Songs w/exclamation marks that won't play "file can't be found" Why??

I am getting inundated with more and more songs daily, with exclamation marks beside them, stating "the original file can't be located". It asks if I want to recover the file,I answer yes, but nothing seems to happen! I am a DJ and rely heavily on iTunes and will be extremely disabling for me if I can't get this figured out. Unfortunately, I am not a computer whiz, and would really appreciate all help I could get. I have weddings scheduled for this coming week end and really don't know what to do!
THANK YOU

It's lengthy, but not too complicated. When you tell it that you want to restore, make sure to show it where to look to find the file. Double click the file and move on to the next exclamation file. One after another, Takes time, but can be fixed. Another problem that continues to make iTunes difficult and lame.
Sly

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You can contact iTunes Customer Support on this issue. I had the same problem once & they were able to fix the problem for me. Contact them at [email protected] They will get back to you ASAP.

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I want to reset my privacy questions for my apple i.d. But when i request to do so it sends it to a email address that isnt on my file ?
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Original files can't be found?! Help! Lost over 100 songs (I think)

In my Itunes library, next to over 100 songs (on the left), there's an exclamation point. when you click on that, it says Original file can't be found and would I like to locate it?
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ITunes Match sometimes skips / plays songs with exclamation marks

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The problem is that iTunes thinks the external HDD is not connected so it can't find the actual song files. So the problem you need to solve is why is the external HDD not connected.

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iOS: Device not recognized in iTunes for Mac OS X
Or
See
iOS: Device not recognized in iTunes for Windows
- I would start with
Removing and Reinstalling iTunes, QuickTime, and other software components for Windows XP
or
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paying special attention to item #5
- New cable and different USB port
- Run this and see if the results help with determine the cause
iTunes for Windows: Device Sync Tests
Also see:
iPod not recognised by windows iTunes
Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates
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Songs that won't play

One song in a complete album that won't play, all others play, but this one says that it's not authorized to play on my computer and to enter password for apple id, which when done, says it is authorized to play on this computer and 2 others, but still won't play? What gives?

Hello there, c_costa.
The following Knowledge Base article provides some great steps for troubleshooting issues for repeated prompts for authorization from iTunes:
iTunes repeatedly prompts to authorize computer to play iTunes Store purchases
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1389
Alternatively, if you are sure the same Apple ID purchased the content that's not playing, you can delete the song from your Mac and then download it again from your purchases:
How to delete content you've downloaded from the iTunes Store, App Store, iBooks Store, or Mac App Store
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5772
then
Download past purchases
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2519
Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Pedro.

Recently bought a new computer and all my music appears in iTunes as well as on my computer in a saved folder. When I try to play the music in iTunes I get an error that reads"the song could not be used because the original file could not be found."

Recently bought a new computer and all my music appears in iTunes as well as on my computer in a saved folder. When I try to play the music in iTunes I get an error that reads"the song could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" Hope you can help me solve this issue.
Thanks,
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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 .
tt2

My songs won't play because the original file can't be found. Please help.

I cannot play any of the songs in my iTunes. Whenever I try to play a song an error message pops up. It reads, "The song could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" I have to search for the song on my hard drive in order for it to play. This process works but it would be very timely and tedious to go through each one of my 5300 songs to get them to play. Is there a faster way of doing this? Please help. Thanks.

The "missing file" 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 say no when asked 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. I can provide a step by step guide if you give me the two paths.
In some cases iTunes may be able to repair itself if you go through the same steps and locate the lost track. It may then offer to attempt to automatically fix other broken links. 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

Since i download the new version of i tunes i canot play the songs of my library...it say that "the song could not be used because the original file could not be found" what i do to just play the songs directly? please someone help

since i download the new version of i tunes i canot play the songs of my library....it say "the song could not be used because the original file could not be found".
would you like to locate it.i just want to play directly..what i do? please 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 .
tt2

Some of the songs I have downloaded onto i tunes won't play when I select it to do so. The error message I get is "The song could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" How can I get my songs to play?

Some of the songs I have downloaded into i tunes won't play when I select it to do so. The error message I get is "The song can not be used because the original file can not be found. Would you like to locate it?" When I select yes I'm sent to a screen that has my i tunes library listed. When I select the song in question I'm asked if I would like to open the song. When I select this option I get nothing. The songs I have downloaded must be somewhere because they are listed in my i tunes library and on the screen I've been sent to. I can't the songs to play however. This is not true of all of my songs but it is true of quite a few of them. Actually, one song is too many. How do I get my music to play that seems to be locked up somewhere in the computer?

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

Here's a fix for uploaded files that won't play.

Is this you? You've found a lot of files were uploaded, instead of matched. Some of those files might even be on albums where other tracks matched. Sure you want them ALL to match, but meantime, it would be nice if uploaded files would actually play! Sure, you can see their names, track durations, etc. but if you try to play them directly, nothing happens and if you try to play an album through, when it gets to an uploaded track, it stalls or skips past it. You've checked the file type and it's an AAC so you figure it can't be a file encoding incompatibility problem and besides, whatever the file type, Apple is red-flagging anything incompatible, tells you it's ineligible, right?
Guess Again - not all AAC files are produced with the same encoder and some of them, while they'll get past Apple's eligibile/ineligible screening process, probably shouldn't.
I routinely record vinyl using Audacity and at various times I've used different encoders (not that I knew it until now). As a result of checking which uploaded files play and which do not, I'm pretty confident of the following. While some AAC files created outside of iTunes might work, those encoded using Lavf52.36.0 will not. Neither will files encoded using Lavf52.64.2. There may be others.
So what's the fix? The same one recommended for getting files flagged by Apple as ineligible to pass muster. You need to make an AAC copy in iTunes and swap that for the uploaded files that won't play.
Here are the steps I use to get it done. You may be able to streamline the process though.
(1) Turn off wi-fi to prevent iTunes Match from attempting to match any new files until you're good and ready. If you don't to this, you may end up with files you've just created being flagged as duplicates.
(2) Select all files in an album that has some bad uploaded files. Select Advanced > Create AAC Version. (NOTE: I don't bother trying to separate uploaded from matched, just too much hassle.)
(3) Select one of the files, so you can File > Reveal In Finder. Generally this will get you to the album folder that includes both sets of tracks. The ones you just created will have a "1" in the file name.
(4) Create a folder on the desktop and move all the newly created files to it. Delete the "1" from the file names. Name the folder based on album title.
(5) In iTunes, delete the listings for the newly created files.
(6) Turn on wi-fi and wait for iCloud to reconnect. Watch the cloud icon - it'll tell you.
(7) Delete the album from iTunes (You're now getting rid of the copy that was originally uploaded, so be sure you've really got the new AAC files handy to replace them with). Note you will see an option to delete from iCloud too. Check it. You want these files GONE!
(8) Select Store > Update iTunes Match. If you do a search for the album from an iCloud enabled iOS device (I use Apple TV) after the update is completed, you shouldn't be able to find the album.
(9) Select File > Add To Library and go get the folder of tunes you created.
(10) Run Update iTunes Match again.
(11) Watch the iTunes progress bar. Once the matching process has checked to see if you've added anything to your library, you'll see fresh copies of your songs uploading.
(12) As another means of confirmation, once several of the songs have uploaded, do an iOS device search for the album. You should be able to get the album to appear before the upload is complete. You may have to back out of the search and back in to get it to work, but chances are when you first see the album, the song titles will all be grayed out. Once the update is complete, give it a minute and everything should become available to you.
(13) Pick a track that wouldn't play before and watch to see if the timer starts to move, followed by music! It is now time to do a little happy dance.
I know this is a far cry from figuring out what it takes to get songs that should match to actually do so, but that's a whole different ball of wax.

Thanks this was useful. I have been ripping my audiobooks and I was finding that they would get uploaded to iCloud in the process, which in itself was fine, but then iTunes would not let me change the media type to Audiobook, which is annoying as it effects how iTunes treats the media. Like showing you the skip back 10 seconds button.
The general outline here helped me work around the issue and change the media type before the media was re-uploaded to iCloud.
Sean

HT204406 I opened i Tunes on my mac and while i see the songs in some of my playlists they will not play. The computer says the song could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it? When i do it won't play.

I opened i Tunes on my mac and while i see the songs in some of my playlists they will not play. The computer says the song could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it? When i do it won't play.

You will need to locate where you itunes library is and then relink one of the songs, itunes will do the rest. So if your itunes library is on an external hard drive or something like that. When you get the error message click yes you would like to locate it. then navigate to the external hard drive where the itunes libray is and locate that particular song. Once you have linked one, itunes will ask if you would like it to locate the rest, click yes and it will find the rest of the files if they are in the same location.

Songs w/exclamation marks that won't play "file can't be found" Why??

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