Help! iTunes can't find songs!

I had moved all of my music to a new iTunes library on an external drive and everything was working fine until SUDDENLY, iTunes could not find about 20% of the music, even though it was pointed to the right library on the external drive.
I tried resetting the library location in Preferences-->Advanced, but after doing that iTunes wanted to make a duplicate copy of every song in the library.
Is there any way for iTunes to see these "lost" files?
Please help, it's driving me batty!

I had the same problem. The only thing that has worked for me was to back up my itunes music and other media, delete it and File/ "Add to Library" everything again. It has been working fine for me since I did that, although it is a pain with a large library. The other thing I did with all of my tv shows was to move the folder with all the tv shows in it out of tthe itunes music folder (music/iTunes/iTunes music) and into my hard drive . I then did "Add to Library" and iTunes copied all the shows back into itunes. (Fortunately I had a lot of space on my hard drive.) Then I threw away the folder that I had moved to the hard drive so I once again had only one copy of the shows and now itunes "knows" where all of them are. That would work fine for your music and movies as well.
Cheers,
Liane

Similar Messages

Itunes can't find songs

Wonder if anyone could help with a problem. I have my iTunes library on an external hard drive. I always try to make sure I connect the drive before opening iTunes but on one occasion I didn't and I found that iTunes changed the library to the default location on my C drive (in my docs/my music folder). I instantly changed this to point to the one on the external drive (H) but now I am getting question marks next to loads of songs indicating that iTunes can't find them. I can't work out why this is??
Does iTunes do something else when moving the location of the library?
Is there a quick way to get iTunes to see all these tracks again without re-importing the tracks from the external drive into iTunes?
Regards
Chris

Whit the library location pointing to your external drive, you can click on file at the top of itunes and use add to library. Then in the window that comes up, navigate to the drive and folder that houses your music. If the music is exactly the same, itunes should re-associate the music back to itunes without duplicating entries.

Pls help- iTunes can't find my songs on NAS, can't sync iPod (error -50)

Hi-
I’m having serious trouble with my iTunes. FYI I have Windows XP and iTunes ver 8.1 and Ipod 80GB classic. Last month I attached a Buffalo NAS device to my machine and exported my songs to the device. It worked without a hitch for a few weeks, until recently (maybe it has something to do with my importing videos from my Tivo, since the problem happened shortly after that). Yes I went to “preferences > advanced” and used the proper drive letter/location.
Suddenly, several weeks later, my itunes had trouble finding the songs, and beside each one I got a little exclamation point next to the song title with the following error message: “could not be used because the original file cannot be found.” I went to the thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7158063 and did what was recommended, to no avail. I also tried recreating the itunes library as follows: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451 but it did not work. I’m not sure what else to do.
Also, I tried to sync the iPod and I got error message that it could not be synced “an unknown error occurred (-50). I already restored the iPod, to no avail.
Please help.
Thanks
Bill

Yeah, I had the same problem. Just follow the instructions on this page:
http://www.mp3.com/news/stories/1828.html
definitely better than linking it song by song.
peace.

ITunes can't find songs anymore!

All my music is stored on my external HD. I've imported it all in iTunes a few weeks ago and it worked perfectly, BUT THEN...
I turned on my computer with my iPod plugged in but i forgot to turn my HD on. So ofcourse iTunes couldn't find the songs. But now when I do have my HD on it still can't find the songs, it gives a sign next to the names, while they're in the same location as they used to be. I also checked the iTunes library xml file and it gives the right location.
I also still had my library files and program folder saved on the HD so i tried recopying these in the right directions but the problem won't solve.
I've got lots of songs so relocating them one by one won't work for me, also i don't want to reimport it all because then I'll have to change some song names back again and it'll copy everything on my ipod again which takes hours..
Is there any way to solve this?
(btw the songs are all in one folder on the harddrive)
Message was edited by: hanszz

I bet windows changed the exHD letter on you.
Eject the ipod, close itunes, and make sure the exHD letter is whatever it was before this mess happened.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307844

Help, iTunes can't find my music

I am trying to make space on my mac book pro HD because I am switching over from a 500gb 7200RPM drive to a 128 solid state HD. I moved my iTunes library over to an external drive and set the folder in preferences to point at the Itunes library on the external dive and Itunes says it can't play any of my music because it can't find the files. I have checked the file size of the file on the external and it is 15 gb - the files are there but iTunes can't connect to it.
Any one goy any ideas?
Seb

Have a look at his thread. The solution in the last post https://discussions.apple.com/message/7689469#7689469
worked for me too.

Moved music to new hard drive now itunes can't find songs !

This is what I did. My old hard drive was getting full so I bought an additional hard drive and installed it. I then selected all the music in the itunes music folder, copied it, then pasted it into a new folder on the new hard drive. I changed the settings in itunes to direct to the new hard drive. All the music i put in there now has exclamation points next to it and can't access the music? Help. I'm desperate....

Different problem. - probably same answer. Yesterday I started iTunes and I had exclamation points on about 20 of my tunes. I re-linked them all manually. I am new to iTunes but I believe I am beginning to understand that unless all the sources are in one library they 'may' get unlinked from time to time. I am going to assume that all of your tunes are linked to a source that no longer exists. So they are all now unlinked.
What I would like to know is how to restore those links. I am going to make another assumtion. Since I believe that iTunes loaded most of them when I first started using iTunes, there is a way to force it to do that again. I have no problem with putting all of my tunes in one library. I know that others have posted the desire to store and link tunes in multiple libraries, and there is a Consoldiate Option that says it will consolidate all of your tunes into one libary. It doesn't work. So how do you force iTunes to relink your files, in or out of the same library?

How to recover song that are "lost", itunes can't find them even though I have downloaded and played them before

Does anyone know how to recover songs that itunes has "lost"?
I downloaded them, synced my ipod, songs were added and I was able to play them.
On a recent sync the songs are suddenly "not found" according to itunes. I can't locate them in the itunes folder, so I have no idea where itune put them. BTW-this is not the first time itunes stored songs in a random directory...... Since itune can't find them, they were deleted from my ipod

Look, I understand I still need a card attached to the account. The problem is, it won't accept my card because I only have 87 cents in my bank account right now.
If I had known there would be so much trouble with the iTunes card, I would have just put the cash in my bank account in the morning instead of buying an iTunes card (I didn't expect the banks to be open on Thanksgiving of course).
Apple will only accept cards that have a balance. The balance is so small in my account that it won't accept it as a valid card.
I'm going to have to contact Apple anyway to reset the security questions. That's obvious. Your answers were not exactly helpful. You didn't tell me anything I don't already know, but thanks for trying to be helpful.

HT1386 iPhone won't sync with iTunes. It says iTunes can not add songs to iPhone because no songs in iTunes library can be copied to iPhone. Help!!!! What should I do

iPhone won't sync with iTunes and It says iTunes can not add songs to iPhone because no songs in iTunes library can be copied to iPhone. Help!!!! What should I do. I tried everything!
I need to add my music to my iPhone from iTunes but its not working!

First off try and go into your IPhone manually through My Computer and cut photos or anything you can through the device to be able to free space up so that you can continue to do what you want to do with ITunes. This way you will be able to create a backup or do what you have to do to manage your information, photos and texts on your device a little better.

I installed the upgrade and now itunes can't find my library and doesn't recognize my devices. Using Windows 7. Any help?

Help!!! I installed the 10.5 update and now itunes can't find my library or recognize my devices. Running on Windows 7.

For moving your iTunes library, I recommend this method...
Assuming you use the iTunes default settings where iTunes copied added items to your iTunes folder and organizes your library (meaning - everything is all self contained in the iTunes folder), then all you have to do is drag & drop your iTunes folder (not just the iTunes Music folder you find inside the iTunes folder) to the external drive and copy the entire thing.
If you want to test that it worked or would like to actually start using it from that location instead, use these instructions when you start iTunes to point it to the new location...
How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304447
If you are just testing, then close iTunes after you verify it works, and restart iTunes again with the same instructions and point it back to your internal drive (original) location.
Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307074
Patrick

Having moved my Itunes folder to external hardrive and resetting where it is in preferences Itunes can't find them and I have to direct it to every song - I have a months worth of songs on there so this will take avery long time - any ideas on what;s up?

Having moved my Itunes folder to a new external hardrive and resetting where it is in preferences Itunes can't find them and I have to direct it to every song- a little ! pops up next to the song and a dialogue box says Itunes can't find it so thn i have to manually search for it - I have a months worth of songs on there so this will take avery long time - any ideas on what's up?

nellydee wrote:
Having moved my Itunes folder to a new external hardrive and resetting where it is in preferences
That's not how to do it. You don't move stuff then set the iTunes prefs > Advanced.
Once you move the /iTunes/ folder, hold Option, launch iTunes and select Choose library... and select the ITunes folder on the external.
This will use the iTunes library file in the iTunes folder you moved.
Don't change iTunes prefs > Advanced.

ITunes can't find any of my songs now that I upgraded to 7.6

Did the upgrade last night and when I opened it today to play music, all my songs are marked with a "!" and iTunes can't find them. I suspect I may need to reimport them but then I'll have duplicates which I'll need to go through and delete. Is there another way? Thanks.

When you create a smart playlist there is a checkbox so you can select only checked songs. So you could make a playlist easily by matching the rules of date added. If you sort your itunes music folder by date then you can see the start and end dates you will need for the playlist.
Once done, check its all alright, and then edit the smartlist (right-click the name in the left bar) and un-check live updating so it won't automatically change itself if you check/un-check more.

How do you get album artwork? I have like two thousand songs and about 95% don't have cover album artwork and when i try to get album artwork it says "Itunes can not find album artwork" "an unknown error occurred-609" what do i do?

How do you get album artwork? I have like two thousand songs and about 95% don't have cover album artwork and when i try to get album artwork it says "Itunes can not find album artwork" "an unknown error occurred-609" what do i do?

Perhaps try the "Error -609" section in the Specific Conditions and Alert Messages: (Mac OS X / Windows) section of the following document:
iTunes: Advanced iTunes Store troubleshooting

HT5100 iTunes can't find a link for a song I purchased

iTunes can't find a link for a song I purchased last month. How do I re-download my song? iCloud doesn't allow me to re-download it, so I'm at a loss...

You would need to contact Apple Support to have your Security Questions reset:
ACCOUNT SECURITY CONTACT NUMBERS
Cheers,
GB

ITunes can't find or create the iTunes Folder (in Vista). SOMEBODY HELP ME!

I have installed iTunes in my Windows Vista but i can't run it because it appears an error showing: iTunes can't find or create the iTunes folder. This folder is usually located in My Music Folder.
The problem is that I erased the original folder "my music" from my computer and even if I create another "my music" folder and I put in the iTunes folder, the program doesen't work.
Please help me!
Thanks very much.

The problem is that iTunes uses a registry entry to find the location of the Music folder and it is not correctly set.
Apple offer this help for Windows XP, however it requires a utility called TweakUI and Miscrosoft haven't released a version for Vista. I found this link for an alternative, but I know nothing about it so I don't like to recommend it:
http://www.totalidea.com/content/tweakvi/tweakvi-index.html
As alternative to this you may be able to do the following as a work around:
Hold down the shift key, keep it held down and start iTunes. You should be asked to choose or create a library. Choose create and navigate to where you want your iTunes folder - usually in your Music folder.

Itunes can not find original song file

Suddenly my itunes can not find the song's original file.
I see that the file is on the driver but when I double click on Itunes I get this mesage:
"the song could not be used because the original file could not be found.
Any helpers out there?
THKS

I've been experiencing this problem for a while now. It happens with version 7.1 but it started with an earlier version of iTunes 7. I never experienced it before iTunes 7. In my experience the number of files iTunes "thinks" is missing increases with the length of time iTunes has been running between restarts (I usually just put my system to sleep overnight so it can "run" for days on end). When it first started happening I used to go and find the "missing" music file(s) and reconnect it(them). Then, one day, I found a flood of "missing" songs. I decided I had nothing to lose by stopping iTunes and restarting it. When I restarted iTunes none of my songs were missing! This indicated to me that it's the iTunes code that's active after a restart that has a bug that makes it lose track of the music files.
To check, I looked in the Music/iTunes/iTunes Music Library.xml file for songs while they were being reported as "missing", and, lo and behold, the song file locations are still there. iTunes must reread the xml file when it starts up and this cures the problem, at least in my case. (Too bad it doesn't use the file while it's running.)
I usually just play my entire library in random order. So, if a song or two disappears, I'm rarely aware of it. All I've been doing lately is stopping and starting iTunes when I feel like getting rid of the "!" scourge.

Help! iTunes can't find songs!

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for