iTunes can't find music... ongoing problem

[EdH]

I couldn't find a similar thread when searching this, so...

I am having a problem on my macbook with iTunes randomly(?) not able to find certain songs, and displaying the "!". This is becoming annoying, as there are more and more songs "disappearing". The thing is, the songs exist and just have to be added again. This will happen with a few songs from one cd, sometimes an entire cd, and even with music I have purchased from the iTunes store. I am guessing others must have experienced this, as my son is having the same issue with his iMac and iTunes.

Any suggestions appreciated.

 

[kahlil88]

iTunes has a really terrible way of managing its library. It adds anything you open to the library, and doesn't keep track of files being moved, renamed or removed.

 

[mrplow]

Is your library on an external disk?

 

[EdH]

My library is in the default location on the macbook. Upon further investigation it appears the problem isn't happening with purchased music from iTunes. I checked one of the "missing" songs in its folder in the library. It is there, but where other songs in the folder are displayed as the album art, this one is displayed with the default icon (see attached screenshot). This is from a cd that I imported.