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

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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

How can I share files and itunes through extreme base station ??

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Which AirPort Extreme base station (AEBS) are you discussing? The new square 802.11b/g/n AEBS supports the direct connection of USB hard drives. The previous round 802.11b/g AEBS does not have that capability. I have a feeling that you are asking about the new one but this is the discussion area for the old one.
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The round 802.11b/g AEBS doesn't have this ability.

I recently synced my iphone 5s to itunes. It erased my photos and I can not locate them on itunes. They are nowhere to be found. How can I restore them back to my phone?

I recently synced my iphone 5s to itunes. It erased my photos and I can not locate them on itunes. They are nowhere to be found. How can I restore them back to my phone?

Restore them from where?
The pic sync is one way - computer to iPhone.
You should be storing all of your photos on your computer. Jut sync them to your iPhone.

I have some audio files on my previous phone which I would like to export to my new iPhone 5. I am told that you can only import files from iTunes. Is that true? If not, how do I import files from my phone - or my Macbook pro laptop-to my phone? Thanks!

I have some audio files on my previous phone which I would like to export to my new iPhone 5. I am told that you can only import files from iTunes. Is that true? If not, how do I import files from my phone - or my Macbook pro laptop-to my phone? Thanks!

iTunes will only import music from your phone that was purchased from the iTunes store. To transfer music from other sources you have to use 3rd party software, such as PhoneView.

TS1717 I can play audio files in iTunes but I can't play downloaded tv shows or movies. Everytime I attempt to play them, iTunes stops working and closes.

I can play audio files in iTunes but I can't play downloaded tv shows or movies. Everytime I try to play them, iTunes stops working and closes. Any information will help.

Is QuickTime installed? If not it might help to install it.
If so is Direct3D Video Acceleration enabled? If so it might help to disable.
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Can't delete files in iTunes 10.4 (80) OS 10.7 Delete in the edit menu is not hi-lighted?

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Gmatos, when I high-light and drag file from iTunes to my trash the usual promt of "do I want to remove it" followed by by the uual "do I want to keep the file or remove that from my library" comes up too. I click "dont keep file" and it is gone from my itunes and my library an my HD. It's exactly the same as it's always been except annoyingly this is the only way I can do it as the delete button just doesn't work in this latest version.
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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.
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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.

ITunes can't locate files

Hi,
I've had a LaCie external since Christmas and when I first got it, I transfered all my song files to it. I changed the location of my iTunes folder to the folder on the external and it played music without a problem.
Usually, if I have to unplug my external, I make sure to close iTunes and not open it until it's plugged back in. Once I think I opened it and iTunes had a lot of !s next to songs but after I plugged the external back in, everything was fine.
So, yesterday, I unplugged my external. I was gone for most of the day so I went I came back, I saw that someone had opened iTunes. It looked normal (no !s), so I didn't worry about it. I plugged the external back in and might have played some music. I can't remember.
Today, I plugged in my iPod and got an error message saying that some songs couldn't be transfered because they couldn't be located. Now virtually all my songs have !s next to them. When I click on them, it asks me to relocate. When I do, there's no problem.
I went to the advanced options and changed my iTunes folder back, because it had somehow changed to something else. Except, the songs still won't play.
There are still some songs that are there and have no problems. I think they might be songs I added recently, but there's really no rhyme or reason to it as far as I can tell.
Please tell me what I can do. I'd really had to go in an locate every since song.
Thanks!

I moved my iTunes folder to an external HD, as it was getting too large for my iBook, and at first saw the exclamation points too.
I came to this area to see if there were any others with this problem, saw your post, and the advice given.
It worked for me! I restarted with the option key down, chose the library on my external firewire drive, and everything loaded up and played like it did before. Not the music folder, mind you -- the library.
Thank you, iTunes helpers!

Transferred songs to external hard drive, now iTunes can not locate files??

I transferred all my song files using various tutorials on the site, I consolidated my library, etc. The external harddrive was referred to as "F:" when I did this.
Later when I downloaded a few podcasts with my external HD disconnected, they were stored on my c: harddrive. At that point I had iTunes files on both my C: drive and F: drive (with the F: drive being disconnected at the time).
Now my external harddrive when connected is referred to as "G:" by my pc, and iTunes could not find any of my songs previously transferred to F:. I went to preferences/advanced again and selected G:/iTunes as my new folder location, and now only SOME of my songs are located by iTunes, not all. I'm completely confused.
Any advice? Thanks.
Completely frustrated,
Andy
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Just a refining comment: iTunes recognizes some, but not all, songs that were transferred to the new hard drive, following iTune's instructions to change the directory then consolidate the library.
I am baffled why iTunes recognizes some songs, but not others, within the same folder....
The easy solution would be to use "import folder" and re-import the entire iTunes files on my harddrive, and then delete the duplicates, which would include the ones non-findable by iTunes. But then my playlists would be affected. I guess I'd have to re-build my playlists manually, using the new imported files in place of the files that iTunes can't recognize, prior to deleting all the duplicate non-findable files.
Argh, I hate pc's...thru & thru...any suggestions before I spend a few hours re-building my playlists and deleting the non-findable song files??
Thanks...

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.
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Help me out!

I'm having the same problem.
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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.
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Can't locate or create iTunes folder...

Okay, so... I downloaded iTunes, worked great. I have all my music on an external hard drive, and that's where the "iTunes" folder was located. My first mistake was trying to get the "my music" folder that comes with vista to link to my external hard drive. In trying to change the file path it got deleted. That was okay until I accidentally deleted some of the iTunes program and it stopped working.
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Fixed the issue by following another thread, downloaded tweak ui, and with the hard drive connected sent the my music folder to desktop, itunes opened without hard drive connected then imported music file to get access to ext hard drive songs. Itunes runs perfectly

Can't locate files on itunes

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