ITunes forgets song locations.

I have an iBook with a terabyte Western Digital MyBook external hard drive attached via USB.
Frequently, nearly every time I run it, iTunes fails to find a random selection of songs. Usually around twenty or so out of 22,000. The songs show up in my library with a little exclamation mark. Trying to play the song throws an error, claiming that the song file cannot be found, and if I want to locate it. When I do, the song file is exactly where it is supposed to be, and where it has always been, and iTunes will happily play it.
But why do I randomly have to help iTunes locate songs, even though the files have not moved? What makes iTunes forget the file location? The affected songs are pretty much a random selection, and are different every time.
Is there any way I can prevent this? Is there an easier way to make iTunes rescan, other than manually clicking each lost song and browsing to the file location?
-Ron.
PS. I noticed this with my previous 500Gb external drive also, so I doubt there is a malfunction in the drive. And it has been happening through several iTunes versions. Just downloaded latest, and it still does it.

This problem seems to shows up more and more frequently on this board. Noone has ever been able to explain it, and there aren't any pat solutions that I've read of.
I'm one of the unlucky ones who has experienced this problem. The one thing that made a significant difference in my case was making sure that I used "Create file names with track number" in iTunes Preferences/Advanced/Importing. Problems were much reduced after that. However, others who have always had that setting turned on have reported problems like yours.
It's also possible to confuse iTunes under the right (or wrong) circumstances by switching among multiple music folders and multiple iTunes Library files. However, I think many people who have reported the problem were just using a single iTunes library.
Is the iTunes Music folder location set to the folder that your songs are in? Just checking, and, in fact, the iTunes Music folder location doesn't have to be set to that location for the library to work properly. But in my experience, when iTunes gets confused, that setting does have an effect on where iTunes starts looking for files that it's missing.
Unfortunately, if the exclamation marks are persistent, I don't know of any shortcuts for reestablishing the connection between iTunes library entry and the song file.
iMac G4 17; iBook G4 1.33 Mhz 14; iPod 3G 20GB Mac OS X (10.3.9)

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Installed new iTunes, can't see songs located on ext. drive w/o importing!

The hard disk in my laptop recently failed. Luckily, I had my iTunes backed up on my external drive. Now that I have a new internal drive, I'm trying to get iTunes to access the library of music from the external drive.
I already know how to change where iTunes looks for the music library in the Advanced Preferences of iTunes, as I've done that. The problem is, there is no index of the songs in my music library when I open iTunes: no songs are listed when I click to see what's in the library. I don't want to load all of the mp3s, etc., from my external drive onto my new internal drive, because I want to save space.
This worked before my internal hard drive crashed, because all of the song titles and albums were still listed in my iTunes library when I moved the actual mp3s to my external drive... since my hard drive crashed and I reinstalled iTunes, it shows nothing in the library, even though I linked iTunes to my external drive music file folder via Advanced Pref in iTunes.
Anybody able to help?
Many Thanks!
Paul

*The problem is, there is no index of the songs in my music library when I open iTunes*
Correct. You need to add the songs to iTunes.
iTunes does not watch a folder to see what is in it.
Do this;
iTunes prefs -> Advanced.
Set the location of the iTunes music folder to where your music is on the external drive.
Now go to File -> Add folder to library an dpick this folder.
It will put the music into iTunes library and the music will stay/go where you set the iTunes prefs to.

ITunes can't locate the songs that I bought from the iTunes store on my new computer

I just got a new computer today and I backed up all my songs from old computer onto an external hard drive. When I sent my songs over onto my new computer and freshly downloaded iTunes, the songs that I actually purchased from the iTunes store won't play. It says that the item cannot be located.

Hello, brandma4.
More than likely iTunes was set to read the media on the external drive. If this is the case and the drive is not connected when attempting to play music, you will receive these alerts. The other possibly is that iTunes is not directed to where you placed the media on the computer. Here are the best troubleshooting articles that direct you on how to correct this issue.
iTunes: Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
Cheers,
Jason H.

Since downloading 11.0.1 (12), Itunes can't locate or play many songs but the same songs still play on my synched iPod.

Since downloading Itunes 11.0.1 (12), Itunes can't locate or play many songs but the same songs still play on my synched iPod. I have a MacBook Air, Lion OS, Itunes version 11.0.1 (12). I didn't see this problem with older versions of Itunes. I do not manually change the organization of the Itunes library. I use the Itunes "add to library" feature or Amazon's MP3 downloader. Sometimes, however, I have changed song information in the "info" window. Such as unchecking the "compilation" button and sorting by artist (for that song), so that I can search by artist in the top pane of Itunes (otherwise the song is sorted in an album that is a "compilation," but not under the name of the artist who sang a particular song. I've done this without problem in the past, but perhaps the newer version of Itunes can't handle the changes I made and has lost track of where the older version of Itunes stored such songs? How do I fix all these older previously ok changes if that's the case... If I could just find where they are stored in Itunes it would be easier perhaps. I've looked in compilations, unknown artist, and so forth to no avail. And Finder search can't find them.
Details: suddenly, many songs are marked with "!," denoting that Itunes cannot find the songs in the library and cannot play them. Oddly, my iPod CAN play the "unlocatable" songs with no problem (it has been synched "post problem"). So the songs are still there somewhere in the Itunes library. This problem occurs by album, that is, all songs from the same album become unlocatable, although different albums by the same artist may still be found and played.
Exploring the Itunes library to try to locate the missing albums/songs, I discovered that generally there is no longer any folder specified for any artist associated with a missing album [artist is the top level of organization and album is the second; compilations are in the same folder]. This is true even if I have other albums from the same artist which Itunes IS able to locate. I cannot find a single song/album by such artists anywhere in the Itunes file system, even the ones that Itunes can still play. If I right click and "get info" for an unlocatable song, I get a notification box that asks if I want to locate the file. If I click "no," next thing-- the info window for the song pops up, with all the correct info (including sort info, which I double check)! Why is Itunes able to locate all the info on the song, but is not able to play the MP3 file?
Using Finder I cannot locate the songs that are unlocatable by Itunes (except the original download files in the Amazon MP3 folder). Finder is, of course, able to find Itunes songs that Itunes has no trouble locating. What's up?! My iPod can find them just fine. I just synched my iPod again and am playing the "unlocatable" songs right now.
I can "fix" most of these files by downloading files one by one into Itunes from my Amazon download folder or from my CDs using the "add to library" feature. In fact, it is strange. But this will take a very long time! And what if this problem continues recurring? But something strange happens when I implement this fix. I added one song to Itunes (from the Amazon MP3 folder, using "add to library") for one "unlocatable" album of Pete Seegers. After adding that one song, I looked at the Itunes music library and discovered that a folder for Pete Seeger (which was not there before I added the song) had been newly created, or restored. In this folder was the one song I had just added, but ALSO all my other Seeger albums that had previously remained "locatable" by Itunes. But the other "unlocatable" songs were not restored, unfortunately.

I have found a workaround. When I create a new playlist, iTunes allows me to add or remove songs from existing playlists for a short while. Then, for some reason it prevents me from adding and deleting songs again. Not sure why. Go figure.

ITunes can't locate any of my songs

OK so I plugged my iPod into my computer to sync it because I've added some new music lately. But I'd forgotten to plug in my external HD (where I have almost all of my 4500 songs) so obviously it said all the tracks couldn't be found and stuff. So I closed iTunes, unplugged my iPod, plugged in my hard drive and plugged my iPod in again. Only all the tracks still aren't located (except a few random albums that are on the computer's HD and not the external).
I've tried a few things but the only thing that seems to work is manually locating individual tracks. I have like 4500 songs though and manually locating over 4000 of them isn't too appealing to me. Unfortunately I can't find another way to do it without nuking and rebuilding the whole library (thereby losing all my playlists and playcounts and stuff).
So basically I messed up by trying to sync when my HD wasn't plugged in, but now that it's plugged in and everything has been restarted iTunes can't relocate the files (none of them have been moved)? Is there a way to fix this without locating every single track?
If this can't be resolved I think I'm going to finally switch to Winamp and not have to deal with iTunes ever again....
Message was edited by: birdman829

Hey, make sure that your extnal hard drive is connected. Start
iTunes. No need to connect your iPod at this stage.Go into
Edit - Prefs, select the advanced tab at the top and
ensure that the path to iTunes music folder location is
set to your ext. hard drive. e.g. E:\exthd\iTunes\music. Always
ensure that your external hard disk is connected before
you start iTunes otherwise iTunes will get confused.
The 4500 songs should now be seen by iTunes.
The odd few albums/songs that are located on your c:\drive
will now have a circle next to them, indicating that the
original files cannot be found. Simply move these to the
external hard disk and re-import the individual
songs/Albums again.

Hi.Have organized all my songs in itunes ,deleted unwanted songs and anupdated the album artwork but it has not changed them in my itunes media folder location in the C drive.How do i change this and back them up now i have everything the way i want it ?

Hi
-I have organized all my songs in iTunes ,deleted unwanted songs and updated the album artwork but it has not changed them in my iTunes media folder location in my C Drive.
How do I update it there so it is the same as my iTunes now so i can back it all up?
Thankyou.

I solved my problem. Here's how:
1. Right click iTunes and click properties from the "Windows 8 Desktop" (or if you want to call it the 7 desktop thats fine too)
2. Select the compatibility tab.
3. Set compatibility mode to Windows 7 and click apply.
4. Open iTunes, sign into iTunes store, Turn on iTunes Match, Add your computer.
5. Close Program
6. Restart Computer

I Have iTunes since 2008. I have changed computers and I know have old libraries but iTunes do not locate a lot of songs when I try to play it. How can I correct this situation?

I Have iTunes since 2008. I have changed computers and I know have old libraries in my Hard Disk but iTunes do not locate a lot of songs when I try to play it. How can I correct this situation?

When iTunes say that try to find the file you want iTunes to play in your iTunes > Media folder. If iTunes offers to find others, let it. If it does not find them all you will have to find them yourself or re-add the files from your drive to iTunes (use Automatically Add to iTunes folder).
iTunes 9: Understanding the "Automatically Add to iTunes" folder. - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3832 - Files put into this folder are actually moved from this folder onto the correct location in the iTunes Media folder.

Itunes can't locate songs stored in external drive

i had created playlists and added songs to the playlists in itunes 7.02. these songs are stored on an external drive. i did not sync my ipod immediately but tried it a few days later. despite the external drive being connected to my laptop, when i tried to sync the ipod with itunes, for 90% of the songs there was an exclamation mark next to the song & i had to manually double click on a song name in itunes, and locate it in the external drive, in order for itunes to be able to sync it.
i can't do that for 3000+ songs. why can't itunes recognise and locate these songs when they have been stored in the itunes library from the external drive? isn't there a way to tell itunes to locate songs in the external drive? especially when they had been added from there in the first place?

Hi there,
I'm having the same problem, I'll list it in case I'm somehow different from the other case but unfortunately directing iTunes to that folder doesn't seem to do the trick...?
Have bought a Seagate 320GB external drive, copied my iTunes library (that was located in my /Users/Shared folder) to a new location on my external drive and redirected iTunes to the new location. It said it was updating the folder which took a while and I assumed was a good sign due to my 8948 songs but alas the dreaded exclamation mark has appeared next to every track. If I redirect one to the new location it works fine but f*ed if I'm gonna do that for the other 8947. If I quit iTunes and reopen it, it's still directed to the same correct place and the previously located still works but the rest don't. Is there a) some reason this may not be working correctly; or b) a quick way to redirect every song to their location? Thanks so much for your help.

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.

Itunes can't locate files after I listen to it on the Ipod

It seems that every time I listen to a song, I notice that Itunes can't locate it anymore. When I go to Itunes and look in my music folder, there is an exclamation point next to the song. When I click on it, the error message reads "cannot locate file, would you like to locate it now". At first it was only one or two songs, now it's over 50! These songs are still on my Ipod,just no longer in Itunes. I know how to recover the music b/c it's in my hard drive, I just don't want to sit there and find all these songs all over again. Help please.

I too have been having the same problem... I am a new ipod owner and same with itunes. And being a new owner and user I got the new itunes. It has done the exclimation point since the first day I got it. But mine is simple to fix. I mearly just exit out of itunes and re-open it. I dont evn have to wait at all. It shows the exclimation point with about 20 of my songs and it hasnt gotten in my way yet. But the main problem that makes me mad is that my ipod is only 2 weeks old but I tried to get some of my friends music and she has the older version of itunes and my ipod ONLY works on the new version. Very frustrating if you ask me.
Hp Windows XP

I joined iTunes Match on my MBP and added our MBA to the same Match account. What should the iTunes Media Folder Location be for iTunes on the MBA?

The iTunes libraries on both machines appear to be in sync, though I don't know if Home Sharing or iTunes Match is to thank for the consistency. But the iTunes Media Folder locations are different on the MBP and MBA, and I don't know if they should point to the same storage location (it's been on a drive connected to our Airport for years). I also don't know what options for Copying Files and Keeping iTunes Organized should be on the MBA. I certainly don't want the media files duplicated yet the devices sharing a cloud version.
I hoped the MBA would act like an iOS device using iTunes Match in that music would stream unless downloaded. Then downloaded music would have to be managed (deleted from the MBA's iTunes) for space reasons at some regular intervals-- just like we now do on the iPhones and iPad. The library entry for the song would remain... just the locally stored file would be deleted and the iCloud download would change back to the download symbol.
But if a purchase is made from the iTunes store on the MBA, the file is stored on the local MBA machine as well as the external drive because the MBP receives the song via Home Sharing and downloads the file.

Each iTunes client will expect a discrete iTunes library location. The iTunes Match service will allow the libraries to be automatically synchronised along with any IOS devices that are also registered for iTunes Match.
Following making a secure backup for any given library it is possible, once Songs have been 'matched' or 'uploaded' to remove the local copies and play the Songs from the Cloud. The behaviour on IOS devices is different, they will download each Song as it is played.
Note: Apple is very clear that the responsibility for maintaining music files remains with the user - so it remains essential to ensure that you have your own Songs secure backed up prior to relying on the Cloud. Should there be an issue with the Cloud resulting in loss of Songs you will need your own secure backup.

I home shared from my PC to my new Mac and now my iTunes can't locate the original files?

It was working fine for about 12 hours but now my iTunes can't locate any of the files. None of my songs will play, even those I downloaded directly from a CD. Help?

It sounds like this is much more than an iTunes problem. I suggest you post in the operating system forum version for your computer (we have no idea which OS you are running nor what model computer).

ITunes can't locate any music/iTunes Media folder cleared

I ran a few cleaning programs to clear up unceassary files/cashes to get some extra space on my HD. Later, I went onto iTunes to play some music, and it asked me to locate the file. Turns out this is siutation for every file, and after further inspection, my the 'Music' folder in the 'iTunes Media' foler is empty. For over half the music in my library, the only copy of the .mp3 was in this folder. I am not 100% certain that it was removed from using these cleaning programs, but it is the only reason I can think of.
Is there anyway to efficently locate the missing files which I do have in another location? (I have tried the method were you locate one and iTunes does the rest. This was ineffective). Is there any way to recover the files which were lost/could they be anywhere else? Finally, am I able to utilise my iPhone/iPad (which has substancial music on it) to help locate .mp3 files and/or re-add songs which have totally been wiped.
A horrible situation. If there is nothing i will have to restore my computer to its last back up which was 4 months ago .
Thanks for any help!

Hey, make sure that your extnal hard drive is connected. Start
iTunes. No need to connect your iPod at this stage.Go into
Edit - Prefs, select the advanced tab at the top and
ensure that the path to iTunes music folder location is
set to your ext. hard drive. e.g. E:\exthd\iTunes\music. Always
ensure that your external hard disk is connected before
you start iTunes otherwise iTunes will get confused.
The 4500 songs should now be seen by iTunes.
The odd few albums/songs that are located on your c:\drive
will now have a circle next to them, indicating that the
original files cannot be found. Simply move these to the
external hard disk and re-import the individual
songs/Albums again.

ITunes can't locate ⅔ of my Music Library -- How to repair?

I manually reorganized the iTunes Media Folder on my MacBook Air because everything was all jumbled up in the Music folder -- Songs, Movies, Mobile apps etc. everything all mixed up in Music folder. I manually dragged the Movie, iTunes U, Mobile Applications etc.Folders out of Music Folder and put everything into iTunes Media Folder. The same order as it is on my desktop iMac. Now iTunes can't locate about 1/2 of my Music library. Everything else (movies, TV shows etc.) works fine, but iTunes lost the location of 1/2my music library. I get the message "The song "ABC" could not be used because the original file could not be located. Would you like to locate it"
Is there a way to reset iTunes so that it knows where all the songs are (they are all in the music folder which is in the iTunes Media Folder). If I have to locate every song individually it will take weeks.
File ->Library -> Organize Library -> click Consolidate and Reorganize files in iTunes Media didn't seem to work. Isn't this the way to let iTunes know where all those songs it can't locate are?
Kindly advise if you know how to slove this.
Thank you.
P.S. Still using Mountain Lion on this computer

I manage my music manually by turning off the advanced preferences for iTunes managing my music and copying it to the iTunes folder when adding it to the library. Realize if you do this you are taking responsibility for keeping track of your music -- you will have to be organized. If you want to move your library you will have to track down all the files. Your files will retain their original names and folder names and structure, so make sure it makes sense. There's a few other disadvantages which I can't remember right now. Even with manually managing you still occasionally get a broken link, and my experience is all with iTunes 7.5 which I still use. I may be wrong but I suspect newer versions of iTunes are trying to do more at one time with all the store and cloud interface and may be more "delicate".
If you are downloading from Apple or ripping a CD, iTunes will put it in its normal folder structure anyway, though you can remove it from there.
The various scripts on the Dougscripts web site were written at different stages. You have to read about iTunes version compatibility in the blurb about each script. I don't see how you end up with multiple libraries using hte scripts.
The .itl file can reset itself but not with what you are doing. If you had moved your whole library and broken all the links you could have found just one and iTunes might have offered to find the others based upon the same structure (not something it will do if you manually manage, by the way).

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 forgets song locations.

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