iTunes forgets locations of songs

yeah, i had this too. One afternoon, I decided just to go thorough and, yes, update all of them. Hasn't done it again since.

This happens to me with some regularity, and I don't have that many files to look after--only about 3.5K (files, not bytes!), so apparently Size Is Not the Issue. If you were to look at the iTunes Music Library.xml file, you will see that the pathname to the file (location) is truly missing from the track's entry. Don't know why it is.

I thought I noticed it happening after an installation of any software that optimized the system; on the other hand, I also Repair Permissions after making such an installation, so perhaps that has an effect. If anyone knows, they'd better tell!

Have investigated an AppleScript solution to no avail. The best fix is to do as Nathan did and re-unite 'em with their files. It is a common enough problem.

Also: don't mistake these sorts of tracks for Honest To Goodness Dead Tracks--those whose files really are deleted--and remove them before trying to re-associate them with their files. That's what List MIAs (http://www.malcolmadams.com/itunes/scripts/scripts01.shtml#listmias) is for.

I'll slink back to the AppleScript forum now.