Song files missing?

I purchased my first iMac a week ago. I just finished transferring my music library from my old windows computer to my iMac using my iPod as per the instructions in iTunes, about 13,000 songs worth.
iTunes opens up just fine but usually within the hour it'll tell me that the file for the song I want to play is missing and if I would like to try to locate it. If I try to locate it it will usually find it. However, it will then put an exclamation point next to about 2,000 songs and tell me that all these songs are now missing files. I've tried everything to get rid of the songs without files but each time I open up iTunes different songs have the exclamation points next to them.
I am at my wits end because I never had trouble with iTunes on my windows computers. I can't even get my request in for technical support. The screen just tells me that they can't process my request at this time. Help!

try if running this script helps:
_*iTunes Track CPR v1.3*_
This script attempts to locate the files of so-called "dead tracks"--iTunes tracks designated with (!)--that you assume are not actually missing but are still located in the iTunes Music folder in their "iTunes File Order" (Music -> Artist -> Album -> file.xxx)."
JGG

Similar Messages

1 song file missing from my library. Sync & recovery questions.

I found 1 song missing from my iTunes library. File recovery software doesn't find it. It's still on the iPod.
If I do a sync, will I loose it from the iPod too? It's still present in my iTunes song list, but shows up as not found.
After I've done a sync IIRC I can put the iPod into hard-drive mode. Will that let me copy the song to my PC?
Since it's only for a $.99 song, I'd gladly use a free 3rd party application, but only want to buy software for this sort of thing if I have a bigger need.

I've never had the need to do it myself but, from what I've heard, the aggravation is worth more than 99 cents. However,
*Courtesy of PT...*
Copying from iPod to Computer threads...
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5044027&#5044027
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=893334&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=797432&#797432
Also these useful internet articles...
http://www.engadget.com/2004/11/02/how-to-get-music-off-your-ipod/
http://playlistmag.com/secrets/2006/12/twowaystreet20/index.php
http://playlistmag.com/help/2005/01/2waystreet/

Song files missing in 7.0 and blank ipod

I updayed my itunes to 7.0, and after it 'updated' my ipod i can no longer access mot of the songs in my library, which have an '!' next to them and the computer says it cannot find the file for the song, and my ipod no longer has any music on it what so ever. also, itunes freezes everytime i turn it on with the ipod attatched. help!?

Srikanth,
Did you apply all pre-req. patches before applying 12.0.6 RUP patch?
What is the status of this patch? Does it fail or run or those are just warning messages?
Note: 743368.1 - Oracle E-Business Suite Release Update Pack Readme, Release 12.0.6
https://metalink2.oracle.com/metalink/plsql/ml2_documents.showDocument?p_database_id=NOT&p_id=743368.1
I would suggest you run adadmin, and check for missing files before you proceed with the patch installation.

I had to restore my computer. After reinstalling itunes and sincronizing with my ipod, the music files were not organized in itunes as in the ipod: some songs were missing, some albums has no cover? Why is the sincronization not working properly?

I had to restore my computer. After reinstalling itunes and sincronizing with my ipod, the music files were not organized in itunes as in the ipod: some songs were missing, some albums has no cover? Why is the sincronization not working properly?

See Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
tt2

Missing Song Files

Like many I'm experiencing the problem of 'The song xxx could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?'( aka the exclamation mark problem ). Does anyone know whether this problem only existed after the 7.7.1 update? And does it make any difference which method you use to add songs to the library, ie by dragging, by using the Add Library command or by ripping from CD? The problem I've recently had is when dragging files to add them so I'm now trying the Add Library route.
Any suggestions/comments?
Most importantly, what are Apple doing to recognise this problem and fixing it!

I have posted a message on this same topic elsewhere under this heading that is unresolved at present. The posts to this thread are interesting and may help me solve my problem.
A significant number of my iTunes files on the Mac side of my MBP are missing, and when I attempt to play them an exclamation point appears to the left of the song. When I purchased my iPhone this summer I first synced it with the Mac side but then switched to the Windows side of my MBP before switching back to the Mac side. I did not transfer any of my iTunes files to the Windows side, and I think that Windows iTunes found my music files on the Mac side cross platform. In the process my song files went missing on the Mac side, but every one of those songs that I have checked on the Windows side are there and working.
I would uninstall Windows iTunes except I need it to sync MS Outlook with mobileme. I am thinking about erasing all of the songs from Windows iTunes to see if this fixes the problem. What do you think?

Song Files are missing?

i downloaded the version of i tunes 7.5 and now when i try and play my songs they have a little exclamation point next to them and it says something like; "could not locate this file would u like to locate it?" i click yes and it takes me to My Music folder. When I click on the folder that holds the folders with my songs that i bought in them nothing appears. I bought a new song on i-tunes as a test and it plays fine. Did something go wrong in the download? I tried dowloading it again and nothing changed. I am afraid to completely unistall I-Tunes because it might get rid of all my songs, i don't know what will happern when i plug in my i-pod nano (newest edition). I am afraid it will sync and delete all my songs on it.
HELP!

SOunds like your iTunes Library.itl file got corrupted. iTunes doesn't know where the actual song files are, any more.
Article: How to re-create your iTunes library
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93313

Music files missing? Seems like iTunes bug...

I recently noticed that many of my music files are missing, and that the selection appears to be somewhat random. They are retained in iTunes, but have the ! next to them. So, doing the logical thing, I tried to locate them, and the files themselves are missing, but their iTunes link is preserved.
In an effort to continue to do the logical thing, I then systematically went through my CD library, re-loading all the missing material back into iTunes. This was extremely tedious, but appeared to fix most of the issues (obviously, the ones were the CD case was mysteriously empty were left unfixed). The files played fine at that time. Then I carried the computer upstairs to my home office, where I proceeded to plug it in to do a time machine backup on the newly transferred files.
Now here's where it gets really strange... The time machine backup went swimmingly without hitches, to a relatively new USB 3.0 drive. I then set about organizing the music, so that it would all be in the iTunes music folder (User(me)/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/ directory, the one automatically made by iTunes on installation). Many of the songs linked perfectly, and I didn't have to re-link the songs to their new location, as one might expect. So, I then thought I would sit down to enjoy this new library that I had spent a day bringing up to speed and organizing again. And, low and behold, songs are missing--again. Not just the ones that I couldn't replace, but some of the newly replaced ones. For example, Track 12 of an album might be missing, but the files for Tracks 1-11 and 13+ are all present.
As other people who have experienced this problem previously have noted, there does seem to be a slight preference for songs whose artist and/or title include accented characters, although my detection ability is more limited now, as I have since lost many of these original CDs, and so the songs were not replaced within the library. But, while they account for about 5-10% of my overall library, they accounted for about 50% of the songs missing at the beginning of yesterday's overhaul.
And what makes matters really strange is that when I tried to look up the missing files--which I know myself to have imported yesterday--in the fresh time machine backup I made right after importing all that music, they are all missing.
So, it appears that iTunes is systematically deleting files at random. While I'm tempted to try to put the missing ones back on (fewer are "re-missing" than I was able to replace, so it's a little better), this doesn't exactly seem fruitful, given the fresh deletions.
The original music files were encoded a long time ago, and have been copied and re-copied (and recopied... ad infinitium). It appears that everything that I encoded on the really old system (before iTunes really became popular for this sort of thing) were preserved; however, the issue seems to temporally localize around the time I started using iTunes for most of my music encoding needs (except, of course, for the little issue about files that were imported less than 24 hours ago).
A few other notes:
- I did not delete these files accidentally. I'm more careful than that.
- The files are not there (they're not just hidden--I already checked for this).
- iTunes has retained the link to where it believes the file should be.
- The issue appears to have originally arisen quite some time ago, as these files are systemically missing from all backups made by time machine. However, it wasn't all that long ago that I deleted my entire library and started over (about 2 years, so the files should have been natively present on 2 of my macs) by re-importing all the files in my music folder. This newly created library has since become the "master" library that is propigated to all my other computers (although I don't trust iCloud for obvious reasons, given this fiasco--Thanks, Apple...)
- I have not elected to have iTunes manage my music folder, or automatically copy things to the iTunes music folder when importing (although this is the default destination, so they are imported there, but not duplicated there when imported from elsewhere on the hard drive).
- I am currently running OS X 10.6.8 on an Intel Mac (yeah, yeah, I'd upgrade the OS, but software that cost more than the computer isn't 10.8--or even 10.7--compatible).
If anyone has any thoughts on how to prevent this issue in the future, I'd really appreciate it. I think the music files themselves are just... gone. But, I would like to be able to have them stick around for a bit when I get around to dedicating another day to trying to import them from their CD.
Does anyone know a piece of third party software that allows you to sync and update iDevices? Hopefully one that doesn't take over my music library and decide to delete things of its own accord?

I was lucky to be able to use a PC, that after trying numerous times actually read the external hdd, I quickly copied all files over to a backup hdd and recovered all files. After that I ended up in contact with Western Digital about the incident and they recommended to completely erase (7-pass erase) of the hdd, which ended up taking over 5 days to do. They gave me no reason as to "Why" it would have happened but if I erase and reformatted of the hdd and the problem reoccurred they recommended to get the unit replaced.
I was lucky to recover all my files.....keep trying on different computers if you can, and copy what you can get hold of. The 7-pass erase will delete pretty much every trace of information on the hdd with no chance of recovery.
So far since the incident its been running ok but I not longer trust the hdd to be stable. Not a simple nor quick process / solution I'm afraid.
Good luck!
Once you have recovered your files (or as many as you can get hold of) and ready to erase the hdd:
(THIS WILL ERASE ALL YOUR DATA, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A BACKUP BEFORE PROCEEDING)
Connect the drive directly to the Mac, open Disk Utility.
Select the drive and click on the "Erase" tab Select the "7-times zeros" to completely erase the drive.
Once the erase have completed format the drive to your selection.

I update my IPhone4 to IOS6 from IOS4.3.3. My all songs are missing in the Iphone4. How to get those songs into my Iphone from ITunes. Even after sync also not coming to IPhone.

I update my IPhone4 to IOS6 from IOS4.3.3. My all songs are missing in the Iphone4. How to get those songs into my Iphone from ITunes. Even after sync also not coming to IPhone.

The iphone is not storage/backup device.
The sync is one way - computer to iphone.
The only exception is itunes purchases. File>Devices>Transfer Purchases
You should copy everything from your old computer, or your backup copy of your old computer, to your new one.

ITunes thinks songs are missing when they are NOT...

I've written about this in the past and I thought I had fixed it manually. For some reason a large number of my songs (about 1300) in iTunes are not able to be found on the drive when I try to play them. Once I try to play them I get an error message saying "The song "song name" could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it" and then the "!" symbol shows up next to the song. The songs files ARE there though.
In the past I thought I solved this problem because I "re-added" using all the songs in my library (about 4500) "File->Add To Library". If the song was one of these "missing" songs it was re-added to the library. The songs that were not "missing" were not re-added. (and again, the song files iTunes is re-adding are the exact song files it is saying aren't there in the first place) After the "re-add" I essentially had two of all the missing songs. One with the "!" and one without it. The newly added songs did not have any of the stats the original song had. So I used a script I was told about that goes through and syncs the song's statistics. Then after the song stats were synced I removed the "!" song from the library. I had to do this one song at a time. Of course, this took a VERY long time and I don't really want to go through it again... especially now that I know it may not be a permanent fix anyway!
However here is something new I noticed now that I have Leopard: The files that are showing up as missing are also the ones that don't have a "thumbnail" icon of the album cover in the finder. Also, if I go into coverflow view in the finder those files don't have the album as the other files do. However, there should be no differences between the files. For example, one album where each song was ripped at the same time in the same way will have some songs that have the cover icon and some that don't.
As I reported last time, this is not specific to one machine and has noting to do with the drive the songs are on. This also was happening on both 10.5.1. and 10.4.11 and lower.
So, why is this happening and how can it be fixed. I'm not going to re-import the songs because then I loose all my stats, ratings, etc and have to re-do the long method of fixin the stats.. There needs to be some way to permanently fix this problem. Is it with the song files or the library? Is there some sort of validation script that can be run?
Oh, on a side note... pre-leopard the "!" would show all the time. Now, if I close iTunes and re-open the "!" are gone until I try to play the song that should have the "!". This makes things even more challenging because I can't quit iTunes if I want to know which songs are "missing".
Jeff

I have this same issue. I use an external HD connected to an Airport Extreme Base station to store my music. On Tiger 10.4.11 iTunes created a music database just fine and found every mp3. I just installed Leopard last night and left iTunes to create its database overnight. It found every song, but there are plenty with the exclamation just as you described. If I want to play these songs I must hit "Yes" to locate the song manually. I can then play any other song with an exclamation point in that particular album, but if I go to try to play another song with an exclamation point from another album I must repeat the process again.
It's definitely a problem with Leopard as I just got my mac back from the Apple store with a replaced hard drive. I created the iTunes database in Tiger on one day, then the next decided to purchase and install Leopard. So one day passed between each instance of building the database and it worked fine on a clean install of Tiger but not on a clean install of Leopard.

Music files missing/hidden in folder on network hdd

Hi all,
I have setup my home net work with a iMac (mountain Lion) backed up by a TimeCapsule and at the back of the TimeCapsule I have a 2TB networked external HDD. My iTunes library is located on this HDD, I take care not to start up iTunes before this networked external HDD has propoerly mounted to avoid any conflicts with links to my itunes library files and folders.
The other day I noticed a few missing files (the dreaded exclamation mark !), not too bad a figured, I located a few manually but reached some that does my head in...... Out of the whole album there are two files "missing", the other ones play as they should. When I try and locate the missing files the folder comes up empty.....
I have even checked the songs that do play in the same album....they dont show up either, even though they still play in iTunes (yes, they are all located at the same location). The album was originally ripped from a CD and I don't use iTunes Match or Genius.
I have tried to find the files by:
1."open in finder" - files missing / whole folder empty
2."through finder and located the drive and folder" - files missing / folder empty
3."copy file location from "get info" and paste into "go to folder" - the file temporarily appears in the finder window but dissapears shortly after / folder yet again empty.
4. I check the folder "get info" from my finder and it says "zero bytes"
5. I can't use Search because its on an external HDD and there fore not indexed
6.I have tried to copy the folder to the desktop but still shows empty....
7. I have tried to "organise" my library, still no change.
What the..xxx..is happening..?
From what I can gather, the files are actually there but not visible through the finder window (even though the folder appears to be 0 bytes).
The problem being that I can't locate my missing files because I cant see them any more......
Am I missing something (like show hidden folder on a Mac) or has it got to do with anything else...? How can I fix it..? I have found posts that relate to windows users forced their W7 to show hidden folders but nothing yet on Mac.....
Help.
//Fred

I was lucky to be able to use a PC, that after trying numerous times actually read the external hdd, I quickly copied all files over to a backup hdd and recovered all files. After that I ended up in contact with Western Digital about the incident and they recommended to completely erase (7-pass erase) of the hdd, which ended up taking over 5 days to do. They gave me no reason as to "Why" it would have happened but if I erase and reformatted of the hdd and the problem reoccurred they recommended to get the unit replaced.
I was lucky to recover all my files.....keep trying on different computers if you can, and copy what you can get hold of. The 7-pass erase will delete pretty much every trace of information on the hdd with no chance of recovery.
So far since the incident its been running ok but I not longer trust the hdd to be stable. Not a simple nor quick process / solution I'm afraid.
Good luck!
Once you have recovered your files (or as many as you can get hold of) and ready to erase the hdd:
(THIS WILL ERASE ALL YOUR DATA, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A BACKUP BEFORE PROCEEDING)
Connect the drive directly to the Mac, open Disk Utility.
Select the drive and click on the "Erase" tab Select the "7-times zeros" to completely erase the drive.
Once the erase have completed format the drive to your selection.

My iTunes library is "damaged" and now thousands of songs are missing. How do I get them back without re-importing each one?

I tried to open my library and it said the library had been corrupted and saved as a damaged file. When it finally opened thousands of songs were missing. I can't re-download and then re-import each of these songs. I tried to repair the library after going into programs and clicking repair but it did not restore the missing content. I have the lastest version of iTunes. With Apple tech support being a PITA to actually get in touch with I'm hoping someone here can help.

send an email to the iTS customer service using this form and ask the folks there nicely if you can re-download the files.
it has been reported here that you can sometimes get one free redownload request granted but never more than one.
good luck !

No iTunes exclamation marks, but iTunes still says 70 songs are missing

Hi all,
I have had this problem for a while now and haven't found it addressed anywhere online (tried searching in this forum as well as other forums through Google Search for quite a while).
Here is the issue:
My music library occasionally shows exclamation marks due to me having moved some file or folder around. I am a very organized person, so I always make sure to locate all files and make all of the exclamation marks disappear. I go through my whole music library (a little over 3000 files) until I make sure there are no more exclamation marks. As I am on the last exclamation mark, and I am 100% sure I have checked all of the files and there are no other exclamation marks except for that one, iTunes still says that it wasn't able to find 70 songs in the dialog box after it has located the one with the last exclamation mark.I double-check and triple-check, but I am totally not able to locate any other exclamation marks after that final one.
What is going on here? Why does iTunes claim songs are missing when there are no exclamation marks?
Please don't suggest that I repopulate my library by deleting and then re-adding the songs to fix this issue. I am not willing to do that as it will lose my library, which is a highly customized one (not all songs on my drive are included, only the ones I want to have on my iPhone).
Looking forward to hearing any other suggestions.
Thanks guys!

Lost & Found Playlists
Create a playlist called Found, select everything in Music and drag it into the Found playlist (it may take some time to count the tracks that are to be dropped). Create a smart playlist called Lost matching All the rules Playlist is Music and Playlist is not Found. Your lost tracks will be in this playlist.
If the missing files can be tracked down are in vaguely standard artist & album folder I have a tool called FindTracks that could help repair the broken links. Alternatively if you just want to remove them then in the Lost playlist use Ctrl+A followed by Shift+Delete.
I assume you've determined that these links must be in music rather than say podcasts or audiobooks? Widen the search if required.
For the long run why not make a playlist for what goes on the iPhone and then import all of your media to the library?
tt2

How do I go about deleting mulitple song files all at one time as opposed to deleting them all individually off of the latest version of iTunes

How do I go about deleting mulitple song files all at one time as opposed to deleting them all individually off of the latest version of iTunes?
Also I have tried authorizing my computer to play the songs I purchased off of iTunes when I had an iPhone 4 and it will not allow me to play them whatsoever. I now have an iPhone 5 and wish to load these past song purchases onto my new phone. How do I solve this issue?

what you're missing to export multiple files is the batch export command available in the file menu or by control clicking on the items in the browser. You can export multiple sequences/clips at full resolution with this.
This has been available in fcp for a long long time.
Wow, you are right. Now that you mention it, I can't believe I never noticed that. Thanks.
Only if you have the 'Self-Contained' box checked. Otherwise you'll end up with a reference movie.
Correct. That box is typically checked by default. There are other default settings you could change that would not result in a full-quality version, but what I meant was hitting that option from the pull-down menu, then changing nothing and hitting ok.

Since iTunes v8.1 install I lost most of my song files

Since installing v8.1 a few days ago when I open iTunes it shows that I have 1250 songs on 7.54 GB. But, when I try to select a song, a window opens stating; THE SONG COULD NOT BE USED BECAUSE THE ORIGINAL FILE COULD NOT BE FOUND. WOULD YOU LIKE TO LOCATE IT? I click, YES. Next window opens titled; CHOOSE A FILE. My iBook disk selection is highlighted. It indicates that I have only 180 song files. Why does iTunes v8.1, when opened, show me that I have 1250 songs (which is how many there should be) but there are only 180 songs that actually exist and are randomly from various albums? Have I lost all those other songs? And, what do I now do to get back all those songs I paid for from iTunes store and from other music web sites if they are gone?

iTunes upgrades don't recycle your preferences from the previous version - you need to reset them to how you had them before (e.g. "Keep my iTunes Library organised" and 'Copy songs to my iTunes Library when importing", etc). Having done that, quit and relaunch iTunes and see if the problem is gone.
Why does iTunes v8.1, when opened, show me that I have 1250 songs (which is how many there should be) but there are only 180 songs that actually exist and are randomly from various albums?
The 1250 is taken from the iTunes Library database file (in your ~user/Music/iTunes folder) - this is all the song information and locations, not the songs themselves. iTunes 8.1 SHOULD have found these from the database file though.
Have I lost all those other songs?
No, an upgrade of iTunes has no impact on the actual music, which will be exactly where it was before.
And, what do I now do to get back all those songs I paid for from iTunes store and from other music web sites if they are gone?
I suspect that the 180 songs are in the ~user/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music folder, which is the default location, and is where Apple Store Purchased tracks always get downloaded to. The other songs will be on your HD where they were before. Try using a Spotlight search on one of the titles of the "missing" søngs. Then having found where the songs are located, use Add to Library to get them into iTunes.

ITunes Lost Link to Song Files

Hi!
iTunes has lost the link to the actual song files, as well as my purchased music. The song file is still on the HD, but iTunes thinks it's missing. I can reconnect them one by one via the: "The song could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" dialog, but I don't want to spend my weekend doing that.
My question is, is there a way to do this en masse? Re-adding the files via cmd-o isn't really possible, because there's not enough HD space.

I am having the same problem with my mac. I created playlists from my library (music all pre-formatted to mp3) and burned the disc. Later, when I wanted to play music from a particular artist on that disc, some of the music I put on the disc is not available, but could be located by hand. One heck of a lot of hassle, when you bring a random 100 songs to a playlist and later find only 75! Itunes could not find the ones with ! beside the box was the message I got when wanted to play from my library.
Have you heard anything from anyone that helped you avoid spending a weekend re-locating and transferring music?

Song files missing?

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