Original location could not be found - upgrade iTunes

hi all,
I upgraded my iTunes to version 7 online. Since that moment, i cannot open any of my songs ripped from a CD. I tried to find them with Spotlight, but nothing works, i cannot find any of the albums. They are neither in the iTunes Library nor in another directory.
Could you help me finding back these files? I have almost 150 CD that i previously imported, and i cannot imagine having to redo just because of an upgrade of my iTunes...
Thanks a lot for your help!
Thomas

The important thing about the method is that you have a standard iTunes setup:
You should have an iTunes folder containing the library files and iTunes Music folder.
The location of the iTunes Music folder should be set to this iTunes Music folder in the Preferences.
ALL your music files must be in the iTunes Music folder. You have to consolidate the library if they are not.
The method only works if you music is all together. Itunes is very fussy about the path to music files and can not cope if it changes - except that when files are in the iTunes Music folder, it can cope with changes in the path above the iTunes Music folder.
Something that you may encounter is that you have to set the permissions on the iTunes folder and iTunes Music folder that you copy so your account has full control. It doesn't affect finding tracks, but does affect editing them.

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HT1923 I am using windows 7 and have upgraded itunes to 11. Now when I open my music library in itunes and click on a song it says "original file could not be found" Over 2000 songs come up this way and locate does not seem to work. Before the upgrade all

With Windows 7 I upgraded itunes to 11. Now in my itunes library, when I click on a song "original file could not be found" comes up. This happens with over 2000 songs, but it seems to be ones I recorded from cd's. Locate does not seem to work. Has anyone else had this problem?

Highlight a song that is supposedly missing, press CTRL+I to Get Info, say no when asked to locate the file, then look at the summary tab. Where does iTunes "think" the file should be? Where is it really? You may need to give a configuration file a minor tweak.
tt2

This is a new notification coming up with iTunes, why and how do I fix it? The song "Penny Lane" could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?

This is a new notification coming up with iTunes, why and how do I fix it?
The song “Penny Lane” could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?
Max

Hey xxCreepyFiaxx,
First, I would try the following suggested steps for when you don't see content in iTunes after updating:
Quit iTunes.
Download and install the latest version of iTunes.
Use the Finder (Mac) or Windows Explorer (Windows) to go to the iTunes folder that contains the iTunes library files:
Mac OS X
/Users/username/Music/iTunes/
Microsoft Windows Windows XP and Windows 2000
\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\
Microsoft Windows Windows Vista and Windows 7
\Users\username\Music\iTunes\
Drag the iTunes Library file from the above location to the Desktop.
Open the Previous iTunes Libraries folder in the iTunes folder.
Locate the file named iTunes Library YYYY-MM-DD where YYYY-MM-DD is the date you upgraded iTunes (Year-Month-Day).
Drag this file to the iTunes folder (the enclosing folder).
Rename this file to iTunes Library.
Open iTunes.
You should now see your missing content in iTunes.
via: No content shows up in iTunes after updating
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1967
If that doesn't resolve the issue, then I'd go through the steps in here:
iTunes: Finding lost media and downloads
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1408
Have a good one,
Delgadoh

After upgrade, iTunes complaints with "original file could not be found"

After upgrading to 8.2.0.23, a large number of songs now have a ! in them and if I try to play them, iTunes will say with "The song xxx could not be used because the original file could not be found." This has happened to me before but never to this large number of files.
If it were only a handful of songs it wouldn't be an issue because iTunes allows me to locate it manually, which for first time, iTunes opens the dialog in the directory where the file is. I can click on the mp3 file and that's it. Problem is that from the on, the dialog opens in the same directory as the first song, which makes it very hard to navigate to the directory where the second song is (unless it's the same album of course). Multiply that by 1000 and it's an impossible task.
I've found that the problem is neither the itl file nor the xml file. I already tried the previous itl file and the problem persists.
After comparing the files that are OK with those missing in the .xml file, I found that iTunes is somehow messing up the location tag for files with underscores in the filename. For example, 01_mysong.mp3 gets replaced to 01%20-%20mysong.mp3 in the location tag in the xml file. If use iTunes to locate the file, which as I mentioned above fixes the issue, the location tag gets updated to the correct filename and a bunch of hex numbers get added to the comments tag.
Now, if I exit iTunes and change the location tag to the correct filename in the xml file with a text editor, iTunes magically messes up the tag again when it comes up.
I tried unchecking the "Keep iTunes Music folder organized" but that didn't help.
At first I thought it was an issue with the comments tag and that only mp3 files downloaded from Amazon had the problems. It seems that ALL those songs have the problem but there are a few other songs I got from the iTunes store that are also messed up.
I have not moved any songs at all, this just happened all by itself after upgrading.
I also tried re-adding the folders where all the Amazon mp3 files are, but this created duplicate entries in the library. Unfortunately, even though the new entries do play, they don't have ratings or play count.
Is there any way I could fix this without losing my ratings and play counts and without having to manually fix every song one by one?
I'll appreciate any hint you can provide.
Thanks

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!

There are about 8 songs in a playlist on itunes that are listed in the playlist but cannot be transferred to my ipod because it states: "..the original file could not be found." When I try to locate the song I get a list of the different music librar

There are about 8 songs on a playlist that are listed in the playlist library but when I try to transfer them to the playlist, it states that they can't be transferred because the original file could not be found. Then it asks, do you want to locate the file but when I try that I get a few libraries but am not sure how to locate the particular songs. Some of the songs were purchased and some were transferred from a CD. I have seen the same question asked on the help page but haven't found an answer.
Thanks.

Hi dones49,
It sounds like your issue here is that iTunes can not find the files for some of the songs you have brought into it. This happens occasionally even if the songs have not been moved from the location that iTunes places them on import or purchase. When you try to use the song, iTunes prompts you to find the file, as you have seen.
To find the file, use the information in this article to navigate through the iTunes media folders -
Locate and organize your iTunes files
If you are still unable to locate the files, you may need to download them from the iTunes store again, or rip them from your CDs. See this article for assistance with downloading your past purchases -
Download past purchases
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Brett L

After installing iTunes 10.5 update i get the following message when trying to play any song in my Library "The song could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" how do i fix this??

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 all my tunes and each one I select ends up with a "?"

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

ITunes tells me "Could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" I can locate it and all my other music, but can only open one song at a time. How do I set it to open all my music whenever I want it?

iTunes tells me my song selection: "Could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" I can locate it and all my other music, but can only open one song at a time. How do I set it to open all my music whenever I want?
Message was edited by: Woildbill

I just spent several hours dealing with this when switching to a new PC. It was extremely frustrating as I knew my files were on my external HD but no matter how many times I copied my old iTunes folder over the files were still missing...because dummy me had forgotten to "unhide folders" on my new PC and my old files were actually stored in a hidden folder created long long ago.
This is how I did it on Windows 7 with iTunes 10
1. Look in iTunes Advanced Preferences to see where iTunes is saving files. (Edit, Preferences, Advanced)
Example: C:/Users/Woildbill/My Music/iTunes/Music
2. Ensure you are able to see hidden files - Control Panel, Folder Option, View, Show Hidden Files
3. Use Your Computer's Search Function to Locate the Missing File (Start, Search, type name of song - I started my search in "My Music" folder but be sure to expand to entire Computer if not found right away)
4. In Search Results, right-click found folder and select properties. This will tell you where the file is actually stored.
5. Use Windows Explorer (right-click start) to navigate to the location of the file. It is likley your other missing files are in the same location.
6. In Windows Explorer, copy the newly located files to the iTumes location from Step 1 and everything should work again.
Hope this helps!

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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

My partner deleted my itunes (10) library. I use a WD external back-up and retrieved my itunes library, but when i try to play a song i get the message 'could not be used because the original file could not be found Would you like to locate it?'

My partner deleted, by accident my itunes library. I have an iMac 10.6.7, Itunes 10. I use an WD passport as an external back up and retrieved my itunes library but now get the message "could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" so itunes is not recognised the exclamation marked songs, how do i get the retrieved files recognised. At times I get fed-up with Apple blocking files being used, although I like the product its restrictions are so silly!

You not only have to retrieve the library file from the backup drive but the actual music files (usually stored within the "iTunes Media" folder) as well.

When selecting a song to play in iTunes, I get an error message indicating the song could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it. I have no idea where to look since the library hold all my files.

When selecting a song to play from iTunes library, I continually get an error message indicating the original file could not be found. Then asks, would you like to locate it? Does anyone know how to fix this? I'm not even able to play the songs I purchased due to this error message. Any ideas how to remedy this problem?
Thanks

It would help to have more background about your iTunes collection such as if you keep it on an external drive, or if you have moved or renamed anything recently. iTunes is very sensitive to you renaming or moving files or folders involved with your media. iTunes only keeps a reference to where a media file is located and then goes to look for it when you try to play it. If you have changed things since it was added to itunes then it's like me sending you to look for a friend in my addressbook but that friend has moved.
The other possibility is your computer is starting to lose files. Again, the computer uses a reference database to tell it where on the drive to look for a file. If that database gets corrupt then it starts losing files. Use Dsk Utility's first aid to verify your hard drive.

I recently transferred my itunes library to an external hard drive. Now I get the error message 'the original file could not be found. Could you like to locate it' when i try to open songs. My iPod syncs ok.

I recently tranferred my iTunes library to an external hard drive. Now I cannot open songs and get the error message ' The song "***" could not not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it'. This applies to all 9742 songs!!. My iPod still syncs ok, but I can't play songs on the PC. Can anyone please help.

It would help to have more background about your iTunes collection such as if you keep it on an external drive, or if you have moved or renamed anything recently. iTunes is very sensitive to you renaming or moving files or folders involved with your media. iTunes only keeps a reference to where a media file is located and then goes to look for it when you try to play it. If you have changed things since it was added to itunes then it's like me sending you to look for a friend in my addressbook but that friend has moved.
The other possibility is your computer is starting to lose files. Again, the computer uses a reference database to tell it where on the drive to look for a file. If that database gets corrupt then it starts losing files. Use Dsk Utility's first aid to verify your hard drive.

My iTunes account sayscould not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it? whenever i click on a song and i didn't move the songs anywhere. I don't know if i saved them to my hard drive so i can't find any songs

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Tunes works through a database file which has a list of your tracks. When you click on a track it looks up in the database which file it needs to play, then plays the file. If something breaks this link then you get ! The two main ways to get ! are to move a file from where iTunes expects it to be, or to delete it altogether. I don't know which has happened in your case. You can try using Spotlight to find a file for the one referred to in a broken link. If the files have been moved then they need to be moved back. If they were deleted completely you will have to restore them from a backup or download them again from the iTunes Store and rebuild your library.

My iTunes says: "The song ".............." could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" How do I solve this ?

My iTunes says: "The song “..............” could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" How do I solve this ?

That means iTunes cannot find the music file associated with the listing in its database. The first thing to do is simply say "yes" and then try to find the file it should be. If there are many entries like this, did you rename or move any files or folders with media? Also run disk utility and check your drive isn't corrupted and losing files left, right and center.

HT204406 The song "If We Are the Body" could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it? This notice keeps coming up even though I have iTunes Match. What do I do?

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This usually means the original music file has been been deleted from the HDD. If you feel it has not then click "locate" and navigate to where the song file is on the HDD and choose it. You can use Spotlight to locate it if necessary.

Original location could not be found - upgrade iTunes

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