Oringinal song files cannot be found

I just bought a My Book external hard drive because I was running out of room on my computers hard drive and I transfered all of my music and videos over onto the My Book hard drive. I went into my iTunes preferences and changed the iTunes music folder to the folder on the My Book where all my music is. But when I try to play music in iTunes a little exclamation mark comes up beside every song and says that iTunes cannot find the original file and asks if I would like to find it. If I go through all the files and find it it will play but other wise nothing is playing. I don't know what I should do...

In other words how do I get iTunes to get my music from the external hard drive?

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Help needed - song files cannot be found

Hey guys,
Due to low space on my computer, all of my music files and folders are located on an external HD.
Recently, without thinking too much about the consequences, I have decided to make some order out of the mess I had on this external HD and I moved all of the music folders I had into one organized folder. a few days after, I tried to listen to some music using the iTunes and all of the songs were missing to iTunes due to the change I have made..a big Oops...
Otherwise than locating each song all over (a task that will definitely take days or weeks), how can I overcome this error and make iTunes "scan" in some way by itself the external HD and find the new locations for ALL of my songs?
(Of course, the basic assumption is that I don't remember all of the previous names and locations of the folders in the previous status, therefore, I cannot "undo" this situation...)
Thanks a lot!
Joe

Alex,
Are these the newly purchased songs, or songs you moved to a new computer? Do they have ! next to them? Double click on one as if to play it in iTunes, if that ! comes up and a dialogue window to tell you that iTunes cannot locate the file, you will get the option to search for it.
If you do that and iTunes still cannot locate it, it's my guess that something went amiss when you moved them to your new computer.
You said you "moved the iTunes files", but did that include your iTunes music folder?
And Alex, it's always best when posting to include details of your computer system.

I just bought the MacBook Air and tried to transfer my songs from my external hard drive to my mac. now i cannot open iTunes and it said that the file cannot be found or created.

i just bought a macbook air. ive been transfering all my songs from my external harddrive that i had on my previous laptop for itunes. now that i got them transfered. my itunes wont open. it says "the itunes library file cannot be found or created. the default location for this file is in the itunes folder in the music folder." what do i do!?!

How did you move the music? You have to do it in a specific way:
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
do not confuse moving your whole folder and library with moving just media files as in
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449
Quick answer if you let iTunes manage your music: Copy the whole iTunes folder and all its subfolders and files intact to the other drive. Start iTunes with the option key held down and guide it to the new location of the library.

I backed up my I-tunes library (by dragging my "music" folder to my new external hard drive. Now 6,000 songs won't play stating, "original file cannot be found." What can I do to get these songs back???!!!

I backed up my I-tunes library (by dragging my "music" folder to my new external hard drive. Now 6,000 songs won't play stating, "original file cannot be found." What can I do to get these songs back???!!!

Try putting the files back where they were before you moved them, then follow the steps in this Apple document -> iTunes: Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive

Itunes wont inport anythig it show listings but comes up with error ocurred while converting (song title ) the required file cannot be found using windows 8

itunes wont inport anythig it show listings but comes up with error ocurred while converting (song title ) the required file cannot be found using windows 8

iTunes cannot convert protected WMA tracks. There may also be problems if it can't get full access permissions. What exactly are you trying to do when the error occurs?
tt2

The song... Could not be used because the original file cannot be found....Any suggestions?

I just got a new computer and I transfered all of my old music via an external hard drive to the new one. All the music showed up in itunes fine so I deleted the old files. Then I went to sync my iphone I got an error that said "The song... Could not be used because the original file cannot be found. Please help, this has happed to about 500 songs!

You'll need to help iTunes locate the files for you then reacquaint your library with your files. Here are some articles that can help you:
No content shows up in iTunes after updating
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1967
This article may also be helpful:
Instructions for finding missing music and video downloads
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1408

The Song Could Not be used because the original file Cannot be found!!!!!

Hello,
I have my music on a separate hard drive and all of a sudden some songs randomly cannot be found. There does not seem to be a pattern to this. Everything is set up correctly but yet I have to manually go and find songs. I've tried everything I can think of but yet im still missing files. The files are there and I dont want to have to this individually each time.
If anyone has any ideas I'd love to know them
Itunes 8.02 (2.0)
Thanks
Keith

Okay, this may be more info than you need, b/c I was having playlist and "!" problems simultaneously...
I only just now had my Mac Genius appointment tonight, but yes, all seems finally fixed. Here is what I learned. They had been experiencing a lot of appointments related to this recently, and if you have all your music on an external drive as it seems most of us do, you greatly increase your odds of having this issue. They didn't reveal WHY iTunes is so crappy at seeing/remembering where you've put stuff. I had lost all my playlists, AND couldn't get iTunes to find/read my music. It was an either/or fix, meaning they couldn't seem to fix these issues together. The long fix was this:
(1) (a) Import "previous library" to get your playlists (under Music / iTunes / select the most recently dated iTunes database file; this lived on my local computer's drive, which may or may not be the best place for it -- if your computer dies, you lose your playlists if you haven't been backing them up); this should open your old playlists in iTunes; (b) export each individual playlist to save them
(2) THEN hold down "option" as you open iTunes; this will prompt you to "select library"; navigate to direct it to open your actual music files (more than likely on your external hard drive if you're like me experiencing this problem).
(3) File/Library/Import Library for each of your previously saved playlists
In other words, I couldn't have my old playlists AND my music. Even another Mac genius agreed on this fix, and that he'd manually directed his computer to find each of 5,000 tracks individually, in order to have the playlists AND the music. (Does this make sense?) The second Mac Genius that I worked with somehow magically went under File/Library/Consolidate Library to be able to marry these two things w/o having to back up my playlists (avoiding steps 1b and 3 as described above). He seemed surprised that this really worked and that we didn't have to do everything described above. So if you can figure out how he did the "consolidate library" thing, then GREAT (none of the other Mac Geniuses knew about how to do this, and I don't know how he did it either)... but if not, maybe try the 1-2-3 steps above... or just go see your local Mac Genius I am finally sooooo pleased this issue has been resolved, but it took 3 diff. appointments.

Error: this song cannot be played because the original file cannot be found

I recently purchased a new computer and restored my music to the new computer. Although all of my songs are being displayed in the itunes library only half will play. When I try to play the remaining songs I get a message that says "this song cannot be played because the original file cannot be found". I'm at a loss and need help because all of the songs are in the same folder.

Hi
I've pretty much got exactly the same problem. We've just replaced our old computer with a laptop and I've transferred my iTunes library over but I can't open almost all of my songs as "the original file couldn't be found." I've tried the "locate" prompt but that gives me so many different options, all to no avail. However, I have added a few new CDs since transferring the library to the laptop and they open up without any problems.
Can anyone help? I've got to go through all of this again soon as my daughters both have ipods as well!

I purchased a song from iTunes and when I try to play it I get a message that the original file cannot be found and asks if I want to try and locate file.

I purchased a song from iTunes and when I try to play it I get a message that the original file cannot be found and asks if I want to try and locate file. I locate the file and it's empty?!

Delete the file, then download again from the iTunes Store, Purchased section (in the Quick Links sidebar).

My music library seems corrupted. Nearly every song (431 albums) displays "the song ... could not be used because the original file cannot be found". Is there any way to correct this? Please help, thanks, Kelly

Almost my entire itunes music library seems corrupted. Nearly every song (431 albums) displys "the song ... cannot be used because the original file cannot be found". Is there any way to correct this? Please help!
thanks,
kelly61

Select one of the songs in question and right click, then select "Get Info". On the main dialog page you should see where iTunes thinks the file resides. Then use Windows Explorer to see if the file is actually there. If not, find out where your music is stored.If there is not a correlation between iTunes and reality, go into iTunes and delete all of the files which are not found. Then, in iTunes, select File->Add Folder to Library and select where the music is stored. iTunes will re-add all of the music into your library.

I'm finding that songs that I have imported to Itunes are suddenly showing with "Exclamation" marks and Itunes tells me that the original file cannot be found. When I tell it to locate the file, it can't do it.

I'm finding that songs that I have imported into Itunes and played before are suddenly showing an"Exclamation" mark and Itunes tells me that the original file cannot be found. When I tell it to locate the file, it can't do it. I went to the Itunes help for locating files, but that still won't do it. It seems that somehow they are getting deleted, but not by me that I know of.
Can anyone help me?

Maybe you rename it. Somehow the path to the songs have changed if not deleted.
In Finder go to "Macintosh/Users/username/music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music" that's where all your songs located so if those songs are not there you get an exclamation mark. You can delete those entries in iTunes and re-import again.

I recently bought the i pod touch 4 and noticed that not all of my songs transferred over-The songs that didn't, say original file cannot be found. What should I do?

I recently bought the i pod touch 4 and noticed that not all of my songs transferred over from my i tunes library-The songs that didn't, say original file cannot be found, when clicked. What should I do? I tried using the tips on this site, but they weren't too helpful...I downloaded the songs from cd's and purchased them from i tunes.
Any help would be much appreciated! Thank you!

I doubt that your music files are gone. Do a spotlight search and look for The Cure. What likely happened is that for whatever reason, your iTunes lost track of the location of your songs.. which happens on occasion.
What you need to do is go to the folder where your music library is - where the song files are - and check to see if they are there. If so, then go into your iTunes preferences and in the 'Advanced' pane put in the location of the folder where it says 'iTunes Media folder location'. iTunes should then be able to 'see' the songs again.
Deb.

I can play all songs on iphone but on itunes on pc it get message orignal file cannot be found

I can play all songs when using itunes on my iphone, but when i try to play them on my pc i get the message "original file cannot be found" what up?

This 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 have thousands of songs dowloaded from my cds and purchased from itunes that will not play. It states the file cannot be found. What happened to them and where are they?

I have thousands of songs dowloaded from my cds and purchased from itunes that will not play. It says file cannot be found. What happened and where are they?

When songs cannot be found, it's either because they have been moved from the original location that you told iTunes, renamed or deleted.
So have you:
renamed songs?
moved them to a different loaction on your computer since you imported them into itunes?
deleted them since you imported them?
stored you iTunes library on an external drive? If so, that drive needs to be on and ready every time before you start iTunes.
... or is another programme renaming or even moving them, such as Windows Media Player? (It has been known to if you let it.) Did you previously use Windows Media Player?

Most of the songs I have downloaded now say the file cannot be found

Any reason that half if not more of my music downloads cannot be played reason being thr file cannot be found ?

trevkayla wrote:
No I never touch assuming ITunes protects them !
I'm not sure what you mean by that.
If you haven't done any of the things that I previously suggested, and you don't use something like Windows Media Player (which may rename songs), then the only other explanation is that you have disconnected the drive where the files are stored. So, are the songs on an external hard drive or memory stick? Have you recently added the music to your iTunes library and now that same music is missing?

Oringinal song files cannot be found

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