[funcollectorstoo]

I needed to move my music (several 1000 files) to an external drive. I copied the music files to the external and pointed iTunes to the iTunes folder on that drive. Everything worked fine until I opened that iTunes folder one day and discovered that the new songs I have imported into iTunes were not added to to the iTunes music folder but copied to the iTunes folder itself. No problem I thought, I'll just use the "consolidate the library" function in iTunes and it will reorganize my library. Wrong, wrong, wrong. After consolidating, iTunes could not find the majority of my music files. My only salvation was that I had backed up my iTunes Folder before I did that so I just deleted the new one and went back to the old one.
But now, iTunes is starting to lose a few files again. I don't know which are lost until I try to play them.
Is there some way I can just start over without losing my ratings genre comments etc?
I have read some things about moving the files on the apple site and from links posted here but I am very confused right now about how iTunes works.
I am desperate at this point. I have put in literally weeks of work rating and organizing my music the way I want it and I am so afraid I am going to lose all that work.
TIA

[biblicalfury]

I've had a similar problem. I initially moved my iTunes library to an external drive some time back with out a problem. I ran into some errors with the drive and had to reformat it. Most of my iTunes library was backed up, but iTunes wasn't finding my library even though I put it in the same place. Through either reopening my backed-up files through iTunes or redirecting iTunes to the correct location, I was able to fix things. But now, a couple of months later, I've noticed that certain songs are going missing. iTunes can longer find them even though they are in the same location.

[funcollectorstoo]

Sorry to hear that you are in the same boat. I just restarted iTunes and it appears now that hundreds of songs have the "!" which means iTunes can't find them.
ARRGG.

[pdrayton]

Did you move your iTunes library's .xml file to the external drive, too?
The symptoms you are describing fit what happens when you haven't done that.
Here's what you need on your external:
/Users/username/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library
/Users/username/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music Library.xml

[funcollectorstoo]

Quote:

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Did you move your iTunes library's .xml file to the external drive, too?
The symptoms you are describing fit what happens when you haven't done that.
Here's what you need on your external:
/Users/username/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library
/Users/username/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music Library.xml

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Thank you thank you THANK YOU!
What a great joy it was to read your reply and be able to fix this!
While iTunes is a great program in theory it is obviously still not idiot proof. What bothers me is I could find no possible explanation at all for this problem anywhere and I looked.
Well it is here now, and all thanks to you. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif
Of course my iTunes music folder is still a mess. I have some music folders outside the iTunes music folder in the iTunes folder and some in the iTunes music folder. In some cases even specific albums have songs in both places. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif Consolidating might work to organize it but then again I have no idea and I am afraid now to do much of anything. I just don't understand how iTunes works. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

[dougster]

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I just don't understand how iTunes works.

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[/indent]
Glad -DF got you back in order. There's a ton of info at Apple's Support sites for iTunes and trouble shooting. [More Info]

[funcollectorstoo]

I spoke too soon. The problem is back tonight just like before. The "!" is showing up again on random songs with no rhyme or reason that I can tell.
I spend about two hours yesterday on Apple.com searching for anything on lost or missing songs in iTunes, though all I used mostly was the search function in the customer support area and I had zero luck finding anything to help.
@#$%%$#@
So let me get this straight iTunes creates and stores the music library and xtml info (directory lists?) in two different places when you have your iTunes music library on an external drive? That is what I have. On my internal drive in my iTunes folder I have an iTunes music file and an iTunes Music Library.xml file. These files are apparently being added to as I have added music today because they are now larger than the same files on my external drive. They were of course all the same size when I copied them over last night.
As you can see I am really confused. Lost and confused.

[funcollectorstoo]

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[indent]Quote:

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I just don't understand how iTunes works.

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[/indent]
Glad -DF got you back in order. There's a ton of info at Apple's Support sites for iTunes and trouble shooting. [More Info]

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[/indent]
From the link:
[indent]Quote:

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How to recreate your iTunes Library
Learn how to recreate your iTunes library and playlists in iTunes versions 3 and later.
Recreating the iTunes Library file
Follow these steps:
1.

2. Quit iTunes.
3. Locate your iTunes folder.
For Mac OS X the iTunes folder is stored in one of the following locations:

/Users/username/Music
/Users/username/Documents


Note: You may need to check both locations.
For Microsoft Windows the iTunes folder is stored in
Documents and SettingsusernameMy DocumentsMy Music
4. Open your iTunes folder.
5. Drag the iTunes Music Library.xml to the Desktop
6. Drag the following file from your iTunes folder to the Trash:


Mac OS X: "iTunes Library" (in versions of iTunes prior to 4.9 this was called "iTunes 4 Music Library").
* Microsoft Windows: "iTunes Library.itl" (in versions of iTunes prior to 4.9 this was called "iTunes 4 Music Library.itl")
7. Open iTunes.
8. From the File menu, choose Import.
Tip: Do not add any music into iTunes at this point.
9. Navigate to the iTunes Music Library.xml file on the Desktop.
10. Click Choose.
For steps to backup and restore playlists see "iTunes: How to backup and restore playlists."
If your podcasts list in iTunes is empty after following these steps, click here.
Note: If the iTunes Music Library.xml file is not available, follow the "Add to library" steps in "iTunes: About the Add to Library, Import, and Convert functions" to add files back to the Library (because the iTunes Music Library.xml file is not available, playlists and other information will not be available).

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[/indent]
Do I need to do that? If so which files do I use? The ones on the internal or external? Will I lose any of my settings?
{trying not to panic}

[funcollectorstoo]

I have completely lost almost 600 hundred songs now. Lost as in no longer on the drive. All seemingly random meaning no particular time or format or name or size. Spotlight can't find the song and when I look in the folder where it is supposed to be it is gone. This all happened today. Before iTunes couldn't find them but they were still on the drive. They are also gone from my backup on another drive. I have no possible explanation for this. No one else uses this computer. It is not on a network. I did discover that the new LaCie drive from CompUSA that I used for back-up was formatted as [fat 32] instead of HFS which explains why it is so slow. If using that drive for backup of my songs somehow damages my song files making them eventually disappear from my HFS drive or something I am totally screwed as all my songs have been on that drive.
In any case I tried the "restore library" directions from above and iTunes "found" the rest of my songs at least for the time being. Of course now I have no idea what is missing.
iTunes hell. This really really sucks. Anyone know where I can't get help?