Original files can't be found.

I transferred my Itunes program/library to an external hard drive to save space on my computer. Now when I open iTunes it tells me I have 100 errors because the original files can't be found. What happened and what do I do about it? Any suggestions?

How did you move it to the external drive? Did you 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? Which is the way you should do it.
Patrick

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How can I relocate songs from my Itunes? Itunes tells me that the original files can not be found! can someone help?

How can I relocate songs from my Itunes? Itunes tells me that the original files can not be found! can someone help?

punzete wrote:
I can't do it that way. I erase these songs from the iTunes Library, but when I sycronize the iPhone, all these songs are copied again to the Library. Isn't there any way to stop that? Everything I buy on iTunes Store through my iPhone cannot be erased from the iPhone?
WHY can't you do it the way 100 million people do it?

HT1399 My songs can't be played because the original files can't be found. What can I do?

I can't play my songs on my computer because the original files can't be found. I can, however, play them on my ipod. I tried to re-download my purchases but itunes won't allow me to do so. What can I do to retrieve my music files on my computer?

If you still have the 'pointers' to the tracks on your computer's iTunes (even if the files themselves aren't on there) then it won't let you re-download them as it assumes that they are still there - if you delete the 'pointers' then you should be able to copy your Apple purchases back from the iPod via File > Transfer Purchases, and depending on which country that you are in you might also be able to re-download them for free. For music bought from other sources or copied from CDs you will either need to copy them back onto your computer from a backup, or you need to get a third-party program that can copy them off the iPod

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.

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)

Albums can not play because original files can not be found

Suddenly about half of my albums in iTunes will not play. Error message says tunes will not play because original files can not be found. The other albums still play fine.

This happens if the file is no longer where iTunes expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool have 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 might be able to reconnect iTunes to them using my FindTracks script.
tt2

Itunes can't play the file because the original file can not be found

There is many things wrong with that message and I don't know why.
I had around 30 songs off an album on my computer
I put the album on Itunes
I edited them and then they played fine
I put them on my ipod and then deleted them off coz i wanted to put something else on
but i found out I had more space to put the other 30 songs I had from before back on so I went to the album
when I wanted to play a song it said "Itunes Can't play the file because the original file can not be found"
1) The original file was on my computer, in the exact place where I left it last time when Itunes played it
2) I did not change the file path name
3) I did not change the folder path name
4) The songs aren't corrupted
5) They play fine on other programs
I deleted them all off and took them on again and they played fine but whey did they keep stuffing up before?

The "missing file" 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 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.
tt2

HT1390 I rented a movie and it shows up in my iTunes "Rented" section, but when I click to play it, it gives me an error message saying the movie can't be played because the original file can't be found. Please help!

I rented a movie and it shows up in my iTunes "Rented" section, but when I click to play it, it gives me an error message saying the movie can't be played because the original file can't be found. Please help!

Never mind I fixed it. Just in case anyone else has this problem, after you reinstall iTunes you have to delete all your old music, and if you have iTunes match all the songs you have saved on itunes match will display and you just have to download them to your Macbook.

I keep getting a pop up with Original files can not be found. I just updated my iMac to Lion and I have over 10,000 songs I can not access. Help!

This morning when I went to access my iTunes library I got a message that "Original Files can not be found" and would I like to locate them and others. Of course I clicked "yes" but that did not solve the problem. Why did this happen over night and what is the easiest way for me to retrive 10,000 songs. This is not a good thing!!!

Hi wcb82,
If you keep getting these messages, you may need to delete the subscription to that calendar. You may find the following article useful:
Cal 5.x: Delete a calendar or reminder list
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH4720
Regards,
- Brenden

Help--Original File Can't be found

I am getting the Original file can't be found message for a lot of my songs. Both import and iTunes Store downloads. When it asks if I want to search I do the search and the song is right where it was suppose to be. It then works. So far I have had to do this 20+ times. Do I need to rebuild the database (how?)? Or is there some other solution. I am running 7.6.1 on OS 10.4.11.
Thanks

Bump

Original files can't be found?! Help! Lost over 100 songs (I think)

In my Itunes library, next to over 100 songs (on the left), there's an exclamation point. when you click on that, it says Original file can't be found and would I like to locate it?
It USED to be on my Itunes (after hours upon hours of loading my cd's)
Now, I copy my Itunes library to an external drive as a backup, so I'm hoping it's somewhere there...any suggestions?
These songs are no longer on my IPOD either.
Thanks!

This has been happening to me for a long time now. Files just randomly disappear, and they have not moved and are exactly where they should be. In an album, purchased from the iTunes store, the first track plays, but the others will not. When I locate the file, it is in the same folder as the first track in my iTunes library folder, which iTunes sees, but have to manually locate all files in the album one at a time. Seeing as I estimate there are hundreds of tracks missing (I have over 6,000), I have not got the time to sort this, so now have big gaps all over the place which is very annoying.
*COME ON APPLE* How hard can it be to write a simple auto locate all missing tracks, as they are all in the iTunes library folder, they have not moved, so why can't it find it.
This is a serious bug and needs addressing. Been happening for ages for no reason at all. Not got a simple fix other than opening one file at a time, which is INFURIATINGLY SLOW!!

HT204406 iTunes Match - can't play because original file can't be found

Hi, I've uploaded 600+ tracks to iTunes Match and since deleted the original files from my computer - when I go to play them 'via the cloud' only a handful of songs will play, the rest say 'can't play because original file can't be found!
I assumed the purpose of iTunes Match was to create a copy of all your tracks so you could access them from anywhere.
Hoping someone can help/offer advice?
Cheers, Lee.

This happens if the file is no longer where iTunes expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool have 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 might be able to reconnect iTunes to them using my FindTracks script.
tt2

"get" button is gone - refresh download - original file can not be found.

I have a podcast open in iTunes with the audio files displayed in a list. There was a "get" button beside each audio file. I did press "get" and download all the files. But I've since deleted the files from my hard drive.
If I try to play the audio files, an error message is displayed "... the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?". The locate tries to search my hard drive and the "get" button is gone, so I can't download from the internet again.
Please tell me if I can make iTunes dowload my podcast audio files from the Internet again, refresh the audio files, download them a second time?
Thank you,
iTunes 7

Most podcast producers allow downloading directly from webpage. However, episodes downloaded outside iTunes will not go into podcast section of source pane. iTunes will treat these files as music.
To get the 'get' button back unsubscribe from the feed, delete it from iTunes, then subscribe again. This has worked for me.

Library not playing songs because the original file can't be found.

My iTunes is having problems. I download new music and then later that night my library shows up, but says:
The song "insert name here" could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?
I have roughly 1400 songs and instead of locating each one individually is there something that I could do to make this process go much quicker and more efficiently? Can it also be done without messing up my song count and last time played?
Any help would be much appreciated.

Well, I got it fixed...
1 I found the nearest Apple Store. I think you can get to a list via Apple.com/retail
2 Made an online appointment with the GENIUS BAR folks at the store.
3 They went into Edit, Preferences, Advanced, and checked "Keep itunes music folder organized" and "Copy files to itunes music folder when adding to library" and "use itunes as the default player for audio files"
after a few other gyrations that I could not keep up with, my music library looked normal and i will only have to reload a few numbers that did not find there way back into the library. Some of the gyrations were deleting the duplications that occured in the fix process.
When I returned home, I duplicated the process on my other computer and it seems to WORK... now, AMAZING that TWO computers developed the SAME problem on the SAME day when BOTH had worked perfectly before hmmm?
GOOD LUCK, EVERYBODY!!!
It would sell a a lot more ipods if apple had a better online support program, but the real people at the store were fantastic...
Mike

HT201272 the original file can't be found (TV episode)

I am getting this error message on my PC when attempting to watch a Downton Abbey episode I bought with the season's pass:
The TV show "Episode 4 (Original UK Version)" could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?
I've spent two or three hours on this problem. I googled it. I searched the Apple support pages. I followed several different suggestions. I found where all the other files for this TV series live. Episode 4 is listed there, but when I attempt to open it, I get the error message, and the file is marked with an exclamation point. I checked my trash bin. It wasn't there. I tried to download it again, but the Apple store tells me it IS downloaded. I can watch all the other episodes. This latest one, Episode 4, just won't let me in.
I posted this problem a couple of days ago, and can't figure out how to get back to that discussion and see if anyone can help me.
I am not impressed. I want my money back. I will never buy an iTunes product again if I don't get this episode to work. There are other ways to download media. You are not the only game in town. Downton Abbey is a continuing story. Missing an episode is the same as if you took one of my books, yanked 50 pages out of the middle of it, and told me, "here, read this." Seriously annoying.

Have you deleted the music tracks from your computer or moved where they are stored on it ? Do you have a copy of your library on a backup ?
If you are in a country where you can re-download music, and if they are still in the store, then you might be able to re-download them via the Purchased link under Quicklinks on the right-hand side of the iTunes store home page on your computer's iTunes. If they appear in there but without the cloud symbol next to them for re-downloading then try deleting one of them from your library first (where you are getting the 'unable to locate' message) and it should then get the cloud symbol next to it for re-downloading (iTunes will see that entry in your library and assume that you still have it somewhere and that it therefore doesn't need re-downloading), and if that works do the same for the others.

Original files can't be found.

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