"original file could not be found" message
In my itunes library, I used to get an option to “clear” a song if I right clicked it. Now there is only “copy.”
So to remove the song, I opted for the “show song file” and then manually deleted it from the folder.
However, the file is still there, or at least the phantom version of it, in my library. And when I click it “I get "original file could not be found" message.
How do I properly remove the song from the library?
And how do I get rid off that annoying “"original file could not be found" message”?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
NS
hp laptop Windows XP
Oh. OOps, I was posting to the wrong thread.
About your problem:
Make sure you are in the Library, not a (smart) playlist. Select "Library" from the top of source list (the list on the left of the screen).
Did this do it?
Similar Messages
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After my last itunes update, I cannot play my music on my PC. I get an "original file could not be found message." Has anyone else had this problem?
If you post back the two paths I may be able to suggest an easy fix
(that would not have created duplicates).
Oh well...
Apple's official advice is here... HT2905 - How to find and remove duplicate items in your iTunes library. It is a manual process and the article fails to explain some of the potential pitfalls, such as lost ratings and playlist membership.
Use Shift > View > Show Exact Duplicate Items to display duplicates as this is normally a more useful selection. You need to manually select all but one of each group to remove. Sorting the list by Date Added may make it easier to select the appropriate tracks, however this works best when performed immediately after the dupes have been created. If you have multiple entries in iTunes connected to the same file on the hard drive then don't send to the recycle bin.
Use my DeDuper script if you're not sure, don't want to do it by hand, or want to preserve ratings, play counts and playlist membership. See this thread for background and please take note of the warning to backup your library before deduping.
(If you don't see the menu bar press ALT to show it temporarily or CTRL+B to keep it displayed)
tt2 -
Many songs returns 'original file could not be found' message
Well, I updated my itunes to version 9.
Now, more than 90 percent of the songs in the playlist returns an error message that the 'original files could not be located',Also there is a exclamation mark next to the song in the playlist.
i have connected the hard disk to the laptop which contains the actual folder with all songs in it. This is the folder from which i created all the playlists in i-tunes.
Now :
1. It is a big headache and time consuming process to create the playlist again
2. I'm scared to connect the ipod, so that the already synced songs will get deleted from the ipod as many songs in itunes are returning the 'not found' message.
3. When I still try to play the song in itunes, ofcourse itunes gives me an option to re locate the file. But I cannot do this to all the 100 Gb of songs..
is there a way where i can tell itunes to recheck it in the same folder which contains the original songs...
Some one save me please .Couple of things to try. Open your preferences(edit>preferences) click the advanced tab and make sure the location of the iTunes media folder is looking to the external drive. If it is not, the change it to the external drive. On that same tab, be certain that the box for copy to iTunes media folder when adding to library is selected. Try to play a song. If it still does not play, then try consolidating the file(file>library>organize>check consolidate.) If they are still not playing, disconnect the external drive, open iTunes, open the library so you can see the music, click edit>select all, then edit>delete. This will remove the list of music from iTunes(be certain that the external is not connected!!!) Reconnect the external, click file>add folder to library>then locate the and open the folder on the external that has all your music in it. This should start putting the music back into iTunes where you can use it again. If the playlists are not there, try http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1967. All in all, not a bad problem, be happy you are one of the smart ones and has all the music backed up. Nice job.
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So, after spending all day trying to figure out how to recover my library of music after this stupid upgrade (like so many other people, I see) I now not only am missing a lot of the newer music I purchased, but now an "!" appears in front of all my songs and says that the original file can not be found. I tried to manually locate it but this not only sounds like a nightmare of a task, I could not even locate anywhere the specific song I had happened to select.
I neither understand what this message really means nor do I have any idea where to even start to fix it.
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I've asked this question about 5 times now -- why would doing a restore on an ipod delete songs from my itunes library? How does this happen? And more importantly, WHEN IS APPLE GOING TO FIX THIS 7.7 PROBLEM WE ARE ALL HAVING??? -
Large amount of "original file could not be found" messages
I'm looking for an "easier" fix to a strange problem - here's the situation:
1) I keep my iTunes music on a separate HD from my PB, and the HD was starting to die (as referenced in another thread - woohoo for DiskWarrior).
2) After rebuilding the directory on the old external, saving most of the music files, and copying them to a new external HD, I launched iTunes. In Preferences, I set the path to the new iTunes folder on the new HD under Advanced.
3) Once I did this, iTunes gave me the updating library message and it worked on that for a bit.
4) iTunes found most of my recent music - some Purchased and some ripped from CDs. However, I'd say 95% of my 12555 songs have the circle/exclamationpoint icon before them, and when I click on them, iTunes tells me it cannot find the original files.
5) The odd part is that all of the files are where they are "supposed" to be. Each song is nested safely inside the correct artist and album folders. Basically, I just have to go - one by one - through the files and reconnect the song name with the file.
Obviously, with 12555 songs, this is taking me FOREVER, and I've made only a small dent in the giant list of disconnected files.
Does anyone know of an easier way to get iTunes to "find" these files without having to go through and individually connect each and every file?
Thanks in advance!Yeah, it's definitely not working - I'm not sure what "consolidate library" did, but it didn't help the double-file-listing-but-one-is-extraneous-and-has-the-exclamation-point-icon problem. Plus you can't sort that column in order to just delete them all at once.
The playlist problem is extra-annoying because if I delete the duplicate file listing that has the ! icon, it deletes from the playlist, rather than leaving the correct version of the song in the playlist.
Any other ideas? This is way more frustrating than I like my computing experiences to be, especially since iTunes is touted as such fantastic software. If the files weren't organized where they are "supposed" to be, I could understand there being this problem, but the files are all in the correct folders! -
'the original files could not be found'
i bought an external hard drive to store itunes and iphoto. i moved the library folder across (itunes6.0.5) initially i only had an empty library (i did redirect the location in preferences, i also deleted com. apple.itunes.plist) i knew the library still existed it was just a matter of re-linking software to the library.i suceeded by importing a new cd !!. unfortunatly this is where 'the original files could not be found' message kicks in. interestingly when asking for info about a pre-existing song in the library it does not include profile,channels,encoded with, or where, whilst the new cd i imported does? any ideas??
ps. perhaps the wrong forum but - that 'new posting' box (this discussion software) sometimes i can find it sometimes not?
g3 imac 450mhz 640mb Mac OS X (10.2.x) 160gb ext h/d
g3 imac 450mhz 640mb Mac OS X (10.2.x) 160gb ext h/dCheck out "How to re-create your iTunes Library" instructions at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93313
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After transfer to new IMac "original file could not be found" (more)
The music transfers into iTunes, plays once or twice and then eventually gives me this "original file could not be found" message and takes me to finder.
Now all my music does this though. Some of it transfers and stays.
What am I doing wrong?
Thanks in advance!I have the same problem except almost every song I bought from Itunes has this problem. Not only that, but somehow some of the music, about $125 worth has been deleted form my 3 back up discs. This is only happening with my purchases and not any songs I uploaded from cd. How on earth did this happen, and how did it wipe clean 3 different back ups? I have found some of the music where it belongs, but like I said some of them are gone, gone, gone. I run three different back ups and they are on 24/7. Where is all of this music? I still have it on my ipod, but it will not load back into itunes the way purchases used to. Some of the music is purchased straight to my ipod touch, but shouldn't i be able to reload them into itunes? I spent 3 hours going 1 song at a time reloading them from their original location. But I cannot locate about $125 worth of music that I purchased from itunes. I have 6 macs in my family and preach the good news to all who will listen about hows macs are flawless. Now I have egg all over my face and have thrown away a nice sum of money on missing music. Please help!
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"Original file could not be found" - missing music
I just plugged in my iPod to sync it this morning, and I received an error message indicating that many of the songs "were not copied to the iPod because they could not be found".
When I looked in my "Music Library" in iTunes (the program itself, not Finder), all of the songs are listed there, but with a blue to the left of them. If I double click of the song, the "Original File could not be found" message comes up. If I search for the song in Finder, I cannot find it.
Any suggestions on how I can restore my music?
Thank you,Start here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301749
then go here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93313 -
I'm really dumbfounded on this one and it's driving me bonkers!!!! On some of my music files there is a ! in front of it, if I try to play the song, I get an error message; "The song "_____" could not be used, because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?"
This began to happen when Chuck made playlists2burn on2CD-and then he would delete the playlist; sending all the song files into oblivion. Certain songs have a ! right next to the file name, and as I stated before, i get that error message:
"The song "_____" could not be used, because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?"
So I click on "Locate". No help. I get a menu with folders that say "catroot" and other folders which names I cannot remember, but I scroll PAST the file folders, & it's just a bunch of ".DLL" files.....I don't understand what any of the names of the folders mean...it's frustr8ing-coz this is my 2nd iTouch, my 1st one got stolen & I can't afford2buy my music back at this time & i NEVER before had a single problem with losing song file locations.
Is there anyone out there who has been through this frustrating game of chasing your tail?....<that's how I feel>
If so I would be ever so gr8ful if maybe someone with the knowledge would be so kind as 2 tell me how/where 2 retrieve these songs & how to put everything back where it belongs, I would be 4ever gr8ful !!!
I can't afford 2 replace the songs just like I'm unable 2 buy back my old music from my stolen iTouch....man that was an awesome collection-someday I'll be able 2 afford 2 do that & I would like 2 have all the new music that I paid 4 but cannot find when I got my new iTouch....that would just be wonderful.
I hope someone sees this post that can help me retrieve these files....losing $100.00 of iTunes is a REAL BUMMER!!!!!!
ThanQ SO very much!
[email protected] or [email protected] or [email protected] .
You can also find me on Facebook, my given name is Tiffinie Trimmer, &
that's my Facebook "handle". ThanQ 4 taking the time 2 read all of this!
hope 2 get a reply someday....I'll B checking all my emails & my Facebook, as well
as marking this page in my FAVORITES so I can find it fast! Take Care!!!I was not complete clear.
Since you never changed the settings in the advanced section of iTunes preferecnes, you have to chech that your music is really in the location setted in the folders reported in the advanced section. If not you have 2 ways: reset the position of this folders or in the actual disk organisation or in the pointing on the preferences.
If you press the reset button you just give to itunes its default setting as for the position of the music files: probably this will be a good choice if you have never changed any default preference.
But before I would check the folders and see if the songs are really there
In my iTune I have this, and I believe it is the default.
Users/YOURHOMEFOLDERNAME/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music -
Please help - this morning I tried updating one of my old ipods for my wife (this ipod hasn't been updated in 2-3 years). I plugged it into my pc, it was recognized and the software updated. I created a new playlist and tied to sync the ipod. This ipod had never been used on this pc/itunes since the pc is only 2 years old. When I tried to sync the ipod it stated that it would have to erase all the old songs on the ipod prior to syncing. I clicked ok and it proceeded to wipe out the old ipod and sync the new playlist (~1000 songs). When the sync was complete there were only 6 songs from the new playlist (all purchased this morning from itunes) on the ipod and to my horror all ~10,000 song on my pc in itunes now have a ! next to them. Only my recent purchases from itunes do not. When I click on a song with the ! I get the error message "the song " " could not be used because the original file could not be found." How do I correct this issue - I am scared to hook my ipads or other ipods to my pc for fear of losing everything?!?!? I spent 100s of hours burning the 10,000 songs from my cd collection and do not want to have to do it again.
Any help is greatly appreciated.This "original file cannot be found" thing 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, 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.
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 .
tt2 -
I recently reset my computer and copy my music from an external hard drive to my itunes library. When I click on a song to play i get an error message that says " the song could not be used because the original file could not be found". But when I have my external hard drive plug in the song will play with no problem. What do I need to do to play my music without having the external harddrive plug in ???????? Please help
Because the location for each song in your library is on your hard drive. If the hard drive isn't there, how can iTunes play it?
You'll have to move/copy the music from your hard drive to your computer's hard drive.
Basically, EASIEST way to do all this, if you don't care about your play counts, etc...
-Delete EVERYTHING from iTunes, so that your library is now empty.
-Go to "Advanced" inside of the "Preferences" window, found in the "Edit" drop-down. You can also access Preferences by pressing Ctrl+, (Press Ctrl and the comma key)
-Change your iTunes Media Folder Location to something simple, but on your computer. I use C:/iTunes. Make sure "Keep iTunes Media Folder Organized" and "Copy files to...." are both checked. You can close Preferences now.
-Now, drag and drop your music from your hard drive into your iTunes library. iTunes will automatically add the music to your library, as you would expect, and also creates a copy of each file to place into that iTunes Media Folder you just created.
Shouldn't have any more problems... -
When I try to play my iTunes music on my computer, an error message comes up and state "The song (title of song) could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?
When I click on Locate It, I cannot find where the music file may be located. Does anyone have any suggestions?
This all occurred when I attempted to do a backup to an external hard drive. Unbeknownest to me, the files did not copy over and do not appear on the external hard drive.
When I open my iTunes library, at the bottom of my music list it shows how many songs and the GBs, so it appears that the files are still there; however, cannot be located.
Thank you.Hi angela dfromtx,
When tracks in iTunes display a it means the file cannot be located; it may have been moved or deleted. You'll have to locate the file manually if it is still available. For more information refer to the following article:
iTunes: Finding lost media and downloads
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1408
Alternatively, if your media was downloaded from the iTunes Store, you may be able to download it again free of charge:
Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2519
Thanks,
Matt M. -
I have an iPod Classic and work on Windows 7.
i recently installed iTunes 10.5 update and since then i cannot play any of the songs in the Library - i get the following message
"The song could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?"
what happened to all my songs (almost 2000) How can i get them back into my music library?
Please help - i do not want to spend another week downloading all my cd's onto my computer !!!!!Try my script FindTracks. Select a few of the missing files to start with then run the script. Choose No at the first prompt so that you can check how it works track by track, then confirm or edit the location of the media folder where your files are. Once you are happy with how it behaves let it process larger numbers of tracks automatically.
tt2 -
I tried to play my iTunes and suddenly get an error message that says "The song (name) could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it now?" It happens on each tune I select and a "?" appears beside the song. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
I was not complete clear.
Since you never changed the settings in the advanced section of iTunes preferecnes, you have to chech that your music is really in the location setted in the folders reported in the advanced section. If not you have 2 ways: reset the position of this folders or in the actual disk organisation or in the pointing on the preferences.
If you press the reset button you just give to itunes its default setting as for the position of the music files: probably this will be a good choice if you have never changed any default preference.
But before I would check the folders and see if the songs are really there
In my iTune I have this, and I believe it is the default.
Users/YOURHOMEFOLDERNAME/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music -
When I try to listen to certain songs a message pops up that the original file could not be found. Do you want to locate file? I don't know how this happened and I don't know what to do. I have tried repairing Itunes and also uninstallng and reinstalling. I have restarted my computer and even done some troubleshooting. When I tried hooking my ipod up to my computer to see if that would help I got a message that said "At least 100 songs could not be transferred, including "You found me."" I have no such song in my itunes. Can itunes get a virus?
Does anyone have any ideas what I can do? I'm at a loss and would really like my itunes to be back to normal.I was not complete clear.
Since you never changed the settings in the advanced section of iTunes preferecnes, you have to chech that your music is really in the location setted in the folders reported in the advanced section. If not you have 2 ways: reset the position of this folders or in the actual disk organisation or in the pointing on the preferences.
If you press the reset button you just give to itunes its default setting as for the position of the music files: probably this will be a good choice if you have never changed any default preference.
But before I would check the folders and see if the songs are really there
In my iTune I have this, and I believe it is the default.
Users/YOURHOMEFOLDERNAME/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music
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