ITunes 10 can't locate some songs on my Windows7/64bit pc

The title says it all: after downloading and installing the new iTunes 10 onto my Windows 7 64bit pc, some songs in my playlists can't be located -- I am prompted to locate them manually. Once I locate the song manually, iTunes then creates a new folder at the same level as the older folder with a shorter name and moves the located file to that directory. For example: 'Academy of St.Martin in the Fields & Sir Neville Mariner' is recreated as 'Academy of St.Martin in the Fields & Si'. Likewise the album name is truncated from 'The Complete Mozart Edition_The Serenades For Orchestra, Vol. 2' is truncated to 'The Complete Mozart Edition_The Serenad'.
I have now about 1000+ 'missing' items in my playlists even though they exist where they have existed before.

Katrina:
Here is the path from the Where: field in the Get Info dialog box:
file://localhost/Z:/iTunes/Music/Academy of St. Martin in the Fields & Si/The Complete Mozart Edition_ The Serenad/1-04 Serenade in D, K. 203_ III. Men.m4p
Here is the actual path to the song in Windows:
Z:\iTunes\Music\Academy of St. Martin in the Fields & Sir Neville Marriner\The Complete Mozart Edition_ The Serenades for Orchestra, Vol. 2\1-04 Serenade in D, K. 203_ III. Menuetto.m4p
My Z drive is a network drive connected physically to my Air Port router.
The 'Keep iTunes Media folder organized' option is set to off right now, but I believe it was set to on at the time I noticed the problem for the first time and I set it to off manually. Whether it is on or off I experience the same problem -- the songs are not found.

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ITunes can't locate some of my music... seems random... some was purchased, other songs from my CDs. Also, it won't sync some that were purchased to my iPhone even though it shows in my iTunes. What to do?

iTunes shows quite a few songs that it can't locate. Some were songs that were purchased, others are from my CDs... not the entire album, just some of the songs. The songs still show up on my iPhone from previous syncs. Also, I purchased some that I've put in a playlist and it plays fine on my computer, though it won't sync to my phone. The others that I've purchased in the same manner do, just not that one. I've tried adding it elsewhere, I have deleted it and re-downloaded it... yet it still won't show up on my phone when I attempt to sync it. This has all occured since I've updated it to iOS 7. Any advice to remedy this is greatly appreciated.

Not sure how this is an ipod touch question.
Perhaps you should post in the itunes forum.

ITunes can't locate some files after HD swap

I've just transferred my files from an old external HD, to a new one. these files included some music from my iTunes Library. this is a hassle - but i've got my music split up into two parts on my internal drive, and the rest on an external drive...
I suspected this maybe a problem - but i've renamed the new external HD to have exactly the same volume name as the old one - i thought that this would keep iTunes working fine. i have some of my songs that are on the external HD working fine - iTunes didn't have a problem with them. but others that are on the external HD get the "!" next to them - and the old "original file cannot be found" message.
I am sure that the files are in there... i just added them to my iTunes Library after i'd moved then to my old external HD. then i had to move everything to the new external HD. i have manually located some of the songs.. and they're right in the same location as they were when i added them. this is strange...
I also tried moving the iTunes Library and the .xml file out of ~/Music/iTunes/ folder, then started up iTunes again (resulting in an empty library). then i tried to Import that .xml file - but i got the error:
"Some of the songs in the file "iTunes Music Library.xml" were not imported because they could not be found."
I opened up the .xml file in TextEdit and it lists the full path to each song. so i'm thinking - if somehow there's any differences or errors in the path names, i could use the "find & replace" function of TextEdit to fix it... well i'll keep working on it. i was wondering if anyone here knows what's happening? especially regarding why some songs on that external HD would still play fine in iTunes, and other "can't be found".
and sorry for the long post - i hope i've explained this properly. just ask if you're a bit confused. :P
EDIT>>
okay - i think i've found my problem...
i had re-named my old drive, after i changed the name of my new drive to what the old drive previously was, so i didn't get confused. but i must have opened up iTunes along the way somewhere... i've checked the .xml file and some of the file paths have the name from my old, re-named HD. i've been doing a find and replace in TextEdit - so hopefully that will fix it all.

There is a better way to do this: use the File > Add To Library command. But first you should open iTunes Prefs > Advanced and deselect the "copy files to iTunes Music folder..." option and the "keep iTunes music folder organize" option.
After you have done this use the Add To Library command to get iTunes to recognize your music again.

ITunes can't find some songs - can anybody help?

(I'm reposting this question because the thread it was in was marked as "Answered" - but it wasn't answered, and nobody was replying.)
My iTunes library was on an external drive, and it was working just fine. Then there were some problems with the external drive, so I bought a new external drive and loaded the entire iTunes library onto it. (I followed Apple's instructions for doing this.)
I set preferences to use the iTunes folder on the new external drive. When I launched iTunes, all the music appears, as do all of the playlists that I created. It looked like everything was OK with the new hard drive - until I looked more closely and saw exclamation points next to some of the songs in my music library.
Here is the problem: iTunes says it "can't find" the locations of about 5% of the songs in my library (that's about 300 songs). Those are the songs with the exclamation points next to them. When I try to play them, iTunes says it can't find the file.
If I click on one of the "lost" songs to try to play it, iTunes presents a dialog box that lets me navigate my way to that song to show iTunes where it is, and then iTunes can play it. Theoretically this is a solution, but I don't want to do that for about 300 songs - it would take hours.
All of the "lost" songs are in my iTunes music folder. There doesn't seem to be anything unusual or unique about the lost songs.
I searched Apple's support pages for help on this, and I searched this forum (iTunes for Mac), and I couldn't find an answer. It looks like a fairly common problem - I see other posts with similar problems, but I haven't seen a solution yet.
Any ideas what causes this? And (more importantly) any suggestions for how to get iTunes to recognize the location of those songs with the exclamation points?

The suggestions that I received didn't solve my problem, but they did result in a duplication of my entire library - and I didn't relish the thought of deleting 6100 duplicate songs, one-by-one. I finally solved both problems by rebuilding the iTunes library. It was pretty easy to do, and it cleaned things up quite well.
There is an Apple tech support document that describes how to do this, but it's a bit hard to find. If you search for "rebuild iTunes library", you won't find it. You have to search for "re-create iTunes library" with a hyphen stuck in the middle of the word recreate. Then you will find this link...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451
...which guides you step-by-step through the process of rebuilding the iTunes library. This got rid of duplicates, it re-established broken links, and it found a few songs that for some reason had not been in the previous library.

ITunes Can't find Some Songs?

Hey guys - I had my Ext HD damaged and had to get a new one. I had my library and everything else important backed up (I keep all files on an ext HD to keep my computer HD free of crap). I didn't lose anything. When I opened iTunes and directed it to my new location it failed to find about 1/3 of my library. It looks like all of my data including ratings, play counts, etc are all there. The only issue is when I get to a song it can't find I have to manually direct it back to that file. What confuses me is it had no problem with songs in the same album, so they are in the same file. It seems very arbitrary as to what it did and did not locate.
My question is, I can go through each song individually and point iTunes towards it. There has to be a way to do this in bulk. Anyone have an idea? There seems to be no problem with the library, files, folders, etc.
Thanks for the help.

I had the exact same problem. My iTunes library was on an external drive. It was working just fine. Then there were some problems with the external drive, so I got a new external drive and loaded the entire iTunes library onto it.
I used iTunes preferences to direct it to the iTunes folder on the new external drive. Then I pressed the Option key while starting up iTunes to also redirect it to the iTunes folder on the external because (for reasons I can't fathom) setting the folder location in preferences wasn't enough.
I have the same problem as zblom (original poster) - but only with about 5% of the songs in my library. About 95% of my songs have no problem. But there's an exclamation point next to about 5% of them, and when I try to play them, iTunes says it can't find the file. I've navigated my way to a few of the songs and then iTunes can find it. But I don't want to do that for about 300 songs - that would take hours.
Any ideas what causes this? And (more importantly) any suggestions for how to get iTunes to recognize the location of those songs with the exclamation points?

ITunes can't locate some files that are right where they should be

I'm using iTunes 12 for Windows. I keep a huge iTunes library at home on a mapped NAS share and the same library at work on a local drive. Every week on Monday I sync my entire iTunes folder from home to an external drive and then bring that external drive to work and sync it to my local drive there. (Note: This is a one way sync; I never sync in the other direction.) This system has worked flawlessly for six years.
Within the last six weeks, I've started to get error messages on my work system saying that many (>1600) media files of various types cannot be located. I assumed corruption was the issue so I deleted my entire 500GB iTunes folder and re-copied everything back over. Not just the media files. Everything. The problem persists and I cannot figure out why.
I have confirmed that iTunes on the work computer is referencing the correct iTunes library file. I have confirmed that iTunes is pointing to the correct iTunes folder. I have confirmed that the "missing" iTunes files are right where they should be. (I have always had iTunes set to move imported media into the iTunes folder so there is no stray media floating around on either system. And I have iTunes set to organize the media.)
It is worth noting that I started seeing this around the time when I upgraded to iTunes 12. When I upgraded to iTunes 12 I had to change the path to my home library from "\\<NAS>\iTunes\iTunes Music" to "M:\iTunes\iTunes Music" due to a bug in iTunes that created iPhone syncing issues if the iTunes library is on a network drive. But I can't figure out why this would matter. The path on the work computer is correct and all media files are there.
Ideas? I just don't understand how deleting everything and starting over doesn't solve the issue since there is NO issue at home.

Thanks again for your help with this, tt2. (I keep wanting to call you "Alan".)
I totally botched the repair process, including my library and media collection, four different times. If not for the fact that I had a complete, up-to-date copy of my library and all media files I would be completely scr3wed right now. I'm going to outline the mistakes I made for the benefit of those who might reference this thread in the future.
A big part of my struggle was the underlying assumptions I was making about how the iTunes database is maintained and tracked. It is not the same as the digital asset managers I use for work—Lightroom, for example. I really had to quit thinking for myself and pay attention to what tt2 wrote about the way the iTunes db works in the link he provides earlier in this thread about making split libraries portable.
The biggest mistake I made is failing to understand that after you move the iTunes library files (but not the media files) to a new iTunes drive or directory outside of the existing iTunes folder and then shift-click to open that relocated library in iTunes you have to set the iTunes Media folder location (in preferences>advanced) to the empty iTunes Media folder in the NEW iTunes folder. You do NOT set it (or leave it) pointed to the old iTunes Music/Media folder where your files [may] actually reside before consolidation. This mistake can make a bad situation much worse.
Finally, I did not have a split library in the sense that my media files were outside of my iTunes Media folder. Because of this, when I incorrectly pointed the new iTunes library to the old iTunes Media folder and then consolidated I created 9,936 duplicate files. I had a complete back up which made eliminating the duplicate files a simple process. Without the backup I would have been in trouble.
So...to fix my problem I followed tt2's instructions and did this:
Backed up my entire M:\iTunes folder including libraries and media files. If everything goes well, this backup will not be touched.
Created a new A:\iTunes folder plus an empty A:\iTunes\iTunes Media folder.
Moved everything from M:\iTunes to A:\iTunes EXCEPT for the iTunes Music* folder. (*It was the new iTunes 9 and later hierarchy but with the old name.)
Shift-Clicked to open iTunes and selected the iTunes library inside A:\iTunes.
Once iTunes was open I went to Edit>Preferences>Advanced and made the empty A:\iTunes\iTunes Media the location of my media.
Went to File>Library>Organize Library and choose "consolidate". After hours of file copying, my issue was resolved. A:\iTunes is portable.
Confirmed that the new A:\iTunes library correctly links to all media in the A:\iTunes\iTunes Media folder and then deleted the M:\iTunes directory with the old M:\iTunes\iTunes Music folder inside.
NOTE: It bears repeating that the problem solved was that I could not move my old M:\iTunes folder to a different workstation w/o breaking some of the links. However all the links worked fine in the M:\iTunes location. If this were not the case then this solution will not resolve anything.

Itunes can't copy some songs to my ipod

So I keep getting a warning from itunes that it can't copy 3 songs from my library to my ipod. This is what the error says word for word.
"Some of the items in the iTunes library were not copied to the iPod because one or more errors occurred." It than lists the 3 songs that weren't transfered. The weird thing is that they songs were originally on my ipod but since I lowered the bitrate of all my songs, now they can't be on my ipod. It's weird because I've never had this issue until I changed the bitrate. And the songs that are giving me troubles are songs from different albums and different means of getting them. One was from a CD, the other from digital download and the other was from iTunes it's self. So... their good songs and I miss listening to them. What do I do?

Hello the_atm
If the songs are having issues syncing to your iPod, see if you can create a new version of the songs in either MP3 or AAC format and then sync it across again. You said one of the songs was a purchase from iTunes, try deleting the songs and then download it again if it will not convert.
iTunes: How to convert a song to a different file format
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1550
How to delete content you've downloaded from the iTunes Store, App Store, iBooks Store, or Mac App Store
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5772
Download past purchases
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2519
Regards,
-Norm G.

Itunes can't locate purchased songs

I'm trying to sync my library to my phone and I get an error message saying that it can not locate songs, including ones I purchased from Itunes.
I found the songs in my account, but I can't figure out a way to download them again.
The account thinks that the songs are already on this computer.
Suggestions?
Thanks.

Hello JKEdison,
There are a couple of methods that can potentially get your music back into place. One would be to remove the existing (missing) entries, then re-download the content from the iTunes Store. The second, and likely easiest, would be to remove the existing library altogether, import its contents to a new library, then download the remaining content from the iTunes Store.
Method 1:
Deleting files from the iTunes library and your computer
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3842
Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2519
Method 2:
After quitting iTunes, browse to the location of your iTunes Library, and move it to the Desktop. Then follow the following article for steps on creating a new library. Once the new library is created drag the 'iTunes Media' (and 'iTunes Music' folder, if it exists) folder on top of the iTunes window (that should now be displaying a new, blank library). Once the import process is complete, remove the iTunes Library folder from the Desktop, and download remaining content from the iTunes Store.
iTunes: How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1589
Cheers,
Allen

ITunes can't find some songs after update

So I've read a bit about this and it's happened to me now. I did the recent iTunes upgrade and now random song files can't be found. The " ! "shows up here and there. Now when I search for that particular song, I can find and play it. It's just that maybe it was renamed or something? I cannot manually do this since I have almost 40,000 songs on a separate HD. 99% ripped from my CD collection.
Why or how does this happen? I've been adding to my iTunes HD for 7 years or so and this was the first time this has happened.
Anyway I read a few suggestions and so I just deleted all the music from itunes BUT saved the files and now adding all of them back which will probably take 10-15 hours. It says "organizing files" wil it's a very long haul.
Will this work and will iTunes then again know where all of my songs are?

Well I researched and had to "delete" the 40,000 songs from my itunes list BUT saved the files. It took 20 hours for them to repair and then were fixed in one place with no "!" What a pain.

ITunes can't locate my songs so I can transfer to ipod/iphone...

Hi!
I can see list of songs in my iTunes but it has exclamation mark(!) in every song and can't play them. I can't sync them either to my ipod/iphone due to this.
I think it has something to do with displaced itunes folder, but i don't know how to fix that. Please help.
JC

You can try this, called DFU mode:
1. Close iTunes.
2. Connect your iPhone to your computer and then launch iTunes.
3. Turn your iPhone off (hold down the power button at the top of the iPhone).
4. Then, hold down the sleep/wake button and home button together for EXACTLY 10 SECONDS, then release the sleep/wake button.
5. Continue to hold down the Home button until a message appears in iTunes telling you an iPhone in recover mode has been detected. When you are in DFU mode your iPhone screen will be completely black. Remember that if you see the restore logo, iTunes logo, or any message on the iPhone screen, you are not in DFU mode but standard Recovery Mode.
6. Hit the OK message that should popup to restore your phone.
If that doesn't work, you'll have to go elsewhere for help.
Good luck.

ITunes Can't Find SOME Songs on External HD

I have over 29,000 songs on an external hard drive (I drive). For no reason that I can determine, about half of the songs in my library suddenly have an ! next to them. Clicking on these songs gives me the "file not found" message. When I search for the song, it IS on my hard drive, and once I click on that song, it plays with no problem.
I haven't done the math....but if I have to do this for EVERY individual song that has the ! icon....it's going to take me forever!!
Any way to "refresh" your entire library on your hard drive at one time so that iTunes once again recognizes them?

Same exact problem here!!--15,000 songs on an external hard drive and well over half are inaccessible. Interestingly, the "file not found" message seems to be album specific (i.e., if a given song file is not found, all the songs in that albums folder are also not found). I haven't as yet checked out whether this issue applies to all albums for a given artist. Like the original poster, the prospect of having to re-locate each individual song is more than a little daunting. I too am looking for some way to properly restore all song linkages en masse.

Itunes can't locate purchased songs even after re-downloaded from itunes

Hello,
I had lost some of my data and with the help of this forum I was able to find my purchase history and re-download 580 songs to my computer but when I go to itunes alot of the items I just downloaded are not located by itunes? Did I miss something? Please help.
Thank You.

I just bought an iMac and am having trouble getting my iTunes transferred over from my PC. Is there a faster way than transferring the songs to my external hard drive, then to the Mac? Also when I signed in as myself to iTunes on the Mac, I bought a couple of songs from iTunes and now it won't allow me to play them. It asks me to authorize the computer and then says it was successful. But then it goes through the same thing motions each time on the same song. I can't play them at all and I bought them on the Mac TODAY! I have only had one iTunes account, so that isn't the issue...any idea what I can do? Is this going to happen with all of my songs? Also it says I authorized 3 other computers to use my iTunes but I have no idea aside from my PC how that occured and how to undo it. Any help would be appreciated....

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 songs

First to mention that updating ITunes to 7 version I lost the entire library and all my songs from IPod, major inconvenience before going in a holiday…obviously I hate ITunes now.
Anyway, coming back from the holiday I tried to access ITunes again and when I try to play a song it asks me if I want to locate the file. I didn’t move my music in an different location. I’m thinking to uninstall it and try to add all the music again but with 120G of music is really time consuming as it would not consolidate, I don’t know why, and also I tried to add all the music folder and would add only about 20G and the rest I had to drag and drop.
Please somebody help me.

Two directions one can go with iTunes. 1) Let it do things as it wants to (99% of users) and sit back and mostly not worry about it, but you have to not, errr, mess with it or do anything out of the ordinary. 2) Learn how iTunes functions and uses files and then do things as you want because you know what to do and how in order to not upset it.
Things not to do in case 1). Do not move files manually. Do not rename or move anything in the iTunes folder. If something was outside of the iTunes folder and you added it, it will place a copy in the iTunes folder and leave the original in place. Do not add it again or you may end up with a duplicate. Once you have verified iTunes did place a copy in the iTunes folder (highlight a track, press command+r to reveal it in Finder and check it is in the media folder it should be), trash the original.
Compiling takes the files already added to iTunes and organizes them as set in the preferences. It won't find files not added.
If you add files, then bring over more copies of the same and add them again, it will generate duplicates. I suspect multiple ripping will do the same (never done that).
Don't be fooled by duplicates. Make sure they really are. iTunes may call something a duplicate if it is the same track on two LPs (unless you use exact duplicate view), or maybe a live version and studio version with the same name. Unless a script takes you through them one by one so you can call it, I don't really use them.
There's a Dougscript that will wander through folders looking for music and add it to iTunes.
How to Consolidate Your iTunes Library and Keep It Organized - http://www.switched.com/2010/11/02/itunes-consolidate-library-keep-organized/
What actions take place when itunes "consolidate library" is used?

ITunes can't locate the songs that I bought from the iTunes store on my new computer

I just got a new computer today and I backed up all my songs from old computer onto an external hard drive. When I sent my songs over onto my new computer and freshly downloaded iTunes, the songs that I actually purchased from the iTunes store won't play. It says that the item cannot be located.

Hello, brandma4.
More than likely iTunes was set to read the media on the external drive. If this is the case and the drive is not connected when attempting to play music, you will receive these alerts. The other possibly is that iTunes is not directed to where you placed the media on the computer. Here are the best troubleshooting articles that direct you on how to correct this issue.
iTunes: Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
Cheers,
Jason H.

ITunes 10 can't locate some songs on my Windows7/64bit pc

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