How To Locate And Replace Multiple Missing iTunes Files At Once?

[mcapple13.5]

Please excuse the long post, but this will possibly avoid someone having to ask questions, me answering (I don’t mind the latter part), and them having to re-post.

I’ve been running a GitHub legacy iTunes 12.6.5.3 on a Ventura 13.5 Mac for almost a year now.
It contains my backed-up DVD collection of TV Shows, Movies, and some Music Videos.
No iTunes Store Videos or other purchases etc.

When I first add a TV Show or Movie, I change the default Home Video option to Music Video, so as to manually add some metadata, then change the final option to TV Show or Movie.
Every once in a while when I’m in the iTunes info window, I’ll notice that some of the TV shows have automatically reverted to having the ‘skip when shuffling’ and ‘remember playback position’ options checked, when they were originally unchecked when first added.
This only happens to TV Shows, not Movies or Music Videos.

When that has happened in the past, I have grouped either some, most or all of the TV Shows together, changed the ‘TV Show’ option to ‘Music Video’ so that both the ‘skip when shuffling’ and ‘remember playback position’ options both appear, and unchecked both boxes, then changed the ‘Music Video’ back to ‘TV Show’, then clicked OK.
In under a minute, they become all un-checked.

Today I highlighted all the shows as above and as usual, unchecked both boxes, clicked OK, and got the rolling beachball (which I never got before), and it was both stopping and then rolling, several or more times each.

I quit and re-opened iTunes and started noticing the Missing file ! symbol.

I opened the info window for an individual file, and it showed that it did get back to the ‘TV Show’ option and was supposedly located in the correct TV Show>Season # folder, when in the iTunes ‘File’ info pane, yet, it/they shows up in the Music>Unknown Artist>Unknown Album Folders when searching for the file via the Finder window.

I tried making a separate playlist of a particular show, clicked an individual file to get the locate file option, clicked OK, but never got nor get the ‘Do you want to use this to find other missing songs/files in your library', option, and I have too many files to do each one individually.

I tried closing iTunes, re-starting the Mac, then closed iTunes, copy and pasted the last backed-up itl, xml, Genius and Extras files, got rid of the current ones from today and put the last backed-up files into the iTunes folder, then re-started the Mac, opened up iTunes and the files were still in the the Music folder.

I don’t want to do the File > Library > Organize Library option, because that will make a duplicate file, and, won’t keep the file’s metadata, I think.

The keep ‘iTunes Media folder organized’, ‘Copy files to iTunes Media folder’ and ‘Share iTunes library XML with other apps’ were all checked in the iTunes advanced preferences pane.

I have a recent Carbon Copy Cloner backup of the Music Folder.
If I have to, my last desperate choice will be to delete the (Music>)iTunes folder on the Mac and drag the Music folder from the external to the Mac.

Any other suggestions will be deeply appreciated, and many thanks in advance.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

This reads like you are trying to do all of your tagging in iTunes. Why don't you break that out and tag within each file? A favorite free tool for this is Meta-Z. You would then be embedding your tags in the file itself. You could also skip the music video first-then switch it to TV show step. Just use TV-Show type from the start.

I have a substantial collection of home movies tagged exactly this way, so that they are organized by season. In a worst case scenario where I somehow corrupt an iTunes-type directory, I could just drag and drop all of them into even a fresh install and they would be reorganized exactly as I had them again. Why? Because the tags are in the files.

Depending on how many you have, that may seem like a lot of work. But do it ONE time and they are ready to move as a group at any time to any installation without much in-app hassle.

One more thing: if the library is sizable, you can store all of these on an external drive and leave that "copy files to iTunes Media folder" unchecked so they won't hog up precious internal space.

Else, once iTunes loses the location of a file(s), you can manually show it where to find the file again or just delete the files that are lost and re-add them again as a group. The latter is usually easier... but may not be in your case since you are apparently doing heavy tagging in iTunes. You could try with one file and see what happens.

OR, you need to locate the files yourself and then work through the "lost" files list one by one to reconnect them to the file. This will be slow but likely preserve all existing tags you've already done.

I do know that when you highlight a bunch of videos in iTunes and then make a batch change as you did, you have to be patient when you see the beach ball to give it time to work through all those files and make the change. Your post reads like you didn't wait it out and instead closed iTunes during the beachball spin.

Again- IMO- the very best option is to use a tool like Meta-Z to re-tag/update tags in each file, then delete them from iTunes and add the newly tagged file back in again.

And a good companion tool to Meta-Z is Subler, which can both handle a few more tags (like the HD tag) and also "optimize" the file for playback. Or you can do all of the tagging in Subler and not use Meta-Z at all, though I find using both to be my own preference.

Lastly, you could just restore your Music folder contents to get things back to as they were. And that will likely prove to be easiest option here. However, I would still get on the Meta-Z and/or Subler train ASAP vs. continuing to use iTunes to do all tagging.

 

[mcapple13.5]

Thank you for your quick and detailed reply, HobeSoundDarryl.

You would then be embedding your tags in the file itself. You could also skip the music video first-then switch it to TV show step. Just use TV-Show type from the start.

I wasn't aware that most of the metadata from iTunes is embedded in the file itself, until the help center at Carbon Copy Cloner informed me of a few fields that it was saved in.

I did a test.
The metadata was written in iTunes 12.6.5.3 and I found that when I added data in every possible field for Music Video, Home Video, TV Show and Movie, it was saved, and showed up in all media type views.
I performed this test dragging the file from both the iTunes Library and also the folder it was stored in, and dragged the files into iTunes 12.8.3.1 on a different Mac.

The only metadata which isn't saved, unless you have the appropriate itl and xml files it was written into are play/skip counts last played/skipped, original date modified/added, equalizer, volume, remember last play position and continue playing from last stop choices.
Also, the Ratings aren't saved, which is one of the reasons I don't use the rating field, I use the BPM field instead, as it's saved.

I noticed sometime before the High Sierra OS was in use, the corresponding iTunes version started automatically & arbitrairilly rating unrated songs on a CD that was partially rated by the user, and entered a light grey colored star version based on how the user actually rated the rest of the CD.
The only problem with that was, if one creates a Smart Playlist of only 5 Star files, those grey-out files with iTunes arbitrary 5* rating gets added to that SPL, and it might only be a 3* in the user's eyes.

The second reason I don't use the Star system, is that the stars are embedded in the itl file, so if the file is separated from that file, yer out of luck, hence, I use the BPM file instead, for two reasons:
The BPM is embedded in the file w/wo the .itl file.

Because I use the BPM, when I add a new Movie/TV file, I'll have say Season 1 of a TV Show, when first added to iTunes, it shows as a Home Video in the editing window.
I'll switch it to Music Video, and add a 1 in the BPM field for all the same like files.
This way when it's switched back to TV Show, I won't have to keep switching it back to Music Video each time I want to add the appropriate rating, it's already visible and editable in the TV Movie or Home video option.

I also use the composer field, also visible only in the MV pane, at first.
I use that to add select leading or character actors last name in it for SPL purposes.
When still in the MV pane, I put the cursor in it and hit the space bar once.
This tricks it into thinking there is actual data in it, so it makes it visible in all panes...Home Video, Movie and TV Show, and of course it always shows in Music Video w/wo space bar hack, and again, I don't have to keep switching to the MV pane to add data in that field.

Lastly, I use the BPM to give half-star ratings.
There is an Apple Script I used to use for my music files that allowed that, but it wasn't permanent, it would default to the lower rating over time, and I would have to redo them.
The BPM is...40=4*, 45=4.5* etc.
I even add a 1 sometimes if its over 40, but not quite a 45 etc, again, for SPL purposes.
That field goes up to 999, so one could conceivably use it for several or more other tag purposes.

I do know that when you highlight a bunch of videos in iTunes and then make a batch change as you did, you have to be patient when you see the beach ball to give it time to work through all those files and make the change. Your post reads like you didn't wait it out and instead closed iTunes during the beachball spin.

I usually do wait, and it takes less than a minute.
This time it not only got the beachball, which it never did, it was a stuttering one at that.
Either way, it was my fault, I should have left the desk and came back in five minutes.

Lastly, you could just restore your Music folder contents to get things back to as they were. And that will likely prove to be easiest option here. However, I would still get on the Meta-Z and/or Subler train ASAP vs. continuing to use iTunes to do all tagging.

In the long run, I think that's the way to go.
If I did have the time and patience to do several steps for each file, not only is that more strain on the SSD, Carbon Copy Cloner will recopy all the files that have changed since the last backup.
I was told by them that if the only thing I do to a file since the last backup is add or delete a period "." in the title or elsewhere, it gets re-copied...more strain on both SSDs.

I may as well save all that time and wear & tear and have CCC do the work via the most recent backup.
I took some screenshots of the last playdates and playcounts since, so I can manually add them after I get iTunes back in order.

I'll also look into the apps you supplied, thanks for them.