Itunes purchases - original file could not be found
Last night I made an 11 item purchase. At the time, my Ipod was connected to my PC and after download was complete, I synced. The new songs are on my Ipod. However, they cannot be found on my computer, or so iTunes tells me every time I try to play one.
This is my only authorized computer, I am using Windows XP and iTunes ver. 7, music and podcasts only.
I have gone through the "transfer purchased from iPod" exercise a number of times. The first few times, a progress window would flash so fast that I could see only the name of one song. Presumably, that song was transferred from ipod to itunes. However, when I ask to play it, I am still told that the file cannot be found. I have searched and searched for it! Now when I try to transfer, itunes and ipod talk to each othe (
My music folder is on an external HD, but that hasn't proved to be a problem with previous purchases.
I did discover that in my preferences, on Advanced|General tab, the option "copy files to itunes folder when adding to library" was not checked. I checked to enable. Would that have made a difference? I don't recall unchecking it and other purchses (without check) have been okay and are all accessible both from itunes and ipod.
For the heck of it, I purchased just one song just now with absolutely no problems. Synced and it's on ipod and itunes. HOWEVER, just before I synced, I unchecked in itunes the 11 songs which I'm writing about -- the ones that are on ipod but itunes can't find. Well, they're no longer on ipod. My sync option is "only checked files," but I didn't understand that since they were already on the ipod, unchecking them would remove them!
This is so frustrating. Can anyone shed any light?? TIA!!
am pulling my hair out now after to many hours on this issue.. Surely Apple must be able to sort this issue by now.
My itunes library is 5+ yrs old now and therefore 10,000 songs, numerous podcasts, videos etc etc. not to mention loads of rating information, hundreds of playlists created from last played, rating, genre etc etc, therefore i cannot afford to loose all this valuable data attached to my itunes library. However recently half of my library appeared with exclamation marks all over it, though i cannot work out why as all the music files are in the location specified in preferences, path etc.
It seems that itunes just wont bother looking at this path and syncing with whatever is there. Yeah fine i can add the whole itunes music folder again and it will import every song again so i go from 10,000 to 20,000 songs, i could deal with this with a dupe eliminator that are freelu available on the net but the new imports without the exclamation marks cleary dont have the historical data of play counts, last played ratings etc etc attached to them so its no different from deleting and starting again.
I have tried all the options in this post and none of them deal with the simple issue of just look at the location that it listed in the preferences and search for the file u think is missing on mass!!!
Its not rocket science so why havent Apple fixed this. !!!
If anyone has got a solution for this or work around that doesnt involve completly writing off years of rating and creating playlists based on numerous historical data then i would be bery appreciative!!
Similar Messages
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Itunes says "Original File could not be found"
I've moved my Itunes music folder to a different location to accommodate more music. I've also created a new library in another location with other music (reasons aside). Also, the Advanced pane shows the correct location of the Itunes files. All worked just fine, opening Itunes with option key to be able to choose the correct library. Now, when I click almost any tune in after opening the original library, Itunes says "Original File could not be found - would you like to locate it?" I could but I certainly don't want to do this for each and every song. How can I do this "en masse" and How can I avoid this in future? Thanks in advance for any help.
am pulling my hair out now after to many hours on this issue.. Surely Apple must be able to sort this issue by now.
My itunes library is 5+ yrs old now and therefore 10,000 songs, numerous podcasts, videos etc etc. not to mention loads of rating information, hundreds of playlists created from last played, rating, genre etc etc, therefore i cannot afford to loose all this valuable data attached to my itunes library. However recently half of my library appeared with exclamation marks all over it, though i cannot work out why as all the music files are in the location specified in preferences, path etc.
It seems that itunes just wont bother looking at this path and syncing with whatever is there. Yeah fine i can add the whole itunes music folder again and it will import every song again so i go from 10,000 to 20,000 songs, i could deal with this with a dupe eliminator that are freelu available on the net but the new imports without the exclamation marks cleary dont have the historical data of play counts, last played ratings etc etc attached to them so its no different from deleting and starting again.
I have tried all the options in this post and none of them deal with the simple issue of just look at the location that it listed in the preferences and search for the file u think is missing on mass!!!
Its not rocket science so why havent Apple fixed this. !!!
If anyone has got a solution for this or work around that doesnt involve completly writing off years of rating and creating playlists based on numerous historical data then i would be bery appreciative!! -
When I try to play a song iTunes says "Original file could not be found"
I am getting a "!" next to my songs, and the message that the file cannot be used because the original file cannot be found.
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 !
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Itunes match, original file could not be found
Hi,
When I try to access songs via itunes match, I get an error that states that the file cannot be located. Additionally, I don't have the icloud icon on all of my albums, but it shows that over 16,000 songs are on the cloud. This problem appears to only affect one computer, on my laptop and iphone, its not an issue. And yes, all are authorized with itunes match already turned on.
MarlonProvided that the Songs have already 'uploaded' or 'matched' the issue sounds like a local one with the specific library concerned.
Would recommend:
1. Take a secure backup of all the Songs in the library;
2. Select all Songs in the library and delete (do not also delete from iCloud);
3. Restart the iTunes client.
At this point you should have access to all your Songs from the iCloud - if needed any further Songs can be recovered from the secure backup. You can either download all Songs or simply stream Songs as needed.
It is worth checking your operating systems versus the iTunes Match minimum requirements as well. -
There are about 8 songs on a playlist that are listed in the playlist library but when I try to transfer them to the playlist, it states that they can't be transferred because the original file could not be found. Then it asks, do you want to locate the file but when I try that I get a few libraries but am not sure how to locate the particular songs. Some of the songs were purchased and some were transferred from a CD. I have seen the same question asked on the help page but haven't found an answer.
Thanks.Hi dones49,
It sounds like your issue here is that iTunes can not find the files for some of the songs you have brought into it. This happens occasionally even if the songs have not been moved from the location that iTunes places them on import or purchase. When you try to use the song, iTunes prompts you to find the file, as you have seen.
To find the file, use the information in this article to navigate through the iTunes media folders -
Locate and organize your iTunes files
If you are still unable to locate the files, you may need to download them from the iTunes store again, or rip them from your CDs. See this article for assistance with downloading your past purchases -
Download past purchases
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Brett L -
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?
ThanksIt 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 downloaded something that was told to me to get to put some of my itunes songs onto my android phone. I think it synced my account, though. Whenever i click on a song an exclamation point comes up and something pops up and says "could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" and i don't remember ever backing up my songs (this computer is fairly new) and now none of my songs come up. I have no idea what to do but ive spent hundreds of dollars on this account purchasing from the itunes store. Please help me!
Tunes works through a database file which has a list of your tracks. When you click on a track it looks up in the database which file it needs to play, then plays the file. If something breaks this link then you get ! The two main ways to get ! are to move a file from where iTunes expects it to be, or to delete it altogether. I don't know which has happened in your case. You can try using Spotlight to find a file for the one referred to in a broken link. If the files have been moved then they need to be moved back. If they were deleted completely you will have to restore them from a backup or download them again from the iTunes Store and rebuild your library.
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When I try to listen to the songs I purchased from iTunes last week, I get the error message, "could not be used because the original file could not be found. would you like to locate it?" What do I do to fix this problem or locate the song?
Thanks!I am getting this same message. I recently bought a new Macbook Pro and the geeks transferred my files from my mini-mac. Perhaps they did not transfer something critical? I follow the "locate" option when it asks to find my files and I get a file folder that has a red circle with a white bar in the middle.
I have the same issues with my downloaded movies but my apps all seem to be fine.
Even more confusing - it seems to allow random songs to play and download on my Macbook and other devices. But most of my music - whether downloaded from iTunes or my CD collection comes up with that message about the original file.
Should I get new geeks to locate these files on my old mini-mac? -
I bought six songs using my itunes gift card in February but I cannot play the songs or downlaod them to my ipod because I get an error saying the original file could not be found. I have used the gift card previously with no issue. How do I fix it?
Have you moved or deleted those tracks on your computer (the gift card has got nothing to do with it) ?
You might be able to re-download them via the Purchased link under Quick Links on the right-hand side of the iTunes store home page on your computer's iTunes (re-downloading isn't possible in all countries) - if those songs appear there then delete the entries from your iTunes library (where you are clicking on them to play them and gettinf the 'original file' error), and they should then get a cloud symbol against them for re-downloading.
If they don't appear in that link then have you got them on, for example, an external drive ? -
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.
ThanksI 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!
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My iTunes library shows all music but there is an exclamation mark to the left on all entries and there is a message stating "original file could not be found" although all music is on the iPad.
The massage means what it says. iTunes can't find the actual music files. All iTunes has is a database of where the files should be and they are not there.
Try:
- iTunes: Finding lost media and downloads
- Redownloading iTunes purchases by:
Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store -
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... -
This is a new notification coming up with iTunes, why and how do I fix it?
The song “Penny Lane” could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?
MaxHey xxCreepyFiaxx,
First, I would try the following suggested steps for when you don't see content in iTunes after updating:
Quit iTunes.
Download and install the latest version of iTunes.
Use the Finder (Mac) or Windows Explorer (Windows) to go to the iTunes folder that contains the iTunes library files:
Mac OS X
/Users/username/Music/iTunes/
Microsoft Windows Windows XP and Windows 2000
\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\
Microsoft Windows Windows Vista and Windows 7
\Users\username\Music\iTunes\
Drag the iTunes Library file from the above location to the Desktop.
Open the Previous iTunes Libraries folder in the iTunes folder.
Locate the file named iTunes Library YYYY-MM-DD where YYYY-MM-DD is the date you upgraded iTunes (Year-Month-Day).
Drag this file to the iTunes folder (the enclosing folder).
Rename this file to iTunes Library.
Open iTunes.
You should now see your missing content in iTunes.
via: No content shows up in iTunes after updating
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1967
If that doesn't resolve the issue, then I'd go through the steps in here:
iTunes: Finding lost media and downloads
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1408
Have a good one,
Delgadoh -
I have a new hard drive as my old one crashed. Everything seemed to transfer fine except for my entire iTunes library. It shows all of my old songs, but when I click on one it states "the song could not be used as the original file could not be found.would you like to locate it".
Either how do I locate it, and I've tried every trick I know, or how do I restore all of my songs from one of two sources. I have my old hard drive backedup on an external drive which should have all of my songs, and I have most of my songs on my old iPhone 3S which I'm using as a backup iPod.The "missing file" error happens if the file is no longer where iTunes expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the file, one of its parent folders, or the drive it lives on has had a change of drive letter. It is also possible that iTunes has changed from expecting the files to be in the pre-iTunes 9 layout to post-iTunes 9 layout, or vice-versa, and so is looking in slightly the wrong place. In the case of a library moved from one system to another there are also potential permissions issues. See Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows.
Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to Get Info, then click No when asked to try to locate the track. (Due to a bug in iTunes 12 you currently have to say No twice!) Look on the summary tab for the location that iTunes thinks the file should be. Now take a look around your hard drive(s). Hopefully you can locate the track in question. If a section of your library has simply been moved, a folder renamed, or a drive letter has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions. If the difference between the two paths is an additional Music folder in one path then this is a layout issue. I can explain further if that is the case.
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.
If another application like Windows Media Player has moved/renamed the files then the chances are that subtle differences in naming strategies will make it hard to restore the media to the precise path that iTunes is expecting. In such cases, as long as the missing files can be found somewhere, you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes. See this post for an explanation of how it works.
See also Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
tt2 -
I have an iPod Classic and work on Windows 7.
i recently installed iTunes 10.5 update and since then i cannot play any of the songs in the Library - i get the following message
"The song could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?"
what happened to all my songs (almost 2000) How can i get them back into my music library?
Please help - i do not want to spend another week downloading all my cd's onto my computer !!!!!Try my script FindTracks. Select a few of the missing files to start with then run the script. Choose No at the first prompt so that you can check how it works track by track, then confirm or edit the location of the media folder where your files are. Once you are happy with how it behaves let it process larger numbers of tracks automatically.
tt2
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