Moved music, now itunes can't locate songs

I moved my music to a second internal hard drive hard drive. Now Itunes can't find the songs even though I have changed the music file location. Each song title has an Exclamation point next to it in the itunes library window. Any suggestions?

when it asks you if you want to find the song after you double click on a song to play it, click 'yes' and browse to the folder that the song is in, and click 'ok' and it will work.

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Itunes can't locate song on computer since upgrading to 7.1.1

I upgraded to i Tunes 7.1.1, now it can't locate my songs and it wants me to erase and sync my I Pod, Any Suggestion would be appreciated. When I click on a song to play it lets me looks for the files in music folders in the iTunes library but names are replaced with coded letters and when i click on on of them it plays a song but I usually can't find the right song. I did have problems upgrading 7.1.1

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Transferred songs to external hard drive, now iTunes can not locate files??

I transferred all my song files using various tutorials on the site, I consolidated my library, etc. The external harddrive was referred to as "F:" when I did this.
Later when I downloaded a few podcasts with my external HD disconnected, they were stored on my c: harddrive. At that point I had iTunes files on both my C: drive and F: drive (with the F: drive being disconnected at the time).
Now my external harddrive when connected is referred to as "G:" by my pc, and iTunes could not find any of my songs previously transferred to F:. I went to preferences/advanced again and selected G:/iTunes as my new folder location, and now only SOME of my songs are located by iTunes, not all. I'm completely confused.
Any advice? Thanks.
Completely frustrated,
Andy
Windows XP

Just a refining comment: iTunes recognizes some, but not all, songs that were transferred to the new hard drive, following iTune's instructions to change the directory then consolidate the library.
I am baffled why iTunes recognizes some songs, but not others, within the same folder....
The easy solution would be to use "import folder" and re-import the entire iTunes files on my harddrive, and then delete the duplicates, which would include the ones non-findable by iTunes. But then my playlists would be affected. I guess I'd have to re-build my playlists manually, using the new imported files in place of the files that iTunes can't recognize, prior to deleting all the duplicate non-findable files.
Argh, I hate pc's...thru & thru...any suggestions before I spend a few hours re-building my playlists and deleting the non-findable song files??
Thanks...

ITunes can't locate song/music in Mac iTunes.

Suddenly, all of my music in iTunes has a little exclamation point next to the track, and it can't locate the song. They are all there. Is there a fast way to get iTunes to find ALL my music, without having to go back manually and click on each track to find?

iTunes keeps a record if where it thinks the files are located. If you change a file or folder or drive name, the links are no longer valid. If you did this, change it back.
I have also heard that sometimes when you find one file,newer iTunes will try to find files based upon the same criteria, so at least try to find one file.

ITunes can't locate songs in my library.

It took me a while to point iTunes 11.0.2 (26) 64-bit in 10.8.3 to my existing itunes library that is also used by my 10.6.x system. Once I did though I went to a playlist and clicked on the song and found that even though it updated my library files (Itunes Library and Itunes Library.xml) it did not actually scan the songs in the library because it couldn't locate the song. I located the song and it asked me if I wanted it to use that info to find other lost songs which I said yes to. It proceeded to not even find the rest of the songs in the same directory I had pointed it to. Now I have about 4165 songs missing! *** iTunes?!?! I have NO MISSING SONGS under 10.6.x and I'm using the same library files and the same library structure and everything. IS there a way to do this other than repointing iTunes to the existing library? Please help me or I will be forced to write iTunes off. Which in my opinion is getting easy as the whole program is getting worse and worse from a cpl years ago.
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The problem of tracks becoming de-linked between iTunes and the music files in your iTunes music folder happens for different reasons - this seems to come up fairly commonly in this forum.
The solution can be to locate each song in the iTunes library, as you mentioned - or, but wait, before I get to that...
trouble finding the original track in your iTunes music folder? maybe look for it under compilations, or if not using the 'group compilations preference' then look in the folder under the songs artist name, but what song artist name iTunes uses depends on what you have in the metedata tag spot for album artist or song artist. Any varyation in artist name spelling, in the menu item 'get info' metadata for any selected individual track will cause iTunes to create that as a separate artist folder in the library, even names like 'various' or any difference at all (even the word 'the' can change where in your iTunes music folder a track gets placed by iTunes). You can try to use the finder function of find file (finder munu item outside of iTunes) to locate hard to find items.
Back to how to re-link any de-linked tracks .
There may be scripts that can help re-link de-linked music files - or, at least provide you a list of such files, Scripts are easy to install and use...
at Dougs Scripts, there is one called iTunes Track CPR that might work
http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=itunestrackcpr
or, if you just want a list of de-linked tracks, go to
http://dougscripts.com/itunes/
and find the script called List MIA's, this will create a text file listing all de-linked tracks
if you review the thread at
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3633708
also the thread at
https://discussions.apple.com/message/17513078#17513078
you may find more insight into dealing with this kind of issue there, although some of that thread may not apply to your case, aspects of it might help.
Good luck.

ITunes Can't Locate Songs?

I'm running iTunes 7.7.0.43 and the last time I opened the app, it lost the locations of more than half my library (8000+ songs). I get the dreaded grey ! icon next to each of them -- but only after I try to play one that is missing.
I haven't moved my library or any of its content. (The .itl is on my internal hard drive, while the iTunes music folder is stored on an external. This setup has worked fine in the past.) I viewed the XML file and iTunes is calling the correct location for each of the files in question. It's as if iTunes just need to be manually reminded of where these songs are located, though their location +has not changed+.
Is there any way to fix this without having to re-import my entire library? It is too difficult to manually point iTunes to all the songs, and I'd really like to preserve my playlists and ratings.

First thing, if your songs are protected, which mp4 usually are, then you need to log into your iTunes account and allow access to these songs. Otherwise, what you do is move all your music into your iTunes folder, then you go to File and then "Add Folder to Library" and select either your iTunes music folder or an individual folder. If that doesn't work, then retry the last steps and then go to Advanced and then "Consolidate Library". This will force all your iTunes music into your iTunes folder.

Itunes can't locate songs stored in external drive

i had created playlists and added songs to the playlists in itunes 7.02. these songs are stored on an external drive. i did not sync my ipod immediately but tried it a few days later. despite the external drive being connected to my laptop, when i tried to sync the ipod with itunes, for 90% of the songs there was an exclamation mark next to the song & i had to manually double click on a song name in itunes, and locate it in the external drive, in order for itunes to be able to sync it.
i can't do that for 3000+ songs. why can't itunes recognise and locate these songs when they have been stored in the itunes library from the external drive? isn't there a way to tell itunes to locate songs in the external drive? especially when they had been added from there in the first place?

Hi there,
I'm having the same problem, I'll list it in case I'm somehow different from the other case but unfortunately directing iTunes to that folder doesn't seem to do the trick...?
Have bought a Seagate 320GB external drive, copied my iTunes library (that was located in my /Users/Shared folder) to a new location on my external drive and redirected iTunes to the new location. It said it was updating the folder which took a while and I assumed was a good sign due to my 8948 songs but alas the dreaded exclamation mark has appeared next to every track. If I redirect one to the new location it works fine but f*ed if I'm gonna do that for the other 8947. If I quit iTunes and reopen it, it's still directed to the same correct place and the previously located still works but the rest don't. Is there a) some reason this may not be working correctly; or b) a quick way to redirect every song to their location? Thanks so much for your help.

Moved music to new hard drive now itunes can't find songs !

This is what I did. My old hard drive was getting full so I bought an additional hard drive and installed it. I then selected all the music in the itunes music folder, copied it, then pasted it into a new folder on the new hard drive. I changed the settings in itunes to direct to the new hard drive. All the music i put in there now has exclamation points next to it and can't access the music? Help. I'm desperate....

Different problem. - probably same answer. Yesterday I started iTunes and I had exclamation points on about 20 of my tunes. I re-linked them all manually. I am new to iTunes but I believe I am beginning to understand that unless all the sources are in one library they 'may' get unlinked from time to time. I am going to assume that all of your tunes are linked to a source that no longer exists. So they are all now unlinked.
What I would like to know is how to restore those links. I am going to make another assumtion. Since I believe that iTunes loaded most of them when I first started using iTunes, there is a way to force it to do that again. I have no problem with putting all of my tunes in one library. I know that others have posted the desire to store and link tunes in multiple libraries, and there is a Consoldiate Option that says it will consolidate all of your tunes into one libary. It doesn't work. So how do you force iTunes to relink your files, in or out of the same library?

I Trashed Some Song Files from my Computer that Had Been Previously Matched, and Now iTunes Can't Located Them. How Do I Download Them from the Cloud?

The title pretty much says it all. I deleted some songs from my hard drive that had already been added to the cloud using iTunes Match, and now, when I try to play them, I'm asked to locate the files. The songs are still available on my other devices, so I didn't delete them from the cloud. How do I reconect the songs on my computer with the files in the cloud?

Apple provides a brain-dead simple way to backup all your personal data in the form of Time Machine that keeps incremental backups going back at least several weeks, if not months (depending on the size of the backup drive). Why more people don't use it is a puzzle to me. In this day and age of person, and very important, data being digitial (sometimes exclusively) backing everything up becomes imperative. Ideally a good backup scheme should incorporate multiple backup solutions in case of very serious emergencies, but for most people, and in the case described in the OP TM is a very good solution. If a file is deleted, then found to be needed again, just go to the date and time in TM just before the file was deleted and restore it. Simple. But it doesn't work if you aren't backing up. So... backup, backup, backup. You'll thank yourself that you did when you finally need it.

ITunes can't locate ⅔ of my Music Library -- How to repair?

I manually reorganized the iTunes Media Folder on my MacBook Air because everything was all jumbled up in the Music folder -- Songs, Movies, Mobile apps etc. everything all mixed up in Music folder. I manually dragged the Movie, iTunes U, Mobile Applications etc.Folders out of Music Folder and put everything into iTunes Media Folder. The same order as it is on my desktop iMac. Now iTunes can't locate about 1/2 of my Music library. Everything else (movies, TV shows etc.) works fine, but iTunes lost the location of 1/2my music library. I get the message "The song "ABC" could not be used because the original file could not be located. Would you like to locate it"
Is there a way to reset iTunes so that it knows where all the songs are (they are all in the music folder which is in the iTunes Media Folder). If I have to locate every song individually it will take weeks.
File ->Library -> Organize Library -> click Consolidate and Reorganize files in iTunes Media didn't seem to work. Isn't this the way to let iTunes know where all those songs it can't locate are?
Kindly advise if you know how to slove this.
Thank you.
P.S. Still using Mountain Lion on this computer

I manage my music manually by turning off the advanced preferences for iTunes managing my music and copying it to the iTunes folder when adding it to the library. Realize if you do this you are taking responsibility for keeping track of your music -- you will have to be organized. If you want to move your library you will have to track down all the files. Your files will retain their original names and folder names and structure, so make sure it makes sense. There's a few other disadvantages which I can't remember right now. Even with manually managing you still occasionally get a broken link, and my experience is all with iTunes 7.5 which I still use. I may be wrong but I suspect newer versions of iTunes are trying to do more at one time with all the store and cloud interface and may be more "delicate".
If you are downloading from Apple or ripping a CD, iTunes will put it in its normal folder structure anyway, though you can remove it from there.
The various scripts on the Dougscripts web site were written at different stages. You have to read about iTunes version compatibility in the blurb about each script. I don't see how you end up with multiple libraries using hte scripts.
The .itl file can reset itself but not with what you are doing. If you had moved your whole library and broken all the links you could have found just one and iTunes might have offered to find the others based upon the same structure (not something it will do if you manually manage, by the way).

Drive crashed-have new hard drive, how to load music so Itunes can find it?

My system crashed, had everything backed up on an external. I am using an I: drive (it is a different and larger hard drive), vs. the original C: drive that crashed. What is the best way to load back my music so Itunes can recognize the songs and playlists. I have the most recent I tunes's library and music library saved. Is there another file that stores the original addresses to the songs? They are mostly mp3 files.
When I loaded the songs, I can only individually point to the new song. Do I have to copy the songs back to the C drive and then phsically move? Or can I somehow point it to my new my music folder? I have over 10,000 songs and quite a few playlists, so I don't want to do it manually.

Loop
Maybe:
Restore loop (being prompted to restore again after a restore successfully completes)
Troubleshoot your USB connection. If the issue persists, out-of-date or incorrectly configured third-party security software may be causing this issue. Please follow Troubleshooting security software issues. .
Next try placing in DFU mode and then restoring.
How to put iPod touch / iPhone into DFU mode « Karthik's scribblings
Then try restoring on another computer.
Last, make an appointment at the Genius Bar of an Apple store.
Apple Retail Store - Genius Bar
Also, a 2G iPod touch canonly go as high as iOS 4.2.1. If you try to install a later iOS you will get errors.
Identifying iPod models
iPod touch (3rd generation)
iPod touch (3rd generation) features a 3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen multi-touch display and 32 GB or 64 GB flash drive. You can browse the web with Safari and watch YouTube videos with Wi-Fi. You can also search, preview, and buy songs from the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store on iPod touch.
The iPod touch (3rd generation) can be distinguished from iPod touch (2nd generation) by looking at the back of the device. In the text below the engraving, look for the model number. iPod touch (2nd generation) is model A1288, and iPod touch (3rd generation) is model A1318.

I moved all my music from c: drive(because it was full) to an external harddrive and now itunes can't find any of my music. Is there a way to get Itunes to find music on external drive without having to place all the music back onto the c: drive? Thanks

I moved all my music from c: drive(because it was full) to an external harddrive and now itunes can't find any of my music. Is there a way to get Itunes to find music on external drive without having to place all the music back onto the c: drive? Thanks

Hopefully you moved the entire iTunes Media (or iTunes Music) folder to a new path on your external drive. Copy your iTunes library folder out to the root of the external drive, e.g. X:\iTunes (where X: is your external drive), then move the media folder inside it. Hold down shift as you start iTUnes and keep holding untila asked to choose or create a library. Choose the library at X:\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl. Should all be good.
Failing that, download and run my FindTracks script and point it at the new location of your media folder.
tt2

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

Moved my iTunes library to my new 2TB time capsule, now iTunes can't find the Time Capsule.

Had my iTunes library on my older 1TB Time Capsule. Just bought a 2TB Time Capsule. Moved all the music from the old to the new. But, iTunes tells me now it can't find the server. I've checked the location of the library on the iTunes preferences, to point iTunes to my server. I keep getting an error message that iTunes can't find my server. I've already added the folder on the server to my login preferences, like it was with the older Time Capsule.
I did everything exactly as before but now iTunes can't find my Time Capsule.
Should I have just pointed the login to the server and not the exact folder? I've been working on the solution for an hour now.. Please, can someone here help me?

What happens when you try to sync the iphone to the new computer?

Since downloading 11.0.1 (12), Itunes can't locate or play many songs but the same songs still play on my synched iPod.

Since downloading Itunes 11.0.1 (12), Itunes can't locate or play many songs but the same songs still play on my synched iPod. I have a MacBook Air, Lion OS, Itunes version 11.0.1 (12). I didn't see this problem with older versions of Itunes. I do not manually change the organization of the Itunes library. I use the Itunes "add to library" feature or Amazon's MP3 downloader. Sometimes, however, I have changed song information in the "info" window. Such as unchecking the "compilation" button and sorting by artist (for that song), so that I can search by artist in the top pane of Itunes (otherwise the song is sorted in an album that is a "compilation," but not under the name of the artist who sang a particular song. I've done this without problem in the past, but perhaps the newer version of Itunes can't handle the changes I made and has lost track of where the older version of Itunes stored such songs? How do I fix all these older previously ok changes if that's the case... If I could just find where they are stored in Itunes it would be easier perhaps. I've looked in compilations, unknown artist, and so forth to no avail. And Finder search can't find them.
Details: suddenly, many songs are marked with "!," denoting that Itunes cannot find the songs in the library and cannot play them. Oddly, my iPod CAN play the "unlocatable" songs with no problem (it has been synched "post problem"). So the songs are still there somewhere in the Itunes library. This problem occurs by album, that is, all songs from the same album become unlocatable, although different albums by the same artist may still be found and played.
Exploring the Itunes library to try to locate the missing albums/songs, I discovered that generally there is no longer any folder specified for any artist associated with a missing album [artist is the top level of organization and album is the second; compilations are in the same folder]. This is true even if I have other albums from the same artist which Itunes IS able to locate. I cannot find a single song/album by such artists anywhere in the Itunes file system, even the ones that Itunes can still play. If I right click and "get info" for an unlocatable song, I get a notification box that asks if I want to locate the file. If I click "no," next thing-- the info window for the song pops up, with all the correct info (including sort info, which I double check)! Why is Itunes able to locate all the info on the song, but is not able to play the MP3 file?
Using Finder I cannot locate the songs that are unlocatable by Itunes (except the original download files in the Amazon MP3 folder). Finder is, of course, able to find Itunes songs that Itunes has no trouble locating. What's up?! My iPod can find them just fine. I just synched my iPod again and am playing the "unlocatable" songs right now.
I can "fix" most of these files by downloading files one by one into Itunes from my Amazon download folder or from my CDs using the "add to library" feature. In fact, it is strange. But this will take a very long time! And what if this problem continues recurring? But something strange happens when I implement this fix. I added one song to Itunes (from the Amazon MP3 folder, using "add to library") for one "unlocatable" album of Pete Seegers. After adding that one song, I looked at the Itunes music library and discovered that a folder for Pete Seeger (which was not there before I added the song) had been newly created, or restored. In this folder was the one song I had just added, but ALSO all my other Seeger albums that had previously remained "locatable" by Itunes. But the other "unlocatable" songs were not restored, unfortunately.

I have found a workaround. When I create a new playlist, iTunes allows me to add or remove songs from existing playlists for a short while. Then, for some reason it prevents me from adding and deleting songs again. Not sure why. Go figure.

Moved music, now itunes can't locate songs

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