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Disappearing music files

Avatar Eric Jervis
We had a power cut last week when the Mac was on. This may or may not have anything to do with my problem.
I recorded my albums to iTunes recently, (apart from the surprising amount of ones where I wondered why on Earth I ever bought this rubbish), and a few weeks later I was obliged to sit through the mindless drivel my daughter had bought, and still thinks is jolly good (ha ha) in order to import that too. (Because she bought me the USB turntable for Christmas, Oh, the crushing, mind-numbing boredom!). I endured it stoically in real time because a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.
BUT:
When I clicked on one of my excellent tracks a few days ago it refused to play, allegedly because iTunes couldn't find the file.
Would I like to look for it? Oh yes. Could I find it? No.
The infernal program's practically taken over my G5, hoovering up music and television programmes and films whether I want it to or not, and threatening to send details of my life to Apple, that modern branch of the Geheimestaatspolizei, AND IT CAN'T EVEN FIND A FILE!!!!!!
There is some good news, it can still find all those tracks by Kylie and Jason etc. that my daughter likes;
Thanks a bunch.
I thought this might be something to do with repairing permissions so I did that, to no avail.
Help!

Re: Disappearing music files

Avatar Tony Sullivan
Time Machine?

Re: Disappearing music files

Avatar Eric Jervis
Well, I've fixed it, but by no means sussed it out.
I couldn't fix it with Time Machine but that may be because I misunderstood the instructions.
I double clicked on the external drive and saw a folder called iTunes music. In there was everything I've recorded, and when I double clicked on a track that wouldn't play from within iTunes, it played, after inserting itself again into iTunes below the disobedient version. When I clicked on the disobedient version that too played, and removed the exclamation mark it had put there before.
I can't find a folder called iTunes music on my internal HD but it must be lurking there somewhere because I've now turned the external drive off and my music is still playing.
This is obviously a case of relinking the aliases (a wild guess) but; even assuming that I had iTunes open when the power cut occurred, why would it unlink all the old aliases and not touch the new ones?

Re: Disappearing music files

Avatar Mick Burrell
Eric, you mention Time Machine and the external drive. Are they the same drive? If so, did you use the Time Machine software to restore the files or not - you say you couldn't get Time Machine to work. If you've delved into the time machine drive using the finder and removed files, you may have upset it. Time Machine is a complex system and doesn't like being interfered with.

Re: Disappearing music files

Avatar Eric Jervis
Yes they are, Mick. I think I did restore with Time Machine older versions of ITunes. It's a bit difficult to tell just by looking, but I've spotted some spelling mistakes in the playlists that I know I corrected.
I don't think I removed any files from the TM drive, I only double clicked on them.
A strange thing this morning though; although both aliases will play the tune when they are both there, if I remove the newer alias I'm back to square one. I have now removed all the older ones and all is OK again, I think.

Re: Disappearing music files

Avatar Euan Williams
Eric, "I don't think I removed any files from the TM drive, I only double clicked on them."

The files on Time Machine drives/partitions should only be accessed through TM app. They aren't "files" in the sense that "myword.doc" is a file, but highly compressed amalgams of data. Accessing them as ordinary files through the Finder may cause problems even though when the TM folder is opened the Finder shows them as standard files and they may "open".

For more information on this see the references in: > An idle trawl through Time Machine tech. < which is still on the Most Recent WaMug discussion page.

Re: Disappearing music files

Avatar Eric Jervis
GULP

Re: Disappearing music files

Avatar Mick Burrell
I tried to be gentle with you ;-)

Re: Disappearing music files

Avatar Eric Jervis
You're a gentleman, Mick, but they all seem to be there; Al Stewart, Lonnie Donegan, Meat Loaf, the Seekers etc., Hallelujah!

Re: Disappearing music files

Avatar Eric Jervis
I spoke too soon; this poxy program, (iTunes 10.1.1. - PowerPC G5/Leopard) is unstable. Two of my playlists last night contained only one song each, instead of the fourteen I'd put there. It seems that everything I put into iTunes has a shelf life of two months assigned to it by iTunes, after which the program deletes it. I've now burned everything in there to CDs.
It's also put three TV programmes into the main playlist after I'd told it not to in the prefs, and it refuses to delete them.
I seem to recall having a few probs with iTunes a while ago, which is why I then installed this version, which I reckon was written for Intel Macs.

Re: Disappearing music files

Avatar Euan Williams
Eric, there are so many possible reasons why iTunes may be failing you that diagnosis at a distance won't be terribly useful.

You may get some advice here (assuming you haven't looked already): Apple iTunes Discussion site

Sometimes a rogue programme can upset the subtle interface between Apple's i-software and MacOSX, so think back about any software you downloaded and used just before your woes began. You aren't looking for a virus here, just a programming glitsch which leaked past testing to you, the consumer. It might even be a software version update issue: always download the combo updater, especially for system software, and do your housework before you apply it; never do updates on a potentially dodgy foundation.

At worst your drive may be developing surface errors which make date hard to read accurately and the situation has gone beyond what routine reallocation algorithms are coping with. There are utilities that test for this, some let you use them a few times before you pay. See CNET-MacFixit.

I would suggest, from a safe distance (!) that you may need to do the radical cure: backup your iTunes files, making sure that you have the ACTUAL music, video etc. files and not thumbnails nor aliases. I think you said that you have done the latter already; (and you did Clone your known good working disc/partition before all this happened, didn't you?).

Remove all iTunes folders, files etc. Then do an 'archive and install' of Leopard. Bring it up to the latest appropriate mod. standard, do the same with iTunes, Safari, etc.

Now let iTunes "adopt" your backed-up files -- so they go into the correct data structure slots.

Arm yourself with tea or coffee and subsistence rations including a large bar of fruit and nut chocolate, take your time, and do it when your mind is fresh.

Your aim at this stage should be renewal rather than chasing for an elusive 'fix'.

Re: Disappearing music files

Avatar Eric Jervis
Thank you, Euan, I shall do all those things ASAP.

Re: Disappearing music files

Avatar Eric Jervis
Stranger than fiction: Clicked on a tune in iTunes, File>find, in the trash!
All those 'aliases' I dumped a few days ago seem to be the actual music files. Good thing I didn't empty the trash; I've now put them in a folder called 'iTunes Music?'.
 
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