"File could not be used" message in i-tunes

When I try to play a particular song on the computer (a dell using Windows XP) in i-tunes, the song wil not play and there is an "!" to the left of the name of the song and the following message: "The Song _______could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?"
I get this message on a large number of songs. They will play on the i-pod, but not in i-tunes on the PC.
Any suggestions?
Thanks.
BCK

How did you do this move? Unless you know what you are doing you have to move the whole, complete iTunes folder.
iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Open iTunes and immediately hold down the Option (alt) key (shift on Windows), then guide it to the new location of the library.
Windows users see tip at: https://discussions.apple.com/message/18879381

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"original file could not be found" message

In my itunes library, I used to get an option to “clear” a song if I right clicked it. Now there is only “copy.”
So to remove the song, I opted for the “show song file” and then manually deleted it from the folder.
However, the file is still there, or at least the phantom version of it, in my library. And when I click it “I get "original file could not be found" message.
How do I properly remove the song from the library?
And how do I get rid off that annoying “"original file could not be found" message”?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
NS
hp laptop Windows XP

Oh. OOps, I was posting to the wrong thread.
About your problem:
Make sure you are in the Library, not a (smart) playlist. Select "Library" from the top of source list (the list on the left of the screen).
Did this do it?

After my last itunes update, I get an "Original file could not be found" message. Does anyone else have this problem?

After my last itunes update, I cannot play my music on my PC. I get an "original file could not be found message." Has anyone else had this problem?

If you post back the two paths I may be able to suggest an easy fix
(that would not have created duplicates).
Oh well...
Apple's official advice is here... HT2905 - How to find and remove duplicate items in your iTunes library. It is a manual process and the article fails to explain some of the potential pitfalls, such as lost ratings and playlist membership.
Use Shift > View > Show Exact Duplicate Items to display duplicates as this is normally a more useful selection. You need to manually select all but one of each group to remove. Sorting the list by Date Added may make it easier to select the appropriate tracks, however this works best when performed immediately after the dupes have been created. If you have multiple entries in iTunes connected to the same file on the hard drive then don't send to the recycle bin.
Use my DeDuper script if you're not sure, don't want to do it by hand, or want to preserve ratings, play counts and playlist membership. See this thread for background and please take note of the warning to backup your library before deduping.
(If you don't see the menu bar press ALT to show it temporarily or CTRL+B to keep it displayed)
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Moved iTunes library to an ext hard drive to make space on my int drive... Followed steps from apple. Now I cannot access my music... It says: "File could not be used because the original file cannot be found. Would you like to locate it?"

Moved iTunes library to an ext hard drive to make space on my int drive... Followed steps from apple. Now I cannot access my music... It says: "File could not be used because the original file cannot be found. Would you like to locate it?"
I moved my iTunes library to my external hard drive some time ago and I followed the directions listed here on the apple support page. It did copy my library and now is on my hard drive... I can open iTunes and use it to sync all of my devices but I would like to play my music... I can see all of my music files but can not play them if I click on an album or song it says the following: "(file name) could not be used because the original file cannot be found. Would you like to locate it?" I click locate but do not know where to go from there? I need a way to access all files and not to hunt down one at a time on my hard drive... I am pretty sure I deleted the original library to make space on my internal drive which was the reason for moving it. I have tried and tried to fix it and do not have a lot of time to do so with a one and two year old at my house who do not like it whenI sit down at my computer. What to do??? Any help is much appreciated!!!

See Make a split library portable. Move all of the bits of the library together in the the correct shape and it should work. Or undo exactly what you did and then start over.
If you're a former Windows user don't try merging two folders together that have the same name by dropping one into the same folders as the other, as that goes badly on a Mac.
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Are you 100% sure that every detail of your information is the same in each place?
Make sure that EVERY DETAIL is the same in every place you enter your information
-right down to how you spell and punctuate the parts of your name and address
Change/Verify Account https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1465499 may help
-Credit card https://helpx.adobe.com/utilities/credit-card.html

My files could not be used because the original files could not be found,how can I locate them?

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Hello DBlake1,
I suggest this article named iTunes: Finding lost media and downloads found here http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1408
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"The file could not be opened" message

I'm a windows pc user with Lightroom 1.1. Today for the first time some of my library folders are in red font, and when I try to work on other images in develop mode I get a "The file could not be opened" message over the image.
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"File could not be found" message on top of all images in Library: How do I fix this?[was:Question]

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“Save” is not a term used with LR to create images. What are you trying to do, exactly, in terms of LR menu options?
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Many songs returns 'original file could not be found' message

Well, I updated my itunes to version 9.
Now, more than 90 percent of the songs in the playlist returns an error message that the 'original files could not be located',Also there is a exclamation mark next to the song in the playlist.
i have connected the hard disk to the laptop which contains the actual folder with all songs in it. This is the folder from which i created all the playlists in i-tunes.
Now :
1. It is a big headache and time consuming process to create the playlist again
2. I'm scared to connect the ipod, so that the already synced songs will get deleted from the ipod as many songs in itunes are returning the 'not found' message.
3. When I still try to play the song in itunes, ofcourse itunes gives me an option to re locate the file. But I cannot do this to all the 100 Gb of songs..
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Couple of things to try. Open your preferences(edit>preferences) click the advanced tab and make sure the location of the iTunes media folder is looking to the external drive. If it is not, the change it to the external drive. On that same tab, be certain that the box for copy to iTunes media folder when adding to library is selected. Try to play a song. If it still does not play, then try consolidating the file(file>library>organize>check consolidate.) If they are still not playing, disconnect the external drive, open iTunes, open the library so you can see the music, click edit>select all, then edit>delete. This will remove the list of music from iTunes(be certain that the external is not connected!!!) Reconnect the external, click file>add folder to library>then locate the and open the folder on the external that has all your music in it. This should start putting the music back into iTunes where you can use it again. If the playlists are not there, try http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1967. All in all, not a bad problem, be happy you are one of the smart ones and has all the music backed up. Nice job.

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I know this question has come up before and I've read a lot of posts to figure out what has happened, but I don't know if they are what I'm looking for. The other night I was listening to itunes just fine, the next afternoon, I open it to play music and I get the message "the song 'title' could not be used because the original file could not be found. Do you want to locate it?" I hit yes, find the music trail to itunes, itunes library folder, but nothing is there. I've searched for individual songs and anything to do with music on my HD, but to no avail. My songs are all listed in itunes and everything but will not play. I've read several posts were I could move folders and copy songs and lots of stuff and it might work for me, but I don't understand why I could listen to my music one day and not the next. I haven't moved, downloaded or touched anything to do with itunes to have it do this, and absolutely nothing will play. I'm not that computer saavy, but if someone could suggest something that could retrieve my music, it would greatly be appreciated. Thanks
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Well, I got everything worked out and if the same thing happened to you, just look into the programs Senuti (for mac) at http://fadingred.org/senuti or Yamipod (for win, mac and linux) at www.yamipod.com/main/modules/home/. They are easy to use until you have to relocated each song from the HD back into iTunes (it took me 3 hours) but it works great. I think this is all just 'glyches' that the newest iTunes 7.02 is going through and it takes a little while to work itself out (great that I know this now.)
But anyway, good luck! : )

"required file could not be found" message?

I had pictures on my ipod touch and somehow they got taken off. I tried to sync them back onto my ipod and an error message comes up and says "the required file could not be found." i have checked in my pictures on my computer and the folder that I have all of the pictures I want in it and it is there. how can i fix this?
Miek Rotch

If you have moved the file that had the pix in it to a different spot, you will have to choose the file again under the iPod photo syncing option on iTunes. Otherwise, I don't know what to do...
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"original file could not be found" message for all music files in library

So, after spending all day trying to figure out how to recover my library of music after this stupid upgrade (like so many other people, I see) I now not only am missing a lot of the newer music I purchased, but now an "!" appears in front of all my songs and says that the original file can not be found. I tried to manually locate it but this not only sounds like a nightmare of a task, I could not even locate anywhere the specific song I had happened to select.
I neither understand what this message really means nor do I have any idea where to even start to fix it.
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I did a restore on an ipod (due to syncing problems w/stupid 7.7 upgrade) and it deleted all but 24 songs on my itunes library. It lists all the songs but like the original poster, it has an '!' in front of the title, says the 'original could not be found' and I cannot locate the files anywhere on my computer.
I've asked this question about 5 times now -- why would doing a restore on an ipod delete songs from my itunes library? How does this happen? And more importantly, WHEN IS APPLE GOING TO FIX THIS 7.7 PROBLEM WE ARE ALL HAVING???

I'm getting an error message saying "file could not be used because the original file cannot be found. Would you like to locate it?" What gives?

I've updated iTunes as recommended (and when recommended) but made no other changes to my computer or files. Why are the files gone?

I was not complete clear.
Since you never changed the settings in the advanced section of iTunes preferecnes, you have to chech that your music is really in the location setted in the folders reported in the advanced section. If not you have 2 ways: reset the position of this folders or in the actual disk organisation or in the pointing on the preferences.
If you press the reset button you just give to itunes its default setting as for the position of the music files: probably this will be a good choice if you have never changed any default preference.
But before I would check the folders and see if the songs are really there
In my iTune I have this, and I believe it is the default.
Users/YOURHOMEFOLDERNAME/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music

Large amount of "original file could not be found" messages

I'm looking for an "easier" fix to a strange problem - here's the situation:
1) I keep my iTunes music on a separate HD from my PB, and the HD was starting to die (as referenced in another thread - woohoo for DiskWarrior).
2) After rebuilding the directory on the old external, saving most of the music files, and copying them to a new external HD, I launched iTunes. In Preferences, I set the path to the new iTunes folder on the new HD under Advanced.
3) Once I did this, iTunes gave me the updating library message and it worked on that for a bit.
4) iTunes found most of my recent music - some Purchased and some ripped from CDs. However, I'd say 95% of my 12555 songs have the circle/exclamationpoint icon before them, and when I click on them, iTunes tells me it cannot find the original files.
5) The odd part is that all of the files are where they are "supposed" to be. Each song is nested safely inside the correct artist and album folders. Basically, I just have to go - one by one - through the files and reconnect the song name with the file.
Obviously, with 12555 songs, this is taking me FOREVER, and I've made only a small dent in the giant list of disconnected files.
Does anyone know of an easier way to get iTunes to "find" these files without having to go through and individually connect each and every file?
Thanks in advance!

Yeah, it's definitely not working - I'm not sure what "consolidate library" did, but it didn't help the double-file-listing-but-one-is-extraneous-and-has-the-exclamation-point-icon problem. Plus you can't sort that column in order to just delete them all at once.
The playlist problem is extra-annoying because if I delete the duplicate file listing that has the ! icon, it deletes from the playlist, rather than leaving the correct version of the song in the playlist.
Any other ideas? This is way more frustrating than I like my computing experiences to be, especially since iTunes is touted as such fantastic software. If the files weren't organized where they are "supposed" to be, I could understand there being this problem, but the files are all in the correct folders!

"File could not be used" message in i-tunes

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