Any bloody idea where they might have gone? Or where/how to try to locate them

I added some audiobook mp3’s to itunes, in prepartion of transfering them to my phone, and I’ll be buggered if I can find them…

It’s not unusal to find they’ve been added as music files, but not in this case today! I’m check recently added files, within all sections, and nothing is appearing. Looking at the detail tab of the file attributes, it’s completely blank but that shouldn’t stop it appearing in itunes.
TBF Itune has seemingly removed all of this author books completely, which is even weirder (the audio books were not purchased via itunes)

.. I do hate this sodding program, checking my history, I’ve created around 7 itune related threads over the years

PS: I have added other files without issue today..

well I managed to locate a couple of random escapee’s I’d lost over the years, one hiding in podcast, and the other with no ‘artist’ details (by listing music per musician, and checking the “unknown artist” section). Then I got desperate and tried playing the files I trying to add, their all corrupt, so it seem itunes may not be to blame… off to download them again.

.. Got them and re-added, still had to search for them but have now them located!

Still doesn’t explain where all the other books by the same artist have gone (still got files, and have listened to them previously, so no great issue)

I’ve completely given-up trying to import audiobook files into iTunes….. I just couldn’t get it to put them in the right place, it created duplicates all over the shop. I just gave up. Sorry, I know that doesn’t help – but it’s not you.

Yes quite!
Ever since those fruity dweebs updated itunes look or subsections in purchased etc it certainly appears that music shows up out of the logical order

Ultimately, I just don’t think apple are interested in helping you manage your locally stored content any more – in fact, it’s probably worth their while to make it as hard as possible, and drive you to their subscription services.
I use Plex now for my music, TV shows and films. Unfortunately Plex doesn’t do audiobooks either – but I tend to buy them from Audible anyway, for which the app is decent enough.

I found adding MP3s to iTunes and then my phone a right PIA earlier this year, took several sync cycles for them to actually be on the phone.

Have a look in podcasts or books.

When I’ve added stuff it’s landed either there or ( as mentioned) in unknown artists..

Also, check playlists..

Same experience; so many tracks AWOL from iTunes. Pretty clear that Apple have been running down iTunes to force users towards their Apple Music streaming service. I’ve tried Music Bee and Media Monkey but they can’t find any lost AAC / MP4 files either. They can be found via Explorer but won’t play on iTunes. MS Groove Music is dreadful and WMP doesn’t play nice with iTunes file types. Haven’t ripped a CD in months and can’t sync the iPod to iTunes for fear of losing hundreds of tracks from the iPod. They really do have users by the haw maws.

Should have ripped to MP3 about 10,000 tracks ago!

Yeah, to add..

I have about 20mp3 downloads from a DJ friend of mine, I lost them for a while but found them in my “downloads” folder in finder.. they play from there if you want to listen to em’..

So I created a folder on my desktop with them in, just so I know where they are easily..

When importing files to iTunes they should automatically transfer into your music folder. If they don’t automatically move, manually copy them there. I’ve had this with a few files but never lost a file completely. Have you tried right clicking on the track in iTunes then selecting ‘view in Finder’?

I once made the mistake of ticking the “keep iTunes music folder organised” and it moved around so many files making it difficult to find them. I had to restore my entire music folder and playlists from a backup.

The main problem with Apple is how they try to control everything now.Overall, iTunes is great if you don’t stay logged in with an Apple ID. I can’t remember the last time I even used an Apple ID and I recently moved my music folder and playlist setup onto a new iMac with no problems or lost files. FYI I sync my music folder with Google music (for free) and works on other devices brilliantly.

Glad to hear I’m not the only one with issues! I did lose one file to podcasts, but because I’d not ‘setup’ the podcast section ,it wasn’t on display… wtf?
What can you do with that logic. No idea why it’s decided to hate on Neal Stephenson, I have the files that not an issue, just why have they drop out of iTunes?