Can't locate files in library

i foolishly copied my existing itunes folder from c: drive to an external hard drive.and then even more foolishly deleted the old itunes folder from the c: drive, as needed more space.
sadly now when i open itunes, i can see all the tracks, playlists etc listed, however when i try to play them, i get and error message saying can't lacate original file etc.
i have tried following someones elses suggestion from another post about shift start with itunes. is the itunes library.itl file a database file as i can't see it listed in my itunes folder. i did try to choose library with the itunes library file i could see, but this didn't work. does creating a library work?
any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks

foolishly copied my existing itunes folder
Not foolish at all.
Did you copy the \iTunes\ folder or the \iTunes\music\ folder?
sadly now when i open itunes, i can see all the tracks, playlists etc listed
If you had deleted \Music\iTunes\ folder you would not see anything.

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Can't Locate Files in Library although names appear in "Open Library Screen

I have scoured this forum but can't find a solution to this problem. I engaged in the forbidden act of moving files within the iPhoto library and now when I launch iPhoto several photos are missing. What is more troubling, however, is that I cannot locate the files in my iPhoto library.
The strange part is that whn I launch iPhoto and hold down the option key to select a library, I can see all of the files in the library on this screen. When I go back to the actual library, folders that appear in the "open library" screen are not physically present in my library??
I reallly would appreciate any suggestions, advice. Most of these pictures are of my 2 year old daughter. It would be beyond devastating to lose these.
Thanks.

Hi sfohrman,
Can you give me a little more info? Did you move photos around in the iPhoto Library folder in the Finder? How many did you move? Did you change their name?
Can you put them back to where they originally were?

How can I locate my iTunes library files. When I click on my itunes icon the message appears, "The file iTunes Library.itl." cannot be found because it was created by a newer version of iTunes."

How can I locate my iTunes library files? When I click on my iTunes icon rather than my iTunes files I receive, " The file iTunes Library.itl." cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of iTunes." I have already tried to update my iTunes program.

Had same problem and solved it without having to reinstore any music or movies:
1. Delete old Library file
2. Go to the 'Previous iTunes Libraries' folder and copy one of the earlier files - note, they have a date extension, e.g. 'iTunes Library 2011-11-01'.
3. Paste this file in your iTuners folder and rename file by removing the date extension - 'iTunes Library'
You should have all your music and paylists in tact, unless it was a really old previous file.

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

Terrance Devlin answered a question about iPhoto (4-2012) re:copying iPhoto Library to an ExHD, and losing all the albums. I can't locate the "Choose Library" when I open iPhoto with the opt button. Can anyone help?

I tried to move my images (over 25,000) to an External Hard drive to open up some memory, hoping to make my computer run faster. It took three hours to move the images and I see them all in the mac's menus. However when I try to open them with iPhoto now, none appeared. and when I tried to import them back to the main HD they come in to iPhoto just fine, but not with the albums nor any of the massive organization i'd created in the original. this represents years of images, and I can't imagine that I'd have to recopy them into folders/albums again.
Terrance Devlin answered a similar question back in April of last year. He said to make sure the ExHD is formatted to MAC OS Extended (Journaled) and to move the library to the ExHD and then open iPhoto with the option button and select "Choose Library" from the resulting menu.
Command "I" tells me that the new drive is formatted correctly. I can't locate the "Choose Library" when I open iPhoto with the opt button.
First, I wondered if the application needs to be on the same drive as the Library. I sure would like to know if I can find out how to restore all the folders I had them in. Terrance's advice helped the user that had asked the question.
Here's the url for that archived discussion: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3849933?start=0&tstart=0
Can anyone help? I'm using iPhoto 5. My MAC is an OS X version 10.4.11.
thanks, brokenlom

Here are Apple's instructions:
If you are using iPhoto ’06 or earlier, you will need to follow these steps to tell iPhoto where the Library is now located:
Hold down the Option key on the keyboard and open iPhoto. Keep the Option key held down until you are prompted to create or choose an iPhoto Library.
Click Choose Library.
Locate and select the iPhoto Library in its new location.
(from http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1229 )
Below (in the link below) is what you should see when holding down the option key and opening iPhoto. Keep holding down the option key until this dialogue comes up. You want to select the Choose Library button.
http://appleclinic.wordpress.com/2008/04/06/change-default-dir-iphoto/

Hi I would like to know if I can delete my file fpsaud (Library Cache) because my app Clean my mac cannot do it. Is this operation dangerous? Thanks

Hi I would like to know if I can delete my file psaud (Library Cache) because my App Mac Cleanse cannot do it. Can I move this this manually into the trash? Is it dangerous? Thanks

You should have stopped after the first paragraph, because that was the only helpful part. You managed to sarcastically tell the questioner that he or she is dumb, throw in a couple of tidbits to convince any reader how smart you must be, and discourage any further learning.
I saw nowhere in the original question where marcozroberto was complaining about speed.
Caches, to us lesser mortals, are one of the first culprits that come to mind when all the cookies (including smart cookies) and browser cache have been erased, yet the ads on Web pages still want to know if I'd like to find a date tonight in my specific area code. So, I turn to sites like the Apple discussion pages to find out what other pieces of memory I have to flush to feel less stalked. According to you, I shouldn't bother my poor head learning about this machine I bought, I should just trust manufacturers and programmers to manage everything.
I doubt fpsaud is really the problem with my browsing (my next guess is the IP address), but I won't learn that here.

I synched iPhone and PC but can't locate any of library on iPhone - am i missing something obvious ?

i synched iPhone and Pc but can't locate any of library on IPhone - am I missing something obvious ?

What did you select to sync?
It will only sync what you tell it to sync.
iPhone User Guide (For iOS 4.2 and 4.3 Software)

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.

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 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.

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

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).

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.
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How can i "add file to library" and have it be considered to be a Podcast?

I went to a web site and downloaded a file to my C drive (MP3 format) that is not music. It is spoken, and is what i would call a 'Podcast', although i did not access it via iTunes as an official podcast. I then use iTunes "add file to library" function. But, it considers it to be music. I thought maybe drag/drop would work to let me add it to Podcasts, but it does not.
How can i get this file which i have imported into iTunes to be treated as a Podcast? First, i'd like it to appear on my iPod with 'Podcasts'. But, more importantly, if i stop listening in the middle, i'd like it to restart from that point the next time i start it again. Now, it is treated by the iPod like music, and so it starts at the beginning each time.
Thanks for your help! Tom.
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Is there a way that you can "subscribe" to something that is not in iTunes store? This is just a file on a site that is available for download.
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Can't locate files in library

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