Can I correct the "file://localhost" iTunes problem for multiple songs simultaneously?

Question

Can I correct the "file://localhost" iTunes problem for multiple songs simultaneously?

I've encountered the issue that I've seen mentioned many times before but haven't been able to find an answer to this specific issue. Lots of songs in my iTunes library in Windows have now had their location changed to have the "file://localhost" added before them which means iTunes says it can't find them. The location of the file has never been changed however. The library file in my settings is as follows:

C:\Users\[my name]\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media

Now lots of my files which can't be found are showing the individual song location as:

file://localhost/C:/Users/[my name]/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/[artist name]/[album title]/[song title].mp3

So apart from the "file://localhost/" at the start and the use of / instead of \ the location is exactly the same. And if I select the option to locate the file and go into the expected location without the "file://localhost/", i.e. the same location where the file has always been, it gets located and added back in no problem.

It's a bit random as it has done this for many, many songs but not for others and seemingly no pattern to which ones are affected. So now every time I sync my iPod I get a warning about having lots of songs that can't be found (although they do still stay on the iPod even when iTunes can't find them).

So given that they are all in the same location that they've always been and it's the location specified in my settings, I was wondering if there is a way to simply correct the filepath for all the missing ones in one go, as doing it for each individual song one at a time would be completely infeasible.

Thanks

Alan

Posted on Oct 30, 2024 10:50 AM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

274,452 points

Oct 30, 2024 12:29 PM in response to anthemsprinter

The "missing file" issue with exclamation marks happens if the file is no longer where iTunes 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, or the drive it lives on has had a change of drive letter, 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 has 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. See Getting iTunes & Windows Media Player to play nicely if you're trying to access your media with any other media players.

Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to Get Info, then click No when asked to try to locate the track. Look on the file tab for the location that iTunes thinks the file should be. Now take a look around your hard drive(s). Hopefully you can locate the track in question. If a section of your library has simply been moved, a folder renamed, or a drive letter 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 Windows.

In some cases iTunes 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.

If another application like Windows Media Player has moved/renamed the files, or the library has been moved from OS X to Windows, then the chances are that subtle differences in naming strategies will make it hard to restore the media to the precise path that iTunes is expecting. In such cases, as long as the missing files can be found somewhere, you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes. See this post for an explanation of how it works. It might need some tweaking if your media is in a non-standard layout.

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

The location of the media folder under Edit > Preferences > Advanced
The location of a sample missing track shown under Get Info > File > Location that begins file://localhost/
The true path to the file whose details you gave in 2

Note the addition of file://localhost/ (and the flipped direction of slashes in Windows) is normal for a file that isn't quite where iTunes is expecting to find it.

tt2

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

274,452 points

Nov 1, 2024 7:09 AM in response to anthemsprinter

As noted:

... as long as the missing files can be found somewhere, you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes. See this post for an explanation of how it works. It might need some tweaking if your media is in a non-standard layout.

tt2

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Answer 3

Nov 1, 2024 5:19 AM in response to turingtest2

So I think the details above are as per the examples in my original post - the problem is that the location has never changed, it's just that iTunes has randomly decided that some of them have, even though when I check them they are still in the same location. I don't get why it's only done it for some music and not for others. I can correct an individual track, one song at a time, but obviously that would just be ridiculous to have to do it for however many hundreds or maybe even thousands of songs it's done it for, particularly since they are all still on the iPod even after syncing. Just seems to be finding them within iTunes that is the problem.

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Answer 4

Nov 5, 2024 5:11 AM in response to turingtest2

Thanks, I'll give that a try.

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