ITunes failing to recognize location of m4a files?

My iTunes currently has an exclamation mark next to all the songs in m4a format in my library, even though these files have not moved at all and it has dealt with those files for years. Is there some way to get iTunes to recognize all those files where they are? About half my library is in mp3 format and iTunes is having no issue at all with those files. I am using iTunes to organize my music folder, but this problem with m4a files persists.
If there is a folder-by-folder solution, that would work, but I can't go locate file-by-file since we're talking 10-15 GBs of music (when I locate a file in that fashion, it does work, but it would take a prohibitive amount of time to do for each song).
I've tried consolidating the library, which accomplished nothing, and when I reimport one of the folders with m4a files, it thinks they're new songs and doesn't delete the exclamation marks on the "old" songs (that's a problem because these songs are already in lots of playlists, etc, and that info would be lost). I've also tried "repairing" (aka reinstalling) both Quicktime and iTunes using the "Add/Remove Program" icon in the Control Panel to no effect.
This is driving me crazy so any help is MUCH appreciated! Please ask if anything is unclear or more info is needed.

I could still really use help with this problem. I should add that my music files are stored on an external hard drive. This alone is clearly not the source of the problem, as iTunes has no problem playing and managing the mp3s even as it has put an exclamation mark next to all the songs stored in the m4a format.
This issue began (I think) when I imported a CD while the external drive was disconnected. This imported the songs to the C:\ drive iTunes folder. When I got back to my external drive, I reconnected to it, deleted the new songs from the library, and reimported them so that they were copied onto the library on the external drive. That was no problem at all, but then this issue with m4a files cropped up.
Alternatively, upgrading to iTunes 8 may have caused this -- I'm not sure. Either way, I could really use a solution to this.
Thanks!

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Does iTunes match need to locate the actual files or just see its record in your library database? I am currently traveling in US and I have US and Australian iTunes accounts. But all my music files are on a hard drive in Australia.

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HT6437 iTunes fails to recognize iPhone

I am attempting to backup/restore my iPhone 4S running iOS 7.1.2, to my new iPhone 6 Plus running iOS8.1.2.
Unfortunately, iTunes 12 fails to recognize my iPhone device. Therefore, it's impossible to Backup or Synch.
Any ideas to correct this? Do I have to update my ancient iPhone 4S to iOS 8.1.2 first? I tried different USB cables, no luck. I tried stop/re-start iTunes.

Hello there, dpharbison.
When transferring content from an older iOS device to a new one using iTunes, the following Knowledge Base article offers the steps on how to accomplish that:
Transfer content from an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to a new device - Apple Support
Use iTunes
If you don't have an iCloud account or you just want to keep a backup on your computer, you can use iTunes to back up and transfer content on your device.
Get ready
Install the latest version of iTunes on your computer and the latest version of iOS on your original device.
You can't install a backup of a newer version of iOS onto devices that are using earlier versions of iOS. If your backup came from a device that has a newer version of iOS installed, update your new device before you transfer your data. For help, see Unable to restore from a backup of a newer iOS device.
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First, back up your old device using iTunes. You can also encrypt the backup so that it remembers the passwords for your email, Wi-Fi, and more when you transfer to the new device. Otherwise, you can re-enter these passwords on the new device.
Then transfer your data from your device to your computer.
Remove your SIM card
If your device has a SIM card, use the SIM-extractor tool or a paper clip to remove the SIM from your old device and insert it into your new device. Or if your carrier gave you a new SIM card, use that instead.
Set up the new device
When the backup of your old device is finished, turn on your new device. Follow the setup assistant, which will ask you to choose these things:
Your language and country
Whether to enable Location Services
A Wi-Fi network
If you don’t have a Wi-Fi or cellular data connection, you can also activate by tapping Connect to iTunes.
Restore the backup
When prompted to set up your device, select Restore from iTunes Backup.
Connect to iTunes
Connect your new device to iTunes, using the same computer you used to back up your current device. iTunes will ask you to restore from backup or set up as new. Select the backup of your old device and choose Continue.
If the progress bar in iTunes pauses for a while, wait until the restore finishes.
Sync other content
When the restore finishes, your device restarts, and then it's ready for you to use.
Keep your device connected to iTunes to sync content that isn't in the backup (such as music, videos, and apps). To change the type of content that syncs, click the syncing tabs in iTunes.
Enter your passwords
If you restored from an unencrypted backup, you'll need to enter the password for your Apple ID, email and other accounts, and voicemail. If you've forgotten your voicemail password, contact your carrier.
If your device continues to not be recognized, these article provide further troubleshooting depending on the operating system your computer is running:
iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch not recognized in iTunes for Windows - Apple Support
or
iOS: Device not recognized in iTunes for OS X - Apple Support
Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Pedro.

Itunes failing to recognize songs

Okay, so I'm trying to add music to my iTunes library. Except when I try to add certain songs to the library, they just won't show up. I tried adding them multiple times and these particular songs just won't open in iTunes. And the thing is, these songs used to open perfectly fine. I moved/deleted a few songs in the folder they were in, and now iTunes won't recognize them.
I don't know why iTunes won't recognize these songs any more. I use Winamp as my mp3 on my computer, and as a result all my mp3s are winamp media files. But these songs that won't work in iTunes are the same as every other mp3 I have.

I don't know for sure but when that has happened to me, the MP3 file was corrupted. I've been looking for an open source MP3 tester but haven't yet found one. When I had the same problem as you, Itunes didn't issue any error messages and there doesn't appear to be any log file.

How to make iTunes detect the new location of music files?

Hi everyone. I moved all of my music to a different location on my hard drive, and I changed the location in iTunes preferences, but it doesn't seem to detect this, so my library is empty now. I saved an itl, xml, and temp file as well, but I don't know what to do from here.
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data elements that are embedded within the media files
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the value of the track number element is 1
the value of the artist element is "Elvis Presley"
the value of the song name element is "Blue Suede Shoes"
Depending on how you configure iTunes then the file name is either:
completely independent of iTunes (i.,e., the file containing this song could be xyz.mp3)
dependent on the metadata managed by iTunes, (i.e., when you have these two options set:
then iTunes will set the file name to be 1-01 Blue Suede Shoes.mp3 where:
the file is in a folder called "Elvis Presley" (the name of the album)
that folder is in one called "Elvis Presley" (the name of the artist) which is in iTunes Media\Music
Going back to your question "How to make iTunes read the song's name/singer from the file's name" the answer is simple - you can't, as this is not how iTunes works. There are some third-party utilities that you can use to set some metadata element values based on parsing of file names which might be a useful first step. However, to use iTunes effectively you should really forget about / ignore file names - manage your media using appropriate metadata and allow iTunes to look after file names behind the scenes.

Why does Itunes keep losing the location of music files?

Itunes will lose the location of the music files. they clearly listed under the right album and proper order but when you select a song a exclamation mark shows up and a window pops up asking me where it can be located. I don't know, Itunes lost it, I haven't done any maintenance work to the hard drive that I know of other than clean the registry on my firefox search engine.

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In some cases iTunes may be able to repair itself if you go through the same steps with Get Info but this time click Locate and browse to the lost track. It may then offer to attempt to automatically fix other broken links.
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i may be able to give some more focused advice once there is a clearer picture of where things are.
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https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2482232?start=0&tstart=0

How do you retrieve iTunes media from many locations to one file

I have all Mac devices.
The particular item I have a question about is my itunes media file.
Since I have a very large collection, I was advised by apple support to move my Itunes Media folder to the 1.5T wireless WD hard drive I have.
All was going well, until either itunes update occurred or my Macbook Pro OSx had updated that is when I started to notice I have many, many itunes media folders and I want and need to know how to stop this default from occuring and the hardest part is to accumulate all my media that is in itunes media files many on my MacBook Pro in subfolders and on my WD wireless Hard drive that essentially has done the same.
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What do you mean "retrieve"?
If you mean previously purchased music, then you cannot, unless you are in the U.S. Then you can use the recently released icloud ( beta version).
Tap itunes, then tap purchasd

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Then, the Ipod began to hesitate to turn on occasionally. The infamous folder with an exclamation point would pop on the screen, especially after I would reset the Ipod and have seen the apple picture.
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To all:
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Quicktime Export Fails to Recognize Audio in MPG1 files

When exporting MPEG1 to any other format with QT Pro, audio options are greyed out ('No Audio in Original'), and, predictably, the export file has no audio.
VisualHub exports MPEG1 with audio just fine. But I've paid for QT Pro, and not VisualHub.
This has to be a bug in QT, right? MPEG1 is, unfortunately, still pretty common, and I would think Apple wants users to be able to put whatever video they have on their iPods.
Thanks in advance.
QT 7.1.3
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NB: Is it possible for moderators to retroactively edit topic subjects to be much more specific? The more likely a visitor is to find her topic answered, the fewer new topics there are, less repetition, etc.
Even better, consolidating the most common questions into 5 or 10 stickies would save visitors much time, and the people who answer these questions, exponentially more time.

Thank you for the answer. The information was useful, the tone was not what I expected. When I asked whether more specific headings could be encouraged, I meant it out of sympathy for the moderators/answerers, not to incur their ire. Perhaps it would have been better if I'd left out the editorial comment.
I searched for 'audio', which I thought was a more technical term than 'sound'.
I read the indicated specs for QT above. The MPEG shortcoming is not laid out there clearly in any sense. MPG is not listed as an export format, so from that I would conclude QT can't export to MPEG1.
It is clear in the Apple article. For it to be 'clear' to anyone right away, it should be added in one sentence to the relevant help section of QT: 'QT will not export files with some codecs because of their proprietary neature.'
Or it should be in a pop-up message as soon as you try to export an mpg: 'Because mpeg is ownded by someone else, export will only render video'.
I believe I asked a valid question, and provided a specific account of my problem, so this post will be useful for future browsers.
Because VisualHub dealt easily with mpg, I thought QT must too. I was wrong.

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Thank you for the answer. The information was useful, the tone was not what I expected. When I asked whether more specific headings could be encouraged, I meant it out of sympathy for the moderators/answerers, not to incur their ire. Perhaps it would have been better if I'd left out the editorial comment.
I searched for 'audio', which I thought was a more technical term than 'sound'.
I read the indicated specs for QT above. The MPEG shortcoming is not laid out there clearly in any sense. MPG is not listed as an export format, so from that I would conclude QT can't export to MPEG1.
It is clear in the Apple article. For it to be 'clear' to anyone right away, it should be added in one sentence to the relevant help section of QT: 'QT will not export files with some codecs because of their proprietary neature.'
Or it should be in a pop-up message as soon as you try to export an mpg: 'Because mpeg is ownded by someone else, export will only render video'.
I believe I asked a valid question, and provided a specific account of my problem, so this post will be useful for future browsers.
Because VisualHub dealt easily with mpg, I thought QT must too. I was wrong.

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I've never had iTunes fail to recognize a library when I moved it to another location, or restored it to the default location. It always just works. But not this time.
I copied my roughly 30G library into the default location, but iTunes doesn't see it at all.
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Did you copy everything? Media folders, library files, artwork folders, etc? Did you put them in the default location of Music/iTunes/iTunes ?
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iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
do not confuse moving your whole folder and library with moving just media files as in
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ITunes failing to recognize location of m4a files?

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