I keep getting an exclamation mark next to music i purchased how do i get my music restored

i am unable to hear some of my music due to an exclamation point that appears, how do i restore my music ?

Is this just one file or many?
If one file, you can restore it from a backup, or if it is an iTunes Store purchase you may be able to download it again.
If it is many files then it is possible you renamed a file or folder, or moved one that is part of iTunes' organization of your music. iTunes really doesn't like it if you do things yourself inside the iTunes folder. The easiest solution then is to undo what you did. iTunes doesn't work directly with your files. It works with a database file that tells iTunes where it thinks the music is located, so if you click on a track and have changed the location of the file iTunes may not know the new location.

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Exclamation marks next to songs, but I can no longer find them on my harddrive

I have a Win 7 laptop and an old 30GB ipod. Both iTunes and iPod software are up to date. I download songs from CDs that I own and they appear in the proper iTunes folder. However, after I sync my ipod, many of these songs suddenly get an exclamation mark next to them in iTunes and I can no longer find these songs on my hard drive anywhere. In some cases, only a couple songs from a CD get the exclamation mark and disappear and in other cases it is the entire CD. Why is this happening and where are the songs that I downloaded? These is happening over and over. What is the fix?

This means iTunes can't find the location of the files. Try these articles:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1967?viewlocale=en_US
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1408?viewlocale=en_US
Hope these helps my friend.

HT3281 Only get an exclamation mark when I try to download one certain podcast.

I am having problems downloading one podcast from iTunes. They are only ones after a certain date. I get an exclamation mark next to the podcast. I am able to download them from the actual webpage though.

Shadow--hey thanks for the reply. No all the songs are in C drive on my computer. I do have an external drive as backup (Sync-Toy) but all my songs are on C. I was thinking of trying to delete ITUNES and Quiktime and reinstall. Do you think that would work? Jeff

I get an error message when I sync my iPhone 5 with itunes on a Windows 7 laptop. When I go back to my music there are exclamation marks next to many songs. I have reinstalled iTunes

I get an error message when I sync my iPhone 5 with iTunes on my Windows 7 Samsung laptop. I recently backed up all of my data using Samsung Recovery Solution 5 to an external hard drive so that I could restore my laptop. I put all of my data back on the restored laptop and reinstalled iTunes. After the error message that says that certain items could not be found and the "sync" is finished I go back to my music in iTunes and there are exclamation marks next to many songs. I follow some instructions regarding the Edit - Preferences - Advanced settings and the exclamation marks go away until I try to sync my phone again. Then I get the same error message and the exclamation marks return. I have uninstalled and reinstalled iTunes and the same thing happens again. I am about to schedule an appointment with the Genius Bar but would like to avoid that if possible. Thank you in advance for any help.

Hello Courtney,
Thank you for the details of the issue you are experiencing when syncing your music to your iPhone. It sounds like iTunes is not able to locate the original file for the song to transfer it to your device. 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.

I can't get my music to play in my itunes. It comes with a exclamation mark next to the song numbers and says that the original songs can't be played cause cant find the file. How do I get the songs back? (I found the files)

I can't get my music to play in my itunes. It comes with a exclamation mark next to the song numbers and says that the original songs can't be played cause cant find the file. How do I get the songs back? (I found the files

You get exclamation marks or dead tracks because iTunes can’t find the file. This can happen for a number of reasons:
The song file or a folder in its path was renamed
The song file or the folder it is in has been moved
The song file has been deleted
The device containing the song files e.g. external drive is not accessible or the drive letter has changed.
If you use an external drive, a change in drive letter is a common cause and you need to change it back.
AS a way of working out what has happened, right click on a track and select the summary tab (you will have to go past an error message). The summary tab will tell you where iTunes thinks the track is located. How does that compare with where the track actually is?
The xml library file is not used by iTunes, it is created to allow other programs to access the library. You can recreate the iTl file from the xml file, but there is no point if the location of the files is wrong.
There is a simple way of getting you music back in iTunes, but it loses all playlists counts and rating. To do this drag iTunes library.itl and iTunes Library.xml to your desktop. Then open iTunes and an empty library is created. Add you iTunes Media folder to it.
If you can't work out what went wrong and how to fix it, you may have to do this.

Exclamation marks next to songs

I have a 33,000 song iTunes library stored on an external 1Tb USB2 drive that is permanently connected to my 20" Intel Core Duo iMac running the latest version of Leopard and iTunes. I keep getting exclamation marks next to songs and when I choose to loacted them thye are in the correct place. Sometimes its whole albums or one or two individual songs. Can anyone reccomend anyway to remdy this situation?
Message was edited by: Scott Ronan

Hi You are not the only one with this problem it seems that there are quite a few similar posts on this subject and no answers rather than going through one by one (no Thanks) or deletimg all files in iTunes and reloading over night (No Thanks!). This also means I will loose all my playlists!
Please Apple answer this or remedy some kind of Playlist save!

No longer able to download podcasts, get an exclamation mark on left of episode listing after clicking download icon

suddenly cannot download new podcasts to my Shuffle. After clicking the download icon, I get an exclamation mark to the left of the podcast label. I tried resubscribing to the podcast with no success.

Hello wolfsburgy,
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
For more information, take a look at:
iTunes: Exclamation point appears next to podcast
http://support.apple.com/kb/ta23353
Have a nice day,
Mario

I have just downloaded itunes 10.6 and in the process my "podcast" option under library has disappeared! The files are still on my laptop. I can also see some of my recorded music in my itunes library but can play them - there is an exclamation mark next

I have just downloaded itunes 10.6 and in the process my "podcast" option under library has disappeared! THe files are still on my laptop. I can also see some of my recorded music in the itunes library but can't play them - there is an exclamation mark next to each track. Basically I can't use itunes - is the only option remove and replace? Thanks in advance

Visibility of the Podcasts section is controlled from within the Edit > Preferences dialog.
Empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash
Hopefully it's not been too long since you last upgraded iTunes, in fact if you get an empty/incomplete library immediately after upgrading then with the following steps you shouldn't lose a thing or need to do any further housekeeping. In the Previous iTunes Libraries folder should be a number of dated iTunes Library files. Take the most recent of these and copy it into the iTunes folder. Rename iTunes Library.itl as iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library.itl. Start iTunes. Should all be good, bar any recent additions to or deletions from your library.
See iTunes Folder Watch for a tool to catch up with any changes since the backup file was created.
Missing tracks
Typically this can happen because a file or folder is accidentally shunted to the wrong location. iTunes can also get confused if it expects to be talking to an external drive which isn't there. If will often reset the default media folder location and may have trouble finding files in the old folders.
Select one of your tracks that is missing in action. Press CTRL-I to Get Info. Cancel when asked to try to locate the file, then look at the location given on the summary tab. This where iTunes thinks the file ought to be? Now find out where it actually is. Post back the two locations for comparison. I should be able to give you some steps to reconnect everything once I can determine which of the things that might have gone wrong is most likely in your case.
When you get it all working make a backup!
tt2

Songs stored in the cloud have a exclamation mark next to them??

I want to cancel my subscription to iTunes Match and need to download all my songs (over 10,000).
The problem is, that there is an exclamation mark next to 90% of the songs stored on iTunes Match.
In order for me to download a song I have to double click the track with the exclamation mark, which gives me this error message:
'The song “SONG NAME” could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?'
and then click cancel. Only then will the song show a cloud icon with an arrow and the song will begin to play and I can choose to download it.
This will take forever to double click every song one at a time and press cancel to the error message. Is there a way to have iTune recognize the songs on iTunes Match only, and not on my computer?
Im using the newest version of iTunes (12). Any help is appreciated.

PERFECT! This is exactly what I was trying to do. Now everything is available for download. Thanks Jimz!
One more thing to mention....I tried updating the tags with the files set in their location on my hard drive, in hopes that it would push those updated tags to the Match library. But in reality, it is the opposite. When you update the ID3 tags this way , it is only updating the locally stored file's information. Once the server syncs with iTunes Match, the local copy you just edited is overwritten with the the songs ID3 it had when originally uploaded to Match.
The only way I found to get around this is to move the local copy (not delete from within iTunes because it will just re-reference the local file once you select or play the song from the Match Library) , and then directly update the ID3 tag which was originally uploaded to iTunes Match.
The iTunes Match server seemingly has a file structuring system as with local iTunes (aka, the same problem I was having) because even if you delete the iTunes Match file/song, edit the local ID tag, then re-upload the same file again with the new tag information that you changed, it still remembers the old version of the file's information that you just deleted. Hence, iTunes Match's one of many Wonkinesses.
I tried every other possible way to update the ID3 tags and that was the only way that nothing was becoming overwritten in the syncing process.
For anyone reading this, your best bet is too 100% have your ID3 tags the way you want them before uploading anything to Match. If not, youre going to have a **** of a fun time changing anything afterwards. Unfortunately, I did not figure this out until after I uploaded 1000s of songs.
Thanks again for all your help!

I am getting an exclamation mark when I am selecting my color

When I try to select my background or font color I keep getting an exclamation mark. Help

Also if you select a font color while using the Type Tool, you must click the color swatch in the Type Tool options bar, not the the ones at the bottom of the Toolbox.
I should also mention the black triangle in the color picker means it is not a printable (CMYK offset press) color. If you are displaying your work on screen you can click OK to accept the color you want.

(!) Exclamation marks next to my music (!)

In my iTunes library there are a few songs that have exclamation marks next to them. Does anyone know what these marks mean.

Hi and welcome to the discussions.
The ! mark means iTunes cannot find the file. have you moved or deleted any files from outside of iTunes?
If you double click on the file you get the option to locate it yourself, so if the file is still there then you could do that.
Phil

My last computer died, but we've been able to transfer my files onto an external hard drive to put onto my new computer.I have now got exclamation marks next to 100 songs which I downloaded from Frostwire years ago. How can I fix this?

After my brother transferred all my files from my old computer to an external hard drive, he then put them onto my new computer. It appears that 100 songs which I downloaded from Frostwire years ago have the exclamation mark next to them. I cannot find the files on my new computer, and cannot remember where they were saved to on my old computer as it was over 3 years ago. I have also tried to consolidate the files as I've found people suggested, but that is not working. I have also read that you should tell itunes that you are moving the music, but my old laptop cannot be read when it is on. Is there any other way tofix this issue? I don't want to have to buy over 100 songs which I already have.

After my brother transferred all my files from my old computer to an external hard drive, he then put them onto my new computer. It appears that 100 songs which I downloaded from Frostwire years ago have the exclamation mark next to them. I cannot find the files on my new computer, and cannot remember where they were saved to on my old computer as it was over 3 years ago. I have also tried to consolidate the files as I've found people suggested, but that is not working. I have also read that you should tell itunes that you are moving the music, but my old laptop cannot be read when it is on. Is there any other way tofix this issue? I don't want to have to buy over 100 songs which I already have.

I'v downloaded a tv series,paid for it, its in my itunes but with exclamation marks next to it, every time it tries to download the series it says "part of the file seems to be corrupted" and tells me to redownload it.Tried that and it comes up the same.

I'v downloaded a tv series,paid for it, its in my itunes but with exclamation marks next to it, every time it tries to download the series it says "part of the file seems to be corrupted" and tells me to redownload it.Tried that 8 times and it comes up the same. What do I do?

Clear the contents of ...iTunes\iTunes Media\Download and try one more time.
If the problem recurs use the "report a problem" links in your account history and explain what has happened so far. There may be a problem with the source rather than your download of it.
tt2

Iphoto photos not opening get black exclamation mark

iphoto photos not opening get black exclamation mark when open thumbnails

Not sure what you meant by "missing till" but all of the photos and movies are there. I concluded that searching for several photos by their file name and then opening them with Preview.
I'm pretty certain that I only used the Picasa desktop app to test using the Picasa web service for some family photos. I don't think I used it to edit any photos in the iPhoto library but I suppose it's possible that I did without really thinking about it.
Why to I have tiffs? - As far as I know I don't. They are all jpg or mov files. I can't imagine why that error dialog said I was missing a tiff.
I just noticed based upon your suggestion to review the package contents. I have folders for Modified and Originals which I've seen before. But I also have folders for Photos - Modified and Photos - Original. I haven't seen those last two before. Moreover, all but 6 of my latest photos are in those last two folders. iPhoto can show me their thumbnails but can't open them. iPhoto can open the 6 photos in the "Original" folder. I didn't notice that before because they represent a very small portion of my library and I didn't select the right photos.
iPhoto Library Manager could see only those 6 photos in the Original folder. There are none in "Modified". So iPLM obviously can't see the photos in Photos - Modified or in Photos - Original. Looking at the Info for these two folders, I see they were created on January 7, well more than a month before I downloaded Picasa. Somehow all but 6 of my photos got moved to these new folders. I must have done something to cause this but I have no clue what.
Sorry this is so long but usually details are important. Do you recommend that I use the Merge Libraries function in iPLM?
Thanks!

When I view "On this iPod" on my iTunes, nearly half my songs have an exclamation mark next to them. Does this mean I have to go back, download these songs again and upload them to my iPod again?

I've never had this problem before but today, when I connected my iPod to my computer and uploaded some new music to it, I finished and ejected the iPod properly but about 6GB of music was missing. So I connected it again and when I went on to "On This iPod", the songs that were missing were named on there but had an exclamation mark next to them. Why is this and how do I fix it?

I posted this in the iPhone forum seeing someone had an issue there about this. I had the exact same issue but with my iPad. It was really annoying. I had to delete all the songs in iTunes that it thought were still on my iPad, but weren't. Then I was able to manually put the songs back onto the iPad. If I didn't delete the songs with the exclamation point, then the syncing was very slow and sometimes would freeze when "waiting for changes to be applied".
About a third of my music was deleted (about 6GB) and so were some of my videos. I updated to the most recent iTunes too. I've never had this issue before and did take a lot of time. I'm running Windows 8.1 (I know - has many issues) and I wondered if that maybe did something?
I don't think you have any option than to delete the songs with the exclamation points and put them back on the device. Hopefully Apple will figure out the issue - ios 7.0.3 or the new iTunes.

I keep getting an exclamation mark next to music i purchased how do i get my music restored

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