>you files *should" be in that folder<

Yeah, they used to be. That's the mystery.


>.DS_Store file was corrupted, the files may be there but not displaying.<

I'm not terminal literate, though I am aware of ls, cd, man, and rm. Maybe I need Tinkertool or Cocktail or some such to "Show Invisibles" ? How would I rebuild .DS_Store?

That is true for many people. However, you do/did have the option, when running iTunes for the very first time (not sure about 7.6 though) of searching your entire computer and NOT placing found MP3s in the default music folder when they are "imported" from these other locations on the drive. This leaves their locations in the database but not in the default folder...I guess. If you have the disk space, it is always wise to import all found MP3s to the default folder when you first launch a new version, un-license accepted, version of iTunes...of course, that may mean that your default itunes music folder is full of music from games, etc...which is why folks often would choose NOT to import any found MP3s into their default music folder.

I know where it is. It's in the default location. Preferences confirms that. The Artist and Album folders are there. The songs even play. I just can't find the individual song files.