Files cannot be located in Music Library on MacBook Pro

The "missing file" issue with exclamation marks happens if the file is no longer where iTunes or Music expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the file, one of its parent folders, the drive it lives on has had a name change, or you've moved a non-portable library to a different path (see Make a split library portable for details). It is also possible that iTunes or Music have changed from expecting the files to be in the pre-iTunes 9 layout to post-iTunes 9 layout, or vice-versa, and so is looking in slightly the wrong place, or that you've been too aggressive when deleting duplicates at some point.

Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Cmd-I to get Song Info, then click No when asked to try to locate the track. Look on the file tab for the location the library thinks the file should be. Now take a look around your hard drives. Hopefully you can locate the track in question. If a section of your library has simply been moved, a folder renamed, or a drive label has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions. If the difference between the two paths is an additional Music folder in one path then this is a layout issue. I can explain further if that is the case. If everything is where it is supposed to be try Repair security permissions for iTunes for Mac - Apple Community.

In some cases the library may be able to repair itself if you go through the same steps with Get Info, or when playing a track, but this time click Locate and browse to the lost track. It may then offer to attempt to automatically fix other broken links. Although it says something like "use the same location" I think it expects to find the tracks in the same artist & album layout they were in previously, with one systematic change to the path. I think the app needs to be "aware" that multiple tracks are missing before you attempt to fix one, in order to trigger the offer to automatically fix others.

If you want me to try to provide specific advice please post back the following details:

1. The location of the media folder under iTunes|Music > Preferences > Advanced
2. The location of a sample missing track shown under Song Info > File > Location that begins file://
3. The true path to the file whose details you gave in 2

See also FixLinks - an AppleScript to repair broken links in Music - Apple Community.

tt2

"Files cannot be located in Music Library on MacBook Pro: Unfortunately a large part of the Music library is now corrupted and no longer pointing to each track. [...]Is there a way to locate all missing tracks as a group or at least as an entire album full of tracks?[...]"

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Find your Previous Libraries:

1. Click: the Desktop
2. Click: Go menu
3. Select: Go to Folder...
4. Paste: ~/Music/Music/Music Library.musiclibrary
5. Press: return key
6. Expand: Pervious Libraries

Screenshot:

Hi,

Looking at the most recent screenshot I see you have artist folders in ../iTunes Media/ whereas the earlier images suggested that Music was expecting to find them in ../iTunes Media/Music/. This may well be the layout issue I alluded to earlier. See the iTunes Media Organization section of Managing your Mac media libraries - Apple Community for some background. Changing the layout value from 1 to 0 may well fix things.

tt2

“Files cannot be located in Music Library on MacBook Pro: Hi All, recently my external hard drive containing my entire Music/Itunes library failed. I paid a data recovery expert to recover my library/files. […]Sorry this does not make sense, I have no previous libraries or anything that has this chain”

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Recovering from an External Drive:

A. Getting this Serviced:

If the sectors on the drive are corrupted, you’re just not going to get them back (take this as a learning experience, knowing to purchase data recovery protection when purchasing a Hard Drive —I most certainly do, knowing that data recovery can take hundreds or even hounds of dollars just to recover it through a proclaimed “data recovery expert”.

B. Import from a Time Machine Backup:

Did you ever backup this Mac with a Time Machine Backup? If so, backup your Mac > then restore from the TMB > export the Library to an external drive. > restore from the backup you just created > import the Library that was exported.

C. Use Disk Utility:

While in Disk Utility, select the drive, and then click First Aid, seeing if all is fixedly

D. Single-Out this User:

Create a different Administrator User, seeing if you see this drive. If so, it is an issue pertaining to you current user —if not then it is an issue pertaining to your entire macOS, in which case you’d reinstall the macOS first, backing it up with a TMB.

E. Single-Out this Mac:

Have access to another Mac? If so, plug it in and see if you see it. If an Intel-based Mac, reset the NVRAM and the SMC. Perform each thrice. It may take a while, so be certain you have the time to do so.

"I can see 74,000 songs 'Not In Playlists' with many having question marks next to them, but some that don't when clicked on a question mark appears. It seems I will have to go through each individual track of the 74,000 to see what I can recover, as there seems to be no way to mass locate missing tracks and albums that I can discern."

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Apple Music Files with Question Marks:

If they are dulled out in Finder with a question mark, then they are missing. How so? Not so certain on that. If these are all purchased items, then note that if you were in Apple Music, and they were just recently removed from the iTunes Store, then they are inaccessible. Are these all from a subscription? And you have cancelled your Apple Music Subscription? Apple doesn't remove these files' from your Apple Music Library in the Music app instantaneously (being a customer, they want to buy them again, or renew your Apple Music Subscription). So, if they are not seen, then there are inaccessible, until you open another Apple Music Subscription.

Check through my initial post once again. In particular:

If you want me to try to provide specific advice please post back the following details:

1. The location of the media folder under iTunes|Music > Preferences > Advanced
2. The location of a sample missing track shown under Song Info > File > Location that begins file://
3. The true path to the file whose details you gave in 2

tt2

Just to recap:

1. From earlier screenshots the media folder is Volumes/Mr Lob iTunes/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media
2. Also from above an example track is Volumes/My Lob iTunes/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/Blue Buttonz/Unknown Album/Idris Muhammad.mp3
3. From this post I see artist folders in ../iTunes/iTunes Media/ whereas 2. suggests that all music items ought to be within ../iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/, so if you look for this track where is it?

Volumes/My Lob iTunes/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/Blue Buttonz/Unknown Album/Idris Muhammad.mp3 or

Volumes/My Lob iTunes/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Blue Buttonz/Unknown Album/Idris Muhammad.mp3 ?

tt2