HELP! iTunes can't locate my music files and don't have them on my computer anymore.

Well pretty much none of my 2000 iTunes songs can be played. It just says the original file could not be found. I backed up my iTunes because my computer was going in for repairs and would need to be reformatted.
It then got reformatted and put iTunes on my computer and then NONE of my songs worked!!! I don't even have any of the original files incase I wanted to import them 1-by-1. PLEASE help me I miss my tunes.

Depending upon which store you use you may be able to recover some of your past purchases. See HT2519 - Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store.
Note you need to delete broken entries from the library, close & then reopen iTunes, go to the iTunes Store home page, click the Purchased link from the Quick Links section in the right-hand column, then select Music and Not on this computer. You should find download links for your tracks there.
While downloading select Downloads in the left-hand column and make sure Allow Simultaneous Downloads is unchecked. (This should reduce the risk of corrupt downloads.)
For the future backup your library regularly with this User Tip.
If you have an Apple device see: Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
See also: HT5085 - iTunes in the Cloud and iTunes Match Availability
tt2

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I was downloading music from my partners purchased music on my phone and it wiped all my existing music, how can i get my music back as i dont have it on my computer anymore?

i was downloading music from my partners purchased music on my phone and it wiped all my existing music, how can i get my music back as i dont have it on my computer anymore? please help me

If you bought this music from iTunes you can download it again from within your Purchases in the iTunes App.
Otherwise, razmee is right. you can only sync to one itunes library. If you sync to another one whatever does not exist on the new library will get removed from the phone.
That's is by design to avoid Piracy. As otherwise you could simply transfer purchases to other users.

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!!!!!

ITunes Can't locate most music files

I updated iTunes and it can't locate most of my music. I'd say only about 10% and that being the most recent stuff I added is all it can locate... it asks me to look for the file and I point it exactly to where it should be.
I searched around and some have had this happen when they move files or store on an external HD whose name (ie F: or G:) switches. I did not do any of that, though, and everything is where it should be. The only answer seems to be reimporting the songs, I did that, but I have lost all my playlists, ratings, and counts.
I think this is a serious issue and no one seems to have an answer on how to solve it.

Welcome to AD!
Your best hope is to see if there is an ITL file in a folder named *Previous iTunes Libraries* that will have most of the metadata.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1967

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 my music files on it's own!!

When I try to open a song in iTunes it tells me it can't find the file cause it's changed locations and makes me locate it myself. This is easy enough to do but I have 2,000 songs and doing each individualy would take forever!
Does anybody know how I can get iTunes to find all of my songs without me doing it one by one myself? Thanks

Does anybody know how I can get iTunes to find all of my songs it their new folder without me doing it one by one myself? Thanks
- johnny

Itunes can't locate my music files

I recently transferred my data from a XP to windows vista computer. Itunes and all my music transferred perfectly. I had been using it for a few weeks, no problems. On 9/12/2009 I clicked on several songs and the dreaded "file not found" came up. When I check "info" for these songs under "where" it says "not available". I still have my old computer. Should I delete itunes and re-transfer my music? I looked at several similar posts, but did not get any answers. I am wondering if this problem was caused by a recent update from apple.
Thanks in advance.

Does anybody know how I can get iTunes to find all of my songs it their new folder without me doing it one by one myself? Thanks
- johnny

I have problem with Itunes losing where podcasts and some purchased music is located. Don't know how Itunes losing the locations of the files and I can't find the files on my hard drive. What can I do to stop Itunes losing location and restore my files?

I have problem with Itunes losing where podcasts and some purchased music is located. Don't know how Itunes losing the locations of the files and I can't find the files on my hard drive. What can I do to stop Itunes losing location and restore my files?

Try assigning Queen as the Album Artist on the compilations in iTunes on your computer.

The hard drive on my MacBook died and I had it replaced. I can't locate my website files and every time I try to open my idisk it looks for a name and password (even reset my apple id as prompted) I keep being told that it's the wrong name or password?

The hard drive on my MacBook died and I had it replaced. Now I can't locate my website files and every time I try to open my finder/idisk it looks for a name and password (even reset my apple id as prompted) I keep being told that it's the wrong name or password? Any suggestions out there

Arty ~ Welcome to the Support Communities. iWeb can't import/open published HTML/media files on your iDisk. iWeb can only open its key Domain file which contains your site data — it's usually located here:
...If you don't have a backup of your Domain file (e.g. via Time Machine), paragraph 2.3 of this FAQ page gives some tips on how to use published files, graphics, photos, etc., to help rebuild the site from scratch:
http://iwebfaq.org/site/iWeb_Backup_retrieve.html
Also this thread may help:
Hard Drive replacement causes new/unknown user password?

HT5312 If I can't remember my security questions, and don't have a rescue email address, why can't I just add a rescue email to my apple ID account without having to contact iTunes Support?

If I can't remember my security questions, and don't have a rescue email address, why can't I just add a rescue email to my apple ID account without having to contact iTunes Support?

I verify my identity just by logging in with my password, not being able to add a rescue email address without answering the security questions is just extra hastle and doesn't increase security. No one knows my password so how could they break into my account? I understand having security questions to change your password but not for adding an email address.

HT202157 I updated my 2nd gen apple tv and after completing the downloading and installing the software I got an itunes picture that means i have to connect it to iTunes,, can i skip this ? coz i don't have the mini usb cable

I updated my 2nd gen apple tv and after completing the downloading and installing the software I got an itunes picture that means i have to connect it to iTunes,, can i skip this ? coz i don't have the mini usb cable

No, if you have that picture it means the update went wrong and you need to restore via iTunes.
AC

What can do if I can't remember my security question and don't have recovery email

What can do if I can't remember my security question and don't have recovery email

You need to ask Apple to reset your security questions; this can be done by phoning AppleCare and asking for the Account Security team, or clicking here and picking a method, or if your country isn't listed in either article, filling out and submitting this form.
They wouldn't be security questions if they could be bypassed without Apple verifying your identity.
(105649)

HT1203 I moved my Itunes media folder to my public folder in my home folder so that my wife can share my music when she logs on to my computer. Since then aperture has been unable to locate the music files and I cannot add any of my itunes files to a slid

I moved my itunes media folder to my public folder in my home folder so that my wife can share my music when she logs on as a user. Since doing this Aperture cannot locate any itunes music files and so I cannot add any music to a slideshow. All of my existing slideshows no longer play music. Can anyone help?
Thanks

Thank you for your prompt response - I did as you said and did a drag and drop into the iTunes window - it imported and got my album art from the net. When I started Itunes with the shift key down I was prompted to choose a library but since I copied over the media folder and not the library folder I was unable to select that so I guess I will have to create a new library and add in all the music, videos, etc. unless I wait for my laptop and export the library or at least that seems to be the case? In short, all my data (iTunes media folder) is on my external drive and can be added to the blank iTunes screen but I can not choose a library folder. Is there anyway around completely making all those playlists again? I am not sure my laptop will survive the shop with data intact and really hate to start over on those.
In an unrelated question - I collect old TV shows from the 1950's. Can I make playlists within the home video folder somehow? In other words like one for Quiz shows, one for comedies, one for police and detective shows, etc. while I am remaking all my playlists for my music if I end up having to go that route?
Once again thank you for helping me out. I am not too Itunes savvy and really appreciate you taking the time to answer.

ITunes can't locate any music/iTunes Media folder cleared

I ran a few cleaning programs to clear up unceassary files/cashes to get some extra space on my HD. Later, I went onto iTunes to play some music, and it asked me to locate the file. Turns out this is siutation for every file, and after further inspection, my the 'Music' folder in the 'iTunes Media' foler is empty. For over half the music in my library, the only copy of the .mp3 was in this folder. I am not 100% certain that it was removed from using these cleaning programs, but it is the only reason I can think of.
Is there anyway to efficently locate the missing files which I do have in another location? (I have tried the method were you locate one and iTunes does the rest. This was ineffective). Is there any way to recover the files which were lost/could they be anywhere else? Finally, am I able to utilise my iPhone/iPad (which has substancial music on it) to help locate .mp3 files and/or re-add songs which have totally been wiped.
A horrible situation. If there is nothing i will have to restore my computer to its last back up which was 4 months ago .
Thanks for any help!

Hey, make sure that your extnal hard drive is connected. Start
iTunes. No need to connect your iPod at this stage.Go into
Edit - Prefs, select the advanced tab at the top and
ensure that the path to iTunes music folder location is
set to your ext. hard drive. e.g. E:\exthd\iTunes\music. Always
ensure that your external hard disk is connected before
you start iTunes otherwise iTunes will get confused.
The 4500 songs should now be seen by iTunes.
The odd few albums/songs that are located on your c:\drive
will now have a circle next to them, indicating that the
original files cannot be found. Simply move these to the
external hard disk and re-import the individual
songs/Albums again.

I home shared from my PC to my new Mac and now my iTunes can't locate the original files?

It was working fine for about 12 hours but now my iTunes can't locate any of the files. None of my songs will play, even those I downloaded directly from a CD. Help?

It sounds like this is much more than an iTunes problem. I suggest you post in the operating system forum version for your computer (we have no idea which OS you are running nor what model computer).

HELP! iTunes can't locate my music files and don't have them on my computer anymore.

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