HT204406 iTunes Match - can't play because original file can't be found

Hi, I've uploaded 600+ tracks to iTunes Match and since deleted the original files from my computer - when I go to play them 'via the cloud' only a handful of songs will play, the rest say 'can't play because original file can't be found!
I assumed the purpose of iTunes Match was to create a copy of all your tracks so you could access them from anywhere.
Hoping someone can help/offer advice?
Cheers, Lee.

This happens if the file is no longer where iTunes expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool have 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.
Alternatively, as long as you can find a location holding the missing files, then you might be able to reconnect iTunes to them using my FindTracks script.
tt2

Similar Messages

Albums can not play because original files can not be found

Suddenly about half of my albums in iTunes will not play. Error message says tunes will not play because original files can not be found. The other albums still play fine.

This happens if the file is no longer where iTunes expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool have 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.
Alternatively, as long as you can find a location holding the missing files, then you might be able to reconnect iTunes to them using my FindTracks script.
tt2

Song could not be played because original file could not be found

Song could not be played because original file could not be found."
how do I fix/replace a damaged library without reloading all of my 3000+ songs?

Hello bartap,
I would be concerned too if I was not able to locate my music in iTunes. I recommend reviewing the following articles to locate you music files on your computer:
iTunes: Finding lost media and downloads
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1408
Where are my iTunes files located?
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Sheila M.

Itunes song cannot be played because original file cannot be found? but i just downloaded the song 1 week ago from cd

I imprted music in to my itunes librabry a little over a week ago, today I am trying to play the music and I am getting a locate button telling me that the original file cannot be found? What do I do?

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.
Alternatively, as long as you can find a location holding the missing files, then you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes .
OR
Assuming you are in a region where you are allowed to redownload your past music purchases, delete the entry for the missing track from your iTunes library, close and 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 a download link for your track there.
While downloading select Downloads in the left-hand column and make sure Allow Simultaneous Downloads is unchecked.
If the problem persists, or that facility is not yet available in your region, contact the iTunes Store support staff through the "Report a problem" links in your account history, or via Contact Support.
See also:
HT5085 - iTunes in the Cloud and iTunes Match Availability
HT2519 - Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store
tt2

I can not play a large percentage of my music due to "could not be used because original file could not be found" How do I locate these files again? Thanks

So I have not been able to play a large number of my songs duw to a message that reads "could not be used because original file could not be found". Does anyone know how to locate these files so that itunes will play them again? Thanks

by following this document here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93313
and then doing something else at the end.
I followed the instructions from 1-6:
Then rather than importing the XML file I open iTunes, selected "Add to Library" from the File menu then navigated to the itunes library on my external disc then let it do its work.
I guess something got fragged when I changed computer but it's all ok now.
This worked on a Mac I don't know about Windows

I want to play songe in itunes bur all i get i "song could not be used because original file could not be found"

i want to play songe in itunes bur all i get i "song could not be used because original file could not be found"i want to play songe in itunes bur all i get i "song could not be used because original file could not be found"

but they are on my phone and play

The song could not be used because original file could not be found

I just loaded iTunes on my new laptop running Windows 8. I then synced my iPod Nano hoping existing songs would be imported. Songs seemed to come across but when I try to play on my computer I get message - "The song could not be used because original file could not be found." Can anybody help?

Solution may be found if you search in the "More Like This" section over in the right column.

I just updated Itunes to the newest version and now my entire song library is saying 'can't play this song because original file can't be found'. ***??

I have no idea what happened!? I just updated Itunes on my macbook and now my entire song library won't play. When I click on a song it says it can't play because it can't find the original file. How is this possible? The original files are on my computer. I just upgraded!! HELP!!

The only thing I can think of is that you deleted these files off your computer without using iTunes to do it. Or maybe you backed up your computer to a previous state to where these song files didn't exist? The last one doesn't even make sense to me unless you used Time Machine to do it. But those are the only things I can think of.

Song can not be used because Original file can not be located - HELP

Hi - Newbie here and I have run into and error and don't know how to fix it. When I try to play a large number of songs from Itunes I get the following message. "The Song (NAME) could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" I have no idea where the orginal files are and I am not sure how to fix this error. Could someone please help me out! Thanks - KAggie

This happens if the files are no longer where iTunes expects to find them. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the files, or that the drive they live 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.
Alternatively, as long as you can find a location holding the missing files, then you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes.
If the files are nowhere to be found on your computer, but exist on a device, see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
While deleting & reimporting works when the media can be found the process will delete user playlists, ratings, play counts, date added information and any other metadata not stored in tags.
tt2

Error " song can't be used because original file can not be found"

Our computer was about to crash, so we backed up our iTunes library to disc like it suggested. However, once we imported the library back to the new computer, iTunes will no longer play the songs without the disc in! It says the "original file can not be found" unless the disc is in. How do we get the "originals" off the disc and back onto the computer so I don't have to carry the disc everywhere?? I can't seem to find any help on any of the help sights about this problem. I tried using iTunes Folder Watch like another post suggested and it didn't work. I still need the disc to play the songs.

Roberta hello,
The remedy is very easy...
Open the iTunes folder and select the iTunes Library file and type command -D
this will make another copy for safe keeping, if anything goes wrong you can always return this copy ... leave the duplicate file where it is.
Start iTunes in the normal way and open the preferences > advanced > general tab... set NOT to copy files when adding to library and DO keep iTunes Music folder organized.... OK your changes.
From the file menu select 'add to library' and choose the iTunes Music folder.
After iTunes has checked and made any adjustments needed have a look and see if any problems still exist ... come and let me know Roberta ... TP
iMac 800MHz PowerPC G4 17 Flat Screen. G4 iBook. Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Songs cannot be used because original files could not be found.

I had my laptop stolen with my original iTunes Music libary. The library was backed up on office server. When I copied bqackup to new laptop iTune file, the song list shows but all songs will not play with message:
"the song "XXX" could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?"
Unfortunately, the originals are on stolen laptop? Is there anything I can do!

happyhannah wrote:
I right-clicked on the song to 'get info' and found out that the path is 'file://localhost/users/Hannah/desktop/iTunes' etc. I remembered that I had moved the iTunes library to the desktop as not to forget to back it up.
Hmm, if the active iTunes library knows where to look for files but they have been misplaced then putting them back where it expects to find them should work. However you should only be moving the media folder not the library files, or if moving both you should shift-start iTunes and choose a new library.
Now, I have deleted the iTunes library from the (default) Music folder and have put it on the desktop with the hope that this is now where iTunes will find the original library. However, it's still not working!!! Please help!!! I really cannot lose my whole iTunes library
As long as you have the media files and a copy of the library files from your old system it really should be possible to coax them back into working order.
Are you currently connected to a library which lists your media? If so what is the path given for a sample missing file and where is the actual copy of that file now?
tt2

"song could not be used because original file could not be found..."

My entire music library files cannot be found. When I click on a song I get a popup that says "song could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" I can't find the files anywhere, can't open any from my Windows Media player, from Quicktime or anywhere and can't find them on my hard drive. I have about 2300 songs downloaded from my CD collection and a handful of songs purchased on itunes. I have searched for all "mp3" files, no luck, searched by "title/artist", no luck. Yikes!!

I've occasionally had an artist or LP go missing from my library, but to have the entire library disappear is incredible!
Depending upon which version of itunes you are using, you should find your music here: (if it still exists)
User (insert name here)>Music>itunes music>(Folders for each artist)
or
User (insert name here)>Music>itunes media (I think)>music> (Folders for each artist)
If you find your music folder in either of these places, close the windows, open itunes, from the file menu, select "Add to Library" and navigate to the music folder and select it. Itunes should recreate your library.

Error message-song couldn't be used because original file couldn't be found

Had to reinstall itunes onto my laptop and all my music appear automatically in the library with all old playlists, which was great. But now most of my songs show an error message - 'The song could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?' - I located the correct file for some songs, but even still the next time I open my itunes the same error message appears and to play a song I have to locate it every time I want to play it.
Please help!
Thank you,

Here's what I did. Went to the iTunes preferences. Selected Advanced. Then made sure the iTunes music folder was correct. Unchecked copy files to iTunes folder when adding songs to library. Clicked OK. Clicked on the file menu scrolled down to select add to library. I then went to where on my hard drive my iTunes mp3s are kept. I selected the first groups folder (AH-a) and shift clicked and scrolled down to my last groups folder (ZZTOP) So all groups were selected. Then I clicked on Choose. So my entire library was now added back into iTunes and will now play back. However everytrack was now duplicated. One track that would play and one track that wouln't .
I then went to this website http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/scripts01.php
and downloaded, installed and ran Super Remove Dead Track
v 2.0. My library originally contained 7700 songs. So duplicated it was over 14,000. It took approx. a couple of hours for the script to delete the dead duplicates
and my library was back to normal.

Trouble playing from itunes match on macbook pro without original files

Im trying to play (or even organize) my songs in the cloud.
Im using a laptop and don't want to always have to have the external hard drives (on which the music files live) always connected to the computer.
Thats why i subscribe to iTunes match right?
But when i try to play most files, i get an error that says it cannot locate the original files (see pic)
I click on cancel (because the drives are not connected) and it goes ahead and finds the song in the cloud and plays it.
So they're all there (mostly) in the cloud but iTunes wants to play the file from the drive before it looks at the cloud.
Is there any way to have iTunes default to looking at the music in the cloud only?
OSX 10.10.1 (14B25)
Itunes 12.0.1.26
Thanks Thanks Thanks!!!

Hi,
You should create a new library specifically for streaming music from match. Hold option key whilst turning on iTunes and select create new library. You will now have a blank library and you should add iTunes match, select add this computer. You will now see all your music in the cloud.
When you have ext drive attached you can hold option key whilst turning on iTunes and select appropriate library.
Jim

I recently had to get a new computer, my list of audible books is there but can't open because original file cannot be found. how do I find them or redownload them when they are not in my purchased list anymore?

I recently had to purchase a new computer, after doing so I no longer can open my audible books. the list is there, but I get an error message telling me that the original file cannot be found. How can I redownload them when they are not in my purchased list anymore when I go to the Apple Store??

Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2519 - enabled with iTunes 10.3 and newer; not available in all countries; apps, books (not audiobooks), music, t.v. shows, and movies (some - not all studios have permitted this). Movies currently available in the USA only. Downloading previously purchased movies and TV shows requires iTunes 10.6 or later. Discontinued items not available. For items not included in the iCloud list, or locations or computer systems where iCloud is not (yet?) available, you only get one download per fee paid. Apple notes it is your responsibility to back up your purchases.
Select the store on the left side of iTunes.
Click on Purchased on the right side under Quick Links.
You can re-download your available previous purchases.

HT204406 iTunes Match - can't play because original file can't be found

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for