Songs + adapter + exclamation marks

Hi, a few days ago, I had to move alll of my songs from "My Computer" to an adapter. Well, as I expected, all of my songs had exclamation marks next to them. Today, I took 6+ hours to "restore" all of them. But when I unplugged the adapter, it all became exclamation marks again! Ugh! So then I deleted all of my songs and added them from the adapter. It worked, until I unplugged my adapter again. The problem is, I only have 2 USB plug-ins, one for my mouse, and one for anything else. Well I need to plug in my ipod connector/cord AND the adapter, but it's not possible. Help? Since I have all those exclamation marks, I officially have NO SONGS AT ALL ON MY IPOD. They do show on my iTunes, but since they're "relocated", I can't upload them.
Please help. I feel like I'm going to die, I already wasted a DAY doing this, and it's just.. VERY VERY FRUSTRATING!!!!!!!

I had to move alll of my songs from "My Computer" to an adapter.
By "adaptor" I assume you mean an external hard drive? An "adaptor" is usually defined as +"a device for connecting pieces of equipment that cannot be connected directly."+ It's not a storage device.
Anyhow, if you are storing your music on an ext hard drive you must keep it connected at all times otherwise iTunes loses track of the songs files and hence the ! next to them.
You need a USB hub that will allow you to connect several USB devices into one USB port on your computer.

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to take care of dupes:
_*How to find and remove duplicate items in your iTunes library*_
or [_*Araxis Find Duplicate Files*_|http://www.araxis.com/find-duplicate-files> (free trial)
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http://home.comcast.net/~teridon73/itunesscripts/
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http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=5696793#5696793
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Hi,
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Regards,
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Super Remove Dead Tracks v1.5
Bring Out Yer Dead v1.1
Fix Broken Tracks
iTunes Track CPR v1.3
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Remove Dead Tracks v1.1

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!http://www.geocities.com/eldermattyb/ipod.jpg!

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Is the NAS mounted when you open iTunes? If not, then of course iTunes can't find the music files.

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Hello:
Here's the problem...
When I bring up a Smart Playlist to burn to CD (R or R+W), the following happens:
1. If I uncheck a few songs, the exclamation mark shows up and won't go away.
2. When I insert the blank CD, most of the songs get hit with the exclamation mark. When I click for more info, it tells me that the song is not recognized. It also tells me to play the song, but iTunes won't let me play it.
3. When I restart iTunes, all the exclamation marks are gone, but as soon as I insert a blank CD, the above happens all over again.
4. The thing is, 99% of my music on iTunes has been downloaded from my CD collection, so there should be no issues with security.
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My iPod, which is still under warranty, and is working fine and will download from iTunes...even tracks that are saddld with the exclamation mark.
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Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)
FUJITSU LifeBook P7010
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CD Driver 2.0.4.3
CD Driver DLL 2.0.3.2
LowerFilters: PxHelp20 (2.0.0.0), drvmcdb (1.0.0.1), Pfc (2.5.0.204), sscdbhk5 (1.0.0.1),
UpperFilters: GEARAspiWDM (2.0.4.3),
Video Driver: Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller\Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller
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IDE\DiskFUJITSUMHV2080AT______________________00000096, Bus Type ATA, Bus Address [0,0]
USBSTOR\DiskMaxtor_OneTouch_II____023g, Bus Type USB
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F: MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ-822S, Rev 1.01
Media in drive is blank.
Get drive speed succeeded.
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Matthew,
The problem is that when I try play the song/tune/file that has the exclamation mark, iTunes skips right over it, sometimes adding exclamation marks to a whole bunch of songs.
The marked songs go away if I close and reopen iTunes. They also copy to my iPod, but if I try to play the files, the marks retuen.
It's weird that this happens to random files/artists. And all have been downloaded from my original music CDs.
(FYI: it doesn't seem to happen with podcasts.)

Can't access songs in iTunes. There are exclamation marks on about half of my library. When I try to play them I get: "Can't find the file" notice and iTunes asks me to locate each song. Why is this happening and how can I fix it?

I had not opened my iTunes in weeks. When I opened it today, most of the songs in my library had exclamation marks beside them and when I clicked on them got the message: "the song could not be used because the original file cannot be found", then asks me if I want to locate it. When I press "locate" tab I am led to iTunes folders and have to hunt around for the song. Some songs I can't find in the folders. Any ideas as to why this is happening and what I can do to fix it?
Help would be much appreciated.
Thanks.
PE

The problem of tracks becoming de-linked between iTunes and the music files in your iTunes music folder happens for different reasons - this seems to come up fairly commonly in this forum.
The solution can be to locate each song in the iTunes library, as you mentioned - or, but wait, before I get to that...
trouble finding the original track in your iTunes music folder? maybe look for it under compilations, or if not using the 'group compilations preference' then look in the folder under the songs artist name, but what song artist name iTunes uses depends on what you have in the metedata tag spot for album artist or song artist. Any varyation in artist name spelling, in the menu item 'get info' metadata for any selected individual track will cause iTunes to create that as a separate artist folder in the library, even names like 'various' or any difference at all (even the word 'the' can change where in your iTunes music folder a track gets placed by iTunes). You can try to use the finder function of find file (finder munu item outside of iTunes) to locate hard to find items.
Back to how to re-link any de-linked tracks .
There may be scripts that can help re-link de-linked music files - or, at least provide you a list of such files, Scripts are easy to install and use...
at Dougs Scripts, there is one called iTunes Track CPR that might work
http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=itunestrackcpr
or, if you just want a list of de-linked tracks, go to
http://dougscripts.com/itunes/
and find the script called List MIA's, this will create a text file listing all de-linked tracks
if you review the thread at
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3633708
also the thread at
https://discussions.apple.com/message/17513078#17513078
you may find more insight into dealing with this kind of issue there, although some of that thread may not apply to your case, aspects of it might help.
Good luck.

Songs + adapter + exclamation marks

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