Song could not be used because file could not be found

I recently had to purchase a new computer which came with the new Windows Vista. I had Windows XP before and from that computer I backed up ITunes on external hard drive. I have authorized this computer and installed Itunes and added the music back to folder. I can see all the music but I cannot play them due to the error song could not be used. I am having problems with the IPod and need to hook it up to computer to reset it. I am afraid it will mess up. What do I need to do? How can I get the music to play in library and if I hook up IPod will it mess it up more? Thanks for any help!!

I'm an Apple N00B and would be nice to see this answered (by Apple or someone that knows whats going on) - I realize this is a public forum, but in Googling "song could not be used because file could not be found" you (and me!) are not the only ones having this problem -
My situation is, that I BOUGHT a song from iTunes last night, it synched to my iPod OK - but in going thru iTunes today, I see the bang "!" next to the song... and not knowing all the icons yet for iTunes - it gives me that error - Saying it can't locate the song - would you (me) like to find it? - Yes, I BOUGHT it so would be nice to HAVE...
Point being, it IS on my iPod Classic - but is not on my PC??? How is this possible -
Furthermore - Since I bought it - and obviously I have it on my iPod now, but somehow is now "lost" on my PC (iTunes folder shows empty - for that song) - You'd think that either iTunes would be SMART enough to pull it from my iPod and save it to the folder (as the Album art shows in iTunes too???!) - Or that iTunes home page would recognize the "sale" and the "missing" song, and re-download it?? W-T-F Apple?
FWIW, for grins, I went back and tried to re-download the missing song - and was eager to SELL it to me again...
Again, I'm new to Apple and iTunes - so maybe there's a quick and easy fix for this - Yeah yeah - call me a Windows idiot - but suspect I'm not alone with this problem... or that it's not just a Windows issue -
Any thoughts?
TIA -
MFX
Message was edited by: MalteseFalconX

Similar Messages

When I try to sync, it will tell me that some of my songs can not be found, almost 100 of them. Any suggestion how to fix this?

Why when I try to sync to my ipod, it tells me that some of my songs can not be found when they are in my library?

iPod touches or any iDevices from Apple sync only to one computer. If you sync to a different computer, all your music will be replace with the music from the new computer's iTunes. If the music were purchased from iTunes, you can re-download them again otherwise the music on iPod touch will be deleted. Do you have iTunes backup?

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)

Error message-song couldn't be used because original file couldn't be found

Had to reinstall itunes onto my laptop and all my music appear automatically in the library with all old playlists, which was great. But now most of my songs show an error message - 'The song could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?' - I located the correct file for some songs, but even still the next time I open my itunes the same error message appears and to play a song I have to locate it every time I want to play it.
Please help!
Thank you,

Here's what I did. Went to the iTunes preferences. Selected Advanced. Then made sure the iTunes music folder was correct. Unchecked copy files to iTunes folder when adding songs to library. Clicked OK. Clicked on the file menu scrolled down to select add to library. I then went to where on my hard drive my iTunes mp3s are kept. I selected the first groups folder (AH-a) and shift clicked and scrolled down to my last groups folder (ZZTOP) So all groups were selected. Then I clicked on Choose. So my entire library was now added back into iTunes and will now play back. However everytrack was now duplicated. One track that would play and one track that wouln't .
I then went to this website http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/scripts01.php
and downloaded, installed and ran Super Remove Dead Track
v 2.0. My library originally contained 7700 songs. So duplicated it was over 14,000. It took approx. a couple of hours for the script to delete the dead duplicates
and my library was back to normal.

Error: [songname] was not copied to iPod because the song can not be found

I know that from my searches, this topic has been touched on but I am unable to locate a solution. So my apologies in advanced if asked and answered.
When updating, iTunes tells me that some songs cannot be copied because they cannot be found. However, the songs are clearly in the iTunes folder. I also have a backup copy of my entire library and adding them back from that library does not work either.
Here is what I have discovered about these files: some are songs that were in an album by themself and then the rest of the album was added later. Some of the songs are in the format of .mp3 and some are in the format of .m4a. None of the affected songs are purchased from iTunes; none of my purchased music is problematic.
This problem seems to be growing. At first it was just one song, then it grew to 48 and then to 59. The songs play just fine in iTunes, but cannot be copied to the iPod. I checked the properties of the songs, and none of them are read-only. There should not be a problem with permissions on this computer as I am the administrator and gave myself full priveleges on installation.
Clearly there is something wrong with these songs that prevents their being copied. Does anyone have any idea what is going on?
At the risk of getting flamed, please don't respond just to gripe about Apple, etc. I am looking for solutions, not commiseration.
Thanks in advance!

Replying to my own post since I don't see how to edit.
I have some more information that may help if someone can determine the significance.
I EXPORTED one of the playlists that contains 2 of the above described problem songs. I converted the text file to a table and then noted that in the last column (column 27) that there is a PATH to the song. All other songs do not have this in the path. The path does not refer to the current location of the file, either.
The first song that this happened to does not appear on any playlists so I did not discover this.
The rest of the songs got "lost" after I added some old playlists back to my Library that I had exported. In one particular playlist two of the songs had the wrong path in the Location column, and neither was found. However, the rest of the songs had a blank field in that column and were found just fine. So.... I think I may be onto something, for all those who have this problem. However, the only way to actually do this without a supercomputer would be to make a playlist of all the not-copy-able songs, export the playlist and carefully look for that path data.
I would love to hear if anyone has tried this for this problem. I don't want to keep replying to my own posts, but I honestly think I cracked this "bug". The problem appears to be that the data in the database gets errors in it during the moving/addition of a song from another place on the system, regardless of the settings in iTunes. In my case, I consolidated my library, allowed iTunes to organize my music and I am a fanatic about spelling and so forth for song titles and related information.
--CRN

Error message: Song can not be found.

I went to play a song I originally purchased on iTunes years ago and have played many times, then got this error message:
"The song "White Room" could not be used because the original file could not be found."
What do I do now? Can I re-download the file from the music store? If so, how? Thanks.

Hello Auroria,
After reviewing your post, it sounds like you want to download a past purchase. I would recommend that you read this article, it may be able to help the issue.
Download past purchases - Apple Support
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Have a nice day,
Mario

I am trying to transfer songs from my ipod to my iphone but it says the songs can not be found on the ipod but I can play them on the ipod.

The iTunes library says I do not own them and they can not be found on my iPod. But I can still see and play the songs on the ipod. But when I try to sync them they do not appear.

It is not possible to sync music directly between an iPod and an iPhone. The music must be in an iTunes library and that must be used to sync the music to each device.

I Tunes "Song could not be used because file could not be found" HELP!!

I just updated my I Tunes software (54+ Mbyte download), and now I get an Exclamation point on all of the songs in about one half of all the albums copied to my I Tunes library. When an album is affected, all of the songs in the album will not play. The music is still in my I Pod 1.0.3 PC. Short of deleting all of the affected albums, over 250, and copying them again, how do I correct this?
I'm running Windows Vista Home Premium, The I Tunes software version is 7.5.0.20
Eric

How did you do this move? Unless you know what you are doing you have to move the whole, complete iTunes folder.
iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Open iTunes and immediately hold down the Option (alt) key (shift on Windows), then guide it to the new location of the library.
Windows users see tip at: https://discussions.apple.com/message/18879381

Receiving error message "The song "example" cannot be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?". I have not changed any file names ...

Ive searched this error message and tried to remedy, with no luck.

Yes, with no luck ... But I'm not exactly a computer tech. I searched with spotlight with no results.

Song can't be used because original file couldn't be found...

I have already uninstalled and reinstalled the latest version of iTunes. Every song in the library is proceeded with an exclamation point. So I right click on a song, choose Get Info, and above message appears. There's no path listed for the original file. I've checked the preferences in iTunes & the path appears to be correct. How do I correct this? Nothing is updating to my Ipod correctly either.
HP Windows XP

Here's what I did. Went to the iTunes preferences. Selected Advanced. Then made sure the iTunes music folder was correct. Unchecked copy files to iTunes folder when adding songs to library. Clicked OK. Clicked on the file menu scrolled down to select add to library. I then went to where on my hard drive my iTunes mp3s are kept. I selected the first groups folder (AH-a) and shift clicked and scrolled down to my last groups folder (ZZTOP) So all groups were selected. Then I clicked on Choose. So my entire library was now added back into iTunes and will now play back. However everytrack was now duplicated. One track that would play and one track that wouln't .
I then went to this website http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/scripts01.php
and downloaded, installed and ran Super Remove Dead Track
v 2.0. My library originally contained 7700 songs. So duplicated it was over 14,000. It took approx. a couple of hours for the script to delete the dead duplicates
and my library was back to normal.

I purchased songs thru itunes and used a file sharing system to get other songs. when i went to sync it came up with error -69. just for the stuff i purchased yesterday and the free doownloads. whats the issue?

purchased songs thru itunes yesterday and also thru a free file sharing place. i added the songs to itunes yesterday & today i went to sync up and all the songs from yesterday have a error -69. what is the deal?

Usually a 69 indicates damage to a file ... but it's a bit suspicious that everything acquired in a short time frame is showing a -69. That has me wondering about disk damage.
Perhaps try running a disk check (chkdsk) over your C drive (or whichever drive you've got the 69-throwing content on).
XP instructions in the following document: How to perform disk error checking in Windows XP
Select both Automatically fix file system errors and Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors, or use chkdsk /r (depending on which way you decide to go about doing this). You'll almost certainly have to schedule the chkdsk to run on startup (especially if it's running on the C:\ drive). The scan should take quite a while (especially on the C:\ drive) ... if it quits after a few minutes or seconds, something's interfering with the scan.
Does the chkdsk find/repair any damage? If so, do the items still give you a -69 when syncing?

Using .jar files

I was able to use .jar files in Java programs that I write on my computer. I could write a program that used an import statement to bring in classes contained in a .jar file.
One day, I was trying to incorporate a jar file folder directly into my windows operating system by using the environmental variable called CLASSPATH. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of screwing up my PATH variable. I fixed my PATH variable back up by adding the directory to the bin folder inside of the Java folder as is described commonly by the documentation for installing the Java SE on windows computer.
Since that day, I have not been able to use .jar files using an import statement. My computer is unable to find the .jar files even if I specify the exact directory. Even the IDE(netbeans) that I use is unable to find and use .jar files. I have found that I can open up .jar files and pull the contents that I need out of said .jar files, but I have a project that does not allow me to open up the .jar files and extract the needed classes.
I have googled this problem so much that I have read hundreds of posts about .jar files, and I cant find anyone in a situation that is similar to mine. If I take my files to another computer with Java SE installed, then my source code can access the .jar files just fine. For some reason, my work computer seems to hate using .jar files. I have no idea what could be the problem. There is no information in the java documentation on troubleshooting with this problem, and the most confusing part is that it worked perfectly fine until That one day
Does anyone have any ideas?
Specific technical details:
I need to pull the Stopwatch.class file from a stdlib.jar file. In the past I had done this by using an import statement inside of my program:
"import stdlib.Stopwatch; "
Using this command to compile:
"javac -cp .;(directory path to .jar file); source.java"
This used to work. Now when using the javac command I get error messages
1. Error points directly to import statement. Arrow directed at the period after stdlib.
"cannot find symbol"
2. Error message pointing to all instances of the class that I was attempting to import into my program.
Thanks for reading
Edited by: 955611 on Aug 28, 2012 7:22 PM

I read your post. I want to compile this project by using the "-classpath" option in the javac command. After screwing up important system variables once, I do not want to continually have to play with system variable in order to compile projects. To quote from the website that you linked:
Using the JDK tools' -classpath option
The JDK tools java, jdb, javac, and javah have a -classpath option which replaces the path or paths specified by the CLASSPATH environment variable while the tool runs. This is the recommended option for changing class path settings, because each application can have the class path it needs without interfering with any other application.
The runtime tool java has a -cp option, as well. This option is an abbreviation for -classpath.
For very special cases, both java and javac have options that let you change the path they use to find their own class libraries. The vast majority of users will never to need to use those options, however.
Clearly, the "-classpath" option in the javac is intended to replace the need to play with important system variables. I guess my post boils down to the question of "Why doesn't this command work for me?". I followed your suggestion by removing the bin directories and adding the stdlib.jar directory directly into the system variable itself. Here is the following output from my command prompt:
Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.
C:\Documents and Settings\Lelo>E:
E:\>cd Programs\Java
E:\Programs\Java>javac testy.java
testy.java:1: error: package stdlib does not exist
import stdlib.Stopwatch;
^
1 error
E:\Programs\Java>echo %CLASSPATH%
C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\lib\ext\QTJava.zip;E:\Programs\Java\stdlib.jar;
E:\Programs\Java>javac -classpath .;E:\Programs\Java\stdlib.jar; testy.java
testy.java:1: error: package stdlib does not exist
import stdlib.Stopwatch;
^
1 error
E:\Programs\Java>
I still received the same errors. It seems that even adding the directories into the system variable will not work for me.

On some of my 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?" Then when I click "Locate", I get nothing.

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

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.

Library Lost - Please HeIp I tried updating my old ipod & now all 10,000 songs in my library have an ! next to them and I get the error message "song " " could not be used because the original file could not be found" on every song I try to play

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

Song could not be used because file could not be found

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for