Where could 1,100 iTunes have gone off to?
October 26, 2010 5:21 PM Subscribe
1,100 songs suddenly disappeared from iTunes! Any ideas why or, better yet, where they might be hiding on my computer?
thank you.
Response by poster: hi danf. that was fast. where did you find them?
posted by holdenjordahl at 5:25 PM on October 26, 2010
posted by holdenjordahl at 5:25 PM on October 26, 2010
Best answer: They're probably still on your hard drive. The iTunes configuration files probably just got borked. Try this.
posted by IndigoRain at 5:25 PM on October 26, 2010
posted by IndigoRain at 5:25 PM on October 26, 2010
Best answer: Locate32 is a quiet and powerful program that can help. It will index the names of files (not their contents) and allow you to then look for MP3 or M4P files on your hard drive.
posted by megatherium at 5:36 PM on October 26, 2010
posted by megatherium at 5:36 PM on October 26, 2010
I don't remember where they were. . .still under "my music," I think but had escaped from iTunes. As I said, I just did a Windows xp search of song title verbiage, and they came right up.
ymmv.
posted by Danf at 5:44 PM on October 26, 2010
ymmv.
posted by Danf at 5:44 PM on October 26, 2010
Response by poster: thank you, folks, you're all Geniuses.
library restored.
now, could someone please tell me what i just did?
posted by holdenjordahl at 6:05 PM on October 26, 2010
library restored.
now, could someone please tell me what i just did?
posted by holdenjordahl at 6:05 PM on October 26, 2010
Best answer: Yes.
iTunes tracks the location of songs. If the file it uses to track the location of those songs is corrupted or accidentally deleted, iTunes won't know where the songs are, even if they're still in place.
Alternatively, if you move or delete the songs, iTunes would still show all the titles -- but when you tried to play one, you'd get a little warning icon (and of course nothing would play.)
Finally, if you actively deleted the songs from iTunes without removing them from your hard drive, and then hit yourself in the head really hard to forget you'd done it (hard to do by accident, as it warns you and asks about deleting the files from your hard drive) you'd be in the boat you're in now.
So, likely, the file got corrupted/deleted, either by accident (as you were cleaning up files, say) or because software can be buggy and hardware can have glitches and files can get corrupted.
posted by davejay at 12:02 AM on October 27, 2010
iTunes tracks the location of songs. If the file it uses to track the location of those songs is corrupted or accidentally deleted, iTunes won't know where the songs are, even if they're still in place.
Alternatively, if you move or delete the songs, iTunes would still show all the titles -- but when you tried to play one, you'd get a little warning icon (and of course nothing would play.)
Finally, if you actively deleted the songs from iTunes without removing them from your hard drive, and then hit yourself in the head really hard to forget you'd done it (hard to do by accident, as it warns you and asks about deleting the files from your hard drive) you'd be in the boat you're in now.
So, likely, the file got corrupted/deleted, either by accident (as you were cleaning up files, say) or because software can be buggy and hardware can have glitches and files can get corrupted.
posted by davejay at 12:02 AM on October 27, 2010
it is also hard to hit yourself in the head really hard by accident, although I've managed to do it a few times
posted by davejay at 12:03 AM on October 27, 2010
posted by davejay at 12:03 AM on October 27, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Danf at 5:24 PM on October 26, 2010