So a funny thing has been going on recently, and I can't figure out how to stop it or prevent it or even what exactly is happening. Here is the gist:
Last week I noticed that my Alarm Clock program suddenly stopped playing my selected mp3 and switched to beeps instead. Annoying, but I didn't really think much of it, since the program is (I think) open source, so perhaps there was a bug? Dunno, it was free, not complaining. Then the next day I opened iTunes for the first time in a couple of days and found that my library was empty, my playlists missing, as though I had never used iTunes at all, like it was defaulted to factory settings, stock, new from the store, whatever you want to call it. I was baffled. I ran quickly (and metaphorically) to my iTunes Media folder to see where the files went, but they were all there, intact, as though nothing had happened.
We had a bit of a scuffle, iTunes and I, in the process of putting all my music back into the library, because I forgot to change the default setting that means iTunes duplicates every file I put into it and places this "new" file into the iTunes Media folder, which meant that I did not have enough hard drive space to put my music back (30 gigs, yeah, my hard drive is only 75). Fixed. Done. Everything back in order.
Sometimes I have a song stuck in my head, and all I want is to hear that one track, right? So yesterday I go through Path Finder, or finder or Quicksilver or whatever My Computer equivalent you want to think of, and suddenly see that half of my music files are missing. Just gone. I check the trash/Recycle Bin, but it is empty. I do not have Time Machine, because it does not support OS X 10.4.11. So I go to the likeliest culprit, iTunes, only to be baffled again. There is all my music, as though nothing was wrong. All the mp3s play (I think, I haven't checked them all yet), even though their files are missing.
Now, I know that there have been reported instances of iTunes updates sneakily deleting pirated music, and to that I say, ok, dick, but understandable I guess? But the files that appear to be missing from my hard drive entirely were about half and half. For instance, all my 40s jazz and big band music came directly from CDs of my parents' and grandparents', so that was not illegally downloaded, and yet it is missing too.
What the hell is going on? Why can I still play my mp3s when apparently they don't exist? Where are my files really hiding? This is getting to be super irritating, and I am actually starting to be a little afraid to hook up my external, where everything is backed up, because I don't want... whatever it is to happen there too.
