Sort by exclamation point

How do I sort by exclamation point? When I need to fix files that iTunes says are missing I get tired of scrolling and scrolling and scrolling to find them all. I click on the top of the first column where the exclamation points are but it doesn't sort it like the other columns. So how do I do this?

The easiest way is to use this java script to find dead tracks
http://ottodestruct.com/blog/2005/10/20/itunes-javascripts/
It makes a playlist of dead tracks - tracks that have the ! by them.

Similar Messages

Exclamation point help

Many of the songs in my library have the exclamation point designation.I have searched my drive and they aren't there. I use an online automated file backup service. My questions: 1) how did I lose this seemingly random bunch of songs? 2) how do I get a list of what I'm missing, i.e., how do I sort by exclamation point and print the list? 3) do I need to delete the "empty" song files before I download what I lost? 4) how do i prevent this from happening again? Please provide answers to any other questions about this issue I forgot to ask. Many thanks.

I've had the same issue. Is there an explanation or solution?

Exclamation points to the extreme.

My internal hard drive crash last week and I replaced it with a new one. I have most of my music on my iPod (an additional 40 gb not on my iPod but somewhere on an external that I can locate later.) Anyway, I transferred over the music from my iPod into a desktop folder, and then into my iTunes. And then I did something crazy. In an attempt to get back my playlists and playcounts, I overwrote the new iTunes database .xml and .tl files with the ones I'd saved from my crashed hard drive. I have all my playcounts and playlists back except--I have about 15,000 exclamation points next to the songs. I was under the impression iTunes would automatically relocate all the songs in a folder if I just chose a few, but it's not recognizing more than one at a time and is making me do every individual song. I'm noticing that most (but not all) of the missing songs are labeled in the finder by the four letter iPod tags (like, ABDF.mp3), and when I drag them into iTunes, they take back on the correct name and artist. I'm not sure if they were always the four letter tags from the moment I took it from my iPod, or if that happened only when I overwrote the database file.
I've been going for hours and I've only just started on the Cs. After finding no answers on Google about my very daunting situation, I've decided it's probably worth it to ask and see if anyone has any recommendations of something to do. I'm realizing at this point I've done something wrong to get my playlists and playcounts back. So maybe my main question is--what was the right way to do this so maybe I can start back over? And is there anything I can do now to salvage what I've already started?
I'm using an iPod classic and a 2010 MacBook Pro. The original iTunes files were from whatever software I had originally purchased the Mac with in 2010. Now I have Mavericks if that makes any sort of difference.
Thanks!

After a lot of try and error I found the problem. At least part of it.
My MBAM 2.5 SSRS was in another server as an instance.
Just make sure the Service Account for the Instance is configured as Local Service and not the mbamapppool account. After changing this everything is back to normal.

Taking the plunge - external drive and exclamation points

Okay...
I have cried for help on this forum before about the somewhat common problem of iTunes 7 having a strange relationship with music on my external drive. The drive in question is a Lacie 250 GB Firewire drive.
A few months ago, out of the blue, one day I opened iTunes to find a sea of exclamation points. Though all the music I had added after a particular date was there, most of the music I had added prior to that was tagged with the exclamation. When I'd try to play one of these songs, iTunes would say it could not be found, though I could manually locate it and things would work fine. I tried a few fixes recommended on this forum by well-meaning but misguided people that resulted in a few sets of duplicate playlists but no fix to the problem. Then, one day, out of the blue again...it started working fine.
I don't even recall having restarted the computer. iTunes had just fixed the problem somehow.
Well, now the problem is back, and I've dealt with it for about a month. But I'm not convinced that it will just go away this time. So, even if I destroy my painstakingly cultivated hundreds of playlists, ratings, play history and comprehensive information (artwork, composer, etc.), I am determined to fix this problem without manually locating over 10,000 songs.
I am posting my attempts here as a record that will hopefully help those struggling with this problem in the future. Though I would welcome any and all comments or questions, I have frankly come to expect very little assistance or even the willingness to assist from this forum (that is to say, I imagine my unresolved question will languish for awhile as a monologue until I either fix the problem or die).
The first thing I will do (after doing a final backup, of course) is to determine whether it makes a difference if an updated version of my iTunes library file and .xml are in the Music folder (on my hard drive) or in my Musica folder (on the external drive). The latest edition of the file is currently on the external drive.
So, here we go...
Grant
Dual 1GHz G4, 1G RAM, 80G HD Mac OS X (10.4.9) iPod (1st Gen), iPod Shuffle (1st Gen), iPod Mini, External HD

Well, I've made quite a mess of things. So I have 14,000 songs. Most were added years ago. Looking at the date added in correlation with the exclamation points, it seems as though iTunes forgot the location of most of the songs added before 5/9/06. Mind you, iTunes worked fine (with the exception of doing this whole thing once before) until about a month ago. So, in May 2007, iTunes forgot most of what happened before 5/9/06.
(For reference purposes, the gap seems to exist between two songs I downloaded. "Help Me, Ronda" by the Beach Boys is the last song with an exclamation point in the date added list (see two exceptions below). "Proud Mary" by Ike & Tina Turner, on the other hand, is exclamation point free and only a couple of songs added after "Proud Mary" have exclamation points. They are:
Freedom, by Richie Havens, added 6/3/06.
Slow Free Bird, by Geesekey, added 12/17/06, a song I made in Garageband.
Now, don't let me give you the impression that there is a solid wall of exclamation points up to "Help Me, Rhonda." Maybe about every 10/20 songs, there is a song with no exclamation point that plays fine. Following Jase's lead before (his advice to another user), I have investigated some of these songs that work fine, but can't find any reason why these work and others don't (any difference in the iTunes Library.xml, files created with/without track number, etc.).
So, here's what happened in the past couple of days: I dragged my "iTunes Music" folder (located in my "Musica" folder on the external drive) into the iTunes source list). Most everything was duplicated, with the new songs playing just fine but lacking ratings and play history. Also, the new songs were not included on any playlists.
What I did next was poorly executed. I sorted iTunes by the Date Added and selected the first few thousand (roughly, A-J; seeing them according to the Date Added reveal that they weren't added in exactly a linear fashion). I hit the delete button and selected "Remove", but I then told iTunes to "Move to Trash." What I should have done, I imagine, is told iTunes to "Keep Files". So, my A-J songs are now deleted off the External Drive and gone (though I have backup DVDs generated by the iTunes "Back up to Disc" feature).
What should I do next? is the pressing question. Should I rip everything out and start from scratch with my backup discs? I guess the question I would have with that approach is this: if I restore from backup discs made three months ago, will I still have all my playlists, ratings and play history as they were when I made the backup? If that's the case, that'd be fine with me...I just want to make sure that's what will happen. Also, I have a backup of my iTunes Library file before I've done all this crazy stuff of the past few days, so if that enters into the equation, let me know.
Otherwise, let me address your comments, Jase.
Anyway, here's a question. Can you export your
playlists, even though they're made up of songs with
exclamation marks? If so, you could try exporting one
of them as an XML file. Then import it--you'll
probably wind up with duplicates (playlists, not
songs). Does the newly imported playlist play, or
does it still have the exclamation mark problem? I
wouldn't know what to expect, but it might be worth a
try.
My playlists themselves are all still the same as they were (though there are exclamation marks all over the place). From what I can tell, they look fine when exported to an .xml (the music folder seems to have the correct path). When I import it, it's the same deal: exclamation points at the same places.
If your playlists are exportable, you might want to
export them to XML files, just so you'll have those
little databases of them. Then, if worse came to
worse and you had to give up on your current Library
file and reload your Music folder into a new library,
at least there's a chance you could import your
playlists and not have to build them again from
scratch (assuming nothing has changed in terms of the
organization of your Music folder).
I'm not willing to export every playlist, because I have hundreds and it would just take too long. Is there a way to export all or a lot of playlists at once? Anyway, I figured that my playlist data was stored somehow in the iTunes Library file, so I felt I had a backup already. I could be wrong about this, though, as I really don't understand much about the iTunes Library file and .xml and the like.
Can you drag songs that have exclamation marks into a
playlist? Somehow, I doubt it. But if you can, you
could use new playlists to make a record of some
information that you might want to save if you had to
start all over again with a new Library.
Believe it or not, I can add songs with an exclamation point into playlists and they're added just fine (though, they still have the exclamation point). How this works is: I can't drag and drop them into a playlist. However, I can control-click and select "Add to Playlist" and it works. There's another mystery for you.
Have you looked at your iTunes Library.xml file --
specifically at the location information for
individual songs -- to see if the location
information exactly matches the information you see
in the Finder? I have found mismatches when
investigating some exclamation marked files. I didn't
know how that happened, and I didn't know what to
about it, but it was intriguing to see evidence of
some iTunes mischief.
Is the iTunes feature to start music file names with
the track number turned on? To my mind, fewer missing
song file problems occur when this is on.
Yes and yes. Based on what you told others, I have looked at the .xml of some of the problem songs and the working ones and could find no difference, but I didn't really know what I was supposed to be looking for. I also use the Add Track Number feature and always have.
If you still have the 28,000 songs in your Library
and want to go back to the 14,000, you could sort all
your songs by Date Added and delete the ones you
added on June 21. Or, if you saved a copy of your
iTunes Library file before you dragged your iTunes
Music folder into the library, you could just throw
out the more recent Library file and reinstitute the
back-up copy.
I probably should have done the latter (just restore the backup of the iTunes Library file). Oh well...
Some advice for future experiments. Try them with a
small sample if possible unless you're absolutely
sure they will work the way you want them to. For
example, drag one album in your Music folder into
iTunes rather than the whole Music folder.
This is a great idea. I wish I would have checked my sample more closely or done more tests before I plunged off the cliff.
Back up your iTunes Library file, as well as your
Music folder. (You might already do this.)
Check.
Those are a few things to think about. They probably
will not be helpful. Like I said, I don't think there
are clear answers to this problem. The best I can
wish for you is that iTunes will magically fix the
problem, like it did once before. Then, maybe there
are some preventive measures you can take.
Since iTunes did fix it once before, I would not
throw your current iTunes Library file away, no
matter what. If you decide to start a new library so
that you can actually listen to your music, rename
this Library file and keep it around, since it has a
lot of your metadata in it. You can try it every now
and then and see if iTunes spontaneously revives it.
Okay, I will post what I do next, provided that I don't hear any compelling advice and make my own decision (though I should be even more gun-shy after my recent blunders).
Grant

Once again, the dredded exclamation point has popped up next to several of my songs. I have not deleted anything, have not moved anything; all I did was try to sync my phone, which I have not done in a few months. Please help

I have found that the exclamation point is back next to several of my songs. I have not moved any files, or deleted any files. I need help so that I can figure this out and have my music back on my iPhone. I can play it on my Mac just fine, and it says it is all on my phone, but I see this ! Next to most of the songs and I have about 8 GB less than before. Someone please help me solve this issue, something that I thought Apple would have been rid of by now. Again, please help me.

Okay, I followed the step from another support community:
1. Open Finder
2. From the side bar, click the home folder
3. Go to MUSIC>iTUNES>iTUNES MEDIA
4. Open the corresponding folder for the folder type you're looking for. The contents of the folder will be listed in alphabetical order. Depending on the folder, the files will be sorted by author, artist, or title.
Now, I found the files, and I can play my music through this and even in my iTunes library, where the info on each song is still available. Why can't this information transfer to my iPhone?

IPod mini went through wash and displays folder with exclamation point HELP

My friend has an ipod mini and i guess it went through the wash and now it will turn on but it displays the folder and exclamation point. I tried resetting it with menu and select but it goes right back to the folder after reset. I have already read apples document so please don't post it. My question is do you think it is the logic board or hard drive that needs to be replaced? It seems if it were the logic board then it wouldn't turn on at all. I'm just trying to figure out if it's worth fixing or not. Is there any way i can tell for sure which component is bad? Thanks

Erm i dno bout the hard board n logic disc etc. im just like awful wiv stuff like dis but i got the same problem n i like tried restorin it n alsorts over n over, which i did when i managed 2 get this b4 n i got it twice with this ipod n it a brand new replaced 1.
neway wat i tryin 2 say is wunt go buyin a new 1 2 hastily cos it probs fixable even i managed 2 do it once b4 n i tryin 2 do it agn now. just try all the stuff on the support site thing im jst hopin tht summets got 2 work!!!
also u could just like ask an expert i dno if they do it here bt in america they like had apple shops were they had a "genius bar" which was basically ppl hu r rlly gd @ this kinda stuff tht sort it 4 u. :S
dell? Windows XP

Folder w/ Exclamation Point + Itunes fails to recognize Ipod

About two weeks ago, my Ipod began to act silly by apparently not being able to read certain tracks sort of like when a CD player cannot read a scratched CD. (Note I have never encountered this problem before and the Ipod functioned without any problems just the previous day). When it could not play a track, it would automatically skip to the next track to see if it could play that one. It did not matter what album or artist I was attempting to play.
Then, the Ipod began to hesitate to turn on occasionally. The infamous folder with an exclamation point would pop on the screen, especially after I would reset the Ipod and have seen the apple picture.
The final conflict exists in my Itunes program being unable to recognize I had plugged my Ipod into the computer. (Maybe the Ipod could not read the computer, I have no idea). I have Itunes version 4.7 and I have just installed 4.9 which I am about to try. I shall post an update if my Ipod then works with 4.9.
Otherwise, please help me! What is wrong with my Ipod?

To all:
You need to restore your ipod so it like it was when you received it. Then you need to instal the new version of the updater and itunes. Connect your ipod and it should take you through the process. Registering and all.
If all fails, seriously consider returning it to apple. If you still have the warranty. If this your second return under the warranty you'll actually have to pay money (around $30) If you don't have a warranty I think you can get it fixed but it will cost you a lot of money. Try getting a quote if its too expensive, consider selling on ebay and getting a way better mp3 player.
Apple SHOULD really consider recalling the ipod, this device it horrible. I my self have had 3 new ipods straight from Apple in the last year all with the same problems you all are having. I regret even getting the ipod to begin with.

New ATA channel with an exclamation point appear in the device manager at each start (when no new device has been installed)

Good morning,
My desktop, (Win7 64, AMD cpu/ Gigabyte mother board) , started to generate strange problems such as my laser usb printer not reachable even after disinstal/reinstall.
I took a look in the device manager, and found 2 ATA channel with an exclamation point, "drivers not found'. I also found a USB universal controller with the same exclamation point and the same error.
I changed nothing in terms of Bios since the machine was built (AHCI, Raid not active). The main drive is a SSD on primary SATA port, classic drive on the second port.
I deleted the 3 items, the printer started to work again. They reappeared after the next reboot.
Weird thing: it looks like the problems appeared after connecting/disconnecting a Nikon camera to one of the usb port (identified as a mass storage device).
I ran multiple scans (root) in case a virus would have generated the problem, negative.
Last point (can't tell if it's related or not), my browsers started crashing randomly.
Thank you

Hi,
I'd ask your question in the Windows forums here:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows
Or perhaps over in the Win7 IT Pro forum here, since you seem fairly comfortable:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-us/home?category=w7itpro&filter=alltypes&sort=lastpostdesc
This forum is meant for reporting issues with the forums themselves, not product support.
Good luck.
Don't retire TechNet! -
(Don't give up yet - 12,950+ strong and growing)

ITUNES and Exclamation point problems

It is incredibly frustrating trying to support a program that has so many quirks in it. Itunes should be a lot easier to handle when it comes to file management than it currently is. I recently changed out my 250 gb main HD for a 1 TB hard drive in order to have the itunes music folder on the same HD as the Operating system. Apparently itunes has a completely different way of cataloging the music in the actual itunes folder, which is now called itunes media, than it used to. When I transfered all my files from the original 250 gb volume to the 1 TB volume via mac transfer, I thought that the current itunes on the original HD would also transfer, nope. Itunes couldn't access my itunes music folder which had not been moved to the new location yet beacuse the version remained consistent with the OS installer and not what was originally on my old HD. Hence newer itunes music folder (which it was still called) with old itunes, not good! I upgraded to the newest itunes via software update in order for it to even recognize my "newer" itunes folder and that's when things really went sour. I copied over the itunes folder over to the new HD and changed the preferences in itunes to select that as my new media folder. Itunes recognized nothing. all songs had a impossible exclamation point. I moved the itunes music folder out of the itunes folder on the main HD and had itunes create a new folder as its media folder. I imported a song in itunes with the copy all files to the itunes folder to see where the songs were going to be stored. It created a music folder within the Itunes media. Great I thought I just will dump the contents of the old itunes music folder into the new music folder. Most songs (I have 50,090 of them) have come back. Unfortunate news, I HAVE TONS THAT STILL HAVE THAT EXCLAMATION POINT NEXT TO IT. and why? because if an artist is featured and has another name by it such as Leona Lewis featuring One republic, itunes does not know to look via Leona Lewis with Album Echo, it just simply can't find it. I can understand where the coding for that may be a little difficult, but here is the real issue. That is just one song, but I have volumes of artists with other artists, and when I find one of the songs in a batch with the same issue, Itunes only recognizes that one song and expects me to search and rescue all the songs that are in that same Unfindable folder individually. I can't change the tags on the exclamation songs to help redirect it better and I am forced to re-import all those songs. I HATE THIS!If an album is called boneyard and I find one song in that folder, it should know that the rest of the songs from the album boneyard are in that folder, similarily to FINAL CUT PRO which I deal with on a regular basis. The two programs with the find my media helper are written by two people on opposites sides of the earth. FCP can determine that if an "issue" file is found and is grouped with another "issue" file it scans the folder to see if other files that you are missing are indeed in there, why can't itunes. And another thing, why is there no way of sorting the songs via that stupid exclamation point, so I can at least see what I am dealing with. I have to continually scroll up and down the music contents folder and do double takes to see if a song had that exclamation point on it.
Any help to ease this problem would be greatly appreciated.

+"I copied over the itunes folder over to the new HD"+
That was the mistake right there.
Once an item is in your iTunes library, iTunes will lose it if you move or rename the item or any of its containing folders.

Yellow Exclamation Point (Caution) Icon?

When I burn a cd, the cd icon that should pop up pops up as a yellow exclamation point Icon. The cd works. Also, one of my programs on my computer has turned from its normal icon to this one. The program still opens. What's going on? Similarily, when I put in an audio cd, the same Icon appears, but the cd works. Again, no disc icon, but a Yellow Triangle icon.

Hi Tom,
By right clicking on the exclamation mark and going to RELINK I got all the missing files retrieved and that has been sorted. The only thing now is that as I have marked around the area with a square shape, that logo/marking is there which I sense is something to do with the sound but I right clicked on that and also retrieved three missing sound files and got them retrieved, however, the sign is still there.

When i enlarge photo (on some of my pictures) it quickly changes to a triangle with an exclamation point in the middle - how do I correct this problem?

It started a few days ago. I was looking through my photos. I could check them when they were smaller - as soon as I enlarged them - screen turned black, a grey triangle with an exclamation point appeared in the middle. It is not changing every picture - just some. How do I get rid of this problem? What caused this in the first place? Any help would be appreciated.

Try the following:
1 - launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.
2 - Run Option #4, Rebuild Database, followed by Option #1 if needed.
Happy Holidays

I have songs in my iTunes library that I burned from CD's. They play in iTunes and will sync with my iPad. They play fine on the iPad. However, the songs will not sync to my iPhone 4S. There are now exclamation points next to songs (can't find source).

I burned cd's in iTunes. The songs were able to sync and play on my iPad. After this, exclamation points appeared in iTunes on my laptop (unable to find source). They still play in iTunes but will not sync with my iPhone 4S. Do some cd's have a limit on the number of times you can copy them or is this an iTunes problem.

KiwiLouisa - I had the same problem. I was eventually able to distribute my content that was "Not eligible for iCloud" to my iPhone by switching off ITunes Match in both the ITunes app/machine that hosts my library (my Macbook Pro, in this case) as well as on the device to which I wished to distribute my content (my iPhone 6+). This opened up the option for my device iTunes Music settings for selecting "Entire Music Library".
After I successfully transferred *ALL* my music and music videos via iTunes sync, I then again switched on ITunes Match in iTunes on my Macbook and on my iPhone.
This does not change the iCloud status, but at least I have the content on my iPhone.

All of my music that wasn't purchased from the itunes store has been faded out on my ipod, despite me being able to play them in itunes. half my songs have exclamation points but only in the 'on this ipod' section, and when i double-click no window appear

I'm freaking out because almost all my music except for those songs purchased directly from the iTunes store has been deleted from my iPod - about 35 gigs. The songs show up, but they're all faded out and unplayable from my device (I have the newest version). Exclamation points appear beside all my songs in the "On this iPod" section, and yet I can't double-click to locate the files as nothing pops up. Some of my music has a weird circle next to it and is even more faded out when I'm in the "On this iPod" section - that's been happening for a couple of days. Yesterday I tried to set my settings to sync with my library only, and it worked, but this morning everything got even worse with the rest of my songs disappearing. What's happening???? Help??

The syncing of music is one way, computer to phone. See this helpful document from a fellow user. Credit goes to the author.
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3141

Exclamation point! Half my library missing but still on disk

When I add my music to the itunes library half of the songs have an exclamation point, while the music is still on the hard drive. (it's not missing!!) When I re-add the songs they play once but after restarting itunes the exclamation point reappears. I added music from 2 hard drives (music from one drive seems to disappear all the time from the library). Probably that has something to do with it but I cannot find the problem.Please help!!!

Try keeping all of your songs in the same location. When iTunes loads music, it seems to look in one directory (i.e. My Music) and its subfolders. If you play a song from another location, iTunes seems to lose that information on restart. If you put all your songs in one folder and its subfolders, you should not have this problem. Just remember to remove all the songs from your playlists and start from scratch.

Itunes wont open only exclamation point inside red hexagon in the message

itunes wont open only exclamation point inside red hexagon in the message

I try updating it to itunes 6.04 but the disk image shows no data for itunes. I tried the /by host/ folder and didn't work. i tried forcelly opening in the terminal also and nothing.
After restarting several times now is giving the softwear agreement for itunes message before the message with the exclamation point.
IF ANY ONE COULD HELP, PLEASE!

Sort by exclamation point

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