ITunes can't locate music files

Any music that was copied into my iTunes music folder cannot be located. Anytime that I try to play the file from iTunes, it shows an error message, requests that I locate the file, and then proceeds to tell me that I need to format my hard drive. When I try to open my iTunes music folder directly, my computer freezes and then after 10 minutes informs me that my hard drive needs to be formatted. I never had this problem until I downloaded the new version of iTunes. This is only going on with music I have copied into my iTunes folder, which is all the CDs I have or had. Many of these CDs I no longer physically have. I have tried to use a previous iTunes library to fix the problem. I have also moved my preferences files to the desktop as suggested in another thread, but neither have worked. I am not having any other problems with my computer that would encourage me to format my hard drive besides this issue. I would appreciate any help possible with this predicament.
Compaq Presario V2000 Windows XP AMD 64, 60GB

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ITunes can't locate music files THAT I CAN

Last night, when I opened iTunes, each song I clicked on gave me a "!" next to it, followed by this message:
"The song XYZ could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?"
Well, I know exactly where the song is, which is where all the songs are and have been for some time on my LaCie external drive. They are, in fact, still there. When I go to a music file through the Finder and double-click the file name, it plays--through iTunes--and is recognized by iTunes thereafter. I could do this for all 2,500 songs, but I have a life to live in the next three to four years.
Why is this happening and, more importantly, what can be done about it?

this can also happen anytime the external drive is not available... i have 1/2 my library on an external drive and whenever the power goes out in my neighborhood, iTunes temporarilly looses the link to the external drive... my neighborhood was built in the 1920s, and the power goes out many times a year... i use an old powerbook for my iTunes computer, which i keep plugged into my stereo... when the power hiccups, the external drive goes down, but the powerbook continues on it's battery... if iTunes or the external drive get too confused by going up and down, then i just powercycle the external drive and reboot my powerbook and everything has normally gone back to normal... the power issues are part of the reason i wanted to keep as much as i could on the internal powerbook drive... and i keep everything backed up...
anyway, i'll try you suggestion for the "option" on launch... i had to replace my external drive which finally died (from 2001)... so now i need to relink the files back to iTunes, hopefully not manually since i have about 2500 files to fix... i did copy all the files from the internal disc to the new external drive and merged the libraries, then tried using the iTunes preferences to point to the folder in the external drive... but that didn't work in my case... it still sees 1/2 of the files still in the internal drive and still has "!" for all the files on the external drive...
for tlee61, this makes me wonder if you might not need to check the iTunes preferences to see where it is looking for your files. if you set it up to store all files on the external disc, and it is set up to copy in the files to the iTunes library, then that option in the preference file for the library location might have gotten changed inadvertently... if you have iTunes set up to NOT copy in the files, and your files are in random locations on the external drive, that may be much harder to solve... i'm not positive of the best approach... i think there may be an option for iTunes to search the drives for music, like when someone installs/runs iTunes for the 1st time... but i'm not sure, off the top of my head, how to trigger that... i may be looking for that option if i can't seem to figure out another way to relink my files... but i'm afraid that it will try to either copy everything from the external drive to the internal drive, where there is no more space, or that it will try to copy the files on the internal drive to the external drive, where i've already merged the files (and eliminated some duplications)...
i very much want to keep all the metadata... so i'm hesitent to experiment blindly too much since i don't want to do something that "imports" all the songs, but looses all the metadata... in my case, it would be easier to relink the files manually than attempt to recreate all the metadata...
if i find a solution besides just manually relinking files, i'll let you know...
i expect there is a way to solve this...
luck to us both-

ITunes Can't Locate Original File - 7.7 error?

hoping someone out there can help me....
basically, I have 2 external hard drives. the first one is a 160GB hard drive, the second one is a 250GB hard drive. initially I had all of my music on the 160GB, but when it got too full I copied everything over on the 250GB drive, so I could add more music to it. everything's been working fine for 2 years on the 250GB drive until this weekend when all of the sudden, iTunes is now looking for the music on the old drive again, saying that it can't find the original file. the songs are all on the new drive, but for some reason it will only look for them on the old one. So - if I have BOTH drives on, everything works fine. If I turn the old drive off, iTunes can't locate 3/4 of my music. it's frustrating because all of the old stuff is on the new drive but iTunes won't see it. I've even tried copying some of the stuff from the old drive onto the new drive and itunes still seems to be looking for it the old drive even when I change the pathway to the new drive in the general preferences.
the only thing I can think of is:
1) buy a new larger drive and cut and paste everything onto it. not sure that that would fix it.
2) reinstall itunes, but I'm afraid of losing my settings and all of the movies,
apps, games I've bought etc.
anyone have any advice? is it a library file issue?

Yeah,
I've upgraded to 7.7 and have a large library of tracks on an external drive. I added them manually to the library - rather tedious, it took me about 3 days!
I was careful to choose the iTunes folder in the correct location and I chose to uncheck the "keep iTunes organised" box as it messes up where things are kept. I'm now starting to get ! against about 25% of the library. I really don't want to manually re-direct it to about 5,000 tracks. Is there any way this can be done en masse or is this a 7.7 bug?
This is a real pain. Can anyone help?
curly

Can't locate music files?

I have recently moved my iTunes library onto a network drive and iTunes is happily playing music from the new location.
In iMovie on the other hand all I get is "The song xxxxxxx could not be used because the original file could not be located.".
Surely iMovie uses the iTunes library reference to locate music files? What have I done wrong? How to I tell iMovie where to look for the music files?
Thanks.

I have recently moved my iTunes library onto a network drive and iTunes is happily playing music from the new location.
In iMovie on the other hand all I get is "The song xxxxxxx could not be used because the original file could not be located.".
Surely iMovie uses the iTunes library reference to locate music files? What have I done wrong? How to I tell iMovie where to look for the music files?
Thanks.

Updated my itouch gen 4 32g to Ios 5 and now itunes can't find music files

I did a search and could not find anything about my specific issue. I was hoping to get some help if possible.
So I did the update to IOS 5 and everything went fine..........except for one thing. I have all my music stored on an external hard drive so I changed the media folder location to my external drive. When I did the update IOS changed the location to "C:\users\name\music\itunes\itunes media folder". I figured this is why itunes could not find the files. So I switched it back to my external drive and it still could not find my music files. The weird thing is that I can sync it and it won't delete the music from my ipod. All of the music is still on the ipod but not on itunes. I know I can manually go in and find all the folders but I REALLY don't want to have to do that. I have done it before and it took 7 hours. Since I don't use all the files I can't just drag the library over and problem solved.
One other strange thing that happened: After I did the update I downloaded an app off of the the appstore in itunes. This is the first app that I downloaded off of itunes and not straight off my ipod. I then recieved an email from apple saying it had been downloaded on a computer or device not associated with my apple id (which makes no sense seeing how the id on my ipod is the same as on itunes).
If anyone has a suggestion on how to fix the music problem, I am all ears. Thanks.

Once a track is in your iTunes library, you should not touch it except through iTunes. But I guess you know that now.
iTunes, to answer your question, cannot "refresh." If you re-add those files to your library, iTunes is unable to match them with the existing library entries, and will create a bunch of duplicate entries. This is a longstanding shortcoming of iTunes (and the source of lots of traffic on this fourm).
If there are "too many to manually" reassociate, then starting over, in the sense of deleting and then re-adding, may be a good plan.

ITunes can't find music files

Somehow my iTunes library got messed up, though everything worked fine before. I think that something happened when I did an iTunes upgrade but I am not sure anymore.
The library file is at
-- C:\Documents and Settings\i080151\My Documents\My Music\iTunes
and all my music is at an external HD at
-- G:\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music
In iTunes under Advanced I set it to the right music location, it says
-- G:\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music
On a side note I also have a library file at
-- G:\My Documents\My Music\iTunes
and it is a few months old, when the problem started. In any case, if I remember right the library file needs to be where iTunes is installed itself, and that is on C:. The library file on C: is current.
So all my music is on G:, my library shows all that music, but when I try to play any song I get the exclamation mark and that message that iTunes could not find the file.
When I today add a new music file, say a podcast, it gets properly added to the G: drive, shows up in iTunes, and I can play it there. I also see that the file date of the library file on C: gets updated to when I added the new podcast. But none of the older music files play.
I am confused... can someone help?

Try this as a test - open iTunes and tell it to get the old library from G:
Here aer directions on how to do that - don't create a new library, just hold down the shift key while starting iTunes and browse out to that old library file.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iTunesWin/7.5/en/15502.html
Does it find the old songs with the old library?
Something else to check-
Do you have any old libraries with a date near when you upgraded?
As mentioned in this article
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301895

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 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 unable to locate music files saved on external drive

Hi all,
This is proabably something incredibly simple but my iTunes was installed on to my laptop wih music added till my memory was all used up.
So I bought an external drive, and re-added all my music saving it to the external drive, my iTunes however remained installed directly on my laptop.
This worked fine initially as long as my external drive was selected in the Preferences section of my Itunes, but recently all my albums are available but it says that Itunes is unable to locate the files, even though none of them have been lost or deleted from the external drive.
Ive tried everything I can think of - does anyone know how to rectify this?
Thanks....

I switched computers and tried to reload all my backed up itunes files. It loaded the files fine the first time. After I logged off the files disappeared from my Itunes. Apple tech told me to add itunes folder to library. It worked fine until i logged off again. I tried it several times because my files never stayed on itunes. Finnaly I added two new CD's into my library and I went to file Libray and I entered consolidated Library. This brought everything I had before and then some to my itunes library. I logged off, shutdown and even hibernated and my files still remain. I was able to create playlist, my movies, podcast, there all there. Hope this helps.

Moved iTunes library to Vista PC but iTunes 'can't find music files'. Help!

I'm running iTunes 7.1.1 on a new Vista PC and I followed the instructions on this support site for transferring the library using an iPod.
All songs (with artwork) are showing in the new PC's iTunes library, BUT all have a '!' symbol to the left and refuse to play. It offers to let me find them, but this would take hours for the thousands of tracks. I've tried consolidating but to no effect. All the music files are in the iTunes library folder, so why can't iTunes access them?
Can anyone help?

I'm running iTunes 7.1.1 on a new Vista PC and I
followed the instructions on this support site for
transferring the library using an iPod.
All songs (with artwork) are showing in the new PC's
iTunes library, BUT all have a '!' symbol to the left
and refuse to play. It offers to let me find them,
but this would take hours for the thousands of
tracks. I've tried consolidating but to no effect.
All the music files are in the iTunes library folder,
so why can't iTunes access them?
Can anyone help?
hi i to have a similar problem, i moved my music file for another problem i had and now it has removed all my files from itunes, albums and playlists as well, they are still on the pc and i have moved them back but i seem to have to start again, this will take weeks to do, i hope someone can help us.

Itunes can't locate original files for songs on my external harddrive

I recently added my music collection to a new computer from my external harddrive. At first everything worked great, now when i open itunes and try to play songs that are located on the harddrive the following error message pops up "The Song "xxxx" could not be used because the original file could not be located. Would you like to locate it?" I am able to locate the files one at a time, but i have over 12000 songs. I am wondering if there is a way to make itunes recognize that all of the songs it is looking for are located on the external harddrive. Any/all help is appreciated.

1)if you have an ipod than you are in luck. plug it in.
2)go to my computer and select your ipod.
3)click on search and DO NOT TYPE ANYTHING IN OR CLICK ON ANY THING.
4)you will be on the first page with the little charactor in the bottom left hand side of the page.
5)just click "OK" NOTHING ELSE!!!!!!!!
6)then click on search
7)when it is done searching, select all your music and PUT IT IN A FOLDER. any folder will be fine.
8)select all of the music in the new folder and drag and drop it in to itunes.
9)that is it but if you have any questons email me at [email protected]

Itunes can't locate my files

All my songs on Itunes display an exclamation point and message comes up song can't be used because original file cannot be located. this occurs even for my purchased music. Is there a fix or a way to get my music back?

The "missing file" thing 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. I can provide a step by step guide if you give me the two paths.
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

ITunes Unable to Locate Music File

I have a few hundred songs in iTunes that have been loaded over the years. Their source is CD's and iTunes. Tonight on an airplane, I was listening and noticed that I had red circles with red squares inside of them next to song titles. When I selected these, they were not available. This happened more and more as i selected different songs, eventually I was left with just a handful of songs. Immediately when I got home, I snyched to my computer and it said that there were items unable to synch because iTunes was unable to locate the original file. (it did restore a few but still over 100+ missing files). The titles are still listed.
However, I am unable to play any song in itunes on my computer. Just on my iPhone. When i ask it to loacte it directs me to a catroot file from 2009???
I have not added or removfed songs in weeks and it has been working fine (iPhone and computer) for months.Any help in finding these files or restoring them would be appreciated.

Use the iTunes command File > Add Folder to Library, and navigate to the folder containing the music.

ITunes can't locate music I have stored in the iCloud

I am experiencing the following problem. In iTunes some of my "songs" have an exclamation point beside them even though they are stored in the cloud. I see the dialog box that asks if I want to locate the music and I have found if I hit the cancel button, the music suddenly has a cloud icon and starts to play. This is weird, and I'd love to know how to fix this.
Thanks

Yes, you are correct. The songs are only stored in the iCloud. Which is what I want. I don't want to have all my library sitting on my iMac and in iCloud. Am I missing something?
There are plenty of songs on my hard drive with the iCloud symbol and they play without a problem. I also have some songs sitting on my hard drive. And they aren't a problem. THE PROBLEM is the tracks that have the exclamation mark and will play from the iCloud after I press "Cancel" in the "Locate" dialog box. I hope I'm explaining this clearly....

Itunes can't locate music + Trying to get into Apple Discussions

What's going on with the website for Apple Discussions?? Trying to get here is like jumping through a million hoops...what a pain.
Whenever I try to play a song in my Itunes library now, I am told the song can't be located. I switched back from version 7 to 6.05. My songs are in the right place, I've tried consolidating the library, cutting and pasting, etc.
Why can't Itunes find my songs now?
Any help is really appreciated, thanks.
Chip

solved

ITunes can't locate music files

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