Can't locate files/folder

About a month ago I took my G5 to an Apple store when visiting family in Orlando. We live about 6 hours away, where there is no Apple store nearby. The tech at the Genius bar solved a simple problem for me, then offered to cleanup my desktop, which contained about 25 various folders, as well as my #1 HD and my #2 HD. Me not being very tech savvy, just let him do so, not noticing where he was putting the folders. I guess he created another folder for all of them. He dragged a box around several of the folders at a time, placing them all in the same place, I assume. But with those folders, he also placed my #2 HD, which is the one I was operating in, that had several of my photoshop actions that I use as a photographer. I have called the store, but since I don't know the tech's name, I have had no help. My husband and I both have searched everywhere we could think of...spotlight, all my applications, documents, etc. Any ideas?

Have you looked inside the Utilities folder?
Download WhatSize. It will show the location of every file on your comp.
"I have called the store, but since I don't know the tech's name, I have had no help."
If you still have your repair receipt, I would call the store again & give them the information off of the receipt.
!http://i51.tinypic.com/9bkxeq.gif!

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I can't access half of my downloaded music. I get a message, "can't locate file" What is up with that? I dauthorized my computer and reloaded itunes, but it did not solve the problem. Any suggestions? Thank you.

I can't access half of my downladed music. I get a message, "can't locate file." I dauthorized my computer and reloaded itunes, but it did not help. Any suggestions? Thank you.

This happens if the file is no longer where iTunes expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the file, or that the drive it lives on has had a change of drive letter. It is also possible that iTunes has changed from expecting the files to be in the pre-iTunes 9 layout to post-iTunes 9 layout,or vice-versa, and so is looking in slightly the wrong place.
Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to get info, then cancel when asked to try to locate the track. Look on the summary tab for the location that iTunes thinks the file should be. Now take a look around your hard drive(s). Hopefully you can locate the track in question. If a section of your library has simply been moved, or a drive letter has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions.
Alternatively, as long as you can find a location holding the missing files, then you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes .
tt2

ITunes can't locate files, even though they never move.

My iTunes is set to copy new files to a dedicated music folder on an internal storage drive and to keep this folder organized. I have never moved this folder or edited anything within this folder.
Now, one day I start my iTunes and I'm greeted with thousands upon thousands of little exclamation marks telling me that iTunes can't locate the files. I made sure that the drive letter didn't change and that every file was still in there. There were too many songs missing to manually locate each song, so I highlighted my entire library and deleted it (while keeping the files, obviously). Several hours after re-adding my music library, everything was good and like it once was.
Not even a day later, I re-open iTunes to find that all the exclamation marks were back and that it could not locate any of my files again. This time I decide to go through all the steps properly by clearing the folder where the xml files are located, uninstalling iTunes, moving my music to an external hard drive and making sure there was no trace of iTunes left.
Ready to start again, I installed iTunes, set where I liked my files to be stored and set my other preferences (including "organize my iTunes folder" and "copy new files to iTunes Folder"). I then re-added my music and spent a day waiting for it to copy to the new iTunes folder. After this I deleted the folder that contained my originals and was left with a fresh install of iTunes and all my music was where I wanted it.
This worked for almost a whole month before thousands of songs went "missing" again. I simply don't know what to do. I can't keeping re-adding my library again and again because a few thousand songs went missing. Each time I do it, it just takes longer and longer and i'm sick of it.
Any help with my problem would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Presumably the location of the iTunes media folder is still correctly set in preferences when this happens?
One thing you can do to investigate this is to select a track that can't be found and go to Get Info>>Summary tab.
This will show you where iTunes thinks it is and the name of the file. Now find the file in Windows Explorer and compare the location and file name are they the same?
A thing that occurs to me is that you have other software on your PC that is able to move/rename files. Do you have anything like that?
Windows Media player has a check box that allows the renaming of files in Options, it's worth looking for that.

Itunes can't locate files after I listen to it on the Ipod

It seems that every time I listen to a song, I notice that Itunes can't locate it anymore. When I go to Itunes and look in my music folder, there is an exclamation point next to the song. When I click on it, the error message reads "cannot locate file, would you like to locate it now". At first it was only one or two songs, now it's over 50! These songs are still on my Ipod,just no longer in Itunes. I know how to recover the music b/c it's in my hard drive, I just don't want to sit there and find all these songs all over again. Help please.

I too have been having the same problem... I am a new ipod owner and same with itunes. And being a new owner and user I got the new itunes. It has done the exclimation point since the first day I got it. But mine is simple to fix. I mearly just exit out of itunes and re-open it. I dont evn have to wait at all. It shows the exclimation point with about 20 of my songs and it hasnt gotten in my way yet. But the main problem that makes me mad is that my ipod is only 2 weeks old but I tried to get some of my friends music and she has the older version of itunes and my ipod ONLY works on the new version. Very frustrating if you ask me.
Hp Windows XP

ITunes 8.0.1 upgrade can't locate files...AGAIN!!

Undoubtedly I must be a complete moron. This is a common problem and I have read it before, but I can't find the answer. I have been searching for the last hour. It's so common that no one responds.
Here's my issue...I just accepted the automatic upgrade to 8.0.1 and it can't located my original files...I know I know that this is common but I'm losing my mind on this. Even though a get info shows that it is pointing right to the file on my external hard drive (like it has for the last year), it still wants me to locate it manually (Yo Apple...put in a way to do this on multiple files). I tried replacing the library with a previous library to no avail. I don't want to rebuild mine, my kids, and my wife's playlists. It would take hours even days.
Is there a standard thread to point help me with this?

Sorry - got sidetracked by the arrival of the insurance adjuster. Ike damage may get fixed before the first snow! I left out the last possible options besides a total rebuild and loss of metadata. Depending on how many files aren't being found, it might be worth exporting the database as an XML file and editing the LOCATION field of the missing files. If it is a few albums that are affected, a copy and replace using a text editor can fix the problem.
The second option is probably only worth trying if you are using TimeMachine or have a bootable backup with the old iTunes 7 still installed. Otherwise you'd have to revert to iTunes 7 which may not be easy manually. Sometimes reverting to an older version of iTunes is quite unpleasant. Anyway, revert to iTunes 7 and export your entire library and each playlist as an XML file. Return to iTunes 8.01 and start it with no library in the iTunes folder so it starts up blank. Now import the music library and see if your 'missing' music is found. If so, go ahead and import your playlists too.
The more interesting question is why the fouled import? I'd feedback Apple (apple.com/feedback) with an offer to send your library for troubleshooting. Since it doesn't seem to be a widespread problem either your library file picked up something bad along the way or you are using some character or combination of characters in a volume, directory or filename that is causing the trouble.

ITunes has gone apesh*t! Please help! (can't locate files)

Good day!
I recently installed iTunes 7 (a few weeks ago, I guess.) For the most part, it has been working fine. But tonight, when I opened iTunes, it asked questions as if it had just been installed for the first time.
Now, all my music is stored on an external hard drive (J: Drive), and it defaulted that it was in my "My Music" folder in "My Documents", so I fixed that, and that didn't solve my problem: It can't locate any of my songs. (Here's the weird part, it can play the handful of MPEG files I have, but not the 99% AAC files. Both types are on the external hard drive). It lists them, but can't locate them, and i don't want to tell it the exact location of almost 5000 songs.
I tweaked a bit with my "iTunes Library" music database file, but that didn't help. Does the XML file ("iTunes Music Library") have any purpose?
Help me out!

I'm having the same problem.
iTunes lost about 100+ of my songs. I can manually go through and fix them but I'd rather not go through each one and track it down. I can see what's wrong in the library xml file but fixing them there doesn't do anything.
I tried recreating my library files and iTunes completely lost the songs along with several podcasts and all my playlists. Thankfully I'd backed up the library files before trying this, so I'm back where I started.
The date sounds about right, was that when the update before 7.5 came out? I also noticed that iTunes had reset my library location around that time(caught it and fixed it though).

New Hard Drive-can't locate files

I just moved my library to my new external hard drive. I have switched my preferences to look in the new drive, but itunes gives me the little exclimation point next to my songs and says it can't locate the files. I can go through and locate them all individualy, but there has t be a better/faster way. Someone smarter than me please help!!

If you move files around outside of iTunes, you'll get that !
which means it can't find the file.
So....put everything back the way it was, and follow these directions to consolidate your library onto the exHD.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
If I were you, BEFORE you follow thos directions, I'd give the exHD a letter far down in the alphabet like M: or W: so Windows doesn't change the letter on you when you plug other USB stuff into your PC. Use these directions - they are for an iPod but work for an exHD, also.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1493

Err - iTunes can not locate files

I recently had to reload itunes and start again. Once I downloaded iTunes and started up my external harddrive it almost as if automatically imported all of my files to the library. It took awhile but I was in heaven as I wasn't having to do the work.
Now iTunes is failing to recognize content from my external harddrive. It says it can not locate the files, but if I ask File< Get Info it knows where the files are. I did not move the files. If I locate them manually then the file does work. Is there an easy fix for this? We just finished syncing all our iPods. I don't want to have to start that process over again. Thanks for any help.

Try going to edit-preferences-advanced- then change the location of your iTunes library to your hard drive.
Hope that helps.

Itunes can't locate root folder on ext HD

Having solved half of my problem, I started a new thread for this problem. I now have Itunes not able to find the root folder on my external hard drive (f:) I have located Itunes library in several different locations on my C:, everywhere from My Music, my documents\my music, on my F:,etc. The only place where I can actually locate and access the complete updated list of music is when I have the F: connected,under the following path: C:\Documents and Settings\all users\Documents\Itunes library\itunes music.
How do I get the Itunes to find the path anytime I click on a particular song without having to re-enter each song? Katrina S. has been a great help getting me to this point, but I lose myself in the different threads from others. I know I am a few steps away... Please help

No I get the error message
but the insert image works fine thanks
this is the error message generated when I try to create a new folder
thanks ed

Can't locate files on itunes

hen I try to open file (music, video, podcast, etc) receive message from Itunes when I click on an item the"cain't locate file. When I click on locate itunes doesn't point me to the file.
Help!

The "missing file" error happens if the file is no longer where iTunes expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the file, or that the drive it lives on has had a change of drive letter. It is also possible that iTuneshas changed from expecting the files to be in the pre-iTunes 9 layout to post-iTunes 9 layout, or vice-versa, and so is looking in slightly the wrong place.
Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to get info, then cancel when asked to try to locate the track. Look on the summary tab for the location that iTunes thinks the file should be. Now take a look around your hard drive(s). Hopefully you can locate the track in question. If a section of your library has simply been moved, or a drive letter has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions.
If another application like Windows Media Player has moved/renamed the files then the chances are that subtle differences in naming strategies will make it hard to restore the media to the precise path that iTunes is expecting. In such cases, as long as the missing files can be found somewhere, you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes. See this post for an explanation of how it works.
If you have to resort to trying to pull back the library from your iPod see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
tt2

Can't locate Private folder to delete files

After getting a warning that my startup disk was almost full, I discovered that the reason was one very large folder that contained most of the contents of a previous computer. I had put it there three years ago when I bought this MacBook and forgotten all about it. The folder showed up on the left side of the finder and on the desktop. I put both icons in the trash and emptied it. The folders disappeared but the disk remained almost full.
Disk Inventory X tells me that I now have 129 GB in a folder called Private. Inside that folder, Var contains the 129 GB, then Log has 126.6 GB, and finally system.log.1 (89.1 GB) and system.log.0 (35.7 GB) are the apparent culprits. I don't know how I can have 124.8 GB of messages, but given that the hard disk has a capacity of 150 GB, this is obviously the reason it is still almost full. Somehow my deletion of this morning seems to have generated a mass of log messages in its wake.
But how to erase them? I can't find any hint of their existence in Finder or Spotlight.

I've solved this. After I posted I followed a suggested item that came up on the right of the screen and discovered all I had to do was *Go to Folder*. Type /private/var/. This led me to the rogue files (which in fact were not created today, but recently) and delete them.
Of course, I don't know what created them in the first place, so I may not be out of the woods yet.

I need help importing Thunderbird folders into Apple Mail. I can't locate the folder files for thunderbird. OS Mountain Lion.

I have been using Thunderbird as an email client, but recently realized Apple Mail is a really good alternative and would like to change. However, I would like to preserve my existing Thunderbird email history and folder structure in Apple Mail. Apple Mail includes an import Mailboxes process, but when I try, I cannot locate the files I want to import from Thunderbird. They appear to be hidden. I haven't been able to determine if OS 10 hides files and how to make them visible.

All of your TBird mail files are located in ~/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/XXX.default. The library folder is hidden in Mountain Lion by default. To make it visible open the terminal app in your utilities folder and type "chflags nohidden ~/Library" without the quotes.

Big fat library mess: duplicates / can't locate files / etc.

Hi,
I have several issues. Failed to find my answers online in forums here. Help requested.
Recently migrated from another Mac. Moved library manually. 2 issues going on.
1. In the actual media folder where the songs are stored, each artist>album folder has duplicate song files (ending in 1.mp4). These duplicates need to be cleaned up in bulk and mass deleted.
2. I successfully exported my old playlists and reimported them into new system and they show up fine in iTunes. When I click on one of the tunes though I get the familiar "song could not be used because original file could not be found" and the ! icon appears. This is a commonly discussed issue. However common solutions don't seem to apply.
When I click "locate" from this dialog box and manually go to the tune, it plays fine after that. So then, how can I do this for the entire library to avoid doing this 1200 times?
These common solutions don't seem to be the best path.
1. Consolidating library. Library location is already pointing correctly inside of preferences.
2. Opening itunes while holding down option key. When I do this, and then select "Choose library" and navigate to my media folder, I get a notice that the "itunes library file" can't be found.
Any more solutions out there? Why do I hate itunes file mgt. so much? I'm actually a technical person. Have wasted hours on this.
As a nuclear option... Is there a way I can uninstall itunes completely and start from scratch?
Thanks,
Mike

1. In the actual media folder where the songs are stored, each artist>album folder has duplicate song files (ending in 1.mp4). These duplicates need to be cleaned up in bulk and mass deleted.
[Dougscripts|http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/scriptcount.php?sortBy=Name&o p=y] - Many itunes scripts, including various ones for dealing with duplicates in various forms. The best way is not to just handle them in bulk form. I have some "duplicates" that are really very different versions of the same work by the same artist and I would not want them automatically deleted on this basis. Some of my duplicates are also the same track on different albums, and again I need both copies in order to keep both albums intact.
2. I successfully exported my old playlists and reimported them into new system and they show up fine in iTunes. When I click on one of the tunes though I get the familiar "song could not be used because original file could not be found" and the ! icon appears. This is a commonly discussed issue. However common solutions don't seem to apply.
When I click "locate" from this dialog box and manually go to the tune, it plays fine after that. So then, how can I do this for the entire library to avoid doing this 1200 times?
There isn't a single simple solution to this. Solutions follow two paths. One is to get your old library working (which you seem to have tried). The other is to simply create a new library and start all over again, losing some things such as playlists, play counts, ratings in the process.
As a nuclear option... Is there a way I can uninstall itunes completely and start from scratch?
Are all your music files in pretty much one folder or series of folders? If they are you could just start itunes with a new, blank library by holding down the option key, then drag all your files to the library window.

Itunes can't locate file?

recently iTunes has said several of my songs (all from one cd) can't be located and when I double clicked to locate it and I found the files in a folder in My Music and clicked on it iTunes failed to respond to this and continued to say that the files cannot be located. They were playing fine yesterday and are on my iPod too.

You might ask over in the iPhone forums, but I am pretty sure that roaming profile path is hard coded. You might need to start over with Win7 by installing iTunes on Win7.
You can copy this folder from XP
\Documents and Settings\ +your username+ \My Documents\My Music\iTunes
to the similar folder on Win7. In Vista it is
\Users\ +your username+ \Music\iTunes
Also try copying these folders over from XP to Win7
\Documents and Settings\ +your username+ \Application Data\Apple Computer
C:\Documents and Settings\ +your username+ \Local Settings\Application Data\Apple Computer

Time Capsule and iTunes - Can't Locate Files

Ok, so I have a relatively new Macbook Pro 15" and an equally-new Time Capsule. I put all of my 4,500 songs onto the Time Capsule because I only listen to music and home and also because I wanted to save space on my hard drive. While this set up has worked up until now, I am beginning to experience some problems. Right now iTunes says that it cannot locate the file for any of my songs unless I manually show it where those files are on my Time Capsule. I am not worries about losing the files because they appear to be unaltered, however I wanted to know if there was a way to have iTunes automatically search through my music folder and fix the problem. I know there is a way to download all the music from my hard drive to my computer and then back to the hard drive to fix the problem, but I would really like to avoid having to dump all those files onto my pristine hard drive. Any suggestions? And I am sorry if this has been answered elsewhere, I just could not locate a thread with this EXACT problem. Thanks.

Isn't there a better way around this??? Here's what I want: I want to store all of my itunes library on my Time Capsule to save space on my HD. I understand that I won't be able to access the library out of my home, but that's fine. The problem is -
1) When I am at home, I have to manually mount the Time Capsule by clicking on the folder, waiting for it to connect, and then opening iTunes (even if my computer is already backing up files to the Time Capsule). It's a real pain and adds unnecessary steps.
2) When I am not at home and away from my Time Capsule, I can't even open iTunes at all without it prompting me to locate the library or create a new one. Even if I don't want to listen to my songs, I'd like to be able to open iTunes to use the radio, surf the store, etc.
What is the best solution? It seems ridiculous that a wireless HD doesn't connect automatically, and that you can't open iTunes without a library. Is there a workaround? Can I keep the library database file on my HD but have the actual files (songs, movies, etc.) be on the Time Capsule? Please advise.
Thanks.

Can't locate files/folder

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