iTunes help... missing file location. (deleted a folder)

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Pringals

Gawd
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Nov 27, 2004
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I'm a little paranoid right now on loosing some music I bought. I have a downloads folder where for the last several months I've downloaded music to from amazon.com. Typically, after the download, I would import the file into iTunes. Apparently, iTunes only referenced the location of the mp3s and didn't import it into it's own music itunes folder.

Well, without knowing that, I was doing some cleanup on my pc this afternoon and deleted a bunch of files that have accumulated in that download folder. I thought I could delete these music files since i had imported them to itunes... no need to have the same file in two locations. Well, now i loaded up itunes and see all these exclamation marks next to my music and itunes claiming it can't find the files. All these missing music files are still on my ipod touch 4g. What will happen when I sync? Will they be removed from the ipod since they are not found on the pc itunes library anymore? Will they be copied over and restore the original locations on my pc? I'm dreading the thought of loosing all this music that at $0.99 - 1.50 each will add up... I think I've bought about 80-90 songs from amazon that I'd hate to loose.

Please, any tips or suggestions or sympathetic understanding would be greatly appreciated.
 
Only if you were using the cloud (which I wasn't) ... but other then that, I can't figure another way. (all sales are final bla bla bla)


... this is where Apple and itunes fail hard core! Why can't it be a drag and drop for music like my old Sansa Fuze? ...what a pain in the ass! I guess I may have to buy some software to restore my music.

still... any responses or suggestions is appreciated.

Thanks!
 
*edit... think i may have found out how to redownload purchases on amazon.... :D

**edit...nope... just a link to files I've purchased. :mad:

Your Amazon MP3 Music purchases can only be downloaded once. After you have successfully downloaded the file to your computer at the time of purchase, we recommend that you create a backup copy. We are currently unable to replace any purchased files that you delete or lose due to a system or disk error
Click to expand...

I'm most pissed at myself, well, second to Apple/itunes anyway. I always backup my stuff, but this weekend just happened to be the weekend I redid a lot of my file structure, cleanout my PC's, and upgrade my 1tb hard drives in my WHS to 2tb drives. So I usually have backups for my backups, but I missed this one F'n folder and looks like I'm SOL.

I see a lot of $20 ipod recovery software out there... anyone have experience with these? I'm considering "iGadget"...
 
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iTunes will only copy your files if you selected the "allow itunes to manage my library" option. Failing that, you can click file -> library -> consolidate library.

However, since you have deleted it already, you can try this:
Open up itunes, disable auto sync on your ipod (meaning DON'T sync) and then click file -> transfer purchases from my ipod.

If that does not work, you might want to try some file recovery programs from this guide


hope this helps, I know how much it sucks to lose data....
 
Thanks dex... but I already addressed those tips. I'm really shocked Apple hasn't a method of recovery for incidents like this. Seems so basic to be able to send a mp3 file back to the pc without all this nonsense. Sure wish Skynet would make a competitive product.
 
*Update*

Last night I downloaded iRepo from download.com. It had a 15 day free trial and it worked perfectly in pulling my music off the ipod touch. The trial version had a limitation of one song transfer at a time, but it worked. So if anyone else runs into this issue, I can recommend this program. At only $16, I'm thinking of picking up the license as a thank you to the programmer. Saved me $80 in purchased music.
 
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