Itunes all of a sudden can't find original file

A few months ago, I moved my itunes library to an external hard drive. It has all been working fine for the most part. Every once in a while, it will say that an original file could not be found, but then it works later.
Today, my husband was trying to put songs on his new ipod, and over half the songs he tried to listen to wouldn't play. It kept saying the original file could not be located.
Can someone help me understand why all of a sudden all these songs would just quit working?

I have beem having the same problem. I even created another user on my PC but developed the same situation! ARGH!

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Itunes won't play because can't find original file

On my itunes main page, there are now several "!" next to most of my songs. When I click on the song to play it, it says "the song can't play because original file can't be found. Would I like to locate it?" I go thru that step and click on the file that is stored on my external hard drive(which is connected) and then it plays. The problem is I don't have the patience or time to do that for 1000+ songs. It has worked fine up until the last couple of months. Any ideas? Thanks....

If your iTunes library is stored on an external drive, then that drive must have the same drive-letter every time and it must be "ready" before iTunes starts up. If not, iTunes will change the location it thinks the library should be to the default (C:/My Music/...) which will then mean that it cannot find your songs.
Phil

Itunes can not find original file so wont let me play?

I recently got a new computer and not all of my songs on my hard drive were moved over. When I am in itunes it wont let me play some songs and says it can not locate original file. I can play and download them fine on my ipad. But I want it on my desktop. Help????

From what you said clearly the original file is still on the old computer. You need to move things from there properly or if it is too late to do that then hopefully you can download it again.
Downloading (using iOS or computer) past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2519 - enabled with iTunes 10.3 and newer; not all media formats are available in all countries (see: iTunes in the Cloud, iTunes Match, and iTunes Radio availability by country - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5085); apps, books (not audiobooks), music, t.v. shows, and movies (some - not all studios have permitted this). 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 (e.g., ringtones, audiobooks, alert tones), or locations or computer systems where iCloud is not (yet?) available, you only get one download per fee paid. Apple recommends, "... back up your iTunes library. " (http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2519).

HELP!!! Aperture can't find original files!

Help!!! I imported a 64 Gig SD Card into Aperture for an engagement shoot. It imported the files, about 2,000 CR2 files. I had to clear the SD card to do another shoot. When I returned to Aperture, it shows a thumbnail of the file, but yellow exclamation point saying ORIGINAL IMAGE NOT FOUND!!! I'm guessing Aperture tried saving original files to the SD card and NOT my hard drive. When I was clearing the card, highlighted the files and put them in the trash on my IMAC. Then I emptied the trash. I also re-formatted the card on my Canon. So... I have downloaded Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery, Data Rescue 3, and ISkysoft Data Recovery to see if they will either recover files I emptied from my trash, OR recover the files on the SD card. I can't find the files! To this point, this my best work as a photographer. I'm mortified! If someone will help me I will be indebted to you forever. Thank you!

If you really deleted the files, there is little hope, but data recovery.
If you have you not restarted your mac, since you imported the images, don't do it., before checking the caches. Sometimes Aperture will write to the $TMPDIR, if the drive it trying to write to gets offline during import.
Check these system folders, if youcan find any cr2 files:
Quit Aperture.
Open a Terminal window and enter the following two line:
open $TMPDIR
This will open a Finder window with cryptically named folders. Dive into them and look for Aperture's Media cache folder. Are there any image files in the folder "com.apple.Aperture"?
Sometimes Aperture will write to that directory, if it cannot write to the Aperture library.
Also check the following location:
open /tmp
Can you find any images in the these two caches?
When I returned to Aperture, it shows a thumbnail of the file, but yellow exclamation point saying ORIGINAL IMAGE NOT FOUND!!! I'm guessing Aperture tried saving original files to the SD card and NOT my hard drive.
Are you using Aperture 3.5.1?
This version will tell you, where the missing originals should be, when you select the thumbnails and use the command "File > Show in Finder". When I try this, I get a panel showing the path to the missing original. Does that really point to a file on your SD card?
What are your Import settings in Aperture? What is set in the "Store files" option? "In the Aperture library " or something else?
-- Léonie

Songs imported into iTunes but can't play..can't find original file!

I just upgraded my desktop and had previously backed up my music library onto an external hard drive. well, on my new desktop, I installed the newest version of iTunes, then turned on my external hard drive, found my music and dragged it into library. I started playing some songs last night and all was well.
This morning, I went to listen to some songs from that same library and I am now getting the error message:
"[name of song] could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?"
Can someone tell me why this would happen, since it worked last night, and more importantly, how to find the "original files" on over 800 songs? I am hoping that when I copied my music from my old desktop, I also copied these original files that the error message seems to be referring to!
Any advice would be much appreciated, as I also did the same thing with my laptop and am unable to play music from there as well, as I am getting the same error message!

Is the external drive still plugged in?
If not, it is likely that you did not have "Copy to iTunes Music folder when adding to lirbary" check in iTunes Preferences>>Advanced tab.
If this is the case iTunes just copies pointers to the tracks, so if the drive isn't plugged, they are not available.
A simple way out of this is to pug in the drive, make sure things work, then consolidate your library. (an option in Files>>Library>>Organise...)
Consolidating copies all tracks in the library but not in the iTunes Music folder into the the iTunes Music folder.

For some reason itunes can't find original file for music. If I have purchased from Itunes do I have to re-purchase?

I keep losing music from my library because "itunes cannot locate original file". Why does my computer lose this? If I have purchased in itunes, can I copy again for free? how? Thanks.

kenfromoshawa wrote:
I keep losing music from my library because "itunes cannot locate original file". Why does my computer lose this?
If you are losing music which can mean the database in iTunes is not stable. Maybe you should do under File > Library > Organize Library > Consolidate Files.
Thanks and I did find the link, it now states that they have been downloaded but how do I copy thise files into my itunes or how does my itunes find those files? Again thank you for your help
Downloaded means you already have it in iTunes. If you've deleted them then you will see a cloud symbol. Click the cloud symbol and it will download into iTunes. (iCloud is your backup for all your purchased items)

ITunes: Missing Music Files & After Adding Songs It Says It Can't Find Original File

Hi Everyone
I use iTunes to manage my music and after the upgrade just yesterday (11.0.2 (26)), my iTunes library now shows exclamations next to tracks that it can't find anymore.
The tracks are on my external drive where I have always had them, and when I try to add a song back into the library and try to play it, it says it can't locate the original file and asks if I want to try and locate it.When I go back to locate it on my external drive, it does not show up anymore on my external drive. But when I eject my external drive and plug it back in, the folder track is there again on my external drive!!!!
Does anyone else have the same issue here please?

After weeks of working out what the problem was I finally found out. In my case I had recently purchased Paragon NTFS for Mac so that I could write to an NTFS formatted external hard drive. This was where the issue was when iTunes tried to write to the external drive where I keep my iTunes library and iTunes media folders. Every time I tried to download a song from iTunes, it could not write to my external drive and said that the file or folder was in use. The Paragon NTFS for Mac software 'driver' was causing this to happen and as soon as I turned the driver off on the Paragon software admin tool, my problem was solved! Seemed like the driver was locking out iTunes when trying to write. So if anyone else has this issue, turn off the driver when using iTunes. If you are not running Paragon, then perhaps you have a similar conflict with another application.

ITunes can't find original files?

Hello, recently i get the following message when i click on any song in my iTunes library..
The song "Track 02" could not be used because the original file cannot be found. Would you like to locate it?" and then proceeds to add an exclamation point to the track and it cannot be played.
So my entire library is not found! and I did not move anything so i'm kind of confused.
Does anyone know how to locate the files? How do i change things so that iTunes will always find the files?
Thank you!

Ideally you would have reassigned the drive letters as soon as you noticed the problem, but if you've already started remapping some of the songs use my FindTracks script to repair the others.
tt2

Itunes can't find original file for many songs

when i try to play certain songs in itunes, a box comes up saying, "the song could not be used b/c the original file could not be found." it happens to random songs and just started a few days ago. why is this happening?? help!
Windows XP
Windows XP

Something has happened, either you have moved the songs, changed the drive letter there on OR antivirus is "Playing around" with iTunes.
If you have moved the files, put them back EXACTLY like they were, If these songs are on an external drive, make sure windows did not change the drive letter.
Also try scanning the system with antivirus AND a malware scanner that scans for ad ware and spyware

HT4796 I completed a migration of my music and photos from a PC to my new mac. I have an error in music library that it can't find original files. Photos migrated fine. Where did the original files go?

I completed the migration of my music an dphotos files from a PC to my new imac. Both transferred initally and I even synced my ipad with the imac thereby transferring most of the music to my ipad. However now itunes says the music isn't available because it can't find the original music files. How can i find the original files? I am getting the same error on my pc too.

They aren't in your user Music folder? Have You tried Spotlight?
Also see this thread:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/20538346#20538346

Can't find original file?

For about half of the songs in my library, iTunes says it can't find the original file, and consequently I have to go manually dig through the iTunes music folder looking for the desired song if I want to play it. It should be apparent why this would be a problem for a music library of 5000+ songs. Anyone else see this problem?

I have 5000+ songs with no problems. Did someone move some of your files around, opened iTunes, then moved them back? Does iTunes manage your files?
Jules

Can't find original files after uploading photos through iPhoto

I'm a recent "convert," and yesterday I uploaded some pictures directly through iPhoto for the first time. Then I tried to log onto Facebook to create a photo album and couldn't find the original photos in my "Pictures" file or anywhere else. I found I could access the "iPhoto Library" option but it distorted my photos by zooming in on the faces of people in the picture!
Where are my original files?

iPhoto used to place the photos in a standard directory "iPhoto Library" but this has now become a package, which hides access to the contents--just like in many applications--to keep you from rearranging them. You (or I) cannot directly access the contents but the "package" is just a specially marked directory. If you know a filename of one of the pictures or albums then you can search for that and it will find the file/photo. Then you have access to the directory and can go up, down, or over. It uses the same names in several of them.
The head shots you are seeing may be the "Faces" feature of the new iPhoto. They will be in a separate directory, as well as directories for original, modified, and others. Interesting, it did not find the photo names on the backup disk. Differing degrees of hiddenness? You can get there with Terminal. This is what I found in mine--notice the thumbnails used in album views:
2001 Dir.data Thumb64Segment.data
2002 Library.data ThumbJPGSegment.data
2003 Library.iPhoto face.db
2004 Library6.iPhoto face_blob.db
2005 Library6.iPhoto.bak iPhoto Selection
2006 Metadata Backup iPhoto.ipspot
AlbumData.xml Modified iPhotoAux.db
AlbumData2.xml Originals iPhotoLock.data
Auto Import Roll 249 iPhotoMain.db
Data Roll 251
Data.noindex ThemeCache
Your best bet is to select the photos you want and export them where you can have the JPEGs.
After import, I export so I can use shootShifter to adjust the names to be their exposure dates in yymmdd hrmise format. (You did set the camera's date.)
-Ken

All of a sudden, can't find the firefox tab(with arrow)to view bookmarks, history,etc

'''bold text'''
At the upper left corner there used to be a firefox tab with an arrow. When clicked, we could find our history tab, bookmark tab,etc. It is now missing.

Please give the following a try, in order, until resolved:
Turn AirPort (OS X) on & off: You do this via the AirPort icon on the OS X menu bar.
Make sure your internal AirPort card's firmware is up to date: You can check by going to the Software Update menu.
Delete and recreate your wireless connection in System Preferences > Network.
Create a new Network Location in System Preferences > Network. Log off / log on, and then, try using the new location.
Change the DHCP auto setting to manual on the Mac via System Preferences > Network > Wireless. Manually enter an IP address outside of the DHCP range in use. For example if your AirPort is providing IP addresses in the 10.0.1.2 - 10.0.1.200 range (the default), choose 10.0.1.201 for your Mac. Also enter the appropriate DNS servers on the DNS tab.
Flush the DNS cache: Lauch Terminal and enter the following: dscacheutil - flushcache
Reset the PRAM: Reboot your Mac and hold down the Command+Option+P+R keys during restart until you hear a second chime, then let the Mac boot as usual.
Delete the wireless configuration files: Go to ~/Library/Preferences. Delete com.apple.interntconfigpriv.plist and com.apple.internetconfig.plist. Reboot your Mac.
Delete your Home directory's SystemConfiguration folder: Go to /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/. Move the SystemConfiguration folder to the desktop. Restart your Mac. (Note: OS X will rebuild the files that are now sitting on your desktop. If this doesn't resolve the issue, you can move the folder back to it's original location.)
Finally, try resetting your Mac's System Management Controller (SMC): Shutdown the MacBook Pro, remove the battery, disconnect from power (if connected), and then, hold down the power button for 15 seconds. Replace the battery, reconnect to power, and then, reset the PRAM (per the previous step).

After transfer to new computer iTunes can't find original files-won't play

I transferred my iTunes from my old computer to my new one using the protocol described in iTunes help; using my iPod as a hard disk. My iPod is configured for windows and the new and old computers are windows based.
The problems:
Most but not all of my songs were transferred
- Many songs appearing in the iTunes library
will not play displaying the message, "iTunes cannot play selected songs because it cannot fing the orignial file Would you like to locate it?". Trying to locate the file does not help.
- My playlists, although transferred, are incomplete
dell Windows XP
dell Windows XP
dell Windows XP

Thanks Brian Cook4! I was approacing this problem from a whole different direction, but your advice set me straight. A little more work than I was hoping for, but it solved my problem. Thanks Again

Anti-virus program wants to delete all of compressed inbox, can't find offending file.

Here's the message I get. Norton wants to delete entire compressed inbox and sent folders. Don't want to lose my entire inbox.
Unresolved Threats:
Risks in compressed file "Inbox"
Type: Compressed
Risk: High (High Stealth, High Removal, High Performance, High Privacy)
Categories: Virus
Status: Not Attempted
1 File
[documentattached.exe] inside of [documentattached.7z] inside of [unknown1d06fe7e.data] inside of [c:\users\...- Not Attempted
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Type: Compressed
Risk: High (High Stealth, High Removal, High Performance, High Privacy)
Categories: Virus
Status: Not Attempted
1 File
[documentattached.exe] inside of [documentattached.7z] inside of [unknown033a93b2.data] inside of [c:\users\paul\... - Not Attempted

Do not let your anti-virus s/w scan your Thunderbird profile folder. This would be asking for trouble, as you're finding out the hard way.
To locate your profile folder:<br>
AppMenu button - Help - Troubleshooting Information - Profile Directory - Open Directory
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http://kb.mozillazine.org/Thunderbird_:_FAQs_:_Backing_Up_and_Restoring

Itunes all of a sudden can't find original file

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