The weirdest chain of events - so funny - lost music

[Diatribe]

Today I was wondering why I had lost an entire album in iTunes. Which is weird since I know I had it and it still appears in the library but the file is nowhere to be found...
Then I checked whether I was missing anything else from my 4000 song library. And there was a second album missing, also entirely. Very strange.
Then I connected the clues. The albums both started with ...abc. You see where I am going right? So I thought of that thread some days ago and remembered that a dot in front of a folder/file hides it. iTunes had created that folder and OSX had hidden it afterwards so my backup couldn't see it. So when I transferred my music over to my new pb the library still showed the files but not the folders. Too bad I already erased the HD on the iBook. Now I have to rip again and I have to look for the CDs in my basement. What fun.
I guess what I am trying to say here is be careful with how you let iTunes organize your stuff. Thankfully not a lot of albums start with ...

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Today I was wondering why I had lost an entire album in iTunes. Which is weird since I know I had it and it still appears in the library but the file is nowhere to be found...
Then I checked whether I was missing anything else from my 4000 song library. And there was a second album missing, also entirely. Very strange.
Then I connected the clues. The albums both started with ...abc. You see where I am going right? So I thought of that thread some days ago and remembered that a dot in front of a folder/file hides it. iTunes had created that folder and OSX had hidden it afterwards so my backup couldn't see it. So when I transferred my music over to my new pb the library still showed the files but not the folders. Too bad I already erased the HD on the iBook. Now I have to rip again and I have to look for the CDs in my basement. What fun.
I guess what I am trying to say here is be careful with how you let iTunes organize your stuff. Thankfully not a lot of albums start with ...

An iTunes tip: Always, ALWAYS, ALWAYS check your tags! Problems like this can crop up on you unexpectedly if you don't check your tags in iTunes - I always make sure my music files have valid, meaningful tags.

 

[SilentPanda]

It sounds to me like the tags were valid and meaningful. The name of the album just happened to be something that started with "...". Of course when this is made into a directory name it becomes hidden. Perfectly meaningful name with bad results. I would submit this to Apple as an issue.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

It sounds to me like the tags were valid and meaningful. The name of the album just happened to be something that started with "...". Of course when this is made into a directory name it becomes hidden. Perfectly meaningful name with bad results. I would submit this to Apple as an issue.

Good idea! I wonder if someone here's done it already, though.

 

[Proudest Monkey]

interestingly enough ... when i ripped metallica ...and justice for all (you hear that lars, i purchased your cd when i was 12 years old and then ripped it on to my computer that i also purchased, i ripped, then mixed, then burned (maybe) - sorry about that tirade), but a friend advised me to put spaces between the periods at the beginning to avoid an issue i might encounter. i hope you found your tunes

 

[sandmann41]

You could use a program like file buddy to find them.
Do you have any PCs in you house. If you network to a PC the PC will be able to see the folders also.

 

[rendezvouscp]

Sorry Britney, but as a sad owner of ...Baby One More Time, iTunes replaces the first . with an underscore (_). Is this the problem, or do I not know what I am talking about?
–Chase

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

interestingly enough ... when i ripped metallica ...and justice for all (you hear that lars, i purchased your cd when i was 12 years old and then ripped it on to my computer that i also purchased, i ripped, then mixed, then burned (maybe) - sorry about that tirade), but a friend advised me to put spaces between the periods at the beginning to avoid an issue i might encounter. i hope you found your tunes

I've also ripped ...and justice for all, and as rendezvouscp said iTunes has replaced the first '.' with an '_' so that the folder is not hidden...

 

[Makosuke]

Sounds like that sorta-bug has been fixed, but maybe it existed in an earlier version of iTunes, and Diatribe's music was sorted into invisible folders like that in the past, and it went unnoticed until the HD switch. Good to know it behaves properly now, but I suppose this is a good heads up to people who ripped in the past!

Hey, Diatribe, do you remember what version of iTunes you were using at the time you ripped those CDs? Might be useful to know for people who ripped their stuff a while ago.

So I suppose you actually "connected the dots" ...quite literally. Funny.

 

[Diatribe]

Sounds like that sorta-bug has been fixed, but maybe it existed in an earlier version of iTunes, and Diatribe's music was sorted into invisible folders like that in the past, and it went unnoticed until the HD switch. Good to know it behaves properly now, but I suppose this is a good heads up to people who ripped in the past!

Hey, Diatribe, do you remember what version of iTunes you were using at the time you ripped those CDs? Might be useful to know for people who ripped their stuff a while ago.

So I suppose you actually "connected the dots" ...quite literally. Funny.

Yeah, isn't it? I thought it to be very funny once I figured out WHY my music was gone. I think I ripped it with version 4.0 not so long ago. This version is evil.

 

[Diatribe]

interestingly enough ... when i ripped metallica ...and justice for all (you hear that lars, i purchased your cd when i was 12 years old and then ripped it on to my computer that i also purchased, i ripped, then mixed, then burned (maybe) - sorry about that tirade), but a friend advised me to put spaces between the periods at the beginning to avoid an issue i might encounter. i hope you found your tunes

Thanks, but they are gone since the data on my iBook is erased. Not too bad since I still have the CDs, but it'll be a hassle to go through my 300 CDs in the basement to find the two I need to re-rip. Oh well playing Sherlock Holmes made up for that.

 

[rendezvouscp]

Well, seeing that I am a perfectionist and have ripped my music so many times (between changing computers, MP3 to AAC, then Apple Lossless), it has worked fine for me since iTunes 2. Interesting...
–Chase