Itunes error message - 'original file could not be found etc etc'

Since last syncing my ipod with itunes running on windows 7 home premium, I am now getting the error message 'The song "xxxxxxxx" could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?'
Can anyone point me towards a solutuion please?

Hi INeedTherapy,
This article contains information about locating missing media:
iTunes: Finding lost media and downloads
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1408
Take care,
- Ari

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Error message - Original file could not be found

When I open itunes, and try to click on a song, there is an "!" and I get the error message "original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?"
It does this for every song. I have to trace it down to "My Music\itunes\itunes\itunes music" and under that I have hundreds of files by artist.
How can I listen to the songs so I don't have to click on each one to make them play?
I hope you can help me.

First, a correction from my previous post: At the beginning I meant to write The iPod wasn't designed to sync playlist-related information back to iTunes.
And as for the polydorus link, let's try this .
Sorry about that.
Does that make sense? Do I need both folders?
No, in the end you'll only need one but I'm still not sure which one.
*I think the difference is there are no folders like in wndows, but the itunes library leads me directly to my library on the itunes website
I don't understand what you mean by the itunes library leads me directly to my library on the itunes website.
It sounds like there is only one iTunes database - iTunes Library.itl - file and that it's in your iTunes1 folder. Whether or not that is the case, what I'd like you to do is follow the instructions in this article in the Apple Knowledge Base for opening an alternate iTune Library file. Select the Choose Library option and use the navigtion window that appears to make your way to an .itl file.
Select the .itl and iTunes will open with a Library that may - or may not - be different than what you last saw: somewhat different contents or exclamation marks may be present again.
If it's not a library you're happy with, close iTunes, wait ten seconds or so and then repeat the procedure looking for another .itl file - each one contains references for a different iTunes library.
When you find a library you're happy with, i.e. all the contents are listed and no exclamation marks, make a note of the location of that .itl. It's the one you're going to want to work with.
Using that database file, you can go back to iTunes, right-click various songs > Get Info > Summary tab and look to the bottom of that window to find out where that Library is being directed for those files. Make a note of that location.
When we know those two things, we should be able to proceed from there with deleting things.
In the future, when I buy new songs from apple, where will they automatically get stored?
In the location that's been selected in iTunes Edit menu > Preferences > Advanced tab for the iTunes Music folder.
What will happen when I sync my ipod on the computer?
That brings us back to the beginning of this post, by default the synch goes from iTunes to your iPod. So you shouldn't synch your iPod unless there's a satisfactory Library being displayed in iTunes.

Error code; original file could not be found, would you like to locate it?

when i try to transfer songs from my library to my ipod shuffle, i get this error message (error code; original file could not be found, would you like to locate it?). Then an exclamation point(!) in the first column it appears next to the song in the library.
When i go to the folder mymusic/itunes/itunesmusic folder, the song is there, but why is there an exclamation point next to the song in the library? And how do I restore all these songs, and what causes this?

Sounds like your iTunes .ITL library file got corrupted.
What are the iTunes library files?
There are some posts around here by Buegie on how to fix that...

When I try to sync i get the message "original file could not be found. What does that mean?

When I try to sync i get the message "original file could not be found. What does that mean?
Have i lost all the music on my computer?

iTunes' library keeps track of where your tracks are located. If you move a track, or keep your music on an external drive and don't turn it on before starting iTunes, or your computer's file system becomes corrupted, or iTunes' library gets corrupted, or..., then iTunes goes to where it thinks the file is located, can't find it, and you get !

I have moved my file from my old computer. Now that I am trying to play songs and movies iTunes says the original file could not be found. How do I reverse this problem?

I have moved my file from my old computer. Now that I am trying to play songs and movies iTunes says the original file could not be found. How do I reverse this problem?

Put the files back where iTunes expects them to be.

Error message original file could not be located

when i try to play songs from my library i get this message. "original file could not be found" all my hardware is the same, no recent changes. not sure how to get my songs back in my library. the album/artist icon is still there but will not play.

Well I've tried installing itunes 7.3.2 on two different computers and it has messed up each one of them and itunes is no longer functional on either machine. I have no idea what is going on. in both situations the error message comes up that there are files missing and itunes must be reinstalled. i also cannot delete itunes and an attempt at installing a previous version gave me the exact same error.
this is very disappointing. i finally took the plunge and purchased a mac and am waiting for it to arrive. if this is the kind of service to expect i'm afraid i'll be very disappointed.
HAS ANYONE FIGURED THIS OUT YET???

After upgrade, iTunes complaints with "original file could not be found"

After upgrading to 8.2.0.23, a large number of songs now have a ! in them and if I try to play them, iTunes will say with "The song xxx could not be used because the original file could not be found." This has happened to me before but never to this large number of files.
If it were only a handful of songs it wouldn't be an issue because iTunes allows me to locate it manually, which for first time, iTunes opens the dialog in the directory where the file is. I can click on the mp3 file and that's it. Problem is that from the on, the dialog opens in the same directory as the first song, which makes it very hard to navigate to the directory where the second song is (unless it's the same album of course). Multiply that by 1000 and it's an impossible task.
I've found that the problem is neither the itl file nor the xml file. I already tried the previous itl file and the problem persists.
After comparing the files that are OK with those missing in the .xml file, I found that iTunes is somehow messing up the location tag for files with underscores in the filename. For example, 01_mysong.mp3 gets replaced to 01%20-%20mysong.mp3 in the location tag in the xml file. If use iTunes to locate the file, which as I mentioned above fixes the issue, the location tag gets updated to the correct filename and a bunch of hex numbers get added to the comments tag.
Now, if I exit iTunes and change the location tag to the correct filename in the xml file with a text editor, iTunes magically messes up the tag again when it comes up.
I tried unchecking the "Keep iTunes Music folder organized" but that didn't help.
At first I thought it was an issue with the comments tag and that only mp3 files downloaded from Amazon had the problems. It seems that ALL those songs have the problem but there are a few other songs I got from the iTunes store that are also messed up.
I have not moved any songs at all, this just happened all by itself after upgrading.
I also tried re-adding the folders where all the Amazon mp3 files are, but this created duplicate entries in the library. Unfortunately, even though the new entries do play, they don't have ratings or play count.
Is there any way I could fix this without losing my ratings and play counts and without having to manually fix every song one by one?
I'll appreciate any hint you can provide.
Thanks

I have the same problem except almost every song I bought from Itunes has this problem. Not only that, but somehow some of the music, about $125 worth has been deleted form my 3 back up discs. This is only happening with my purchases and not any songs I uploaded from cd. How on earth did this happen, and how did it wipe clean 3 different back ups? I have found some of the music where it belongs, but like I said some of them are gone, gone, gone. I run three different back ups and they are on 24/7. Where is all of this music? I still have it on my ipod, but it will not load back into itunes the way purchases used to. Some of the music is purchased straight to my ipod touch, but shouldn't i be able to reload them into itunes? I spent 3 hours going 1 song at a time reloading them from their original location. But I cannot locate about $125 worth of music that I purchased from itunes. I have 6 macs in my family and preach the good news to all who will listen about hows macs are flawless. Now I have egg all over my face and have thrown away a nice sum of money on missing music. Please help!

PC game error message "Original disc could not be found or authenticated"

my games stopped working! and on both a microsoft game and a thq game I got this message, leading to my assumption that any new verification software in iTunes is disregarding the fact that I'm not playing a CD, but a video game. Help!!!!

updated the firmware to the drive and voila!!

ITunes 7.3 problems 'original file could not be found'

I deeply regret updating to iTunes 7.3 last Sat. Since moving to 7.3 virtually all my iTunes music library, located on a seperate Black Book hard drive is now not accessible on the PC. A few songs play but the majority of the 5000 songs on my library, when you attempt to play them result in the error message: 'original file could not be located - would you like to locate?' I can then track the file to the library and Itunes makes the connection and it plays. I can't face carrying this our every time.
I have tried deleting 7.3 and reloading but still with the same result and I am now terrified of syncing my
Ipod for fear of disabling that as well.
Have others had this problem?
Is this a feature of 7.3 and can anyone recommend a solution? Very much hope so.
Despairing.
Steve

Well I've tried installing itunes 7.3.2 on two different computers and it has messed up each one of them and itunes is no longer functional on either machine. I have no idea what is going on. in both situations the error message comes up that there are files missing and itunes must be reinstalled. i also cannot delete itunes and an attempt at installing a previous version gave me the exact same error.
this is very disappointing. i finally took the plunge and purchased a mac and am waiting for it to arrive. if this is the kind of service to expect i'm afraid i'll be very disappointed.
HAS ANYONE FIGURED THIS OUT YET???

HT1349 I have music in my itunes library that I did not download from itunes, when I try to play them, I know get a pop up "could not play, original file could not be found" This started suddenly, I have never had a problem playing this music before.

I have music in the itunes library that I downloaded from another site that all of a sudden will not play. I keep getting the message "original file could not be found" Any suggestions?

that pop up if u delete or moved any song around in ur music folder which ituns cant find it now .you got re do it

App store... bought an app, now it's gone... "the original file could not be found"

I purchased QuickOfficePro about a year ago. Today (after loaning my iPad to my daughter for a few weeks) I restored the iPad. Now QuickOffice Pro is gone. iTunes says "the original file could not be found".
What do I do now? I have the receeipt # on file.

Just discovered the app has been discontinued. Apparently now it's "free" but you are required to subscribe to Google Drive. It was great app, too bad...

I recently reset my computer and copy my music from an external hard drive to my itunes library. When I click on a song to play i get an error message that says " the song could not be used because the original file could not be found". need help

I recently reset my computer and copy my music from an external hard drive to my itunes library. When I click on a song to play i get an error message that says " the song could not be used because the original file could not be found". But when I have my external hard drive plug in the song will play with no problem. What do I need to do to play my music without having the external harddrive plug in ???????? Please help

Because the location for each song in your library is on your hard drive. If the hard drive isn't there, how can iTunes play it?
You'll have to move/copy the music from your hard drive to your computer's hard drive.
Basically, EASIEST way to do all this, if you don't care about your play counts, etc...
-Delete EVERYTHING from iTunes, so that your library is now empty.
-Go to "Advanced" inside of the "Preferences" window, found in the "Edit" drop-down. You can also access Preferences by pressing Ctrl+, (Press Ctrl and the comma key)
-Change your iTunes Media Folder Location to something simple, but on your computer. I use C:/iTunes. Make sure "Keep iTunes Media Folder Organized" and "Copy files to...." are both checked. You can close Preferences now.
-Now, drag and drop your music from your hard drive into your iTunes library. iTunes will automatically add the music to your library, as you would expect, and also creates a copy of each file to place into that iTunes Media Folder you just created.
Shouldn't have any more problems...

I tried to play my iTunes and suddenly get an error message that says "The song (name) could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it now?" It happens on all my tunes and each one I select ends up with a "?"

I tried to play my iTunes and suddenly get an error message that says "The song (name) could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it now?" It happens on each tune I select and a "?" appears beside the song. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

I was not complete clear.
Since you never changed the settings in the advanced section of iTunes preferecnes, you have to chech that your music is really in the location setted in the folders reported in the advanced section. If not you have 2 ways: reset the position of this folders or in the actual disk organisation or in the pointing on the preferences.
If you press the reset button you just give to itunes its default setting as for the position of the music files: probably this will be a good choice if you have never changed any default preference.
But before I would check the folders and see if the songs are really there
In my iTune I have this, and I believe it is the default.
Users/YOURHOMEFOLDERNAME/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music

When selecting a song to play in iTunes, I get an error message indicating the song could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it. I have no idea where to look since the library hold all my files.

When selecting a song to play from iTunes library, I continually get an error message indicating the original file could not be found. Then asks, would you like to locate it? Does anyone know how to fix this? I'm not even able to play the songs I purchased due to this error message. Any ideas how to remedy this problem?
Thanks

It would help to have more background about your iTunes collection such as if you keep it on an external drive, or if you have moved or renamed anything recently. iTunes is very sensitive to you renaming or moving files or folders involved with your media. iTunes only keeps a reference to where a media file is located and then goes to look for it when you try to play it. If you have changed things since it was added to itunes then it's like me sending you to look for a friend in my addressbook but that friend has moved.
The other possibility is your computer is starting to lose files. Again, the computer uses a reference database to tell it where on the drive to look for a file. If that database gets corrupt then it starts losing files. Use Dsk Utility's first aid to verify your hard drive.

I recently transferred my itunes library to an external hard drive. Now I get the error message 'the original file could not be found. Could you like to locate it' when i try to open songs. My iPod syncs ok.

I recently tranferred my iTunes library to an external hard drive. Now I cannot open songs and get the error message ' The song "***" could not not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it'. This applies to all 9742 songs!!. My iPod still syncs ok, but I can't play songs on the PC. Can anyone please help.

It would help to have more background about your iTunes collection such as if you keep it on an external drive, or if you have moved or renamed anything recently. iTunes is very sensitive to you renaming or moving files or folders involved with your media. iTunes only keeps a reference to where a media file is located and then goes to look for it when you try to play it. If you have changed things since it was added to itunes then it's like me sending you to look for a friend in my addressbook but that friend has moved.
The other possibility is your computer is starting to lose files. Again, the computer uses a reference database to tell it where on the drive to look for a file. If that database gets corrupt then it starts losing files. Use Dsk Utility's first aid to verify your hard drive.

Itunes error message - 'original file could not be found etc etc'

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