Locating music

i have a new mac and was trying to transfer music from my old computer using an external hard drive. i plugged the hard drive with the music into the mac and before i could drag it into the mac it somehow transferred in automatically. when i open itunes in any of the 4 accounts on the mac, a category under "shared Music" shows "rob's library". The music in the shared library plays but can not be transferred to create a playlist and can not be deleted. i have tried to locate the music files so that i can delete them and re-transfer them but the can not be found. i have searched under "Rob" in finder and have looked under music in accounts, including the shared account. there is nothing. there is over 13gigs of music so I don't just want to ignore it. the hard drive is disconnected so itunes is not just reading the external. Where's the music?

i just realized what was happening. the mac was picking up my library from a different computer on my network. thanks for your help.

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Can't locate music files?

I have recently moved my iTunes library onto a network drive and iTunes is happily playing music from the new location.
In iMovie on the other hand all I get is "The song xxxxxxx could not be used because the original file could not be located.".
Surely iMovie uses the iTunes library reference to locate music files? What have I done wrong? How to I tell iMovie where to look for the music files?
Thanks.

I have recently moved my iTunes library onto a network drive and iTunes is happily playing music from the new location.
In iMovie on the other hand all I get is "The song xxxxxxx could not be used because the original file could not be located.".
Surely iMovie uses the iTunes library reference to locate music files? What have I done wrong? How to I tell iMovie where to look for the music files?
Thanks.

ITunes library file NOT corrupt but cannot locate music files

This is a new one... the library file seems to be NOT corrupt. iTunes loads fine and is populated by all the music information and artwork, etc. but when I click to play a tune, it says "cannot locate music". Nothing was moved, nothing has been changed. All my files are in the same location and iTunes shows the correct file path. The only files it can play are four songs that were imported before a massive rebuild of the library occurred the next day!
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+The only files it can play are four songs that were imported before a massive rebuild of the library occurred the next day!+
This is probably a big clue, but I don't understand what you mean by it!

Itunes unable to read/locate music files as they have been converted to HP Connected Music files - can anyone assist ?

itunes unable to read/locate music files as they have been converted to HP Connected Music files - can anyone assist ?

You need to associate your music files to iTunes instead of HP.
Control Panel
Programs
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Set Associations
Double click on the relevant item and select iTunes from the list.

TS1362 Unable to locate music files

I've been using my ITunes for years. My stereo is hooked up to my PC and all I ever did was open ITunes, click on a playlist and enjoy. I recently got an Iphone, after I hooked it up..... I Tunes can not find any of the music on my playlists!!! Nothing has changed.....I can not for the life of me figure out why now....it can't locate music files to play like it has for the past 7 years!!! PLEASE help! I have even uninstalled and reinstalled ITunes just in case that helped...nothing helps...I can't play my music now.

Tried this with no success. Can anyone confirm where I locate it from?
/Music/iTunes/iTunes media/Artist/Album/song.

I Tunes unable to locate music ?

I have just spent 7 hours updating our i-Tunes account. I successfully deleted the extra copies of tracks,located missing files,updated the library and then backed up the whole of i-Tunes.
I then backed up the whole I-Mac to an external drive and was busy patting myself on the back for an excellent job when I thought I would just check and see everything opened properly after a shut down. I didnt.
When i opened i-Tunes I could see all my albums,all the artwork,all the playlists, all the music files perfectly organised as I had left them.
BUT when I clicked on a tune to listen to it, i-Tunes gave me a mesage saying i-Tunes was unable to locate the music file ? I followed the link path to where the music was stored, user\music\ i-Tunes\ i-Tunes media etc and there was all the music as I had left it ??
When I clicked on any file in i-Tunes it could find it, but when I click on the media folder with the music in it opens i-Tunes up perfectly and plays my tune. I've tried emptying the whole i-Tunes library and then restoring it from i-Tunes folder but I get multiple copies of the allbums, missing artwork, missing files, some albums have one or two tunes missing and some are completely duplicated, e.g. I can see two copies of each track in the album..........I cant believe it ! why is i-Tunes so frustrating ? all I want it to be able to see one copy of each track on each album and keep it that way.
Is it something to do with my library ? is that corrupted ? should I delete the library and create a new one ? how do I do that ? How, (once I've got it back to how I want it) do I save everything and ensure it doesn't go reading something corrupt again. This is a nightmare...HELP

The exclamation mark for missing files is shown 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. Changing the path to the media folder won't fix the links to files you've moved by hand.
Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to get info, then say no when asked 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. I can provide a step by step guide if you give me the two paths.
In some cases iTunes may be able to repair itself if you go through the same steps and locate the lost track. It may then offer to attempt to automatically fix other broken links. 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. I would suggest you untick Edit > Preferences > Advanced > Keep iTunes Media folder organized before you start so that things don't have to move around as they are repaired.
tt2

ITunes can't locate music I have stored in the iCloud

I am experiencing the following problem. In iTunes some of my "songs" have an exclamation point beside them even though they are stored in the cloud. I see the dialog box that asks if I want to locate the music and I have found if I hit the cancel button, the music suddenly has a cloud icon and starts to play. This is weird, and I'd love to know how to fix this.
Thanks

Yes, you are correct. The songs are only stored in the iCloud. Which is what I want. I don't want to have all my library sitting on my iMac and in iCloud. Am I missing something?
There are plenty of songs on my hard drive with the iCloud symbol and they play without a problem. I also have some songs sitting on my hard drive. And they aren't a problem. THE PROBLEM is the tracks that have the exclamation mark and will play from the iCloud after I press "Cancel" in the "Locate" dialog box. I hope I'm explaining this clearly....

ITunes can't locate music files

Any music that was copied into my iTunes music folder cannot be located. Anytime that I try to play the file from iTunes, it shows an error message, requests that I locate the file, and then proceeds to tell me that I need to format my hard drive. When I try to open my iTunes music folder directly, my computer freezes and then after 10 minutes informs me that my hard drive needs to be formatted. I never had this problem until I downloaded the new version of iTunes. This is only going on with music I have copied into my iTunes folder, which is all the CDs I have or had. Many of these CDs I no longer physically have. I have tried to use a previous iTunes library to fix the problem. I have also moved my preferences files to the desktop as suggested in another thread, but neither have worked. I am not having any other problems with my computer that would encourage me to format my hard drive besides this issue. I would appreciate any help possible with this predicament.
Compaq Presario V2000 Windows XP AMD 64, 60GB

Any music that was copied into my iTunes music folder cannot be located. Anytime that I try to play the file from iTunes, it shows an error message, requests that I locate the file, and then proceeds to tell me that I need to format my hard drive. When I try to open my iTunes music folder directly, my computer freezes and then after 10 minutes informs me that my hard drive needs to be formatted. I never had this problem until I downloaded the new version of iTunes. This is only going on with music I have copied into my iTunes folder, which is all the CDs I have or had. Many of these CDs I no longer physically have. I have tried to use a previous iTunes library to fix the problem. I have also moved my preferences files to the desktop as suggested in another thread, but neither have worked. I am not having any other problems with my computer that would encourage me to format my hard drive besides this issue. I would appreciate any help possible with this predicament.
Compaq Presario V2000 Windows XP AMD 64, 60GB

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 cannot locate music files

i was doing some spring cleaning but accidently deleted the itunes music library (in the advanced preferences both options to organize and to automatically add are ticked)
after only being able to recover 1/4 of the files deleted since im guessing they were too big, 75 percent of my media has checkmarks indicating that the file is not able to be located
is there any way of doing this quickly and not having to do each song individually
i tried deleting the itunes music folder and then reimporting the old itunes list, but again about 75 percent still contain the checkmark
any help would be appreciated since its taken me about a year to get this list down to 30 gigs from which i began with around 200gigs of music
i wouldnt want to have to start again
thanks

There is exactly one way to move files in iTunes: Set the new location in preferences, and then run Consolidate.
Any other procedure either loses files or requires manual work.

ITunes cannot locates music files

I recently purchased a new Asus with Windows 8 and successfully (or so I thought) transferred music from my i phone 4. The computer is authorised. My phone recently became full as I have a lot of music, so I unticked some music and attempted to re-sync. All the files in ITunes then got an '!' symbol by them which means it could not locate files and removed everything from my phone.
After wasting many hours, I have managed to download all the applications and some music that I have purchased via ITunes - although most STILL has the ! by them and the store says I have downloaded them and won't let me do it again.
I have also changed the preferences to locate files from various copies I have made on external drives still with no success.
Strangely, when I have the I phone plugged in to the computer and as I'm syncing, it shows all of the audio files on the blue bar but just as it finishes syncing it reverts back to about 6 GB with the items in para 2 above.
Any ideas on how I get I Tunes to find the files??? I have loads of music loaded from CDs over the years and really don't want to spend the rest of my life reloading them.
Thanks in advance for any ideas. oh, I've also updated both ITunes and my phone to current software versions.
Debbie

Hello 2305deb,
We have an article to help find your missing media. Named iTunes: Finding lost media and downloads it can be found here http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1408.
Resolution
Follow the steps below to locate your missing iTunes media.
Resume any interrupted downloads
Choose Store > Check for Available Downloads from the iTunes menu. Click Resume if any downloads are listed as unfinished. For more information see How to resume interrupted iTunes Store downloads.
Check your iTunes media folder
For Mac OS X
For Windows 7 and Windows Vista
For Windows XP
Check your Trash/Recycle Bin
Check the Trash (Mac) or the Recycle Bin (Windows). If you're able to find any of your missing items, you can re-add them back to your iTunes library.
Mac OS X: Control + click (or right-click) on the item and choose Put Back.
Windows 7 and Windows Vista: Right-click on the item and choose Restore.
Windows XP: Right-click on the item and choose Restore.
If after restoring the item from the trash your media doesn't reappear in your iTunes library. You will need to locate the restored file in your iTunes Media folder and drag the item into your iTunes library window.
There are different instructions depending on the version of windows you have.
It is possible that you may need to re create the iTunes library and IF that is the case then here is an article to assist with that
iTunes: How to re-create your iTunes library and playlists
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1451
Take care,
Sterling

How to point Itunes to a new location where music is stored Cannot locate music now it is on an external drive PLEASE HELP!!!!

Background Info
i have recently got rid of my Windows machine an am now using my MacBook as my main machine
On the old windows Desktop   i had my music set up as follows
Itunes libary information:
C:\Documents and settings\Lee Robinson\My Documents\My Music\
all of the Music files were stored on the PC as follows
G:\Music\My Music
Before i got rid of the machine i backed up all of my music and my iTunes libary files as follows to a External USB Harddrive that is now connected to my mac
Music Located @
/Volumes/AFRO-PORT/My Music
the iTunes Libary is located at the following
/Volumes/AFRO-PORT/My Music/iTunes
what i then did was to copy my itunes libary files at /Volumes/AFRO-PORT/My Music/iTunes to my local Mac machine .....
/Users/Afroboy/Music
Problem
Now when i fire up Itunes, i have all my playlists, ratings abum art etc...... but the problem i have is that itunes cannot locate any of the files. I guess that this is because my entire libary is still pointing to
G:\Music\My Music - as on my old windows PC
How do i tell itunes that this is no longer where i keep my music and for the actual MP3 files itself it needs to look at the following path
/Volumes/AFRO-PORT/My Music
... all file structures within these 2 file directories remain the same
I would really appreciate the heklp- my music collection is quite big and i dont want to loose any of the work i have done building it up over the past 5 years
Cheers
LR

Hi - thanks for the response
yes thats right, i have always kept my itunes folder and the directory containing all of my actual media seperate
all of the Music files were stored on the PC as follows:
G:\Music\My Music
Itunes libary information:
C:\Documents and settings\Lee Robinson\My Documents\My Music\
Your quite right, doing the above method that i have, turns it really messy when you when you try to move your entire collection. i saw this article earlier today
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
..........wish i followed it before hand
The only Semi work arond i have found is to go to File> Add libary.... and brows to what is now my new external drive with all my music on /Volumes/AFRO-PORT/My Music/ .
Once the import was complete it effectivly dupicated my entire libary - So i then went to
File > Display Duplicates to show duplicate items, sorted by date and removed all the duplicate items
.... So far seems to have worked ok however i have lost my play lists, their all on my iPod anyway so all seems fine now
As you said iTunes wants you to do thinngs in a certian way and it certianly makes you pay if you dont. So now my question is, so i dont have this problem in the future..... do i
A) Manually move all of my Music files to my iTunes Liabry and have everything in one folder (If i move manually where do i need to copy all my files to?)
B) Start from Scratch and let iTunes do it, so i have everything on the external disk

Windows 7 Issue: iTunes Not Locating Music

I just upgraded to Windows 7 32 bit, and when I installed iTunes again, even though I chose my previous library file, it doesn't seem to be able to locate any of my old songs. All of the old songs are there, they play fine once I go through the process of locating them, I just can't seem to get iTunes to recognize where they are, even with the previous library chosen. I tried calling support, but apparently my support since 2001 means nothing to them and so they refuse to help me with my issue. Is there anyone out there who can help me with this issue, so that I don't have to load back all 851 songs in my library?

Here's what I had to do. Hopefully this will help. First I copied my entire iTunes library to Time Capsule. Once that was done I redirected my iTunes folder in the preferences to the Time Capsule. At first iTunes couldn't find the songs at all. Unfortunately, without having figured out the next step, I dumped my iTunes Library files on my Mac and reimported everything back in to iTunes. Unfortunately, I lost my playlists. Once everything was imported though, I still had problems with iTunes not seeing the songs. What I learned is that I have to go to the finder and mount the Time Capsule as a hard drive to the desktop. Then open iTunes. Since then, I have had no problem accessing my music or movies over iTunes. And, as long as I'm connected to my wireless network I can play my music on my laptop anywhere in the apartment. No longer having to be connected to an external hard drive. I've also noticed lately, that iTunes is getting familiar with my settings and is already mounting Time Capsule to the desktop when I open and play a song. Hope this helps.

Applications can't locate music/photo files

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Settings all point to La Cie but obviously I don't have something right.
Oh wise ones, where do I start?
NEW APPLE USER.
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See http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/ and
http://www.apple.com/support/iphoto/
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File Library Organize Library Reorganize files Now can't locate music. How do I get my music back in the playlists. Still all in folders in music file?? HELP!

I recently downloaded iTunes 10, found my library and things looked great..........UNTIL.....I clicked on the reorganize files box in the 'Organize Library' window. Now all my music has a little ! next to it and says it cannot locate the song. I have all the music still in the folders but iTunes not being able to locate it. How do I get everything back the way it was??

if I set up another library, will that affect my ipod?
You will be given the chance to sync that iPod when it is connected if the iPod is set to sync automatically; if you choose that option, the music will be erased from the iPod. If not, you can transfer purchased content from the iPod and add additional music to it. Click here for more information.
If I set up another library, do I go to that one when using my ipod.
Yes.
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HT1711 Will iTunes Match locate music in my Windows Media Player library?

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Locating music

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