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.

Similar Messages

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
Windows XP

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 can not locate some music files

I have a large music collection of approx. 35k songs. A few days ago about 10% of my music appeared in itunes with that exclamation point symbol and basically lost its location. If I click in the song it says that it could not locate file. The audio files are correctly placed in the itunes music folder but manually relinking them will take me forever. I have tried changing the location of the itunes music, updating library and consolidating library (even though my music was all in one folder) and it did not work. Any ideas? Cheers, Roberto

I cannot speak for the Windows user, as I do not know whether the program acts as it does on a Mac.
For the Mac, though, Roberto may consider this recommendation. It may end up as a very long process since he mentions that he has 35000 tracks in his library.
There are two alternatives: the first would have you removing all of your iTunes files EXCEPT the one containing the actual music files. If your music files are stored independently on an external disk, all the better, as this means you can dispose of all of the files and folders INSIDE the folder called "Music" in your personal directory. Doing so will destroy all of the ancillary information that concerns your music library including artwork, but if you copy the contents to an external drive before you delete it on the startup, you will be able to retrieve it if it is not available at the iTunes store. After you have deleted the files, restart the computer, open iTunes and check your preferences. The preferences should be set to the way that you had them prior to this deletion. You should also verify that there are NO music items in your library before you proceed.
Once you are satisfied that your preferences are set properly (and you have logged into the iTunes store for the cover art), choose ADD TO LIBRARY from the FILE menu. A window will appear that will allow you to navigate to your iTunes music folder. DO NOT OPEN the folder containing all the music, but click once on it then click CHOOSE, and the process of reentering all of the files will begin. Depending on the actual file size/type, this process may take as much as several hours. You may want to stay with the computer while this process is ongoing in the event that iTunes sends you an alert message.
The alternative to this would have you leaving your iTunes folder exactly as it is but following the exact same procedure outlined above. Unfortunately, this method could take much much longer, as iTunes will stop at each of the albums that make up the library to ask whether you want to delete the original or not (the answer would be YES). This would be preferable if, like me, the user has a lot of cover art that is not available through the iTunes store (I have about 20K classical music tracks that come from CDs long out of print, so this would save time scanning artwork). I would not recommend this alternative unless more than 60% of the listings are posing problems.

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

My itunes can not locate the "back-up" files for my Music help!!! please

please someone help me... my itunes says that 900 of my purchased music songs could not be located... they say that the backup files could not be found..... i have looked throughout my computer and no where to be seen...........majority were purchased and some form cds. there was also movies and tv shows that arent showing up... what can i do to get these problems sorted out?
i am in desprite need of help please

Sorry but I don't have an answer for you. However, I've been exp similar problems. I noticed that all songs that have listened to on my Ipod can no longer be located in Itunes. There is an exclamation mark next to the song and when I double click it, the error message reads "unable to locate file, would you like to locate". Lucky for me, I remember how I saved my music. However, this is a pain in the tushy to go through this everytime. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Didn't mean post my question into yours, but it seems to be the same problem.

Itunes can not find file. Locate file.

Sometimes I try to play a music and a message appears indicating that file can not find. I have to locate each file individually. Why this ocurr.

Hi, welcome to Apple Discussions.
Perhaps you've been using Windows Media Player and it has "helpfully" renamed some of the files. Ideally you should disable all WMPs options for automatically updating your media. You might also find the following useful.
*Adding new items/removing orphans*
Try iTunes Folder Watch or iTunes Library Updater. Folder Watch is much faster on the adding files front, can be set to run in the background and includes a useful exclusion feature, however it’s slow at removing orphans. iTLU is better for this although doing it manually after looking at a list of proposed removals generated by Folder Watch is probably faster still. iTLU can also be set to update iTunes when you've used 3rd party tools to change tag info.
You may need to amend the list of file types these programs look for. My list includes:
.mp3 .mp4 .m4a .m4b .m4p .m4v .mov .wav .aif .mid .ipa .ipg .ite .itlp .m4r .pdf
Note the last 6 types may not be recognised as already being in the library so should either be omitted from the search or you can add (at least for Folder Watch) individual exclusions for files you know are already in your library.
tt2

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.

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!

3500 songs in iTunes with exlamation points - iTunes can't locate files but they are there!

Hi,
Since a few weeks, 3500 of my 10000 iTunes songs have exclamation points. When I try to play a song, I get an error message stating that iTunes can't find the song. If I search for it, it's on my Mac. So the files are on my hard drive, except that iTunes can't find them.
As it's weeks of work to manually relink the songs to their location on my hard disk, is there anybody who could help me with this?
Many thanks in advance!

Hi Esteban
As you see the exclamation mark represents a missing link to the file and the subsequent unable to play the track.
If you select one of those files and look at the info(CMD I or Get Info) and go to the Summary tab that identifies where iTunes thinks it was stored. From here you can navigate in finder to that location or do a search for what iTunes states the filename is e.g. (01 Track 01.mp3).
So either the file is deleted, renamed or moved.
Regards
Mark

ITunes can not change files on TC

Hi, I can not change any TAG in my Multimedia files stored on the Time Capsule using iTunes. This worked without problem for almost one year then suddenly (I think after the last iTunes update) this is broken. other applications work just fine.
The biggest Problem is that for bought (new bought) files those file are stored without any TAG or Cover - which renders them quite useless in iTunes environment.
Anybody face similar issue?
I searched the web and did not find any answer about this...
BR
Michael

Hi,
For this problem, please refer to the KB below to repair the problem for test firstly, If no use, please feel free let us know.
You cannot view or change the Read-only or the System attributes of folders in Windows Server 2003, in Windows XP, in Windows Vista or in Windows 7:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=326549
Note: This article also applys to Windows 8.
Roger Lu
TechNet Community Support

Itunes can not locate my music files.

I have just moved the whole of 'My Documents' to a new internal drive as i was running out of space in the old drive. Then after doing this, i deleted my original 'My Documents' off the old drive.
However, now about 80% of my music all needs locating. This means i would have to locate each individual file of over 2000 songs. This would take years and do not want to do this. (am not sure if this is relevant, but i have my files in various places on the computer, so not all in one folder.)
Have you any suggestions? I would really appreciate your help!
Thanks.

I am experiencing this problem also, I can see all 1336 of my songs, but it only plays about 30 of them. the rest it keeps saying cannot find music. Also It will not connect to the store due to no internet connection...I am always connected via broadband. I can access the store thru the internet but not itunes...please help!!!!!

TS1372 Can not sync music in itunes to ipod touch classic get messages saying can not locate file. error message 1437 when attempting to restore to factory settings.

When I attempt to sync my ipod classic in itunes some songs will sync then it freezes and get a message "canot sync file missing or cant find file" WHen I s
try to restore my ipod to factory setting i get error message 1437. I using windows 7

The 1437 error can be an early sign of hard disk damage and/or failure. Try a doing a quick diagnostic on the drive's health status using the instructions posted by another forum member turingtest2 in this older post. He also describes what the numbers mean and how to interpret them.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3110831?start=0&tstart=0
B-rock

New Itunes update "can not locate file" for music videos

Every music video I have ever purchased is gone! WHat the heck happened? Everything I have purchased before the recent 10... update is no longer in my library. The vidoes are still on the devices (IPad, Iphone, and Itouch) but not in the library. I have tried to transfer purchase from these devices and the videos do not transfer. The two videos purchased after the update are the only ones there our 100+ videos and movies. Anyone have any ideas? IMy computer is a WIndows 7 64bit based operating system.

I don't think I understand you.
In iTunes, are you looking for your music under Library> Music, in the left bar?
You can't play music from your iPad thru iTunes. If you select your iPad in iTunes, then click the disclosure triangle, then select, say a playlist, the contents of that playlist will show up in the main window, but will be displayed grey and can't be double-clicked to play. So I don't understand what you mean.
On the iTunes Summary page for your iPad, do you have Manually manage music and videos checked on?

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

Err - iTunes can not locate files

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