Cannot locate original files

All of a sudden, today, I cannot play my music files that were downloaded from cd's, message that the original files cannot be located. Is there a way to fix this?, without redownloading hundreds of cds?

Hi mawocala,
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
So your music was there yesterday and with no changes the music can't be found today?
I'm not sure what searches you have tried, but see if the steps in this article help.
iTunes: Finding lost media and downloads - Apple Support
Take care,
Nubz

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Cannot open because cannot locate original file

I made a dumb mistake when I first started using LR and I thought files once downloaded into the catalogue were saved and accessible. I removed the files from bridge and now I cannot open them in my catalogue. My photos will show up in LR, but the message says "cannot open because cannot locate original file"
I can SEE them, I just can't do anything with them. Is there anyway to recover these files?

What you are seeing in LR is simply a thumbnail of what was in your LR catalogue. I guess though there is no harm in trying to export what you see in LIghtroom, as a jpg but I can't thjink that would work.
So you imported all into Lightroom and then went into Bridge and deleted them from Bridge and therefore off your drive as well. And no backup? Just trying to understand where things went sideways.

HT1926 itunes cannot locate original file for large amount of music in library

When I open itunes it cannot find some of the tunes I have uploaded onto the library from CD's etc.

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.
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Missing songs: half of the songs in my library have suddenly become unplayable because iTunes "cannot locate original file" whats caused this and how do i fix it?

Its really irritating having all my songs there one day and having half of them go missing the next and i haven't done anything to cause the files to be lost, on top of that it's completely randomised in what songs have gone missing as it is not whole albums, individual songs from different albums are going missing and it's telling me to find the files, which i have no idea where to look or what to do, it has rendered iTunes completely useless for me. Does anyone else have this problem? How did you fix it?

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Cannot locate original music file error message???

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I have exclamation marks and itunes cannot find original file?

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Check you have your iTunes settings (Edit, Preferences, Advanced) to keep iTunes library organised.
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How can I download a previously downloaded purchase to my iTunes library on my laptop when the listing for the song in my library won't play because it says it cannot locate the file. Yes I have searched my iTunes folders and also done a full windows sear

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Itunes cannot locate my files on the external hard drive - I changed preferences but still not locating songs?

itunes cannot locate my files on the external hard drive - I changed preferences but still not locating songs?

This work for the most part:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/20361846#20361846

Open song in library...Can't locate original file????

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I have solved the problem. i think when I moved the media file back out of public to my account, I put it back into the wrong place and ended up with a media file inside a media file, inside another media file!! So I moved it again and fixed!! Now I just need to work out why i can't share with another account user of same computor.

When I transitioned from a PC to a Mac, I transferred all of my music into iTunes, however when I go to play songs, iTunes tells me it cannot locate the file. What do I do?

When I transitioned from a PC to a Mac, I transferred all of my music into iTunes, however when I go to play songs, iTunes tells me it cannot locate the file. What do I do?

iTunes cannot find your music files. Find them on your computer and make sure they're in ~/Music/iTunes. If they are not, then drag all the files into the iTunes app.

Is there a way to easily locate original files in iTunes after moving everything to an external harddrive?

I recently moved my itunes folder (everything including library and music folders) from my computer harddrive to an external harddrive. I was able to find the library and it opens, but the music (all 7000+ songs) gives me this error. "The song “Beautiful People” could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" I know I cannot go and hand pick each artist folder and song, but this would take me forever! I have also changed the location via the preferences. I know all my music is in my folder on the external drive, so is there a way to easily fix this?
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Did you move the entire iTunes folder the hold Option, select Choose library and select the iTunes folder you moved?

How to Locate Original Files in Aperture Once Version Deleted from Library

I have a very large aperture library (250GB). For a long time, I have maintained my library by deleting only the "versions" of photos that I do not like (File-Delete Version), not realizing that the originals were still there. I would like to also delete the originals (master), since they are large RAW files taking up a lot of space. But with the versions now gone from my library, I do not know how to locate the original files to delete. Is there any way for me to do this?
I feel like there should be a way to find out if there are any original files not associated with a corresponding version in the library, to allow you to recover accidently deleted files. That would be a start, but I can't find a way to do it. Thanks.

Also, I visited the Apple store recently and was told that deleting the version does not delete the master, and they even showed me on their computers where files deleted from the library were stored (they did this by "File-Open Library in iPhoto," highlighting all the images, and then "File-Reveal in Finder-Original File."
For a managed library: "Delete version" will only delete the selected version, if there is more than one version of the the same image. But if you only have one version left, delete version will delete the original file as well. An original is of no use, if you do not have a version to reference it. The " File-Delete Original Image and All Versions" option is there to be able to delete all versions at once, together with the original file.
For a referenced library you will be prompted, if you want to delete the referenced original, if you are deleting the last version.
Just try it for a managed library. Import an image and use "Delete version" for the last version. The version will be moved to Aperture's Trash. And if you empty the trash, you will find the original version in the Trash in your Dock. And it cannot be put back from the Trash.
You will be prompted, if you really want to delete the file, when you empty Aperture's Trash.
The App Store genius must have shown you a referenced library, when the original was not removed after deleting the version, or they did not delete the last version, if it was a managed library.

Songs in my itunes don't play anymore. It says it can't locate original files. HELP please.

The songs in my itunes no longer play. I have never had this problem before. I was trying to update playlists, etc. and the songs were not transferring to my Iphone. The error message for every song is that the original file cannot be located. It asks if you want to locate file. I press yes, but it says that it is not available. Does anyone know how to either locate the files or reinstall the music.

iTunes forum has the answers.

FYI: How to Fix "iTunes Cannot Find Original File" Error

Yesterday morning, I opened iTunes and tried to play a file. I got the old "iTunes cannot find the original file" error. I tried another file. Same thing. I tried restarting iTunes, holding down the shift key, and making sure iTunes knew where my Library file was. Yep. Still no dice. So I came here, and did a search for help. I could not find any definitive answers to this question. So I did a Google search and found the fix in an old Metafilter thread. Given that this problem seems a little common, I thought I'd post my solution here, for anyone who has this issue in the future.
First things first, make sure that it's not just an issue of pointing iTunes to your current library location. Go to your advanced preferences and double-check the library location path. If this doesn't fix it, then it's time to go my route:
1) Open your iTunes folder in windows explorer. Look for a file called "itunes library.xml". Copy that file to your desktop or somewhere else so that it's backed up...in case something goes wrong.
2) Open the original XML file in notepad (right-click, "open with", "notepad").
3) In this XML file, you will see a paragraph of information for every file you have (songs, podcasts, videos, etc.). In each of those paragraphs, there is a file path specifying where the file is supposed to reside. This is how the itunes library.itl file knows where to look. In my case, it should have been "e:/my music/itunes", but instead, it was "e:/my music/itunes/itunes music". The program had created that folder for some reason, and all my files were pointing there.
4) Check a few of the paragraphs and see if they are pointing to your actual music folder. If so, then you have another problem...sorry. If not, then continue on:
5) Go to edit->replace (or control-H). In the "find what" box, enter the incorrect file path (in my case, e:/my music/itunes/itunes music"). In the "replace with" box, enter the correct path of your itunes music folder (in my case, "e:/my music/itunes". Then click "replace all".
If you have a lot of songs, this may take awhile. I have over 25,000 files, so it took at least 18 hours.
6) When it's done, quit notepad and save the XML file. Open iTunes. If it doesn't automatically start updating your library, then try to play a song. If you get the same old error, then quite iTunes, then re-open it, go to the advanced preferences and select the correct file path for the library location. This should fix it.

I am also finding many "ghost file" duplicate files (with the exclamation point "can not locate files" message), after pointing Itunes version 8.2.1.6 to my music folder on a separate, networked hard drive. My understanding is that the "Consolidate Files" feature in Itunes is supposed to properly identify all of the file locations, but it only worked for about 1/5 of our 10,000 plus files before it stopped running. (I've read in other forums that this software is buggy, and gets confused with long song titles, etc.)It also leaves you with duplicate "ghost" files to delete, when the music from the separate drive is "added".
I can not find a file called ituneslibrary.xml to try your suggestion, when I open my Itunes folder. When I do "get info" on the individual music files in Itunes that can't be located, the "where" field = "not available". I have doublechecked the library location in preferences and it is properly pointed to "K:\itunes" which is the correct location.

Cannot locate original files

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