I can't locate my music files

A couple of weeks ago, I tried to enable home sharing on between my laptop and desk top, both Macs. As soon as I enabled home sharing, pretty much all of my music and movie files disappeared. When I try to ocate the files individually, it says the original file can't be found. Yet, when I try to re-download these items from my iTunes account via the store, it tells me that everything that can be downloaded for the account has already been downloaded. But it's not in iTunes anywhere. Anyone know how to solve this?

Home sharing simply enables another computer on your network to see and play the files in your library. It doesn't move anything to another system or folder.
Somewhere along the way, you did something to move or delete the files if they're no longer on your system.

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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

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

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

Cannot locate original music file error message???

cannot locate original music file error message ??? i transferred to a new laptop then some of my music collection seems to get this message .

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 .
tt2

How can I store my music files on an external hard drive and listen to them through iTunes that way?

How can I store my music files on an external hard drive and listen to them through iTunes that way? At the moment they're both on the external hard drive and also stored on the computer but I'm quickly running out of memory on my iBook G4 so I'd like to only keep them on the external hard drive and, if possible, delete them from my computer's hard drive. At the moment, when the hard drive isn't plugged in a lot of the files won't play and I get the exclamation mark next to the particular song in iTunes, but everything plays fine when the hard drive is plugged in.
Thank you.

Sounds like your files are playing from the external drive already. To check go to iTunes - Preferences - Advanced and check the Media Folder Location. Change it to the external drive if you need to.

How can I copy my music files to my iPAD. The CDs are currently stored in folders on my PC. Note: Synching via iCLOUD won't work because I have VISTA OS and I need at least Windows 7 or 8.

How can I copy my music files to my iPAD. The CDs are currently stored in folders on my PC. Note: Synching via iCLOUD won't work because I have VISTA OS and I need at least Windows 7 or 8.

Hi ladextr,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities. To sync your music to your iPad, first put your music in iTunes as described here:
Adding music and other content to iTunes
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1473
Adding content on your computer to iTunes
iTunes helps you add digital audio and video files on your computer directly to your iTunes library. You can add audio files that are in AAC, MP3, WAV, AIFF, Apple Lossless, or Audible.com (.aa) format. If you have unprotected WMA content, iTunes for Windows can convert these files to one of these formats. You can also add video content in QuickTime or MPEG-4 format to iTunes. To learn how to add these files to iTunes follow the steps below.
Open iTunes
From the File menu, choose one of the following choices:
MacAdd to Library
Windows
Add File to Library
Add Folder to Library
Navigate to and select the file or folder that you want to add
If iTunes is set to "Copy files to the iTunes Music folder when adding to library," iTunes will copy all content that is added to the iTunes library to the iTunes Music folder. To adjust this setting or change the location of this folder, go to the Advanced tab in iTunes Preferences.
Once that's done, you can sync the music to your iPad by following this article:
iTunes 11 for Windows: Set up syncing for iPod, iPhone, or iPad
http://support.apple.com/kb/ph12313
Cheers,
- Ari

Hello! I have one iTunes library on my iPod and one iTunes library on my computer. When I connect my iPod touch to my PC, however, I cannot find any files in my iPod except for pictures. How can I find the music files so I can add them to my iTunes?

Hello! I have one iTunes library on my iPod and one iTunes library on my computer. When I connect my iPod touch to my PC, however, I cannot find any files in my iPod except for pictures. How can I find the music files so I can add them to my iTunes?

You can't do that.
And before you decide to store any music that you own on a computer at work, talk to your IT department. Many organizations do not permit it for legal reasons. Standard policies are that anything stored on company owned computers is the property of the company. It could not be legally stored on their machines unless you transfer the licenses and all copies, physical and digital, to the company, meaning you no longer own the music. If they were to be audited and could not prove that they own the music, they would be subject to copyright violation penalties. Just use your iPod when you're at the office if you want to listen to music.

How can I delete a music file directly from iPhone? Or not possible?

Can I delete a music file directly from iPhone?

Not possible.
Either unselect it during what it syncs, or manually manage > delete song.

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?

ITunes 11.0.4. can't locate thousands of files (they are still on the harddisk though) - is there a way to simply relocate them (without having to do it for each individual song which would take forever)?

After updating to iTunes 11.0.4.,
iTunes 11.0.4. can't locate thousands of files (they are still on the harddisk though).
is there a way to simply relocate them (without having to do it manually for each individual song which would take forever)?

Are these "thousands of files" in an iTunes library that simply cannot be found?
If so, assuming you know exactly where they are, hold the "Option" key while opening iTunes from your dock. You will then be given a "Choose Library" option. Choose it and point to your library.

Can't locate imported iPhoto files in Finder

I recently imported a series of pictures into iPhoto. However I can't locate these picture files on Finder..What happened was I had to fire up iPhoto app each time and right click to 'Show File'. It said the path was user/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2007/...
I want to locate these files on Finder, however, when I clicked on user directory user/Pictures/iPhoto Library I can't drill down further. It seems that 'Originals' folder is missing. When I show package contents though, this folder showed up. This is a frustrating experience for me because I can't upload the pictures to the web, or easily find them.
Does anyone has any idea if this is normal behavior or is there a way I can easily access the list of pictures I've imported without firing up the iPhoto? Appreciate any response. Thanks very much.

spirlie
Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
Does anyone has any idea if this is normal behavior or is there a way I can easily access the list of pictures I've imported without firing up the iPhoto
This is perfectly normal behaviour for v7 of iPhoto. The change was made to the format of the iPhoto library because many users were inadvertently corrupting their library by browsing through it with other software or making changes in it themselves. If you're willing to risk database corruption, you can restore the older functionality simply by right clicking on the iPhoto Library and choosing 'Show Package Contents'. Then simply make an alias to the folders you require and put that alias on the desktop or where ever you want it. Be aware though, that this is a hack and not supported by Apple.
However, better to use one of these:
10.5 users: If you use the extended Open or Attach dialogue (with Column View) you can scroll to the bottom of the Shortcuts and find the Media browser there. Select any pic you want from there.
Another way to access the files with iPhoto not running, is to create a Media Browser using Automator (takes about 10 seconds) or use THIS
Otherwise:
There are three ways (at least) to get files from the iPhoto Window.
1. *Drag and Drop*: Drag a photo from the iPhoto Window to the desktop, there iPhoto will make a full-sized copy of the pic.
2. *File -> Export*: Select the files in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export. The dialogue will give you various options, including altering the format, naming the files and changing the size. Again, producing a copy.
3. *Show File*: Right- (or Control-) Click on a pic and in the resulting dialogue choose 'Show File'. A Finder window will pop open with the file already selected.
To upload to MySpace or any site that does not have an iPhoto Export Plug-in the recommended way is to Select the Pic in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export and export the pic to the desktop, then upload from there. After the upload you can trash the pic on the desktop. It's only a copy and your original is safe in iPhoto.
This is also true for emailing with Web-based services. If you're using Gmail you can use THIS
If you use Apple's Mail, Entourage, AOL or Eudora you can email from within iPhoto.
If you use a Cocoa-based Browser such as Safari, you can drag the pics from the iPhoto Window to the Attach window in the browser.
Regards
TD

I can't locate my music files

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