Eat of the Apple

[cyrano]

Fuck. And also fucking fuck.
Okay, requesting advice from iTunes users out there, because right now iTunes is not my friend.
I did years of casual research, including pointedly and directly asking 'If I open the iTunes software will it fuck up my current musical world?'
And so today after setting the don't turn anything into an m4a file switch, I told iTunes 'Just look at the music folder. No touchy, just looky.' And it started looking. Since I have about ten thousand files, it was going to take a while, so I fired up MMJB and asked it to start burning De Profunis for JimWeasel. Which was when I realized that, as iTunes *just looked* at the files, they were disappearing from my playlist.
Now I have about three dozen playlists, all of them completely empty. Some of these were works in progress for which I have no backup data. Some of them I can go to the web page and re-create the playlists by hand if I ever get that much energy.
iTunes users:
WTF happened?
Is it correctible?

EDIT
More concrete data:
What, precisely, did I do?
If I recall correctly, I set the 'preference' to 'Import using mp3 encoder' and then told it to 'Import' the MyMusic folder where my mp3s are. Which, as I discover later, means that not only are the playlists empty but MusicMatch can't find any of the songs it thinks are in the library. The files appear to be in the folders when I go directly to the folders and look, but for some reason they don't seem to match with what MMJB has them listed under. This may be why the playlists *appear* to be empty and simply are referencing a bunch of empty name referents.

Also, when I go and open the playlist files with MSWORD I do at least get some data--a list of file names that should reference the songs I put in them.
F:\My Music\They Might Be Giants\Then_ The Earlier Years 1\32-Greek #3.mp3
F:\My Music\Los Lobos\Desperado (The Soundtrack)\01-Cancion Del Mariachi.mp3
F:\My Music\Ukrainians\05 Anarkhiya (Anarchy in the UK).mp3
F:\My Music\Various\Gen X Cops - You Can't Stop Me!.mp3
F:\My Music\Plan B\C^arovniki\02 - Dobrodos^li.mp3
F:\My Music\Concrete Blonde\Mexican Moon\13-Bajo La Lune Mexicana.mp3
F:\My Music\Rachid Taha\Arabesque\rachid_taha-rock_el_casbah.mp3
F:\My Music\Panjabi MC\Beware\Panjabi MC - Yaaran Kollon Sikh Kuriye.mp3
Hrmmmmmm.
F:\My Music\Concrete Blonde\Mexican Moon\13 Bajo La Lune Mexicana.mp3
F:\My Music\Plan B\C^arovniki\02 Dobrodos^li.mp3
These are current file names. It appears that I have instigated subtle changes in file names. At least I appear to have the ability to reconstruct the playlists, if I can get Musicmatch to be able to find the songs again. Which may mean that iTunes can no longer find them. Which I could probably live with.

Comments

[miss-friday.livejournal.com]

And so today after setting the don't turn anything into an m4a file switch, I told iTunes 'Just look at the music folder. No touchy, just looky.' And it started looking.

While I love the poetry of your post, it does not provide much hard data for an iTunes user to help you. What exactly, did you want iTunes to do? Are your missing songs now in iTunes or are they gone from your computer?

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

What, precisely, did I do?
If I recall correctly, I set the 'preference' to 'Import using mp3 encoder' and then told it to 'Import' the MyMusic folder where my mp3s are. Which, as I discover later, means that not only are the playlists empty but MusicMatch can't find any of the songs it thinks are in the library. The files appear to be in the folders when I go directly to the folders and look, but for some reason they don't seem to match with what MMJB has them listed under. This may be why the playlists *appear* to be empty and simply are referencing a bunch of empty name referents.
Does that make any more sense?

[aberrantvirtue.livejournal.com]

Yeah. What miss_friday said.

Also where were these playlists being kept before you ran iTunes? My suspicion is that you checked off the wrong option (since the m4a thing ONLY applies when you rip a CD. iTunes doesn't change the format of songs you already have) and what you WANTED to check off was the "don't organize my songs" option. (On the Mac this is in the Preferences -> Advanced menu. You want to uncheck "Keep my iTunes organized". I suspect you'll find that under "File" (preferences that is) on a PC.) My suspicion is that you can't find your music stuff because iTunes reorg.ed it into the iTunes library by artist and then by album.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

What, precisely, did I do?
If I recall correctly, I set the 'preference' to 'Import using mp3 encoder' and then told it to 'Import' the MyMusic folder where my mp3s are. Which, as I discover later, means that not only are the playlists empty but MusicMatch can't find any of the songs it thinks are in the library. The files appear to be in the folders when I go directly to the folders and look, but for some reason they don't seem to match with what MMJB has them listed under. This may be why the playlists *appear* to be empty and simply are referencing a bunch of empty name referents.

The playlists are stored under the C: drive, Program Files/Musicmatch/Jukebox/Playlists
I appear to have done a wrong thing. I do not know if it can be undone.

Culprit is known

[elo-sf.livejournal.com]

Not sure you can easily undo, but basically this setting for "Keep ITunes Music Folder Organized" is creating your problem.

If you move the files back to music match land, iTunes can eventually find them again too... You might want to also uncheck the "Copy" setting to iTunes basically has shortcuts (windows-speak) to your music only and isn't messing with Music Match, etc.

Re: Culprit is known

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Aaaah. So do I want both of those boxes checked, if I want the two programs to share data? (Or is that just a fool's errand?)

Re: Culprit is known

[elo-sf.livejournal.com]

UNchecked is best. This way iTunes will find your stuff where it lays and not move it.

Re: Culprit is known

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Erm. I meant 'Do I want both of those boxes *unchecked*....' yadda yadda yadda.

Re: Culprit is known

[elo-sf.livejournal.com]

Correct, UNchecked.