Anytune Mac does not see iTunes songs

Catalina (macOS 10.15) and Apple's Music app changes to how music apps interact with your media library. Support for these changes is built into Anytune 2.3. If you are using Anytune 2.3 or greater see Anytune Mac and Music Libraries (≥10.15).

For Anytune 2.2 and below

Anytune uses the "iTunes Music Library.xml" file created by iTunes to determine the location of songs in your iTunes music library. Anytune uses the current iTunes. See Changing iTunes libraries.

Anytune needs access to a correct and current (iTunes Music Library.xml) file. If Anytune is missing songs that are in iTunes please try the following:

Allow access

Verify “Share iTunes Library XML with other applications” is enabled:

1. Quit Anytune.  
2. Open iTunes.
3. From the menu bar at the top of your computer screen, choose
   iTunes > Preferences...
4. Click the Advanced tab.
5. Select "Share iTunes Library XML with other applications."
   If it is enabled, then toggle it OFF, click OK, then toggling it back ON and click OK.
6. Start Anytune

See Apple's About iTunes library files for more information.

Reset

1. Quit Anytune on your Mac
2. Quit iTunes on your Mac
3. Start iTunes again - check to make sure that you see all of the songs that you expect
   (download them if they are in the iCloud Music Library and not physically on your Mac)
4. Start Anytune

Play the song in iTunes

If a specific song will not play, play the song in iTunes. Playing the song should update the entry for that song in the (iTunes Music Library.xml) file.

Force an update

Nudge iTunes to refresh the file with the following procedure:

1. Go into the iTunes Preferences > Advanced tab
2. Disable "Keep iTunes Media folder organized" and hit OK
3. Go into the iTunes Preferences > Advanced tab
4. Enable "Keep iTunes Media folder organized" and hit OK

Toggling this value off and on should trigger iTunes to update all of the file locations in the iTunes Library.xml. This does not work for all versions of iTunes.

Recreate your library interface file (iTunes Music Library.xml)

Please follow the instructions to try rebuilding your music library:

1. Quit Anytune
2. Quit iTunes
3. Locate and open your iTunes folder
   This is the folder that contains the iTunes Media and "iTunes Music Library.xml"  file.
   You can see what file Anytune is looking at the bottom of the Anytune menu > Anytune > About Anytune window

   

   
   Standard locations
   For Mac OS X:  Users/<yourusername>/Music/iTunes
   For Windows PC: C:\Users\<yourusername>\My Music\iTunes\

1. Drag the "iTunes Library.xml" or "iTunes Music Library.xml" file to the Desktop (This is your backup copy and should be kept until the process has fully completed and verified)
2. Start iTunes
   This process forces iTunes to create a new, fresh copy of your iTunes XML file.
3. Verify the file has been created.
4. Start Anytune.

Rebuild your entire Music Library

In extreme circumstances you can rebuild your entire Music Library.  Some information will be lost in the process, including: star ratings, “Loves”, play counts, and date added. If you can live without that information there are some documented procedures out there. Example: How to fix a damaged iTunes library. 

Remove unusual characters in song Title, Artist, Album

If your song titles contains unusual characters iTunes may not update the "iTunes Music Library.xml" file.

You can search the contents of the "iTunes Music Library.xml" file for the song title text that is missing from Anytune using TextEdit or similar app. If the song is not found than the XML is not being updated.

Look for songs in iTunes that have unusual characters and delete those songs.

Thanks Thomas!

Please report a problem if these actions do not resolve the issue.

Discussions.apple.com

How can I recreate the iTunes Music Library.xml file