iTunes doesn't add music to my iTunes Library??

[viper69]

I'm not sure what's going on. I am running iTunes v12.10.7.3.

I bought quite a few songs from Apple's music store, all files went into the proper folders under my D:/My Music Directory.

iTunes shows older songs in this > D:\My Music\Band Name, the Band's Name directory has 6 subdirectories- all different albums.

iTunes will play the music if I search for a song in my Library. But when in Library view only 1 directory shows (I think this is one I ripped from my CD years ago), the rest are purchased for sure.
I tried restarting the software, adding song, adding the band's directory etc, nothing shows up in my music Library in iTunes.

The issue is not unique to these files. I have up'd 2 screenshots, perhaps it's this box for iTunes Media?? I don't recall ever having a box checked here, but I rarely go inside any iTunes settings regarding file arangeement and such.

 

[cjmnews]

Sorry for the delayed reply. Between the day job and 2 other posts that needed responses I didn't get to this one very fast.

iTunes Store purchases would go into a different location, as if you were letting iTunes organize your library.

They typically go into a couple different places:
for old libraries: My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\<Artist>\<Album>\<song name>.<ext>
for newer libraries: My Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music\<Artist>\<Album>\<song name>.<ext>

Since you don't have the Keep Library Organized enabled, your old tracks remain where you put them originally.

If you moved the files to the other folders (D:\My Music\<Band Name>\<Album> using Windows Explorer, then try to play them in iTunes you will get a Locate File prompt. Let it locate the file you moved and it will link it to the new location and play from there.

This is normal behavior.

You can see the directory where a song is stored by right clicking the song, choose Show in Windows Explorer. A new window should open with the song selected. You can also see the path by right clicking the song, choose Song Info, click the File tab and look at the Location section.

 

[viper69]

No problem CJ- I appreciate your time just the same.

When I purchase tracks via iTunes the path is D:\My Music\Pink Floyd\Division Bell\Track 1
When I purchase another track by the same group, the path above is the same, except new album name (directory)\Track 2 etc.

The songs I'm complaining about haha, were just bought a few days ago. This isn't a new problem, I just haven't recognized it. I haven't moved the songs at all. iTunes puts them in D:\My Music .....

The new songs I purchased recently, all from the same group, don't appear in my iTunes smart playlist, no matter what I do. But this is happening with all the songs I purchase from iTunes.

BUT, if I click on any of the categories under Library, like album, group etc, The tracks or cover art etc appear in iTunes to the right for me to press play.

I don't believe my Smart Playlist is an issue, I attached it below.

The Song Info suggestion, the directory path matches with what I typed above for any of the songs I'm buying D:\My Music\BandGroup\Album name\Track name

SO I'm lost. The only rule I have in my smart playlist is to exclude a ton of trance music which has the letters ETN in the album name. Thus the smart playlist makes a Master list of my music EXCEPT for those tracks or albums that are ETN labeled.

 

[viper69]

Also this:

If I select any of the File Add commands, such as File>Add Folder, File>Add Song to any of my missing tracks to add to my smart playist, they won't appear. Something is weird. I didn't have this problem at one point. Also, I tried adding the entire My Music to my Smart Playlist, and that didn't add the missing songs either that I've been posting about.

I made a new smart playlist, same rule as above, and all the songs that have been missing now show up. Instead of 600 songs, now the new smart playlist has 1,000 plus songs.

I can't figure it out. The only thing I can think of is these smart playlists are corrupted somehow. I know when I switched drives at one point (bought a new drive) all of my smart playlists were automatically converted into non-smart lists. I don't know why. I had to make new smart playlists but I never realized my Master list wasn't working until now.

I'm perplexed on this one.

 

[cjmnews]

The pictures from the first post appeared this time. I see that your media folder is D:\My Music so your purchases should download there. Sorry for the confusion.

The music is in your library, just not in your playlist. If it was not in your library you wouldn’t see it in the other sections.

The playlist may an original. One of the old ones that never got updated with one of the releases. I can't recall while one exactly, but iTunes 11 is the culprit I think. You could think of it as corruption, and editing the playlist to add a rule, then removing the rule will fix it.

You could add a rule that doesn't need to be removed like Media Kind is Music

Once you save the edited playlist the playlist should update with all the songs.
I had to do this to a set of 15 playlists I use for a custom sort a few years ago.

This is not part of switching drives. I have switched computers and drives at least 6 times and didn't have any issues until that one iTunes update. I tried searching for my documentation of the issue, but I have too many smart playlist posts to filter them out.

 

[viper69]

Thanks CJ. I think you are right on iTunes version. I don't update iTunes too frequently.

In my first post what is "keep iTunes media folder organized" actually used for? I remember a really long time ago, I THINK it was this feature which had a lot of attention, people were concerned if left checked iTunes would arrange all the music. So some people left it unchecked. Is that correct? I think that's why I leave it unchecked. If I recall iTunes will then put all your music into an iTunes subdirectory if I recall....

 

[cjmnews]

That option makes iTunes put all music that is in iTunes is organized into Artist/Album/song.ext so if you update a tag like Album or Artist, the song will move to the new location.

The other option is to copy songs into the iTunes media folder automatically. That way if you click on a track downloaded it would be copied into the correct location.

I have both checked, you have neither. Both ways work.

 

[viper69]

That option makes iTunes put all music that is in iTunes is organized into Artist/Album/song.ext so if you update a tag like Album or Artist, the song will move to the new location.

The other option is to copy songs into the iTunes media folder automatically. That way if you click on a track downloaded it would be copied into the correct location.

I have both checked, you have neither. Both ways work.

CJ- quick question. I made a new iTunes Smart Playlist, and that works now, I was missing 400 songs from my ipods.

Here's the question- will my iPods that have my old smart playlist, once synced, have the new smartplaylist? I used the exact same name for my new playlist as I had for my old one that stopped working.

 

[cjmnews]

If you replace the old playlists with new ones, then you will end up waiting for all the songs to be removed from the old playlist and added with the new playlist.

You should edit the existing playlist not replace it with a new one with the same name.
This way your playlists on the iPods will get the additional tracks and continue working without the need to replace all the tracks on large iPods.

 

[viper69]

If you replace the old playlists with new ones, then you will end up waiting for all the songs to be removed from the old playlist and added with the new playlist.

You should edit the existing playlist not replace it with a new one with the same name.
This way your playlists on the iPods will get the additional tracks and continue working without the need to replace all the tracks on large iPods.

Sure that makes sense, but I was never able to get the old playlist to add songs- perhaps due to the iTunes 11 issue you mentioned at one point.

In any event, I deleted the old one, and now only have the new one with the same name.

So what will happen during sync given the old and new playlists have the same name?

 

[cjmnews]

A full sync of all the tracks in the playlist. Everything in the old playlist will be removed, everything in the new playlist will be added.

 

[viper69]

A full sync of all the tracks in the playlist. Everything in the old playlist will be removed, everything in the new playlist will be added.

That is fine with me- thanks again CJ, always an incredible resource you are.