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.

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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 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 find some files after changing drive name

I keep all my music files on an external drive, and my iTunes folder (and iTunes Music folder) on the internal drive. After changing the name of the external drive, a good number of files (not all, and probably not even most, but a lot) couldn't be found by iTunes.
I'm suspecting that this problem results from having my files stored externally and separate from the internal default iTunes Music folder, but I'm hoping someone can give me some more details about this and hopefully help find a solution. Thanks.

In the root of the filesystem there normally is a folder "lost+found", in which files with strange names are found. These are the files cvfsck has collected in the recovering of the filesystemnames. It is sometimes not possible to recover the original file name and location. So this is the only way for cvfsck to give them back.
If you think the content of these files is allright, you can rename and relocate them.
Regards
Donald

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

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

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 don't find some files after close the application

I have a local network. I have decided to share my music from a share server samba on Linux to my laptop on XP , my macbook , and my Imac.
I have made this solution because have many problems to share the music on my Imac between users.
The libary sharing music is not synchronise during the time. I explain : If i import a cd to Itunes on My imac, my wife don't have the music. ( security problems I thinck). ITunes is on Public and the acess is granted for users.
I was admin Unix system
I don' t wanted to copy the files on the Itmusic on each users.
The other solution is the linux server samba sharing a directory Itunes_share. I have made a directory Itunes Music and put all the files mp3 and podcast.
the share is good by selinux and the group is Itunes
After that Itunes has recreated the share database. The system is right.
But tomorrow, I has lost the songs on the interface. When I click on the song , I have a !
The problem is the same on Windows XP
After the migration for Iphone 2.0, song with ! apparears.
Just yesterday, i have access Itunes with the user, and i can hear song with ! . The files have on disk but ITunes don't find after closing the aplication.
Also , I has note that the lenght of the string is cast . And you have 2 files for the same files.
Just the name is different. ie : the lenght is 14 caracters the other is 16 caracteres
The problem is current
I thinck that is a bug of Itunes

I have unterstand the problems.
You have two reason that itunes don't find the files.
1) if the share is forward networking, the lost of share can be a good reason
Itunes changed preference to the default localisation of your files in preference
2) share the same files by two different libary of two computer or user differents
I think that Itunes made a lock in the syntaxe

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 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 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 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 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 can't find existing files after upgrading HDD

What the subject says - I have a 2008 Mac Pro & iTunes 10.6.3. I just upgraded the HDD where iTunes lives, by copying the entire drive to the new one, then installing the new one in the same bay as the old one. Whenever I open iTunes, a few of my +/- 6K tracks show the (?). This happens to different tracks each time I open iTunes.
It's a pita to re-locate these every time I access iTunes. Is there any way to correct this problem without trashing all my playlists, album art, ratings, etc?
Pls help! It's taken a long time to build this library and I'd rather not have to start all over. I still need to edit then add about 40 LP vinyl albums to the library, and I don't want to continue adding them until this problem is solved.

Sorry. Found the answer myself. DUH! I needed to tell iTunes preferences that the iTunes folder was on the NEW HDD rather than the old one.

ITunes can't locate files, even though they never move.

My iTunes is set to copy new files to a dedicated music folder on an internal storage drive and to keep this folder organized. I have never moved this folder or edited anything within this folder.
Now, one day I start my iTunes and I'm greeted with thousands upon thousands of little exclamation marks telling me that iTunes can't locate the files. I made sure that the drive letter didn't change and that every file was still in there. There were too many songs missing to manually locate each song, so I highlighted my entire library and deleted it (while keeping the files, obviously). Several hours after re-adding my music library, everything was good and like it once was.
Not even a day later, I re-open iTunes to find that all the exclamation marks were back and that it could not locate any of my files again. This time I decide to go through all the steps properly by clearing the folder where the xml files are located, uninstalling iTunes, moving my music to an external hard drive and making sure there was no trace of iTunes left.
Ready to start again, I installed iTunes, set where I liked my files to be stored and set my other preferences (including "organize my iTunes folder" and "copy new files to iTunes Folder"). I then re-added my music and spent a day waiting for it to copy to the new iTunes folder. After this I deleted the folder that contained my originals and was left with a fresh install of iTunes and all my music was where I wanted it.
This worked for almost a whole month before thousands of songs went "missing" again. I simply don't know what to do. I can't keeping re-adding my library again and again because a few thousand songs went missing. Each time I do it, it just takes longer and longer and i'm sick of it.
Any help with my problem would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Presumably the location of the iTunes media folder is still correctly set in preferences when this happens?
One thing you can do to investigate this is to select a track that can't be found and go to Get Info>>Summary tab.
This will show you where iTunes thinks it is and the name of the file. Now find the file in Windows Explorer and compare the location and file name are they the same?
A thing that occurs to me is that you have other software on your PC that is able to move/rename files. Do you have anything like that?
Windows Media player has a check box that allows the renaming of files in Options, it's worth looking for that.

I have downloaded iTunes 10.5 but after it downloads it vanishes and I can not locate the file anyway on my PC. I have done this a few times now. Any ideas?

have downloaded iTunes 10.5 but after it downloads it vanishes and I can not locate the file anyway on my PC. I have done this a few times now. Any ideas?

This has happened to me over the last few hours. iTunes just would not open, so I uninstalled and downloaded again. Still refuses to open. iPhone cannot be synced as a result. Help anyone...

ITunes can't locate some files after HD swap

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