Itunes cannot find file location

it says that the file location couldnt be found

Give me some more info and I'll be glad to see what I can do. A screenshot, what file iTunes is trying to find the location of, etc...

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ITunes cannot find files even though the path is correct in Preferences

Hello: I have a problem that is not addressed in any support article.
When I click to play a song in iTunes, I get the message that iTunes cannot find the original file.
When I check Preferences > Advanced > iTunes folder locations, I see all of my files there, but iTunes does not.
I have reset, consolodated the library, and performed all tasks noted in the support articles. Still no luck.
Can anyone help?
Thanks very much.
Tophersteele
PowerPC G5 iMac Mac OS X (10.4.8)

I had the same thing happen and have been pulling my hair out about this for a week now. Finally today I hit on a fix that worked for me and I hope it works for you.
For this to work, you need a backup of the last saved iTunes Library file.
First, follow directions about locating your iTunes music folder. In prefs>advanced choose your location and make sure that is right.
Locate your last saved iTunes Library file (the one that was working before things went haywire with the !'s everywhere). Also locate the iTunes prefs file in ~/library/prefs. For me, these were part of a Backup, so I selected "restore" ONLY THESE particular files from my last backup. When prompted to replace existing files, I said YES.
After backup ran, restoring the old Library and replacing the corrupted one, I relaunched iTunes and VOILA. All files were now correctly linked.
This left one last task, re-importing all songs I'd imported since that previous backup. To find these, I sorted my music folder by date modified and checked the most recent songs against the most recent in my Library. (sort your iTunes LIbrary by "Date Added", which you can add manually if it's not part of your categories bar.

Renameing files - iTunes cannot find files?

I recently got a new computer and forgot to send all of the music on my old one to this one - so i imported them from my iPod. When it imported them, it gave them file names such as "APKF" and "NXVX", so if i delete and file and then want it back - i have to go through all of the files until i find the one i'm looking for. A simple solution to this would be to rename the files with their correct artist name and song,... but when i do this iTunes cannot find the files when i go to play the songs ... it also does this if i simply just move a song from one folder to another ... help?
Thank you!!!

I'm gonna keep them as their original four letter name and then just create a key in Notepad were it links the artist to the song by that four letter name. And them inport them one by one and enter their keys into a notepad...
It'll take a long time, but after i do it this one time i can just add and delete songs from the notepad.
like this:
Cage the Elephant:
Back Against the Wall: WTHK
Ain't no rest for the wicked: TYRE
thank you soooo much for your help, but i'm a neat freak so i'm gonna do this. you don't know of somekind of software were you can save some kind of data? like a non-trial version of Windows Office Excel?

ITunes cannot find file??

Recently i have purchased a movie on iTunes but when i went to watch it, it had that exclamation point next to it and it tells me that the original file cannot be located?? does anyone know have to fix this??

Use Spotlight to search for the file. If you're in the USA you may be able to download it again for free.

"cannot find file" after formatting and moving!!

Wanted to have iTunes library included in Time Capsule backup. So had to reformat external hardrives where all my songs are from Windows do OS. Copied everything on other HD, reformatted HD with OS, copied back all songs. HD still has same name "MUSIC", but iTunes cannot find files.
Changed in iTunes preferences the location of files to ensure it searches in the right place AND also replaced with text editor in "iTunes Music Library.xml" file all links with new address of HD (now after reformatting to OS I found it to be slightly different despite still same name).
But iTunes still cannot find the files. Everything is the same as before, HD name, directory structure, file names, etc. ONLY difference is it all is on "OS formatted" drive. Don't want to lose ratings and playlists of over 15,000 songs....is there still a solution?

The moment I "drag out" the Tunes Library File, then there is nothing left there, and when I open iTunes it is empty.
That's as expected. That file is the database iTunes uses that keeps track of everything, so when you then launch iTunes, it's starting from scratch.
I can import the Playlists from the XML and they do appear, but still no songs, all is empty. If I try to reimport from the new location, then they "do not fit into the playlists", meaning ratings etc. are lost.
Then you apparently didn't get the XML file edited properly; it's not easy to do.
Why does the simple location function in iTunes Preferences not work?
It does, when used as designed. The preference is where new additions (imports & purchases) will be stored. It does not change the location for existing files.
Put the original library file back. Then launch iTunes, Get Info on a representative track, and look at the path to where it thinks the files should be and compare that to the actual path. Any difference at all will break things. If there are differences (drive name slightly different, any difference in folder names/structure, etc.; letter case counts), try correcting them in Finder and see if that gets things working again. If not, then you'll have to use the Add to Library command to get back your tracks which will lose all your ratings, etc.
Where does iTunes save the links to the original files so it can simply be changed?
In the iTunes Library file, which cannot be manually edited.

FYI: How to Fix "iTunes Cannot Find Original File" Error

Yesterday morning, I opened iTunes and tried to play a file. I got the old "iTunes cannot find the original file" error. I tried another file. Same thing. I tried restarting iTunes, holding down the shift key, and making sure iTunes knew where my Library file was. Yep. Still no dice. So I came here, and did a search for help. I could not find any definitive answers to this question. So I did a Google search and found the fix in an old Metafilter thread. Given that this problem seems a little common, I thought I'd post my solution here, for anyone who has this issue in the future.
First things first, make sure that it's not just an issue of pointing iTunes to your current library location. Go to your advanced preferences and double-check the library location path. If this doesn't fix it, then it's time to go my route:
1) Open your iTunes folder in windows explorer. Look for a file called "itunes library.xml". Copy that file to your desktop or somewhere else so that it's backed up...in case something goes wrong.
2) Open the original XML file in notepad (right-click, "open with", "notepad").
3) In this XML file, you will see a paragraph of information for every file you have (songs, podcasts, videos, etc.). In each of those paragraphs, there is a file path specifying where the file is supposed to reside. This is how the itunes library.itl file knows where to look. In my case, it should have been "e:/my music/itunes", but instead, it was "e:/my music/itunes/itunes music". The program had created that folder for some reason, and all my files were pointing there.
4) Check a few of the paragraphs and see if they are pointing to your actual music folder. If so, then you have another problem...sorry. If not, then continue on:
5) Go to edit->replace (or control-H). In the "find what" box, enter the incorrect file path (in my case, e:/my music/itunes/itunes music"). In the "replace with" box, enter the correct path of your itunes music folder (in my case, "e:/my music/itunes". Then click "replace all".
If you have a lot of songs, this may take awhile. I have over 25,000 files, so it took at least 18 hours.
6) When it's done, quit notepad and save the XML file. Open iTunes. If it doesn't automatically start updating your library, then try to play a song. If you get the same old error, then quite iTunes, then re-open it, go to the advanced preferences and select the correct file path for the library location. This should fix it.

I am also finding many "ghost file" duplicate files (with the exclamation point "can not locate files" message), after pointing Itunes version 8.2.1.6 to my music folder on a separate, networked hard drive. My understanding is that the "Consolidate Files" feature in Itunes is supposed to properly identify all of the file locations, but it only worked for about 1/5 of our 10,000 plus files before it stopped running. (I've read in other forums that this software is buggy, and gets confused with long song titles, etc.)It also leaves you with duplicate "ghost" files to delete, when the music from the separate drive is "added".
I can not find a file called ituneslibrary.xml to try your suggestion, when I open my Itunes folder. When I do "get info" on the individual music files in Itunes that can't be located, the "where" field = "not available". I have doublechecked the library location in preferences and it is properly pointed to "K:\itunes" which is the correct location.

I have exclamation marks and itunes cannot find original file?

I have exclamation marks and itunes cannot find original file. How do I locate original file?

Check you have your iTunes settings (Edit, Preferences, Advanced) to keep iTunes library organised.
Your songs should be in your music library in iTunes, iTunes Media, Music.
If they are not, start menu, type the name of a song in the box and the list should show you where that is located.

Help. My ITunes library content vanished. Cannot find files anywhere .

Help. My ITunes library content has vanished. Cannot find files anywhere . Still accessing store via my phone and all my purchases are there etc but on my laptop the library is empty.. I have AVG and have put Itunes as exception as read that might be an issue. Im really not sure what to do .

Hi sooz180,
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities! I understand you can see all of your purchased music on your iPhone but the library on your computer in iTunes is empty. If the music was purchased from iTunes you can get this music back to your iTunes Library two different ways. You can either transfer purchases from the iPhone to the iTunes Library, or you can just download the music again from the Purchased section of iTunes. I will post the information on both ways to recover your purchased music below.
iTunes Store: Transferring purchases from your iOS device or iPod to a computer
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1848
Download past purchases
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2519
I hope this helps,
-Joe

Cannot sync photos-says cannot find file, will not sync

eveytime I try to sync, when it gets to photos, iTunes has an error window with no code that says "Cannot find file, cannot sync" Everthing else backs up and syncs except photos. My husband uses the same mac and he can sync just fine, no errors.

For iPhoto the link said:
If you're syncing from an iPhoto or Aperture album, use these steps to find the iPod Photo Cache folder in the default iPhoto Library or Aperture Library location:
From the Finder, choose Home from the Go menu.
Once there, open the Pictures folder and locate the iPhoto Library file. (For Aperture, this is called Aperture Library.) If you have moved your iPhoto Library or Aperture Library to a different location, go to that location in Finder first.
Control-click the iPhoto Library or Aperture Library file and choose Show Package Contents from the shortcut menu.
In the next window, locate the iPod Photo Cache folder and drag it to the Trash. Important: Do not remove or modify any other file within the library package. Removing or modifying other files may cause data loss.
Close the Finder window.
Are you doing step 3? You can also right click and select Show Package Contents. It works both ways for me. I just tried it.

ITunes cannot find songs in library

For some reason, my iTunes cannot find songs in my iTunes library that are there. It says the file cannot be located, and I have to go one by one and individually find the files for iTunes. I checked in my preferences and I made sure that it is actually looking in the folder where all my songs are. Any idea why this happened? Is there any way to find all of the songs at once instead of doing them individually? (I have about 800 songs, so that could take a while).

One way you might be able to speed things up ( re-add to itunes) is to find songs where Itunes does know about from the same Artist and then right click on song and select reveal in explorer. This will give you the path to folder of similar songs. You then go to folder and select the songs you want re-added to itunes. While it plays it gets re-added. YOu can play a few seconds of the song and then go to next one that needs to be added.

Itunes not finding files

After a disaster recovery on my computer I used my ipod to transfer all the music files back to my PC (after opening the hidden files etc).
I have selected the file from my PC and uploaded them into Itunes and synced my ipod which is working fine.
The problem I have is when I go to play any of the songs using Itunes I receive the error message "cannot find file". I know where they are on my PC but as the files are all named as per the ipod filing system (rather than by artist and song title) I do not know which file to choose.
Is there a way of getting Itunes to find all the files?????
Any help would be appreciated.

iTunes is still probably looking for the files in their location on your iPod's Hard Disk rather than on your PC desktop. You can look to see where iTunes is looking for these files by right->clicking on one of these tracks and selecting Get Info. When the window appears, look at Where field at the bottom of the Summary tab.
If it's still looking for them on your iPod's hard drive, you'll need to remove these files from iTunes and re-add import them. However, before doing that again, head to Edit-> Preferences and select the Advanced tab. Make sure there is a tick mark next to Copy Files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library is ticked. It wouldn't hurt to also tick the Keep iTunes Media folder organized as well. From there, you can re-import the file's from your iPod.
B-rock

ITunes cannot find but I can ( ! ) - how do I fix this?

I recently upgraded to a larger capacity drive and copied my library to the new drive but also kept a backup on the old drive. Now on the new drive, I have a ton of those exclamation points and iTunes cannot find a lot of the songs. It is making me find them one song at a time. How can I keep my new drive as the location where iTunes is stored (using the Advanced section of preferences for iTunes music folder location) but get iTunes to fix these that it cannot locate? And if I can locate them one at a time just by going back to the backup, why can't iTunes figure that out on its own? I'm not even sure why this happened, since I did the Consolidate and Keep iTunes folder organized functions when transferring to the new drive. Please help!

Hi - the original files were copied to the new drive and unfortunately, were deleted from the old drive. But what I do have on the old drive, and iTunes seems to be able to use it when it wants me to locate the songs one by one, is a backup copy of my library I made before the move to the new drive.
Since moving, I set the new drive location as where the iTunes folder is stored, and the song information is all in the library on the new drive, but it confuses me why that info is there but the "sound" isn't. The files that are affected seem to be mostly the first files I loaded on when I got iTunes in December. A lot came from Windows media. I wish I could understand why if it has me "locate" it, it can then fix the problem (although that has to be done song-by-song) but yet it cannot seem to link to the entire folder and I have to do this one song at a time. Would it be possible to put that backup folder on a CD, and create CD backups of my functioning library on the new drive, and then reinstall iTunes on the new drive using the multiple CDs? Would it let me use CD backups created in two different backups, and extract what each backup had to thus make my library complete again (between the two backups, that would be my entire library.)

Spotlight and finder cannot find files as of a certain date. What can be the problem and how to solve?

Spotlight and search field in Outlook on MacBoon cannot find files as of a certain date. What can be the problem and how to solve?

Reinstall on both.
Reinstall Lion, Mountain Lion, or Mavericks without erasing drive
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported then click on the Repair Permissions button. When the process is completed, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Mountain Lion or Mavericks
OS X Mavericks- Reinstall OS X
OS X Mountain Lion- Reinstall OS X
OS X Lion- Reinstall Mac OS X
     Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet
                 if possible because it isthree times faster than wireless.
Restore your iPhone to reinstall iOS. Be sure to do this while connected to your computer and iTunes.
     Tap Settings > General > Reset > Erase all content and settings.

Cannot find file #01, do you want to search?"

We recorded a song yesterday and saved it as properly as the other sessions we also recorded. Today I want to open it, but it always says "Cannot find file #01, do you want to search?" But I've got the problem only with one file, the other songs are ok.
The odd thing is: the file is there, also the tracks in the file and the recordings in the tracks appear. But the music inside the recordings is gone. Also the media file is empty. I'm quite desperate and my band will kill me. Can anybody help?

Did you move the songs to the current folder AFTER you added them to iTunes? Sounds like you did. Big mistake. You may just have to delete you library and re-import them from the current folder. Once you've done that, leave the files where they are. iTunes can't track where you're moving your music to from one place to the next.

HT1329 I cannot find file itunes64.msi

I cannot find file itunes64.msi so cannot update my software. What can I do as new versions will not download and I cannot remove itunes software as the .msi file is needed

I did this in Windows 8.
Go to Regedit -> Edit -> Find -> Type Itunes64.msi -> Find Next ->
On the left side, There are a lot of folders, find the only open one named "SourceList", go to 1 folder above that, so it should the main folder of the source lest -> Right Click -> Delete -> OK
Now you're ready to install your latest itunest. just close the RegEdit and install itunes64
I just did this 10 minutes ago, hope it helps

Itunes cannot find file location

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