iTunes can't find files that are _right there_

Factual Questions
1

A few months ago I was running low on space on my C: drive, so I moved my iTunes library to the E: partition, just the way Apple says you’re supposed to.

(iTunes 8 under Windows Vista.)

All the music shows up in iTunes, but when I click on anything I didn’t download after the move, it tells me it can’t find the file and makes me locate it manually. When I select the location the song then plays normally.

Now this used to be just a slight annoyance since I almost always just use my iPod for listening. But a few days ago its battery suddenly was no longer capable of holding a charge. Apparently the Apple Store can’t just change the battery; they have to give me a whole new iPod.

A new, empty iPod.

Now there may be people out there who relish the prospect of clicking on 6,882 songs one by one and specifying the file path, but I don’t happen to be one of them. I tried consolidating the library, I tried moving everything into a new “iTunes Music” subdirectory under iTunes on E:, no dice.

There must be a way out there to give iTunes an IQ implant, must there? Because at 15 seconds per song to navigate the file tree and select the right item, doing the whole ball of wax manually would take 28 hours and 40.5 minutes!

2

http://hifiblog.com/past/2006/05/11/howto-move-your-itunes-music-while-preserving-library-data-when-you-dont-let-itunes-manage-your-music-library/

3

Did you tell iTunes where the folder is?

4

How many folders (or separate folder trees, really) comprise your library? If it’s not that many, the brute force solution has served me well in the past when I had to move my mp3s around: remove all the music from your library (Ctrl + A, Right-click -> Delete…make sure you select NOT to delete the actual files if it asks), then reimport it all from its current location via “Add Folder”.

Inelegant, but as long as your music’s not in fifty different unrelated folders, it works.

5

Make sure you have Vista set to show your hidden folders and files

6

I tried this, started iTunes, it came up with no music and I hit “Add Folder to Library.” Still processing; seems to be working so far!

Thanks beowulff!

I don’t know why the program was so dilatory; I did specify E:/iTunes as the place it should look for the media files. And everything was in subfolders under that.