Songs imported into iTunes but can't play..can't find original file!

I just upgraded my desktop and had previously backed up my music library onto an external hard drive. well, on my new desktop, I installed the newest version of iTunes, then turned on my external hard drive, found my music and dragged it into library. I started playing some songs last night and all was well.
This morning, I went to listen to some songs from that same library and I am now getting the error message:
"[name of song] could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?"
Can someone tell me why this would happen, since it worked last night, and more importantly, how to find the "original files" on over 800 songs? I am hoping that when I copied my music from my old desktop, I also copied these original files that the error message seems to be referring to!
Any advice would be much appreciated, as I also did the same thing with my laptop and am unable to play music from there as well, as I am getting the same error message!

Is the external drive still plugged in?
If not, it is likely that you did not have "Copy to iTunes Music folder when adding to lirbary" check in iTunes Preferences>>Advanced tab.
If this is the case iTunes just copies pointers to the tracks, so if the drive isn't plugged, they are not available.
A simple way out of this is to pug in the drive, make sure things work, then consolidate your library. (an option in Files>>Library>>Organise...)
Consolidating copies all tracks in the library but not in the iTunes Music folder into the the iTunes Music folder.

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Album artwork imports into iTunes, but artist tags do not

Hello,
After importing my music from an external hard drive backup, I have a problem with ~5% of my music. The songs are listed in iTunes as "Unknown Artist" and "Unknown Album". However, if I find the file within my iTunes folder, all of the artist information tags are listed if I use "Get Info" --> "More Info" in the Finder. Back in iTunes, the album artwork is there, but the tags are missing. These are for .m4a, Apple MPEG-4 audio files. How can I get iTunes to recognize the tags that are obviousy still present in the file?
There are too many songs like this to relabel the, realistically.
I have tried deleting the songs from my library and re-importing them into iTunes, but this does not fix the problem. I cannot find any logic as to which songs this affects.
Any ideas?
Thank you.

This same thing happened to me, so I plugged my iphone into the computer and I unchecked all the songs so it deleted from my phone and then i rechecked sync music back to the phone and all the album artwork were there.

Cd's will import into itunes, but not songs I have in RealPlayer.

I'm sorry for starting a new thread if this has been covered, but I couldn't find anything on it. I've tried all day to import songs from RealPlayer (purchased) into my itunes library with no success. A cd will load directly into itunes and so did songs from a cd that was loaded into realplayer. Just cant transfer the ones I bought at the realplayer music store. THX

Hi Gabrielle,
Welcome to Apple Discussions
You might want to look at Knowledge Base Document #93867 on Some Songs in iTunes Won't Copy to iPod.
Jon

Songs imported into Itunes only play for a few seconds

I seem to have a problem with some of my songs in my library playing for a few seconds and then itunes jumps to the next song. I have played these songs before and they were fine. Once this happens once it always happens to a particular song. Anyone have any thoughts?
thanks

I think I might have found an answer - importing a folder and or Limewire!
Either Limewire mess's with the files, folder or your system or iTunes attempts to stop illegally downloaded files being played. iTunes might also do it if importing a lot of files in one go.
I imported a music folder that isn't mine from our home network drive that has a few tracks in it downloaded through Limewire. I re checked some of the files in Ableton Live and they are actually damaged! So I tried importing one of the Limewire tunes again individually after finding some info online (links to the pages at bottom) and the track plays no prob now. I also un-checked the "look for shared folders" in iTunes preferences.
For about 2 years now I haven't been able to import more than 3 files at a time which is why I imported a whole folder (about 50 tracks) just after the software update and C.D importing.
My concern is that importing a whole folder even without any Limewire downloads in it might well be treated this way by iTunes. Most of the tracks in our network drive folder that have been downloaded through Limewire are legit direct connect transfers from producer to producer or legit submitted tracks!
Hope this helps.
http://www.tuaw.com/2007/03/14/limewire-reportedly-unhappy-with-itunes-7-1/2#com ments
http://www.crunchgear.com/2007/03/15/limewire-will-make-a-mess-of-your-itunes/
Reqs

HT1386 When I sync my i-phone with my pc, will it pull audio from my phone to my i-tunes on my pc? My problem is I have songs on my pc that will not play - the message says "original file could not be found"... They play on my phone.

I am not sure if the synching will pull the audio from my phone and replace the 'not working' files on my i-tunes, or if it will replace the working audio on my phone with the non-functioning audio on my pc.
Thanks for any insight...

No it won't. You are getting that message because those song are no longer in your my music folder and itunes doesn't know where to look for the file.

I got a new PC and was able to get my list of tunes to show but will not play, message comes up "original file cannot be found, would like to locate" I no longer have old PC but do have shuffle with all tunes

I got a new PC and unable to get my tunes to play after I transfereed them over via a thumb drive. The message I get is, "original file cannot be found, would you like to locate" and of course it cannot locate on this PC. I no longer have that computer (gave to mother in a different state). I do have my shuffle that has all my tunes on it. I have read several things on this website from using a third party device to transfer tunes from shuffle to de-authorizing old computer and authorizing this one. No definitive instructions. Please help. I want to get these tunes to play and then buy new music. Oh and the home sharing I believe is only if you still have original computer.
Thanks

The shuffle is not a backup device.
Was the media actually moved from the old computer to the new computer? If not, how did you magically make the content appear on the new system?
Use the backup of the old computer to put all the content on the new computer.

HT4623 we no longer have the computer we used for the itunes and my computer is restricted and now iphone says long into itunes but we cant what can we do

original computer is gone and this is my work computer and I cannot use it to update my iphone what can I do and not lose everything thanks

Disabled
Place the iPod in recovery mode using one of these programs:
For PC
RecBoot: Easy Way to Put iPhone into Recovery Mode
If necessary:
Download QTMLClient.dll & iTunesMobileDevice.dll for RecBoot
and
RecBoot tip
For MAC or PC
The Firmware Umbrella - TinyUmbrella
and then connect to your computer and restore via iTunes. The iPod will be erased.
iOS: Wrong passcode results in red disabled screen
For how to restore:
iTunes: Restoring iOS software
To restore from backup see:
iOS: How to back up
If you restore from iCloud backup the apps will be automatically downloaded. If you restore from iTunes backup the apps and music have to be in the iTunes library since synced media like apps and music are not included in the backup of the iOS device that iTunes makes.
You can redownload most iTunes purchases by:
Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store

Why do many of my song I have imported into iTunes have slats by them and won't play because they can't be found?

why do many of my song I have imported into iTunes have slats by them and won't play because they can't be found?

Presuming they're on your computer, right click on them and then follow the prompts to locate hte file on your computer.

When I connected iPhone5 to MacBook, the music I bought from iTunes store transferred to iPhone, but the music I imported from CD's into iTunes did not. How can I "synch" those imported songs over to iPhone?

When in connect my iPhone5 to my MacBook, the songs I purchases from the iTunes store transferred over, but the songs I imported from CDs into iTunes did not. how can I "synch" over those imported songs into my iPhone?

You have to connect and select iPhone in iTunes under DEVICES (Left panel), select Music tab (right top), check Sync Music, and all the music you want on iPhone then tap Sync button (bottom right).

I've been importing all my old CDs into itunes but one of them which was unknown imported as single tracks. How can I combine these into one album

I've been importing all my old CDs into itunes but one of them which came up as unknown has imported as single tracks named track 1, track 2 etc. It wasn't an obscure CD (Paul Carrack - the journey so far) but not one that's available in the itunes store. I've manually changed the track names but they all appear as single tracks in the "Albums" section. Is there a way to put them all into an album to show up as an album with the other albums. Other "unknown" CDs I imported have imported with the correct track names but just don't have the album artwork so I don't understand why this one is behaving totally different?

If you select the tracks all together in iTunes/ Songs then go to File/Get info you will be asked "Are you sure you want to edit information for multiple items?" Go ahead and you can make them into an album, putting in the artist name, etc.

HT1473 It seems like many commercial music CDs won't import into iTunes (copy protection?), so you can only play them from the disc, not your other devices. Am I missing something?

More and more commercial music CDs won't seem to import into iTunes - they just spin, falter, and spit out. I would think I had a setting wrong except older CDs load with no problem. I'm guessing there's copy protection on the newer ones, which seems unfair if you want to, say, buy a CD that has bonus material not available via iTunes (and then have to buy the regular material again on iTunes). Is there a way around this? An easy fix so I can keep buying CDs when I want to? I know it's a technology that's on the way out, but it's not gone yet.

Audio CD copy protection is relatively rare. I doubt its use is on the increase as it would be just one more nail in CD's coffin. On the few occasions I've bought CDs that won't rip I've gone straight back to the store for a refund. If the drive is attempting to read at max. speed it might help to force it to read slower (if indeed you have that as an option) and it may help to switch the error correction mode.
tt2

I added some songs to my itunes but now my itunes won't play the songs - it says it can't locate the song although the Itunes match is turned on and it says all of my songs are in the cloud - anyone have any thoughts

i added some songs to my itunes but now my itunes won't play the songs - it says it can't locate the song although the Itunes match is turned on and it says all of my songs are in the cloud - anyone have any thoughts

Did you delete the hard copy of the songs from your computer after you uploaded them?
If so just highlight the said songs and delete but do not check the box that says delete from iCloud and your songs should play fine.
This happens when the original file is moved from the location that itunes was looking for it at and if you did this because you uploaded it then it will still be in the cloud you just need itunes to read from cloud and not think it's supposed to be finding the original file

I cannot import music I bought from another site into iTunes. The files are there but they won't import into Itunes. How can I fix this? Thanks!

I cannot import music I bought from another site into iTunes. The files are there but they won't import into Itunes. How can I fix this? Thanks

What format are they in?
What happens when you try?
Have you tried placing a copy in the Automatically add to iTunes folder?
tt2

After software update, I can see the songs on iPod nano in iTunes, but I cannot play/move the songs from iTunes.

After software update, I can see the songs on iPod nano in iTunes, but I cannot play/move the songs from iTunes.

Is the "software update" for iTunes 12? Or something you did to the iPod?

I imported a cd into into itunes but it won't let me transfer the songs into my iphone

I imported a cd into itunes but it won't allow to transfer them onto my iphone, what should i do?

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Songs imported into iTunes but can't play..can't find original file!

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