Songs in my itunes don't play anymore. It says it can't locate original files. HELP please.
The songs in my itunes no longer play. I have never had this problem before. I was trying to update playlists, etc. and the songs were not transferring to my Iphone. The error message for every song is that the original file cannot be located. It asks if you want to locate file. I press yes, but it says that it is not available. Does anyone know how to either locate the files or reinstall the music.
iTunes forum has the answers.
Similar Messages
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ITunes: Missing Music Files & After Adding Songs It Says It Can't Find Original File
Hi Everyone
I use iTunes to manage my music and after the upgrade just yesterday (11.0.2 (26)), my iTunes library now shows exclamations next to tracks that it can't find anymore.
The tracks are on my external drive where I have always had them, and when I try to add a song back into the library and try to play it, it says it can't locate the original file and asks if I want to try and locate it.When I go back to locate it on my external drive, it does not show up anymore on my external drive. But when I eject my external drive and plug it back in, the folder track is there again on my external drive!!!!
Does anyone else have the same issue here please?After weeks of working out what the problem was I finally found out. In my case I had recently purchased Paragon NTFS for Mac so that I could write to an NTFS formatted external hard drive. This was where the issue was when iTunes tried to write to the external drive where I keep my iTunes library and iTunes media folders. Every time I tried to download a song from iTunes, it could not write to my external drive and said that the file or folder was in use. The Paragon NTFS for Mac software 'driver' was causing this to happen and as soon as I turned the driver off on the Paragon software admin tool, my problem was solved! Seemed like the driver was locking out iTunes when trying to write. So if anyone else has this issue, turn off the driver when using iTunes. If you are not running Paragon, then perhaps you have a similar conflict with another application.
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Open song in library...Can't locate original file????
Open song in library........... Won't play pop-up say 'Cant locate original file'??
Also it keeps promping for 'Permission' to play this file.
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I had my iTunes library on my old Dell Inspiron, transferred all info to my new HP Pavilion PC, downloaded iTunes and my library is there, but when I try to play songs, it says can't play because can't locate the original files...how can I activate the songs to play? The iTunes library is also in my Windows media file, and the songs will play in there, but I set iTunes as my default music manager and want the songs activated in my iTunes library so I can play them and sync my iPod. Help? Thanks.
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 .
See also Getting iTunes & Windows Media Player to play nicely
tt2 -
Itunes can't locate original files for songs on my external harddrive
I recently added my music collection to a new computer from my external harddrive. At first everything worked great, now when i open itunes and try to play songs that are located on the harddrive the following error message pops up "The Song "xxxx" could not be used because the original file could not be located. Would you like to locate it?" I am able to locate the files one at a time, but i have over 12000 songs. I am wondering if there is a way to make itunes recognize that all of the songs it is looking for are located on the external harddrive. Any/all help is appreciated.
1)if you have an ipod than you are in luck. plug it in.
2)go to my computer and select your ipod.
3)click on search and DO NOT TYPE ANYTHING IN OR CLICK ON ANY THING.
4)you will be on the first page with the little charactor in the bottom left hand side of the page.
5)just click "OK" NOTHING ELSE!!!!!!!!
6)then click on search
7)when it is done searching, select all your music and PUT IT IN A FOLDER. any folder will be fine.
8)select all of the music in the new folder and drag and drop it in to itunes.
9)that is it but if you have any questons email me at [email protected] -
ITunes Can't Locate Original File - 7.7 error?
hoping someone out there can help me....
basically, I have 2 external hard drives. the first one is a 160GB hard drive, the second one is a 250GB hard drive. initially I had all of my music on the 160GB, but when it got too full I copied everything over on the 250GB drive, so I could add more music to it. everything's been working fine for 2 years on the 250GB drive until this weekend when all of the sudden, iTunes is now looking for the music on the old drive again, saying that it can't find the original file. the songs are all on the new drive, but for some reason it will only look for them on the old one. So - if I have BOTH drives on, everything works fine. If I turn the old drive off, iTunes can't locate 3/4 of my music. it's frustrating because all of the old stuff is on the new drive but iTunes won't see it. I've even tried copying some of the stuff from the old drive onto the new drive and itunes still seems to be looking for it the old drive even when I change the pathway to the new drive in the general preferences.
the only thing I can think of is:
1) buy a new larger drive and cut and paste everything onto it. not sure that that would fix it.
2) reinstall itunes, but I'm afraid of losing my settings and all of the movies,
apps, games I've bought etc.
anyone have any advice? is it a library file issue?Yeah,
I've upgraded to 7.7 and have a large library of tracks on an external drive. I added them manually to the library - rather tedious, it took me about 3 days!
I was careful to choose the iTunes folder in the correct location and I chose to uncheck the "keep iTunes organised" box as it messes up where things are kept. I'm now starting to get ! against about 25% of the library. I really don't want to manually re-direct it to about 5,000 tracks. Is there any way this can be done en masse or is this a 7.7 bug?
This is a real pain. Can anyone help?
curly -
There are some apps that are in the darker shade of gray, where it says "free" or ".99" etc and I can download them. I purchased this iPad used, it works fine, and I do not recall having any issues with being able to access apps before I upgraded to the new ioS6, although I only used it for a day or so before updating the o.s. so perhaps I didn't have time to have noticed this problem with the old o.s.. In looking at other q/a's about this topic I noticed people saying to make sure there is not an app stuck downloading, I checked and that's not an issue, I also tried signing out of my account and turning the iPad off then back on....that did not solve my issue.
You need to contact iTunes Customer Support.
I had the exact same problem and they gave me a full refund so I could download the movies again.
The cause is at Apple's end and you can't fix it from yours. -
Itunes can not find original file so wont let me play?
I recently got a new computer and not all of my songs on my hard drive were moved over. When I am in itunes it wont let me play some songs and says it can not locate original file. I can play and download them fine on my ipad. But I want it on my desktop. Help????
From what you said clearly the original file is still on the old computer. You need to move things from there properly or if it is too late to do that then hopefully you can download it again.
Downloading (using iOS or computer) past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2519 - enabled with iTunes 10.3 and newer; not all media formats are available in all countries (see: iTunes in the Cloud, iTunes Match, and iTunes Radio availability by country - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5085); apps, books (not audiobooks), music, t.v. shows, and movies (some - not all studios have permitted this). Downloading previously purchased movies and TV shows requires iTunes 10.6 or later. Discontinued items not available. For items not included in the iCloud list (e.g., ringtones, audiobooks, alert tones), or locations or computer systems where iCloud is not (yet?) available, you only get one download per fee paid. Apple recommends, "... back up your iTunes library. " (http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2519). -
How can I download a previously downloaded purchase to my iTunes library on my laptop when the listing for the song in my library won't play because it says it cannot locate the file. Yes I have searched my iTunes folders and also done a full windows search. The track plays on my iPad and my iPhones but will not play on my laptop!?
It has an "!" To the left of the song title in my library
My worry is that if I sync my iPad/iPhone then I will lose the track on those also!If you cannot find the file on your hard drive then once you delete the current broken entry you should be able to redownload from iTunes in the Cloud. This assumes the item in question qualifies. Note that audiobooks, digital booklets, iTunes LPs & Extras, ringtones, selected movies etc. don't.
If prompted don't hide the item. You may find that you need to close and then reopen iTunes before it will appear for download.
tt2 -
Itunes is unable to locate original file when attempting to play music. Songs are in the itunes media file and playable direct from there. Preferences/Advanced file location pointer is correct. Some songs play but most don't. I did move files around a bit in an attempt to share music with another account on same computor, however this did not work so have returned file to original location. Please help, I am way outside my feild in this one. Ta.
I have solved the problem. i think when I moved the media file back out of public to my account, I put it back into the wrong place and ended up with a media file inside a media file, inside another media file!! So I moved it again and fixed!! Now I just need to work out why i can't share with another account user of same computor.
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we've downloaded & kept eighteen apps - the last today ... now I find some of the earlier ones, which used to work fine, don't play anymore - ie: tap them, the screen goes blank (dark or mostly white) for a second or two, then it's the home screen again ... we paid good money for some of them, too ... grrh !
Examples of the ones that don't play now are two expensive Ultralingua dictionaries (English & German-English) & Digital Clock ...
anyone know a cure, please - I daren't update the wife's iPhone if this is going to happen to hers, too ! ?
edit by CJHthanks, I'll give it ago ... deleting them is easy, tapping the x of each app on the iPhone home screen, reinstalling them is less obvious - by disconnecting & reconnecting / sync'ing again, I've managed to re-install one app, but not the rest, yet ... I'll keep trying, various things !
PS: OK - I worked out how to do it (tap the crosses on the iPhone home screens to delete, then tick the appropriate boxes in the iTunes / iPhone / Applications listing to re-install) - not all that obvious / intuitive, until one's done it !
PPS: it worked !!
Message was edited by: Christopher John Hunter
Message was edited by: Christopher John Hunter -
I mainly just use my iTunes for organizing and adding new songs. Most of the time I listen to my music on my iPhone. I wish it would keep track of how many times I play a song in my music and transfer it to the computer under the 'number of times played' column. It would help out so much! Does anyone know if there is a way for the number of time a song has been played on your iPhone/iPod be transferred to the songs on your iTunes number of plays?
Hi @imobl,
You sound like an Apple support guy who hasn't been able to answer my questions.
To respond to some of the points you made,
- I did not ignore Ocean20's suggestion. If you has read my post, you would have known that I took my phone to the apple service centre where they tried this restore on THEIR machines. I am assuming that Apple guys know how not to block iTunes. So I actually do not understand your point about me trying the hosts file changes on my machine. Do you not believe that apple tested this issue with the correct settings?
- you also give a flawed logic of why the issue is a hardware issue. You mentioned that If I thought that the issue was with the software, i should try a restore and getting it to work. The problem is that my error (23), and many others comes up when the restore fails. And you would be astonished to know that not all errors are hardware errors. Sometimes even software errors prevent restores. Funnily enough Apple itself mention that 'in rare cases, error 23 could be hardware related'.
- all Apple has done so far is replicate the issue. I don not know how anyone can conclude that the issue is a hardware issue.
And by the way, I am not certain that this is a software bug. Again if you read my Posts, you will notice I only want a confirmation,/proof that the issue is hardware related as they mention..
Please refrain do. Responding if there is nothing to add. -
When I try to play some of the songs in my itunes library, I get a prompt saying the file cannot be used. When I hit the locate button, the file cannot be found. I didn't delete any songs/files and there is no common link between the missing songs.
Hello there, Paso Kid.
The following Knowledge Base articles provide some assistance with locating content in your iTunes Library:
iTunes: Finding lost media and downloads
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1408
and
Where are my iTunes files located?
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1391
If you have already reviewed those steps and still cannot find the songs you purchased from iTunes, delete the songs and download them again using the information in this article:
iTunes 11 for Windows: Download previous purchases from the iTunes Store
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12491
Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Pedro. -
Hi..can anyone help? Songs on my itunes are not playing to the end? They cut off part way through a song. Its not on all the songs but lots of them? thanks
A couple of months ago, I went to the Apple Store to try and sort this problem out. I was told that I was not playing my songs out of an actual music library. I created a library and loaded all of my songs, movies, etc. onto it. I had found that when I synced my songs from the new library onto my itouch, the songs no longer stopped in odd spots or bled into each other. To ensure that most of my songs had been fixed, I played the ones that were the most problematic. Fortunately, the songs play all the way through without any interruption. So far, I have not encountered the same problems that I had posted in my question. I apologize for not knowing the fellow's name who helped me with my iTouch at the Apple Store, but I would like to say how thankful and happy I am now that my iTouch no longer skips to the next song.
I know that other people have had this same issue with their iPods. If you encounter your music not playing correctly, I would suggest that making a new library and loading all of your music into the new one may help correct the problem. I hope that this helps. -
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
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