Why can't iTunes 8.02 find my songs?

February 7, 2009 12:35 PM

Why can't iTunes 8.02 find my songs?

I have a brand-new MacBook Pro (10.5.6), to which I copied over all my files from the Time Machine backup of my previous computer. Everything is working fine except for iTunes. I need to manually locate each and every one of my songs. A Google search yield nothing but this. It's helpful knowing others are having the same issue, but not so helpful in that the issue has yet to be resolved. Any tips, tricks, and suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

posted by Lillitatiana to computers & internet (4 comments total)

Did you copy over *everything* from the old "~/iTunes" folder? The xml file is a write-only file to iTunes (as far as I know), the binary "iTunes Library" file is the one which actually contains the database that iTunes will read. To be safe though, I'd just copy over the whole "~/iTunes" folder.

Also, is the path to the songs on the new computer identical to the path to the songs on the old computer? It might cause difficult-to-solve problems if the new path is "/Users/Lillitatiana/iTunes/..." and the old path is "/Users/someotheruser/iTunes/...", because the songs (when they have been copied over) won't be exactly where the old iTunes library file says they are. I don't have any easy answers to this problem.
posted by philomathoholic at 3:06 PM on February 7

You could also try doing File > Import Library and navigate to ~/Music/iTunes and select the library file.
posted by fearnothing at 4:41 PM on February 7

Is the location in ITunes prefs (Advanced pane) correct?

Did you use Time Machine to restore things, or copy things yourself out of TM's backups?
posted by olecranon at 4:49 PM on February 7

I'm afraid all I had to do the whole time was file > library > consolidate library. (*blush*)

In any case, thanks, & problem solved!
posted by Lillitatiana at 11:54 PM on February 7