ITunes upgrade cannot locate most music files

After downloading and installing the latest version of iTunes (9.0.2.25), most music files in my library cannot be found when I try to play them from my laptop library. I can fix these individually if I am willing to navigate to each of the thousands of songs, redefining the path for iTunes, but there must be a simpler way. Otherwise I never want to update to a new version of iTunes again.
Thanks for any suggestions.

Unfortunately I upgraded today my itunes to version 9 and now wish I hadn't! I have the same problem as the previous post where all my music library cannot be found...even my purchased items! I have read the previous posts and I am shocked and disgusted that this is allowed to continue. The amount of money Apple is making and it can get away with providing such extremely shoddy service is nothing but outrageous! Does anyone know if they have responded in any way to the problems that we are all having? If not, for all UK people, I think it's time for Watchdog!!!

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ITunes Can't locate most music files

I updated iTunes and it can't locate most of my music. I'd say only about 10% and that being the most recent stuff I added is all it can locate... it asks me to look for the file and I point it exactly to where it should be.
I searched around and some have had this happen when they move files or store on an external HD whose name (ie F: or G:) switches. I did not do any of that, though, and everything is where it should be. The only answer seems to be reimporting the songs, I did that, but I have lost all my playlists, ratings, and counts.
I think this is a serious issue and no one seems to have an answer on how to solve it.

Welcome to AD!
Your best hope is to see if there is an ITL file in a folder named *Previous iTunes Libraries* that will have most of the metadata.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1967

Cannot locate original music file error message???

cannot locate original music file error message ??? i transferred to a new laptop then some of my music collection seems to get this message .

This 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, or that 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.
Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to get info, then cancel when asked to try to locate the track. 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, or a drive letter has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions.
Alternatively, as long as you can find a location holding the missing files, then you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes .
tt2

Itunes can not locate my music files.

I have just moved the whole of 'My Documents' to a new internal drive as i was running out of space in the old drive. Then after doing this, i deleted my original 'My Documents' off the old drive.
However, now about 80% of my music all needs locating. This means i would have to locate each individual file of over 2000 songs. This would take years and do not want to do this. (am not sure if this is relevant, but i have my files in various places on the computer, so not all in one folder.)
Have you any suggestions? I would really appreciate your help!
Thanks.

I am experiencing this problem also, I can see all 1336 of my songs, but it only plays about 30 of them. the rest it keeps saying cannot find music. Also It will not connect to the store due to no internet connection...I am always connected via broadband. I can access the store thru the internet but not itunes...please help!!!!!

My itunes library cannot locate most of my songs.

Ok this seems very strange to me. My itunes library has lots of next to each of the songs, (not all of them but most) so when I go to play them (through the computer) itunes is unable to find the file and asks me to try and locate the file. I cannot find them anywhere. However what makes this stranger is that all songs upload to my ipod fine as do any new downloads. I can find the files of the songs without the next to it fine, and have looked in these folders for the others but to no avail. Please help, Many Thanks!!

How to re-create your iTunes library and playlists
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451
Adding Content to iTunes
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1473
Using an external drive for backup
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751
http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/
and always have backups, I use .VHDs in Windows 7 to store files I can't afford to lose so you can recreate or import/add back later.

Itunes can not locate some music files

I have a large music collection of approx. 35k songs. A few days ago about 10% of my music appeared in itunes with that exclamation point symbol and basically lost its location. If I click in the song it says that it could not locate file. The audio files are correctly placed in the itunes music folder but manually relinking them will take me forever. I have tried changing the location of the itunes music, updating library and consolidating library (even though my music was all in one folder) and it did not work. Any ideas? Cheers, Roberto

I cannot speak for the Windows user, as I do not know whether the program acts as it does on a Mac.
For the Mac, though, Roberto may consider this recommendation. It may end up as a very long process since he mentions that he has 35000 tracks in his library.
There are two alternatives: the first would have you removing all of your iTunes files EXCEPT the one containing the actual music files. If your music files are stored independently on an external disk, all the better, as this means you can dispose of all of the files and folders INSIDE the folder called "Music" in your personal directory. Doing so will destroy all of the ancillary information that concerns your music library including artwork, but if you copy the contents to an external drive before you delete it on the startup, you will be able to retrieve it if it is not available at the iTunes store. After you have deleted the files, restart the computer, open iTunes and check your preferences. The preferences should be set to the way that you had them prior to this deletion. You should also verify that there are NO music items in your library before you proceed.
Once you are satisfied that your preferences are set properly (and you have logged into the iTunes store for the cover art), choose ADD TO LIBRARY from the FILE menu. A window will appear that will allow you to navigate to your iTunes music folder. DO NOT OPEN the folder containing all the music, but click once on it then click CHOOSE, and the process of reentering all of the files will begin. Depending on the actual file size/type, this process may take as much as several hours. You may want to stay with the computer while this process is ongoing in the event that iTunes sends you an alert message.
The alternative to this would have you leaving your iTunes folder exactly as it is but following the exact same procedure outlined above. Unfortunately, this method could take much much longer, as iTunes will stop at each of the albums that make up the library to ask whether you want to delete the original or not (the answer would be YES). This would be preferable if, like me, the user has a lot of cover art that is not available through the iTunes store (I have about 20K classical music tracks that come from CDs long out of print, so this would save time scanning artwork). I would not recommend this alternative unless more than 60% of the listings are posing problems.

Itunes can't locate my music files

I recently transferred my data from a XP to windows vista computer. Itunes and all my music transferred perfectly. I had been using it for a few weeks, no problems. On 9/12/2009 I clicked on several songs and the dreaded "file not found" came up. When I check "info" for these songs under "where" it says "not available". I still have my old computer. Should I delete itunes and re-transfer my music? I looked at several similar posts, but did not get any answers. I am wondering if this problem was caused by a recent update from apple.
Thanks in advance.

Does anybody know how I can get iTunes to find all of my songs it their new folder without me doing it one by one myself? Thanks
- johnny

ITunes can't locate my music files on it's own!!

When I try to open a song in iTunes it tells me it can't find the file cause it's changed locations and makes me locate it myself. This is easy enough to do but I have 2,000 songs and doing each individualy would take forever!
Does anybody know how I can get iTunes to find all of my songs without me doing it one by one myself? Thanks

Does anybody know how I can get iTunes to find all of my songs it their new folder without me doing it one by one myself? Thanks
- johnny

HELP! iTunes can't locate my music files and don't have them on my computer anymore.

Well pretty much none of my 2000 iTunes songs can be played. It just says the original file could not be found. I backed up my iTunes because my computer was going in for repairs and would need to be reformatted.
It then got reformatted and put iTunes on my computer and then NONE of my songs worked!!! I don't even have any of the original files incase I wanted to import them 1-by-1. PLEASE help me I miss my tunes.

Depending upon which store you use you may be able to recover some of your past purchases. See HT2519 - Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store.
Note you need to delete broken entries from the library, close & then reopen iTunes, go to the iTunes Store home page, click the Purchased link from the Quick Links section in the right-hand column, then select Music and Not on this computer. You should find download links for your tracks there.
While downloading select Downloads in the left-hand column and make sure Allow Simultaneous Downloads is unchecked. (This should reduce the risk of corrupt downloads.)
For the future backup your library regularly with this User Tip.
If you have an Apple device see: Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
See also: HT5085 - iTunes in the Cloud and iTunes Match Availability
tt2

ITunes cannot locate my music from my external hard drive

I am using the most uptodate software for mac book and itunes. Having followed all other discussions and located the media folder using preferences itunes still cannot locate my music, this is really frustating! All of my music is the the itunes media folder within the itunes folder on my external harddrive and it still wont find the music. Futher to this my library should have about 50,000 songs in it but itunes library is only showing 354 songs that all have the ! sign beside them.
Please can someone help me as this is annoying!
PS. this method worked fine on my windows until itunes had updated, since the recent update and my move to macbook pro my media cannot be found

Oops, excuse me I think I misread the initial problem.
This solution might be more on track, though I don't understand why the 354 songs your library does list are broken...
Empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash
Hopefully it's not been too long since you last upgraded iTunes, in fact if you get an empty/incomplete library immediately after upgrading then with the following steps you shouldn't lose a thing or need to do any further housekeeping. In the Previous iTunes Libraries folder should be a number of dated iTunes Library files. Take the most recent of these and copy it into the iTunes folder. Rename iTunes Library.itl as iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library.itl. Start iTunes. Should all be good, bar any recent additions to or deletions from your library.
See MusicFolder Files Not Added and Super Remove Dead Tracks for tools to catch up with any changes since the backup file was created.
tt2

HT4623 I have an iPhone 4. I recently updated it. It loading all my iTunes music purchases but not the music I had on my computer and had on my phone. Gone. I have tried re-sycing. Tried all I know to do. It says "it cannot locate my music" do I want to s

I have an iPhone 4. I recently updated. It loaded all my iTunes music purchases but not the music I had on my computer. This music was on my iPhone before I updated. I have tried re-sycing but not getting anywhere. Says it cannot locate my music files but I see it on my lap top but cannot play it or get it on my iPhone. Can anyone walk me through this?

C Mawle wrote:
Thanks. I have followed all the instructions as recommended and nothing has worked so it looks like the restore/update may have been interrupted - would loss of internet connection do this?
Yes it would, possibly even brick it.
Have successfully connected my ipod nano with iTunes so looks like the device driver is working.
Can I use my ipod nano USB connector to check?
It is not much help to you, since the device that you need still not recognized.
Anyway looks like I may have to swallow the loss of data. Have set-up a call for tomorrow with Apple support so will wait until after this before doing the factory restore!
Good luck, but if you expect miracle from that call good luck again.

ITunes 12.0.1 on Yosemite cannot locate my music after Time Machine migration

Hi hi
On my old 2008 iMac, my iTunes consists of music media on the internal iMac hdd and on an external HDD.
The option "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" was left unchecked on my iTunes.
My 2008 iMac froze and stopped working thereafter a few days ago and I bought a new iMac.
After updating my new iMac to Yosemite, I transferred my old iMac settings and data from the most recent Time Machine backup via Migration Assistant.
Loaded iTunes on my new iMac and noticed that certain playlist are not working, i.e. cannot locate the media file.
I narrowed those unplayable playlists to the music located on my external HDD.
For those that were working, when I get info on the music files, they were located in my new iMac's internal HDD that were transferred over from my Time Machine backup, i.e. ~/Downloads/MP3s/etc.
Those that were unplayable and located in my external HDD points to ' ~/user/xxx/Music/iTunes/iTunes media', roughly along this line despite my old external HDD being plugged into my new iMac.
May get some help as to how to get the unplayable media on my external HDD working on my new iMac?
Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

actually i have same problem with yours. Finally i get iTunes update from apple website, not thru app store.
but so far i still have no idea to make those iTunes update(8 times) disappear.
it's really ugly in that page.
maybe some one have idea to solve it , please advise it. it will be appreciated much ~

Original file cannot be found for most music files, w/large external drive

Hello.
I am getting the error message "original file cannot be found" most times that I play a song in iTunes 6, though I am always able to locate the music file in my iTunes Music Folder. This is infuriating!
My music collection is large -- 90.08 GB, and is on an external FireWire drive.
Can somebody help me?

mgallope,
welcome to Discussions.
Everytime you turn your ext hd off, iTunes reverts your library to its original location, which is within your mac HD.
In order to locate the music files, turn your ext hd on, plug it into your mac and wait it be recognized in Finder. After that, open iTunes Preferences>Advanced and change the location of your library from the original location to the new one. Wait until iTunes reorganizes the library and try playing any song.
Unfortunately, you´ll have to do this every time you shut your ext hd off.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Paulo

I have problem with Itunes losing where podcasts and some purchased music is located. Don't know how Itunes losing the locations of the files and I can't find the files on my hard drive. What can I do to stop Itunes losing location and restore my files?

I have problem with Itunes losing where podcasts and some purchased music is located. Don't know how Itunes losing the locations of the files and I can't find the files on my hard drive. What can I do to stop Itunes losing location and restore my files?

Try assigning Queen as the Album Artist on the compilations in iTunes on your computer.

I have lightroom 5.7. Now I have apple TV to connect my Mac to the TV scree. I wish to do a slide show on the TV. However, on the Mac, using ITunes to share photos with the TV, I cannot locate all photo files. What is the best way to save the slide show a

I have lightroom 5.7. Now I have apple TV to connect my Mac to the TV scree. I wish to do a slide show on the TV. However, on the Mac, using ITunes to share photos with the TV, I cannot locate all photo files. What is the best way to save the slide show and put it where the Mac sharing can find it? So far, I made on one folder in Lightroom, put some photos there and I found them easily. Can this be done with a slide show? Please help quickly! Also worried that the photos I put on the new folder are hard to find afterwards, when the show is done. Where do they go when I delete from from the new folder?I am not alone

Not that I'm aware of. You just export JPEG copies to a folder that you can point iTunes to. For instance, I have created a folder in my Pictures folder called Apple TV. And within that folder I have other folders of pictures that I can choose from in iTunes to share with Apple TV. But there doesn't seem to be any way to share a Lightroom slideshow. If you have laid to create a video file that would probably work. Apple TV is a little clunky in my opinion. Some things are a little more difficult to do now than they were a while back. I probably haven't provided you with much help, but just keep experimenting and I think you will figure it out.

ITunes upgrade cannot locate most music files

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