My iTunes account says that it cannot locate the original file for all of my songs. My iPhone still has all the music and is able to play the songs, if I sync and backup my iphone will the songs be replaced with the empty copies from my itunes library?
So basically I tried to back up my itunes library to my external hard drive and when I followed the instructions and then went to play a song it said Orginal file cannot be found. It said that for all of the songs. I'm not sure how to fix what I did, I already tried consolidating and all of that stuff and it didn't locate the files. I'm guessing that I somehow deleted the original songs along the way. I synced my iPhone without knowing what I did and surprisingly all of the music is still on my phone. So now that I've completely screwed up my iTunes account, I need to know how to get all my music back onto my iTunes account and have that library only on my external hard drive, not my computer. Everything looks fine on my iTunes besides the fact that it cannot locate the files but what I'm afraid of is me syncing and backing up my iPhone and then being left with no music because it syncs to the empty songs. How can I fix this? and if I can't fix my iTunes library is there anyway for me to still be able to backup my iphone and all the music on it, without erasing my music?
Well I'm not sure if I correctly backed up my itunes library because when trying to open itunes from that back up it keeps saying original file not found. Okay this is going to sound confusing but bear with me. I "backed up" my itunes, meaning I just dragged and dropped the iTunes folder into my external hardrive, and then I changed the destination on iTunes to open from my external hardrive. It was working fine when I did that, however I did that just on my own, I didn't know about consolidating the files or any of that so I hadn't done that before copying the folder to my external hard drive. I can't remember but I'm pretty sure I deleted the iTunes folder after I had copied it to my external hardrive. So I did that and it was working fine, I was able to open my itunes with my external hardrive. BUT yesterday I thought that I hadn't done it correctly because I didn't consolidate the files and all that, so I wanted to be more thorough and do that, I followed the steps to do that but when I did that I think it got all the files from my computer and not from my external hard drive so it basically didn't find anything on my computer because I had deleted them. And like an idiot, I replaced the iTunes folder on my external hard drive (the one I did correctly the first time), with the one I did wrong. So I believe I pretty much deleted all the music files from both my external hard drive and my computer. Please correct me if I'm wrong?
I believe getting all my music back on my itunes is a lost cause. BUT I still have all my songs and stuff on my iPhone. My question is, if I plug my phone into my computer and sync it, will it erase all my songs from my phone? A little more info, my iTunes still has the names and stuff of all my songs, they just can't be played because the files are missing, my iPhone doesn't need to erase and sync when I plug in my phone because it's already synced to my computer. What I'm afraid of is when I plug in my phone to backup and sync, will it erase my music because it can't find the files on my computer or external hard drive anymore? Or will it just leave the songs because they're already there (on my phone) and only sync the new songs that I've downloaded? I just need to know is my iTunes still going to be functional as far as me being able to backup my phone?
I have a lot of songs purchased from iTunes but a lot (like 60%) are from CDs that I no longer have. So re-downloading my music would only account for 40% of my library.
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My iphone won't sync with itunes it says that it cannot find a photo file
i tried to sync my iphone 4 with my new sony vaio and when i downloaded itunes to sync my iphone to transfer music to this computer it stopped mid sync and said that the itunes could not sync because it could not find a photo file
What was the error? Try closing itunes on your computer and restart itunes. Try turning the phone off and back on
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When I download photos from a flash drive,everything is fine and they show in Events and Pictures, but when I click on the individual pic I get an error message saying that it cannot locate the JPG. Any thoughts?
It sounds like your iPhoto Advanced preferences are set to not copy photos during import, i.e. a Referenced library:
Check your Advanced preferences to see if that's the case. If it is the best solution would be to select the checkbox to copy the photos and reimport the photos from the flash drive. Then check the new import. It it was OK you can delete the previous event with the "missing" photos.
OT -
After installing the latest of iTunes the original files for almost 300 songs cannot be found for syncing to my iPod. The files are songs that were bought from iTunes, and copied into iTunes from CDs.
Apparently, security programs like Macafee and Norton view Itunes updates as new programs and block then from access. If you add Itunes to the list of exemptions, it solves the problem.
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Why does Itunes say it can't find the original file for a particular song?
why does Itunes say it can't find the original file for a particular song? and then asks if I want to locate it? I can't access a bunch of old song files. any new cds are available to me in itunes. all others are not accessible. how do i merge the new cd's with the old ones so that all the songs are playable in Itunes. thanks.
sheri 0713 wrote:
Of course, I have backed up to CD and/or external drive.
I'm wondering if you're attempting to maintain your library on your external HDD? If iTunes has been directed to use a location on your external hard drive as your iTunes Music Folder location (you can check this in iTunes > Preferences > Advanced tab) you MUST ensure that the hard drive is connected to the computer and mounted in the Finder prior to launching iTunes. If it isn't, it can cause this error to appear. This is probably one of the most common reasons this error begins to appear.
It seemed my purchased songs were the first to DISAPPEAR and I had to rebuy.(Nice scam in the bug?)
So... why not restore them from your backup? If, for some reason, this wasn't an option, you could have also recovered them from any iPod or iPhone they were currently synced to (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1848), or, you can also email iTunes Store support and request a "regrant," which is a once-per-account exception they might be able to offer you and allow you to download missing purchases again.
I am now convinced this a HUGE BUG in 7.7.1. and possibly the previous version or two.
I'm not so sure... I've never run across this particular error (my library is stored on my internal hard drive, but copied to an external for backup purposes with an application other than iTunes or Finder. I don't think Apple will provide acknowledgment to issues experienced only by very small numbers of people... I'm one of those, perhaps foolish, individuals who allows my computer to download updates immediately, rather than waiting for fear of problems, and again, I've never had this error.
CG -
I had problems with photos disappearing and being replaced by an exclamation point within a triangle. I can see the photo in the thumbnail summary but when you click on it, the screen goes black and the exclamation point within a triangle appears along with the info on the original image number (i.e., img_1120.jpg). Prior to loading Lion, I could go to Finder, enter the image number and locate the original file for that photo. I could then restore it for editing, copying into Print Shop directly, etc. That no longer works after installing Lion. How do I restore photos now? I have 100s of photos that I have been going back to the original files and restoring and I am frantic that I will no longer be able to get to the original files. Please help! Thanks
The ! turns up when iPhoto loses the connection between the thumbnail in the iPhoto Window and the file it represents.
What version of iPhoto? Assuming 09 or later:
Option 1
Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Rebuild iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one. .
Regards
TD -
About to cry...please HELP! Itunes cannot "locate my original file"
I just purchased a song through Itunes. It comes up as a purchased song but when I click on it to play the song it states "The song could not be used b/c the original file could not be found".
I am not computer literate. I am pregnant and at my wits end and seriously on the verge of tears. The fact that I cannot get a Live Person on the phone to deal w/my situation is pushing me over the edge. Any help will be GREATLY appreciated!Please don't cry.
Try this: In iTunes, go to the Edit menu and select Preferences. Click on the Advanced tab, and in a box under "iTunes Music Folder Location" there will be a path to your hard drive that looks something like "C:\Documents and Settings\your name\My Documents\My Music\iTunes."
Whatever it says is the location on your computer that iTunes is trying to find your song. If your song isn't in there (which it probably won't be), it means your songs are downloading to another folder on your computer.
To find your song, click on the Start menu at the bottom of your screen, and then click "search." Click on "search all files & folders," and type "*.m4p" in the search box. This will search on all files on your computer that you have downloaded from Apple. You will find your song here.
What you need to do is type this address into where it says "iTunes Music Folder Location." Then it will know where to find your music.
Good luck and cheer up! -
I have lost some of my original files for my iphotos and also my itunes. Do you know how to recover these files?
Restore from your Time Machine backup. Visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with restoring files from Time Machine.
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When I attempt to sync my i phone with itunes on my computer not all of the songs make it to my phone. Itunes is telling me that it cannot find the files for these songs. How do I fix this?
Hi fishonfoot,
Thanks for visiting Apple Support Communities.
You may want to use this article as a guide to determine if the songs are on your computer:
iTunes: Finding lost media and downloads
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1408
If the missing songs were purchased from the iTunes Store, see this article for the steps to download them again:
Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2519
Best Regards,
Jeremy -
can anybody help me in changing my country in itunes account? I was living in US, came back to Brazil and can't change the country... it says that i must cancel the imacht / icloud before... and i just can't do that!
You can't change countries if you have a credit on your account - if you can't spend it then you can try contacting iTunes Support and ask them if they can remove the balance so that you can do so : http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/contact/ - click on Contact iTunes Store Support on the right-hand side of the page, then Purchases, Billing & Redemption
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What can i do if i want to sync song to my ipod touch but it says that i can't because the origional file can not be found
You have to find them, first.
Have you tried these steps?
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1408 -
(!) How to locate the original file for missing songs?
song could not be used because original file could not be found. Would you like to locate?
I got this message when I last tried to synch my ipod. The message said there were 100 files which could not be found. Actually more than 100 songs show the exclamation mark that says the file can not be found.
Previous posts on this issue suggest the underlying file has been changed or moved out from the ITunes organisation. Well the last time I synched my ipod on Lion a few days ago it was fine. On Sunday I wiped my hard drive, carried out the upgrade to Mountain Lion as a clean install, and used Migration Assistant to bring my user data over. After that I ran cclean and disk utility permissions and disk verification. Then this happened.
I migrated my iTunes Library to an external hard drive six months ago. That was disconnected during the upgrade so I am not sure why the files can’t be found now. Anyway, I want to recover the missing files . I could not find them by name, album or artist on the external drive. So I thought I would find them in Time Machine backup #1. I couldn’t!. Nor could I find missing songs on my alternate Time Machine backup #2. Both Time Machine backups are set to include the external drive. Songs recognised in iTunes are visible in the backups, but not the ones that are missing.
I have a third backup volume which was a clone of the Lion setup before I did the upgrade, but I can’t access this or Mac for a few days.
I did have some permissions failures after the 10.7.4 upgrade which resulted in creating 2 new standard user accounts. Maybe I’v e got some files across these users? But in that case I’d have seen problems before the upgrade? I notice a fair number of these are compilations imported from CD about 4 years ago. Bu tnot all.
(1). Is there a smart way to list all the files that are missing?
I can scroll through all of ITunes Music to see where there are exclamation marks. I’d like to only list these missing songs.
(2). How can I locate the missing media files?
- a search on Name / Album / Artist hasn’t found them in live drives or on TM backups. I’ve still got the missing songs on my iPod, however.
Once I can answer these questions with your help I’ll know what would be the best way to try to recover, and to work out what went wrong. I’m shocked that I can’t find them in backup. Eventually I can restore audio from original source. If they were photos that went missing from library and backups then I would have no way to get back!
(3) could this happen in iPhoto? (shiver)Thanks for taking the time to look at my problem. Shared is empty and I didn't back it up - I only transferred the standard and Admin users to the clean install of Mountain Lion.
But I got some valuable insight into how the iTunes library is set up from your article on split Libraries. I'd like to see it in the Tips for iTunes for Mac. My Itunes library was set up in pre-Itunes 8 structure, and as I'd moved it to an external drive it didn't get migrated to the new structure in recent upgrades, perhaps?
I found your article extremely useful : https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3991. That gave me the means to restore the missing files more quickly than getting the original CDs out and re-importing them to iTunes.
So I've now restored the missing files and started the backups rolling ....
I still don't understand how they went missing. However the best backup was the Ipod itself. -
After installing icloud, all calender info is gone on ipad. Iphone stll has info. When entering info on ipad calender, after a few min, the iphone will recieve calender info. All calender info on ipad disapears. Can any one help?
I'm having the identical events...Outlook calendar entries grayed out on my PC installed iCloud and absent on my iPhone. iPhone entries do show up in Outlook.
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What do i do?????
Follow ALL the steps Here > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1808
You may have to try this more than once. -
Please help, I keep removing and installing itunes but I still can't open it. Every now and then it will let me in but I can't do everything that I should be able to do.
I gave my two cents on another forum post, but will also place it here. I figure why not, more eyes and all that.
Not sure if you solved your problem, you probably did since there is no follow-up. But since I am in the midst of this quaundary, I'll give you a little heads up. I think 13010 might be when iTunes can't find a library. This does not mean your music is missing as you can have your media folder (containing all your actual iTunes files) and your library folder (the database that organizes all of your media files) in separate locations. I recently got a new computer and first pointed to the new media location and then also iTunes started to download the itunes library but for some reason deemed it damaged and may have removed it from it's original location as it can no longer find the library folder in that location.
My problem is this, no other forum post has helped me much in regards to the 13010 error. I removed the extras and genius files and still got the 13010 error. I reinstalled iTunes and still the 13010 error. At this point I am willing to scrap everything just to get a factory fresh version of iTunes and then attempt to import all my old media into it and then reorganize it myself. But as far as I know, there is no easy way to do this.
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