ITunes won't find my music?

I tend to download a lot of free mixtapes artists put out and when I do, I put them under the music library on my Windows 7 laptop. It's by the iTunes folder but not in it and it was never a problem because iTunes could always find it. I had gotten a virus from my poor virus protection software and I hadto reset it completely and now when I do that, iTunes can't find it. It has a little exclamation mark next to the song titles and when it'll ask me to find it, I always do but the exclamation mark will never go away. Someone please help me get it to the way it was before. It would be much appreciated!

The exclamation mark means the media is not where iTunes expects the files to be.
Are the media files still on the computer?

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Just upgraded to Leopard and iTunes won't find my music on external drive

I keep all my music, tv shows and movies on an external drobo that is connected to my airport extreme. I just opened iTunes and it is not seeing my music (at least not populating it) despite the location in preferences / advanced being the drobo. I have tried resetting it but nothing helps. I don't want to move the music onto the iMac I want to keep it on the drobo. What gives?

I may have figured it out. The library folder was right but the associations were not. I went to file and add to library and pointed that back to my library on my external and all the associations are being rebuilt. I hope this works. The files are being added to iTunes as I type.
Just an FYI if someone else runs into this issue.

The computer I had my phone attached to crashed. I have installed iTunes on my laptoop and updated and resotred my phone but iTunes won't find it. I've done the troubleshooting. Any ideas?

The computer I had my phone attached to crashed. I have installed iTunes on my laptoop and updated and restored and reset my phone but iTunes won't find it to sync. I've done the troubleshooting. Any ideas?

Well, you do not say what computer OS you use, so I'll provide you with both troubleshooting links.
Windows: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1538
Mac OS: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1591

ITunes won't recognise my music files!

Hey everyone- I've loaded all my music files and old iTunes library onto my new computer and in the itunes music folder. However when i go to listen to a song iTunes says that it cannot find the song, or the folder has been moved and would i like to locate it...? Can anyone help me here? All my playlists are sitting there looking at me but they won't play any music!!!!!
Any help would be much appreciated!
cheers,
ed

I am also having the same problem. In an effort to try and consolidate, I recently placed all of my existing music folders under or in a newly created folder entitled Kenny's Music. Upon attemting to play my music after that, the music is coming up unable to locate.
I have all of my music under an external hard drive and I even changed the settings in my Itunes settings to F:ItunesKenny's.
I can get idividual songs to play by going through eight or nine steps - clicking on a song, a window coming up asking me if I want to locate the song, indicating yes, going to the F drive, clicking on itunes music, kenny's music, locating the artist, highlighing the song and then it will play.
I have over 6400 songs and I don't want to go through that entire process for each song. I have previously utilized the file, add folder to library option. All that did was to double the overall number of songs from 6400 to 8800. However, my old songs would still not play. Please help.

Bought new HD and now iTunes can't find my music

I just bought a new FW HD, WD My Passport. I copied all of my music from my old USB 2.0 HD to the new one and now iTunes can't find all the songs. It'll play probably 40 or 50 songs but the rest of them show the "!" next to the song name. Right now the only thing I can do to show iTunes where the songs are without having to rebuild my playlists is to manually point it to each individual song but since but that would mean pointing it to over 14,000 songs......... I DID go in to the preferences and changed the folder location to the new HD and it still won't find the files. But strangely enough, when I have the old HD plugged in, as well as the new one, it'll play everything just fine, checking the preferences shows that iTunes is pointed to the new folder but "Get Info" on individual tracks shows iTunes finding the file in the old HD, unplug old HD and files cannot be found. Why doesn't the **** program look where I want it to and what do I have to do to fix it? I know my description here isn't crystal clear so I'll gladly answer any question to help clear it up a little. ANY help is very much appreciated as I do not want to spend the next 3 weeks teaching iTunes one song at a time. Thank you.
Chris

For moving your iTunes library, I recommend this method...
Assuming you use the iTunes default settings where iTunes copied added items to your iTunes folder and organizes your library (meaning - everything is all self contained in the iTunes folder), then all you have to do is drag & drop your iTunes folder (not just the iTunes Music folder you find inside the iTunes folder) to the external drive and copy the entire thing.
If you want to test that it worked or would like to actually start using it from that location instead, use these instructions when you start iTunes to point it to the new location...
How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304447
If you are just testing, then close iTunes after you verify it works, and restart iTunes again with the same instructions and point it back to your internal drive (original) location.
Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307074
Patrick

ITunes won't sync my music (I've tried everything)

I had to replace my phone (cracked screen) so I used my warranty to get a refurbished iPhone 4s this past weekend. I've done this before and I've never had a problem. I backed up and made sure iCloud was how I wanted it beforehand. (Again, last time I did this same routine and never had any problems) When I came home to sync my phone back to how it was, when it restored, it didn't restore all my apps, I still had to go through and download them off of iCloud. My music isn't on iCloud but was backed up on to my computer. Everything ended up back to normal except for one thing- When I restored it and then even synced it, my music wouldn't go on to my phone.
I then went through and made sure everything was checked and how it should be and it is. Sometimes my iTunes either gets stuck at the "step 4/4" part or cancels the sync before it even gets to the music for some reason. I've tried every internet "solution" I've read and my school help desk couldn't figure it out either. I have the latest software on both my computer and phone. My music shows up and plays and everything from my computer but just won't sync on to my phone.
I just don't see why it's doing this. I have over one thousand songs and I really miss getting to listen to them.
If anyone can help me out that would seriously be appreciated!

THANK YOU SO MUCH . I too, tried everything, but it just didn't wanted to work. Either internet, Airtunes (without speakers) and LAN where working or Airtunes-speakers and nothing else. Also only when Airtunes-speakers where working my Airport express showed up in the Airport admin tool.
So the fix was simple: system settings > Network > Airport > tcp/ip
I'd changed the ip to 10.0.1.4 (it was somthing like 10.34.23.2)
copied subnetmask and Router adresse.
Now i opened Airport admin tool. And entered ip adresse/subnetmask/router information and everything works again.
This problem happened when i turned on: Distribution of ip adresses and turned it back again.
Notes: 1) when entering only ip 10.0.1.4 in airport - konfigurationassistent, iTunes shows the speakers, but claims that the speakers are being used by another.
2) Even by hard resseting, the airport remembers the "ditribution of ip adresses", and has it turned ON, which is wired.
3) During this problem i'd noticed that when ditribution of ip adresses was turned ON my internet, Airtunes (without speakers) and LAN where working
When ditribution of ip adresses was turned OFF only iTunes speakers where working.
4) When ditribution of ip adresses was turned OFF airport admin tool can only see the airport for about 1 second, because that is when bonjour kicks in and after that the airport becomes invisible. Itunes much slower finds the speakers than aiport-admin which is why it simply doesn't show up at all.

Changed laptops, now iTunes can't find my music on my file server

Ok, here's what happened when I recently switched laptops
- I use iTunes to point to the music I store on my file server via a network share (WinXP)
- I manually manage my iTunes folders
- I took the \My Documents\My Music\iTunes directory from my old laptop and copied it to the same location to my new laptop
- Installed iTunes 9 on the new laptop
- When iTunes9 loaded on the new laptop ALMOST all music files in my library loaded with an exclamation point indicating that it couldn't locate the file (even though the file locations never changed)
Ok... so here's the problem. I have over 20,000 songs with ratings information and if I just re-add all the files from the network share to the iTunes library again then it looks like I'd lose those ratings.
The only way that I can see to fix things is to individually point iTunes to the network share location of the file for each file... YUCK!
Is there a script or something I can write to tell it to find these files, or at least copy the ID3 tags to the duplicated songs that I re-added from the network share.
Any help is GREATLY appreciated!

Something is different in the paths to the files....hence itunes cannot find them.
Sound like you know about the ITL file, which is why you copied it over.
What you can do is look in its companion XML file to see the paths itunes thinks it should be using.
If your XML is really big, open it using WordPad instead of NotePad. About the 10th line down is the itunes preference setting for the itunes folder:
key>Music Folder</key><string>file://localhost/K:/iTunes%20Music/</string>
On my system it's K:/iTunes Music
The %20 just indicates a space.
Then each song will have its own path
<key>Location</key><string>file://localhost/K:/iTunes%20Music/Cowboy%20Junkies/The%20Trinity%20Session/07%2 0200%20More%20Miles.mp3</string>
Now....can you see ANYTHING funny in one of those song paths?Is there an extra space, a different user name, anything different than what you could browse to in Windows Explorer?

Since upgrading to version 8.1, iTunes "can't find original music files".

I've been building an extensive music file since the first iPod. It's about 110 GB large and for about three years I've stored it on an external drive with absolutely no problems. Now, within hours of upgrading to iTunes 8.1, every listed item on my iTunes library has an exclamation mark next to it and the message *"The song "whatever" could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?"* Of course I can show iTunes where the song is and then it will play it but I'm not gonna do that for 110 GB's worth of music! And yes, I've gone into iTunes preferences and told it again and again where the iTunes library is located but that doesn't work. Does anyone have a fix for this? And oh by the way, I will NEVER AGAIN let Software Update sway me into upgrading to a new version of iTunes until it's been up and running without bugs for at least three months!

Have you tried, importing the music into iTunes again? So delete the music from iTunes only not the system, & then import to see if it finds your musics?

ITunes can not find my music on external hard drive

Had to redo my hard drive; had all music on external hard drive; copied iTunes folder onto external hard drive. Now that my desktop hard drive is clean, and new iTunes downloaded, it can not find my music on the external drive which I have always used. Is there some setting I am missing, do I have to copy music onto CPU?

Hold the SHIFT key while launching iTunes. You will get the option to navigate to the iTunes folder on your external drive. In the iTunes folder point it to the iTunes Library.itl file.

My iTunes can't find my music?

Recently I had moved all my music files to one location so I can always find where my music is instead of having to scrounge through all my files to find it. Now doing that made all my music files in iTunes have a "!" next to them. I double-click on the music with the "!" (which happens to be EVERY music file on there) and it tells me I have to find the music. So I go to the location where I moved ALL my music and it asks me if I would like to use the location on a certain song and find other music in that same location. keep in mind again that ALL my music in in that one location and when I let it search the location it only finds like 6 files out of the 600 missing. If anyone can please help me I would really appreciate it. I don't know if this is important, but I use iTunes for Windows XP.

See Here for Moving your iTunes Media Folder:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
And Here for Finding Lost Media:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1408

ITunes can't find my music library. Pleas help!

I just upgraded my iTunes. Next time I tried opening it a window appeared that read: "Can't find your iTunes Library..."
I tried searching by opening start/computer/iTunes but the file that has all my music was renamed to: bd4765ae206e5a7a782a28f08509 and when I tried opening it all I found was a list of 4 files that I can't open.
I know all my music is still there because the file still uses 125 GB in my computer, but I can't seem to run iTunes or I can't seem to point iTunes into finding my music.
Please anyone help!!!

If you did not rename that file, then I am a little worried there might be a larger problem looming (malware, etc.). If this is so, then finding the file might not even help.
I recommend restoring from a backup. If the backup was made before this file changed, then you should be fine.
If you would like to stick with what you've got, then this Apple Support article should provide you with the instructions you need: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1391
Best!

Itunes can't find my music folder

I can't install Itunes....it downloads fine from the exe file but when i try to open itunes it gives me the error msg that it can't find My Music folder. I went to the support page and it told me that if i couldn't find My Music folder to create one in My documents and download/install Tweak UI. I did and followed all the steps except when it asks me to click on My computer, then special folder and can't find the My Music folder to move it. I am using Windows XP....Please help. Has anyone ever had this problems?

I finally found a solution here: http://forums.techarena.in/windows-xp-support/983948.htm
it's stupid, you have to hold down the shift key while you open iTunes (don't just hold it while you click, keep holding it until iTunes actually shows the library dialog).

File://localhost/ Issue Itunes Can't Find My Music.

I recently upgraded my old hard drive on my computer so after removing the old one and turning it into an external hard drive I have issues with Itunes finding my music files. The files are always in file://localhost/c:/.... is there anyway to get rid of the file://localhost/ because the rest of the directory is correct.

+changed the location of the music folder to E: iTunes Music.+
All this does is make future additions go to that new place.
When you move things around outside of itunes, it loses the path, as you've found.
Can you move everything back and use the Consolidate Library command to move it to the new location?
Here is a good article from iLounge on what you need to understand about the process.
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive

Itunes can't find my music from old file

Although my music is available on my ipad and phone, Itunes can't find and play my music on my laptop. WTH?

+changed the location of the music folder to E: iTunes Music.+
All this does is make future additions go to that new place.
When you move things around outside of itunes, it loses the path, as you've found.
Can you move everything back and use the Consolidate Library command to move it to the new location?
Here is a good article from iLounge on what you need to understand about the process.
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive

I need to uninstall and reinstall itunes but cannot find my music anywhere so will i lose what is on my ipod when i re connect it later

Since having a virus on my laptop I am unable to access my itunes. It is asking that I uninstall and reinstall. I am worried that as I cannot find my music already in the itunes library that if i do this reinstalling then connect my ipod that I will loose all the music on there already. I am not necessarily worried about it not being in the library. ANy ideas.

Hello Jenney Watts,
It sounds like you are wanting to re install iTunes but want to be sure of the location of your files before you do so. The following article will walk you through checking where the library is being stored:
Where are my iTunes files located?
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
I would also recommend using the following article to consolidate your media to the iTunes library to keep them all in the same place.
iTunes for Windows: Moving your iTunes Media folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1364
Then you can use this article to uninstall and then re install iTunes:
Removing and reinstalling iTunes and other software components for Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1923
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Sterling

ITunes won't find my music?

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