Moved iTunes library to Vista PC but iTunes 'can't find music files'. Help!

I'm running iTunes 7.1.1 on a new Vista PC and I
followed the instructions on this support site for
transferring the library using an iPod.
All songs (with artwork) are showing in the new PC's
iTunes library, BUT all have a '!' symbol to the left
and refuse to play. It offers to let me find them,
but this would take hours for the thousands of
tracks. I've tried consolidating but to no effect.
All the music files are in the iTunes library folder,
so why can't iTunes access them?
Can anyone help?
hi i to have a similar problem, i moved my music file for another problem i had and now it has removed all my files from itunes, albums and playlists as well, they are still on the pc and i have moved them back but i seem to have to start again, this will take weeks to do, i hope someone can help us.

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Updated my itouch gen 4 32g to Ios 5 and now itunes can't find music files

I did a search and could not find anything about my specific issue. I was hoping to get some help if possible.
So I did the update to IOS 5 and everything went fine..........except for one thing. I have all my music stored on an external hard drive so I changed the media folder location to my external drive. When I did the update IOS changed the location to "C:\users\name\music\itunes\itunes media folder". I figured this is why itunes could not find the files. So I switched it back to my external drive and it still could not find my music files. The weird thing is that I can sync it and it won't delete the music from my ipod. All of the music is still on the ipod but not on itunes. I know I can manually go in and find all the folders but I REALLY don't want to have to do that. I have done it before and it took 7 hours. Since I don't use all the files I can't just drag the library over and problem solved.
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Once a track is in your iTunes library, you should not touch it except through iTunes. But I guess you know that now.
iTunes, to answer your question, cannot "refresh." If you re-add those files to your library, iTunes is unable to match them with the existing library entries, and will create a bunch of duplicate entries. This is a longstanding shortcoming of iTunes (and the source of lots of traffic on this fourm).
If there are "too many to manually" reassociate, then starting over, in the sense of deleting and then re-adding, may be a good plan.

ITunes can't find music files

Somehow my iTunes library got messed up, though everything worked fine before. I think that something happened when I did an iTunes upgrade but I am not sure anymore.
The library file is at
-- C:\Documents and Settings\i080151\My Documents\My Music\iTunes
and all my music is at an external HD at
-- G:\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music
In iTunes under Advanced I set it to the right music location, it says
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On a side note I also have a library file at
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and it is a few months old, when the problem started. In any case, if I remember right the library file needs to be where iTunes is installed itself, and that is on C:. The library file on C: is current.
So all my music is on G:, my library shows all that music, but when I try to play any song I get the exclamation mark and that message that iTunes could not find the file.
When I today add a new music file, say a podcast, it gets properly added to the G: drive, shows up in iTunes, and I can play it there. I also see that the file date of the library file on C: gets updated to when I added the new podcast. But none of the older music files play.
I am confused... can someone help?

Try this as a test - open iTunes and tell it to get the old library from G:
Here aer directions on how to do that - don't create a new library, just hold down the shift key while starting iTunes and browse out to that old library file.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iTunesWin/7.5/en/15502.html
Does it find the old songs with the old library?
Something else to check-
Do you have any old libraries with a date near when you upgraded?
As mentioned in this article
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301895

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You need to open your preferences file in iTunes and click on advance then select the location of where you put the folder. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527

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All of a sudden itunes can't find music

There are tons of threads on this but I've seen none that answer my question. Long ago I moved my music to an external drive and set itunes to look for my misic there. It immediately worked. Today it cannot locate my music. I checked to see if the default location had moved back to my hard drive as it can do when you don't plug in the external drive first (Edit-Preferences-Advanced) and the location is correct (my external drive). I reset it again to the external drive to make sure. But I have figured out that even though I have itunes set to look for my music on the external, it has started looking for it on my hard drive. I know this because just to see what would happen I deleted the empty itunes folder from my hard drive. Now none of my music library shows up on itunes, (there was exactly one folder with 12 files on my hard drive which I had backed up previously and never erased, so I got rid of it) and all of my playlists are gone. But I can still locate each file on my external drive and play them. Do I have to reset all files individually now? And does anyone have any idea what caused this? The only thing I can think of is that I downloaded the latest update. I want to prevent this from happening again. But as far as I can tell I have done it right. I have never had this problem before, and I have no explanation as to why zero files show up on itunes when they have been set for months to an external drive.

Do you still have your library files -- more importantly do you still have a folder called Previous Libraries inside your iTunes folder?
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ITunes update corrupted some of my music files so iTunes can't find the file, nor music I bought from the iTunes store.

After an iTunes generated update of iTunes, some of my music can't be accesed any more. When I try to play the file, iTunes says it can't find the link. This also happens with music I purchase from the iTunes store, so I've lost all this music; do I have to re-buy the purchased music again? My iTunes program is on my C drive, and the music library is on my D drive. In iTunes, I've set the ripped music to be placed in my D drive. The lost links are on some music files, but not others which do play music. Some compilation music files were split up into individual files, usually without LP art attached. Some album art was placed on wrong albums as well. Music with lost links have a ! mark beside the song name. File info says the link is on my C drive, but I can't find it there. Any ideas on how to get these lost files back. Thanks, Moizy.

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Empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash
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See iTunes Folder Watch for a tool to catch up with any changes since the backup file was created.
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ITunes can't find my files

iTunes was running fine the last time I used it (a few days ago) but today it can't find any of my files.
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sometimes, however, if i use "locate the file" i can find the file in the folder and point to it and it works.
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I restarted iTunes, checked the library it was pointing to...nothing. i can't think of anything else to do.
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I can't find music files even though I have purchased them through iTunes.

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http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2519

ITunes can't find original files?

Hello, recently i get the following message when i click on any song in my iTunes library..
The song "Track 02" could not be used because the original file cannot be found. Would you like to locate it?" and then proceeds to add an exclamation point to the track and it cannot be played.
So my entire library is not found! and I did not move anything so i'm kind of confused.
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Ideally you would have reassigned the drive letters as soon as you noticed the problem, but if you've already started remapping some of the songs use my FindTracks script to repair the others.
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I have a Ipod touch 2nd generation, and everytime I go into the app store to download spotify, it says i already have. But I can't find it anywhere. help please!!

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Itunes can't find music library on computer

Somehow I've moved my music on my computer and itunes cannot find any of it. I can't play anything on the computer, an exclamation point is next to it and the computer tells me itunes cannot find the music. Help! What did I do and how do I fix this? Where should my library be saved? It's currently under itunes folder in my music... is there somewhere else it should be?

I have the exact same problem and came here looking for an answer. Does anyone have one?!? I am so frustrated. All my music is on my computer and has not been moved yet iTunes suddenly can't find it and I am so mad right now!! When I went to update my iPod with the one new song I bought from iTunes it deleted EVERYTHING except my purchased music and now it can't find anything. WE're talking 500+ songs and I am really upset so I hope someone here has an answer!!

HT1751 I have moved my library from an external hard drive into my laptop music file but I am not able to open i-tunes when holding down the shift key as advised in step 4 and thus not seeing the library option box - any tips please??

I have moved my itunes library from old computer to portable hard drive and then on, into new laptop, in music file. However I am then unable to open I-Tunes when holding down the shift button as directed in step 4 - this means I am not seeing the library choice box and cannot synch the tunes into ITunes library - any tips please?........Alan

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ITunes can't find my files. To manually locate each would take days

I have spent about 4 hours searching these discussion areas but could not find a solution.
I have twice before lost all my metadata (ratings, playlists, etc.) when moving my music files around (from my laptop to an external drive, then back on my laptop). For a new job, I got a new Windows laptop and, unfortunately, couldn't figure all this out before turning in the old laptop so it appears as if I've lost all the metadata again.
I saved the iTunes Library.itl and iTunes Music Library.xml files and songs from my old laptop. I downloaded the new iTunes software and imported all my song files successfully onto my new laptop. I then replaced those two (new) iTunes files with my old ones and, while iTunes did find my playlists, ratings, etc., now iTunes cannot locate all my songs! All the songs get an exclamation point next to them and when I click on a song, I get the following error: "The song xxx could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to try to locate it?" I can do that manually but it would take forever.
Help!?! I don't want to start all over again.
Laptop Windows XP Pro
Laptop Windows XP Pro

Stratsy,
All may not be lost yet....
I does look like you may have difficulty replicating the original path of the files, but it could be worth a shot.
Another option is to hack into the ITL file (it's a binary file) and globally change all the hardcoded paths to what you have now. Not sure how this would be done, though. Otto42 may have some advice on this.
Yet another option is to use the XML file to Import the Playlists and some other metadata. The playlists can be created easily, but the Ratings, Play Counts and Last Played do not Import from an XML file even though they are contained in it. For this we'll need to use Otto's 'SaveRatings' script and create the necessary XML file from the one you have now.
Here's the 'normal’ instructions:
“Download this: http://ottodestruct.com/itunes/SaveRatings.zip . It's a program, just run it like any other program. Run it on the machine where you're copying the info from BEFORE you move the files to the new machine. Click the "Save Ratings" button and it'll create a ratings.xml file. Now when you move the files, move the program and this file as well. Then after you make your new iTunes library, run it again and click the "Restore Ratings" button. Voila, all your information is back in the Library. Well, most of it anyway, it's not perfect. It'll tell you what songs it couldn't figure out though, and there's usually not very many.”
You'll need to run a test sample to create a dummy XML file. From that, you can see how the layout is constructed. Then manipulate your current XML file to look the same.
Here's the high-level steps:
- Keep copies of the two original XML & ITL files
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- Run Otto's SaveRatings script to create a test file
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- Run Otto's SaveRatings script and drive the metadata back into your Library
- File=>Import the original XML file into the Library to recover your previous Playlists
That should get you back as good as possible. Maybe I can get Otto to stop by and throw out some additional ideas.
You always have the alternative of purchasing a robust recovery program to capture the Playlists and metadata from the iPod (if it is complete). See: http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=1487421#1487421
Post back with any questions or comments.

Moved iTunes library to Vista PC but iTunes 'can't find music files'. Help!

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