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How do i recover my library on Itunes with out the original files on my P.C.

post #1 of 6
1/10/08 at 9:45pm
Thread Starter 
I down loaded my whole music library from my external hard drive to Itunes and put songs on my Ipod but the next day every song in my Itunes library had a ( ! ) symbol next to it and when i go to play a song it says "File can not be played because the original file could not be found".

I no long have my external hard drive so ill i have is all my music on Itunes


does anyone know how to recover the songs on my itunes with out the original files on my P.C.

so i can store my music some where else on my computer
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post #2 of 6
1/11/08 at 2:42pm
Uhhhhhh... from the information you've given, you're screwed (that is, if you really don't have your external HD anymore). You need to check in iTunes Preferences>Advanced and look at the directory that the files are stored in. If that directory has a drive letter other than your main hard drive, you didn't really copy over your music. Dragging it into iTunes doesn't necessarily copy that music over to your computer. It only does that if you have explicitly checked off that option in Preferences. You need to copy your music directly from your external drive to your PC first, then drag the copies on your computer into iTunes. The reason you're getting exclamation symbols is because you were playing your music from the external drive.
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post #3 of 6
1/11/08 at 3:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by teedoff087 View Post

Uhhhhhh... from the information you've given, you're screwed...

Not necessarily. There are programs available that will allow you to do what iTunes generally won't, which is to copy the songs from your iPod to your PC (or to another external drive).

Do a search on Macupdate or Versiontracker and you'll find what you need.
Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face? - Jack D. Ripper
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Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face? - Jack D. Ripper
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post #4 of 6
1/12/08 at 1:35pm
Well, I'm assuming he doesn't have all his music on his iPod.
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post #5 of 6
1/13/08 at 3:30am
I am guessing you did not copy the actual music files onto your Mac. You just let iTunes know the tunes existed. When you unplugged the external drive, the files were gone.

If you synced your iPod - then the music files are safe on the iPod.
There are things you can do to recover them.

1) Don't plug in the iPod yet - you don't want it to Sync to an empty iTunes.
2) Disable Automatic syncing in iTunes.
3) Plug in your iPod - don't sync
4) Activate Disk Usage. - The iPod should appear in Finder.
You have two options here.

There's a bit of software called. iPodRip which will pull files back into iTunes.
Or you can do it manually.
I found iPodRip to be a bit buggy and it does not work in Leopard.

Manual method....
5) Use ONYX or something to make hidden files visible in the finder.
6) Open the iPod in Finder.
7) Set iTunes to "Copy Files to iTunes Library" when adding files.
8) Find the iTunes_Control directory on the iPod and copy it onto your desktop.
(you are now safe)
9) Then open it, find music, and copy the music directory.
If your music is tagged, the track and artist name should re-appear.

Tidy up. Turn off hidden files in onyx.
If everything is back to normal - Delete the directory on your desktop.

C.
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post #6 of 6
1/13/08 at 5:48pm
There's a better program called YamiPod that you could use instead of the one suggest above.
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