My audiobooks say "original file can not be located" when I try to play them. Why?

All of my previously purchased audiobooks say "original file can not be located" when I try to play them. Why? They do not appear under the "purchased" area of the itunes store. Why? How do I fix this?

I just posted a similar question -- five months later. Did you ever find a solution?

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I recently upgraded to Windows 7 from Vista but my iTunes will no longer work. It says file can not be located when I try to play a song.

I recently upgraded my operating system from Vista to Windows 7. Ibacked up all of my music on an external hard drive before I reformatted my computer. I have reloaded iTunes several times and attempted to transer my files back to my computer. Everything appears to transfer but once I remove the external hard drive I get a message stated file cannot be located. What am I doing wrong?

I just posted a similar question -- five months later. Did you ever find a solution?

My itunes library got screwed up some how. When i goto play a song in my library it says original file can not be located. how do i locate them

when i go to play the selected song it says original file can not be found. do you want to locate the file. how do i locate the file?

Have you moved, renamed or deleted the original files?
Has another programme on your computer moved, renamed or deleted the files?
Have you just created this iTunes Library?
Have you recently added the missing music music from an external hard drive?
If it's none of the above, what have you been doing recently? For example, have you been "sorting" your files in your file manager?

What do i do if my songs won't play and it says original file can not be located?

My "original" I-tunes library is on my windows xp desk top and I have a macbook pro laptop library. I always accessed the original through home sharing but the library no longer shows up on my mac. On my desktop it says the song cant be used because the original file can't be located and there is 2 i-tunes shortcuts but neither will play music. I chose to locate the original but that doesn't work either. How do I fix this?

Hello shaum9120,
Thanks for the question, and welcome to Apple Support Communities.
It sounds like iTunes has lost the file path for the music. The best step will be to follow part 4-6 of the following article (under the External drive section):
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
Here is an excerpt of Part 5 (see article for other important steps):
Part 5: Copy music to your new computer
To copy all your music files (including the library file that holds all your playlists and other settings) to your new computer:
1. Locate the following folder on your new computer:
          Mac OS X: /Users/username/Music
          Windows XP: \Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Music\
          Windows Vista: \Users\username\Music\iTunes
          Windows 7 and Windows 8: \Users\username\My Music\iTunes
2. Drag the "iTunes" folder in this location out to the desktop.
          From the Music folder to the Desktop on your new Mac:
          From the My Music folder to the Desktop on your new PC:
3. Locate the external drive on your new computer:
          Mac OS X: On the desktop.
          Windows: In My Computer.
4. Double-click on the external drive icon to open it.
5. Drag the iTunes folder from the external drive to the Music folder (Mac OS X) or My Music Folder (Windows) on your new computer (from step 1 of this section). This can take a while if you have a lot of content.
6. Open iTunes.
You've now moved all your music, playlists, and other information like play counts and ratings from your old computer to your new one.
Thanks,
Matt M.

New itunes is telling me my music can not be located when i try to play

I have upgraded to the new itunes. now when i try to play any of ny music it just tells me the file can not be located and would i like to locate it. this is really annoying.

The "missing file" error 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, one of its parent folders, or 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 click No when asked to try to locate the track. (Due to a bug in iTunes 12 you currently have to say No twice!) 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, a folder renamed, or a drive letter has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions. If the difference between the two paths is an additional Music folder in one path then this is a layout issue. I can explain further if that is the case.
In some cases iTunes may be able to repair itself if you go through the same steps with Get Info but this time click Locate and browse to the lost track. It may then offer to attempt to automatically fix other broken links.
If another application like Windows Media Player has moved/renamed the files then the chances are that subtle differences in naming strategies will make it hard to restore the media to the precise path that iTunes is expecting. In such cases, as long as the missing files can be found somewhere, you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes. See this post for an explanation of how it works.
tt2

What does this message mean: This song could not be used because the original file could not be found--When I try to play songs there is an "!" next to it.

A friend recenlty replaced my hard drive.
When I try to use itunes--I receive this message: "The song could not be used because the original could not be found, would you like to locate it? Next to my songs I see this: "!" Help--Please!!

Well what happened is the pathname to the song has changed slightly.
For instance if the song was located say c\:Windows\User\Mary\Music\iTunesFolder
and now it's c:\Windows\User\MaryXray\Music\iTunesFolder
I'm assuming here your music was replaced in the Music folder like on the old hard drive, that iTunesFolder was simply copied over in whole.
So to fix things, you go into the iTunes Folder in your Music Folder and look for a iTunes Music Library .XML file and open it in a Text Program that has "find and replace" ability.
You find the partial pathname of the old drive and you replace ALL instances of it with the new pathname.
so \Windows\User\Mary would be changed to
\Windows\User\MaryXray
Save the file and reopen iTunes.

I have just downloaded all of my music into the new itune's however all of my music has an "!" buy it and I get an error saying "original file can not be found". How do I get my music back?

I have just downloaded all of my music into the new itues, however; all of my music has an "!" but it and I get an error that says " original file can not be found".
How do I get my music back?

Ok, I had a glitch, forced to restart, and lost my train of thought.
Reinstalling iTunes should fix the major issue that might have gone wrong, perhaps your explaination points will disappear and everything will be peachy again.
But if they don't, you can open the XML file in iTunes Folder using a Text edit program to see what the common pathname is to the iTunes Music folder or where your content is located.
If you moved the itunes folder, it needs to go back.
I can't download iTunes to my Vista virtual machine to test it out right now because iTunes is down, so I can't verify the pathname, perhaps your issue and the iTunes being down are related somehow?
You don't want to import all your music again, but it's a option, but you lose all your playlists, that's what I'm trying to recover.
If oyu don't have a whole lot of playlists, then simply select all the explaimation point music and delete, select File from the menu and import your itunes folder again.

ITunes shows the music and audiobooks I've loaded to my iPod Touch, but they do not show up when I try to play them.

iTunes shows the music and audiobooks I've loaded to my iPod Touch, but they do not show up when I try to play them. I reconnect to iTunes and it shows the music and books as being loaded on my iPod.
Sometimes the audiobook will play, then disappear from iPod's play menu after I reconnect to iTunes and load more music. I've got plenty of free memory, and iTunes shows the files still on iPod.
....or should I just roll it back to iOS 5... never had these kinds of issues with the old OS.

Try:
- Reset the iOS device. Nothing will be lost
Reset iOS device: Hold down the On/Off button and the Home button at the same time for at
least ten seconds, until the Apple logo appears.
- Unsync/delete all AB and resync
To delete all ADgo to Settings>General>Usage>Storage>Manage Storage>AB and try deleting them from there
- Reset all settings
Go to Settings > General > Reset and tap Reset All Settings.
All your preferences and settings are reset. Information (such as contacts and calendars) and media (such as songs and videos) aren’t affected.
- Restore from backup. See:
iOS: Back up and restore your iOS device with iCloud or iTunes
- Restore to factory settings/new iOS device.

Song can not be used because Original file can not be located - HELP

Hi - Newbie here and I have run into and error and don't know how to fix it. When I try to play a large number of songs from Itunes I get the following message. "The Song (NAME) could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" I have no idea where the orginal files are and I am not sure how to fix this error. Could someone please help me out! Thanks - KAggie

This happens if the files are no longer where iTunes expects to find them. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the files, or that the drive they live 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.
If the files are nowhere to be found on your computer, but exist on a device, see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
While deleting & reimporting works when the media can be found the process will delete user playlists, ratings, play counts, date added information and any other metadata not stored in tags.
tt2

How do I redownload previous purchases? Itunes says that the items are downloaded, but when I select them in my library it says that the original file can not be located.

I've gotten a new computer, the hard drive of my original one had issues and I wasn't able to move all of my iTunes over to my nec pc. I went to the purchased area on my iTunes to redownload the missing stuff (music and tv shows), but it says that they all are already downloaded onto my pc. I do find the items in my library but they won't play, I get the option to "locate" the missing original files or "cancel". I've even tried simply repurchasing the tv series, but I get a message to go to my purchases to redownload. Any suggestions on what to do?

If you plug in your iphone, click on it in iTunes, and go to the apps section, it should be checked to sync apps if you want them to show up in iTunes as well as your iPhone. Once synced they will show on both.
Then if you click Apps under the Library header in the left panel of iTunes, you'll be able to permanently delete apps, removing them entirely from iTunes. Highlight an app's icon or a group of icons by holding down Shift and hit the delete key (or select Edit > Delete from the top menu or right-click on an icon and selecting delete).

HT1386 When I sync my i-phone with my pc, will it pull audio from my phone to my i-tunes on my pc? My problem is I have songs on my pc that will not play - the message says "original file could not be found"... They play on my phone.

I am not sure if the synching will pull the audio from my phone and replace the 'not working' files on my i-tunes, or if it will replace the working audio on my phone with the non-functioning audio on my pc.
Thanks for any insight...

No it won't. You are getting that message because those song are no longer in your my music folder and itunes doesn't know where to look for the file.

TS1424 I have downloaded the peppa pig series and it says that episodes have been downloaded but when I try to play them only thirty seconds of the episode seems to exist!! What have I done wrong??

Help!!

Where have you downloaded them, on your computer or on a device (e.g. iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch) ? If on a device then where are you trying to play them - they should be in the Videos app, the iTunes app is just the iTunes store on an iOS device and only contain the store's preview.

I dropped my external hard drive which contained my iTunes library and it is no longer readable. I attempted to upload my library from iPod and while all the songs appear to be in iTunes I get a message telling me that the original file can't be located.

I dropped my external hard drive that contained my iTues library and the disk is no longer readable. I figured I would simply transfer my music back from my iPod to my MacBook Pro and it loks like it worked. All the songs are there, but I receive a message that the original file can't be found when I try to play anything. ANy help would be greatly appreciated.

A Couple of questions..
Is the location shown under preferences/Advanced/General still showing the correct location?
Is the check boxes under this checked or unchecked?

FCP X can't import iTunes music - says "The song "Warp Factor" could not be used because the original file could not be located."

FCP X can't import iTunes music - says "The song "XXXXX" could not be used because the original file could not be located."
I saw the reply that iTunes was probably moved. I restored it from Time Machine when my hard drive crashed. How do I fix it to import into FCP X?

I figured it out by going into iTunes and clicking on the Library link under File. This bring up a box that allows the music files to be reconnected to the iTunes music folder.
FCP X now sees the music and it can be placed into the project timeline.

Error " song can't be used because original file can not be found"

Our computer was about to crash, so we backed up our iTunes library to disc like it suggested. However, once we imported the library back to the new computer, iTunes will no longer play the songs without the disc in! It says the "original file can not be found" unless the disc is in. How do we get the "originals" off the disc and back onto the computer so I don't have to carry the disc everywhere?? I can't seem to find any help on any of the help sights about this problem. I tried using iTunes Folder Watch like another post suggested and it didn't work. I still need the disc to play the songs.

Roberta hello,
The remedy is very easy...
Open the iTunes folder and select the iTunes Library file and type command -D
this will make another copy for safe keeping, if anything goes wrong you can always return this copy ... leave the duplicate file where it is.
Start iTunes in the normal way and open the preferences > advanced > general tab... set NOT to copy files when adding to library and DO keep iTunes Music folder organized.... OK your changes.
From the file menu select 'add to library' and choose the iTunes Music folder.
After iTunes has checked and made any adjustments needed have a look and see if any problems still exist ... come and let me know Roberta ... TP
iMac 800MHz PowerPC G4 17 Flat Screen. G4 iBook. Mac OS X (10.4.3)

My audiobooks say "original file can not be located" when I try to play them. Why?

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