The song "You Don't Know What Love Is" could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?

iTunes no longer can find songs that I purchased from the iTunes store and downloaded.

I am getting this same message.  I recently bought a new Macbook Pro and the geeks transferred my files from my mini-mac.  Perhaps they did not transfer something critical?  I follow the "locate" option when it asks to find my files and I get a file folder that has a red circle with a white bar in the middle. 
I have the same issues with my downloaded movies but my apps all seem to be fine.
Even more confusing - it seems to allow random songs to play and download on my Macbook and other devices.  But most of my music - whether downloaded from iTunes or my CD collection comes up with that message about the original file. 
Should I get new geeks to locate these files on my old mini-mac?

Similar Messages

  • When i click to play song  I get message that file can not be found, would I like to locate it?  What do I do?

    When I click on songs I purchased. I get message that "song could not be used because original file could not be found.  Would you like to locate it?"
    I used to be able to play them,  What do I do?

    It means the media is not where iTunes expects it to be.
    iOS devices are not and have never been backup devices.
    Are the files in question still on the computer?
    If not, you should restore them from the backup of the computer.  You do have a backup, correct?

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    Does anybody know if the ipad air 1 is using yosemite or something different? I don't know what type of safari i should install because it disappeared from the ipad. Thanks!

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  • HT1399 My songs can't be played because the original files can't be found.  What can I do?

    I can't play my songs on my computer because the original files can't be found.  I can, however, play them on my ipod.  I tried to re-download my purchases but itunes won't allow me to do so.  What can I do to retrieve my music files on my computer?

    If you still have the 'pointers' to the tracks on your computer's iTunes (even if the files themselves aren't on there) then it won't let you re-download them as it assumes that they are still there - if you delete the 'pointers' then you should be able to copy your Apple purchases back from the iPod via File > Transfer Purchases, and depending on which country that you are in you might also be able to re-download them for free. For music bought from other sources or copied from CDs you will either need to copy them back onto your computer from a backup, or you need to get a third-party program that can copy them off the iPod

  • HT1390 I rented a movie and it shows up in my iTunes "Rented" section, but when I click to play it, it gives me an error message saying the movie can't be played because the original file can't be found. Please help!

    I rented a movie and it shows up in my iTunes "Rented" section, but when I click to play it, it gives me an error message saying the movie can't be played because the original file can't be found. Please help!

    Never mind I fixed it. Just in case anyone else has this problem, after you reinstall iTunes you have to delete all your old music, and if you have iTunes match all the songs you have saved on itunes match will display and you just have to download them to your Macbook.

  • When i try play a song i get this message " the song could not be used because your original file could not be found, would you like to locate.  I tunes works on my iPad

    OSX 10.9.5

    I am getting this same message.  I recently bought a new Macbook Pro and the geeks transferred my files from my mini-mac.  Perhaps they did not transfer something critical?  I follow the "locate" option when it asks to find my files and I get a file folder that has a red circle with a white bar in the middle. 
    I have the same issues with my downloaded movies but my apps all seem to be fine.
    Even more confusing - it seems to allow random songs to play and download on my Macbook and other devices.  But most of my music - whether downloaded from iTunes or my CD collection comes up with that message about the original file. 
    Should I get new geeks to locate these files on my old mini-mac?

  • The song could not be used because the original file couldn't be found

    About a week or two ago I loaded up my iTunes to find that most of my music could not be played. Upon clicking on the songs I got the message "The song '__' could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" This was weird because none of my music was missing from my computer and it was in the same file location that it has been in all along. I went into the preferences and noticed that the iTunes media file location was different and I changed it back to what it was before. This helped with about half of the files but I still have about 1500 that I will have to "locate" in order to play. This is a solution, but unfortunately it is very time consuming. Does anyone have a solution that could ultimately fix this and save me the time?
    Thanks,
    Stunray
    Message was edited by: Stunray

    *Adding new items/removing orphans*
    Try iTunes Folder Watch or iTunes Library Updater. Folder Watch is much faster on the adding files front, can be set to run in the background and includes a useful exclusion feature, however it’s really slow at removing orphans. iTLU is better for this although doing it manually after looking at a list of proposed removals generated by Folder Watch is probably faster still. iTLU can also be set to update iTunes when you've used 3rd party tools to change tag info.
    tt2

  • Library not playing songs because the original file can't be found.

    My iTunes is having problems. I download new music and then later that night my library shows up, but says:
    The song "insert name here" could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?
    I have roughly 1400 songs and instead of locating each one individually is there something that I could do to make this process go much quicker and more efficiently? Can it also be done without messing up my song count and last time played?
    Any help would be much appreciated.

    Well, I got it fixed...
    1 I found the nearest Apple Store. I think you can get to a list via Apple.com/retail
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    3 They went into Edit, Preferences, Advanced, and checked "Keep itunes music folder organized" and "Copy files to itunes music folder when adding to library" and "use itunes as the default player for audio files"
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    When I returned home, I duplicated the process on my other computer and it seems to WORK... now, AMAZING that TWO computers developed the SAME problem on the SAME day when BOTH had worked perfectly before hmmm?
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  • 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.
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  • Can't play libray 'could not be used b/c the original file can't be found"

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    When I try to play the songs In my library I get an error message saying " could not be used because the original file could notbe found. Would you like to locate it?" This is the same for both my uploaded and purchased music. This happened all of a sudden and I don't know why. I did not remove any music files from my computer. Can anyone help me please?
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    Dell Inspiron 9300   Windows XP  

    You get exclamation marks or dead tracks because iTunes can’t find the file. This can happen for a number of reasons:
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    So, did you move or delete anything? Do you have any other software that might move things - such as another music player reorganising your files?
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    Windows search can also look for music files.
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  • HT201272 the original file can't be found (TV episode)

    I am getting this error message on my PC when attempting to watch a Downton Abbey episode I bought with the season's pass:
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    I've spent two or three hours on this problem. I googled it. I searched the Apple support pages. I followed several different suggestions. I found where all the other files for this TV series live. Episode 4 is listed there, but when I attempt to open it, I get the error message, and the file is marked with an exclamation point. I checked my trash bin. It wasn't there. I tried to download it again, but the Apple store tells me it IS downloaded. I can watch all the other episodes. This latest one, Episode 4, just won't let me in.
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    PowerPC G5   Mac OS X (10.4.2)  

    Donna,
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    PowerMac G5s sold in the last 2 years or more all came with OmniGraffle.
    Apple's G5 web page
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  • I have some albums on my itunes that were transfered from my ipod, and some that were put on itunes from CDs. Now the 1st 10 songs of every album say that the original file can't be found, and i cant find them anywhere.

    One day, they were there and working, the next they were all like this. There is a lot of money in these, and i would like to be able to keep using them.

    WhyItuneswhy wrote:
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  • I was gave an Apple iPod Touch that was disabled and I called the Apple Store and they emailed me what to do and I plugged my iPod up to the PC and now it's saying that the iPod is unable to be recognized and I don't know what to do now

    I was gave an Apple iPod Touch that was disabled and I called the Apple store and they emailed me how to fix it but now when i plug it up to the PC it's saying that the iPod is unable to be recognized and I don't know what to do?

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