Itunes not finding songs

1. I very often get the message
"the song ___ could not be used because the original file cannot be found. Would you to locate it"
I have not moved any files but these happens recurringly.
2. itunes indicates that I have 27 GB of music but it syncs only 12 to the ipod. What happens here?
I have my files stored on an external hard drive which I sometimes have connected or not and to different USB ports.
Could this be the reason and if, how to solve it.
Any other programme available for free or to buy which resolves this better?

I would assume that it's because it's on an external hard drive. Because on windows xp, I found that this can happen really easily. The file location has to be EXACT. So...If you maybe moved a file, renamed something, or anything else, it freaks out and says that it cannot find the file.
I think that it is only syncing half probably because it cannot find those files you are talking about.
My advise to avoid this in the future is to change the setting in your iTunes and click on "organize my library". By doing this, whenever you import a song to you library, it automatically adds the file under the iTunes>Music folder under your "My Documents".
And also, try to see if you can find a setting where you can change the location of the iTunes folder that I'm talking about. (I'm not too sure how to do this, but I'm sure if you play around a little bit, you can figure this out.)

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Why can iTunes NOT FIND songs on an EXTERNAL DRIVE

I've read many posts regarding the use of external drives for iTunes data storage. Here's my situation:
I've just restored my computer to it's factory settings, then installed iTunes 9.2.1.5 My iTunes consists of songs only and they reside on an external drive following this path: E:\iTunes Music\(artist)\(album)\(song[s])
iTunes Music, artist name, and album name are all folders. The songs appear in numeric order (01, 02, etc.), and are individual MPEG files.
I have tried changing the iTunes Media Folder location to: E:\iTunes Music (by following: Edit-Preferences-Advanced) Indeed, I have attempted all possible folder paths...right down to individual songs...nothing works. iTunes simply does not see the folder(s)/songs. What's up?
The frustrating thing is that this very same external drive worked just fine before this whole affair! ??? What am I missing? Please provide a detailed answer. Many of us out here would like to know the secret.

You'd have had more luck if you'd moved your library files out to your external drive as well as the media. That way, when you'd reinstalled all you would have needed to do was use SHIFT-start iTunes and point it at the library on the external.
Next time you reinstall Windows backup the entire *Documents and Settings* or Users folders from the C:\ drive so that after the rebuild you can restore anything you discover you still want from your old profile.
Better yet do these backups before something goes wrong, say once a month. The following tool is great for general backups of any specifc set of folders, not just iTunes.
<hr>
*Fast backup for iTunes library (Windows Only)*
Grab SyncToy 2.1, a free tool from MS. This can be used to copy your entire iTunes library (& other important data folders) onto another hard drive or network share. You can then use SyncToy periodically to synchronise or echo your library to the backup. A preview will show which files need to be updated giving you a chance to spot unexpected changes and during the run only the new or updated files will be copied saving lots of time. And if your media is all organised below the main iTunes folder then you should also be able to open the backup library on any system running the same version of iTunes.
<hr>
tt2

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 album artwork

I'm getting a bit sick of this - why does iTunes not find any album artwork any more, yet it recognises the album & finds all the tracks? This seems to be a constant problem on this forum - anyone have any ideas...? I have iTunes 11 & a desktop intel Mac, OS X 10.7.

I wouldn't be in a hurry to upgrade to 8.2.
Make sure that the *Album Artist* and Artist of your album matches up with what's in the iTunes Store EXCEPT if the artist has an ampersand (&) in it. Then put in everything up until the space before the ampersand. (You're free to edit the info after you've gotten the correctly downloaded artwork.) In some cases you may not get the correct artwork no matter how you match the data.

ITunes not seeing songs on PC

iTunes on windows PC arbitrarily is no longer seeing all of my songs and no playlists. I had 2000+ songs showing up previously, still have them in "iTunes Music" folder within "My Music" on hard drive. Now iTunes sees 238 of 2000+. Any tips? Can iTunes go out and re-discover the music files? Thank you.

Thank you. When I opened iTunes over the weekend, I was presented with a menu in Music giving me the option for iTunes to find my music (as if I was a new user). I ran that option and it found all 3,000 songs.
It did not discover my mobile apps, so I used your recommendation and it worked perfectly.
I am still working through how to find my old Playlists. I have iTunes Library (.itl) files from a couple months ago that I may try to import.

ITunes not finding music files

iTunes cannot find 90%+ of my music files. I manually linked them together over the last weekend (yucch) and today when I went into iTunes, the links were all broken even though the .mp3 files were in the same directories as before. I can manually find the music files but that's a chore, particularly if I have to do it several times (not!). Any suggestions?
Inspiron 6000 Windows XP

Well, you have a couple options. First shut down iTunes. Then unmount your HD. Then mount your external HD again, then after it pops up on your desktop, launch iTunes. Any files iTunes has that points to your ext. HD should play just fine.
Or, you can copy all your music to your ext. HD (if you don't already have it there), and simply delete your iTunes library (by removing your data files). You could then add to library, making sure you uncheck "copy itunes songs to music folder). This way, iTunes will only "point" to your ext. drive to play the music. If the drive isn't on, you don't get any music, and the "!" sign. If you have many playlists, this can be tricky.
As a rule, I don't go crazy with playlists, other than smart playlists. This way, you don't go nuts when you lose your data file, or want to do a clean update of your library. You'd be surprised at the times I thought I kept my library in tip-top shape, only to delete it and add the music again. I often find a song or two that I had hidden somewhere.
Bryan

ITunes Not Playing songs in library

Help!! In iTunes all the songs listed under the category of "playlists" will not play. I keep clicking on the play icon and nothing happens. BUT, if I go to the "music" category under "Library", I can click on any item and it will play just fine.
I have reinstalled iTunes and tried several other hints from the FAQ section of the support for iTunes page. Anyone have any ideas?

Have you moved your music around? Sounds like it's been moved and is not where iTunes expects to find it.

ITunes not Finding Album Art (Which Does Exist)

For reasons that I have been unable to ascertain, iTunes cannot find album art for some albums that I have ripped. The art does exist on iTunes--I've done a search and checked. The song text matches; the album title appears to match; but iTunes politely informs me "Artwork could not be found."
This is not due to the fact that these are songs I have ripped myself; iTunes has found plenty of other album art for tunes I've ripped myself. Something else is going on. A couple of examples for folks to chew on:
Godzilla - Blue Öyster Cult - Don't Fear The Reaper: The Best Of Blue Öyster Cult
Mirror In The Bathroom - The English Beat - Beat This! The Best of the English Beat
Freeze-Frame - J. Geils Band - Freeze Frame
The Healer - John Lee Hooker - The Healer
There are plenty of others; that's just a sample. Any advice would be appreciated.
Doug
iPhone

Hello,
so there's no way of adding new covers to iTunes by drag and drop to the left bottom box??? I have to add the cover with +I only?
I've tried yesterday to add the covers with a simlpe drag and drop into the useful bottom-left box.... It didn't work... C'mon Apple!
It kinda *****...
PS: Adding covers via the new "import cover from apple store" fonction doesn't work as well. Youth bugs I presume
Macmini , ibook 12 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

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 not showing songs that are on the iPod Touch

I have an iPod Touch 4th Generation.
I use iTunes 11.0.
I usually connect my iPod Touch to iTunes and play songs from there because I do not put songs in my itunes library.
I was doing this as usual and today when I connected my iPod Touch to iTunes, songs did not show up on the music tab of "On This iPod".
Just the previous day, I opened iTunes and there were all my songs.
Today, iTunes does not show any of my downloaded songs that were not bought from the iTunes Store.
The iTunes Capacity Bar shows that I have songs on my iPod Touch.
But when clicking on the iPod and going under the music tab in "On This iPod", there is no music other than a few songs, which were purchased from the iTunes Store itself.
I also tried third party software just today to check if I can get the songs off my iPod.
I tried using SharePod and it did not detect any songs, not even the purchased songs from iTunes.
There are songs on the iPod Touch only. I can play all the songs from the iPod Touch just fine.
They are simply just not showing up on iTunes.
How do I get iTunes to show the songs on my iPod Touch? The capacity bar says there are songs.
I tried SharePod a few times long before this happened, and it showed the songs on the iPod Touch.
I don't understand why all of a sudden the songs all disappeared from iTunes itself only.
(I would say this is similar to other issues where iTunes DOES show songs while the iPod itself DOES NOT. Mine is the opposite.)
Thank you for the help in advance.
Message was edited by: j_leongg
I tried backing up the iPod Touch.
Now all the songs on the iPod Touch (except for the purchased ones) are turned to blank names and are skipped.
There is no name for each song or artwork, they all are called 'unknown'.
Only the purchased songs are left unharmed. Everything else is corrupted now.

SOLUTION: Some Music Won't Play After Upgrading Your iPhone To iOS7
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Itunes not playing songs properly

Itunes is playing SOME (not all) songs halfway, then skips to the next track. Some songs are missing entirely (they're listed, but when clicked doesn't play at all). Some songs is half of the right song, then is mixed with another song from another artist.
This happened before I updated to the new Itunes, did the update but still the problem persists.
Anyone know how I can fix this?

I have the exactly same problem. iTunes corrupted my entire library, 20GB of MP3s, all of them play a few seconds and then go back to the beggining. Using a sound editor I can see that it actually copied the first seconds of all songs and added it to the beggining. The number of seconds is not consistent on all the MP3s, some play 2 seconds and then go back to the beggining while others can play over 12 seconds before going back to the beggining. This happened after I noticed some of my older MP3s had an old version of the ID3Tags, so I used iTunes to convert my entire library's ID3Tag to the newer version. This happened about 2 years ago and I had no backup of my original files. The only fix to this problem I've found until now is to manually remove this extra seconds from the beggining of each MP3, but it's impossible to do that with over 5000 songs.

Itunes not finding music

my itunes wont load up because it says, "itunes can not find the music folder, the defuslt location is in the my music folder"
my itunes folder is in my my music folder but for sumreason tweak ui cnt read the folder, i think my my music folder is not an official microsoft folder, is there a way for microsoft to make anothjer my music folder to put my itunes folder in?
thanks

If you cannot see the ‘My Music’ folder within the TweakUI drop-down selection, proceed on to the following:
1 On the start menu go to ‘Run’
2 Type in RegEdit
3 Navigate in RegEdit to HKEYCURRENTUSER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
4 Delete any entry for ‘My Music’
5 Navigate up the tree to HKEYCURRENTUSER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders
6 Make sure there is an entry for ‘My Music’ and is pointing to C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\My Documents\My Music (you can edit the value by double clicking it)
7 Close RegEdit
8 Reboot
iTunes &/or TweakUI should now be able to find the folder.

ITunes not finding cover art

During the process of ripping my CD's into iTunes on my new Mac Mini I am frustrated by the fact that iTunes cannot find cover art for multi million selling albums from Metallica, AC/DC, Queensryche, and other obviously popular artists. Cover art that is easily found by Windows Media Player on my Dell PC. What is the problem here? It is not like these are obscure B sides or anything like that. Any solutions to this problem would be appreciated.

Well, I got the artwork back by opening the first track (sometimes it had to be the second or even the third track) with CMD-I then clicking ok.

ITunes not finding Apple TV

Hi, I have a new MacBook Pro, Time Capsule and Apple TV, network is operating fine, Apple TV is on the network (movies, youtube etc all work), however iTunes will not find the Apple TV unit? I have googled many responses on this and reset both the network and rebooted Apple TV etc, nothing seems to work, I have file sharing on and firewall is not blocking...still no Apple TV....went to Apple store...no help there...one thing i did notice different in the store from the iTunes main window (on the demo model there) is that down the very bottom where you have 4 small buttons on the left hand side to select shuffle cover art etc...and then on the right hand side there where 3 options (one to select Apple remote speakers, Apple Tv etc) and then 2 Genius buttons....my iTunes window only shows the 2 Genius buttons (not sure if this will have anything to do with it, but thought it might be worth mentioning)..short story is I have spent many frustrating hours trying to get it to work...I even drove an hour to the only Apple store in Bris/GoldCoast to ask for advice..so much for that idea...(LOL) any help would be appreciated...I just want to hear my tunes through the stereo (many thanks from an anxious music fan), cheers, S

This won't solve it but may at least let you determine is seeing the device at all.
Enable AppleTV Settings so that it can behave as an Airtunes speaker, and also enable Airtunes speakers in iTunes references.
If it' detected for this you'll be able to stream iTunes output to it. I mention this a si my AppleTV disappears from Devices in iTunes I can usually still use it in Airtunes mode.

ITunes not finding TV episodes

So I sunk about 40.00 of hard earned money into some TV episodes.
I am trying to sync to my Apple TV (Older 32gb version).
All my other shows/movies sync fine, but the last batch I purchased are located in my iTunes on my pc, but when I try to sync it tells me it can not find the files.
I transferred my itunes to a new PC (which took about 3 friggen days to fight with iTunes to get it to work)...
and now I'm slapped in the face with this mess...
So before I go off on too much of a rant does anyone have any suggestions on why this is happening and what can be done to fix this. I will say I've read where people really dislike iTunes and now I can honestly see why.

Has episode 18 been aired yet ? Looking at wikipedia episode 18 is listed as due to be aired in the US on April 15th, no episode is listed as being shown last week : series 10.
If it has been aired then the TV company hasn't made it available to iTunes to put in the store, nor have they made it available on amazon.com : Supernatural series 10 amazon.

Itunes not finding songs

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