences in naming strategies will make it hard to restore the media to the precise path that iTunes is expecting. In such cases, as long as the missing files can be found somewhere, you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes. See this post for an explanation of how it works. It might need some tweaking if your media is in a non-standard layout.

If you want me to try to provide specific advice please post back the following details:

1. The location of the media folder under Edit > Preferences > Advanced
2. The location of a sample missing track shown under Get Info > File > Location that begins file://localhost/
3. The true path to the file whose details you gave in 2

Note the addition of file://localhost/ (and the flipped direction of slashes in Windows) is normal for a file that isn't quite where iTunes is expecting to find it.

tt2

yankeeclipper747 wrote:

Importing into the iTunes library. As it stands now, when I click on the song, in iTunes, I get the error "cannot be found...locate?" When I "Add folder to library", it won't but it will play in the music files directly on the c drive.

That sounds like two different problems, although if you select the song in Windows Explorer and cause it to play, the question is "is it being played by iTunes or another programme?" If it's by iTunes, then it is in your iTunes Library.

However, if a song is listed in your iTunes Library, but you see the "would you like to locate" message instead of the song playing, then what has happened is that iTunes has lost the location of the file for that song, either because the file for the song (or the path to it) has been moved, renamed or deleted. If the song was on an external drive when you added it to your library, then that drive must still be connected and ready to read (with the same drive letter as before).

If iTunes does play the song when you select it in Windows Explorer (direct on your c drive), then it is in your library. Like tt2, I have never known a song to be played by iTunes unless it is listed in the library. So, if you can get the song playing (by iTunes), right-click your mouse almost anywhere in the Now Playing window - except over the song title itself, and select Go to Current Song from the pop-up menu. Whichever view of the library you are in (Songs, Albums Artists etc.) the now playing song will be highlighted in blue and easy to see:

and when you select Go to Current Song, the view switches to show the song:

My recollection is that iTunes cannot play anything that it hasn't added to the library, so if they play they must have been added. Place items you want to add into the Automatically Add to iTunes folder. They should either be added, or moved to a Not Added folder. If things end up there you'll know for sure that iTunes doesn't like them, if not why.

tt2

yankeeclipper747 wrote:

Importing into the iTunes library. As it stands now, when I click on the song, in iTunes, I get the error "cannot be found...locate?" When I "Add folder to library", it won't but it will play in the music files directly on the c drive.

I have a specific question for you.

If you use Add Folder to Library and navigate to and select the appropriate folder (but don't go into it), then every song in that folder, that iTunes can play*, should be added to the library. If that doesn't work, try Add File to Library and navigate into the folder, and select the file itself. If that doesn't work, is the song originally one from YouTube, that you obtained by using a convertor programme?

* As far as I'm aware (and tt2 will correct me if I'm wrong), iTunes still will not add .flac files to its library but you will not see any error message. It never has added .flac files, because it cannot play them. I've just tried adding a .flac file this evening, but it did not work.

Since I have set iTunes as my default audio player, if I double-click an audio file in Windows Explorer, it gets added to my iTunes Library and is played by iTunes. However, if I try this with a .flac file, Groove Music opens and plays the song.

Import into where? If the song plays in your iTunes library, then it has been added (imported) to your library.