Why is iTunes losing my songs?

[Singularity]

I copy them into my library and a few days later, it can't find the songs!

 

[mark1111]

Maybe you moved or altered in some way the music file? This happened to me once when I was burning some to cd.

 

[Singularity]

I did no such thing, I moved them into the player which copied them into my music folder. I did find the "missing" songs but I don't understand why they are moved outside the "iTunes" folder (hence the program can't "find" them), even if I turned that option on.

 

[mark1111]

If I have music that I inported with a cd or downloaded, it will go into various files. If I open itunes and play it, it is there. If, later, I move the file from, oh, say "downloads" to "my music" itunes won't be able to find it and you will have to "find" it again. Remember, computers are not smart.

Hope this helps.

 

[Singularity]

Even if you copy it directly INTO the library?

 

[fadeinout30]

iTunes has to have the direct source path, unaltered, to play the song(s). Most people find this out the hard way.

However, I have Nelly Furtado's last album and the same 3 songs out of 15 on the album that I have will every once in a while cannot be found. And I know for a fact that I did not change anything about those songs.

It must be said that quite a few people have lost songs and vast majority of their iTunes library and HD due to iTunes. This is why Apple highly recommends backing up your music to other sources.

 

[Singularity]

This is weird, because the last time I used iTunes on a regular basis was when I kept my collection tidy (as in compilations) and I never had that problem, and you would think one of these many updates would provide an automatic self-search option...