What happened to my music. Original file couldn't be found. I didn't lose it!

What happened to my original music?
Original file couldn't be found.
I didn't lose it?
What keeps happening to my play lists, they keep disappearing.
Help!

My computer says the original files to my songs on itunes can't be found
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 .
If iTunes has broken entries for the missing tracks then it won't transfer the corresponding tracks from your iPhone or from your Purchase History. If you cannot locate the tracks anywhere, you can delete the entries and transfer/download them again if you are not worried about ratings/playlist membership etc. If these thigns are important to you then there is probably a way to download the media to a new libray, then reconnect the old library to the freshly downloaded tracks, e.g. with FindTracks.
tt2

Similar Messages

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    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

  • Error message-song couldn't be used because original file couldn't be found

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  • I tried to play my iTunes and suddenly get an error message that says "The song (name) could not be used because the original file could not be found.  Would you like to locate it now?"  It happens on all my tunes and each one I select ends up with a "?"

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    I was not complete clear.
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    If you press the reset button you just give to itunes its default setting as for the position of the music files: probably this will be a good choice if you have never changed any default preference.
    But before I would check the folders and see if the songs are really there
    In my iTune I have this, and I believe it is the default.
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  • ITunes will no longer play my music, all the albumss are there but it if I click on a song to play it I get a message saying " The song (name of song) could not be played because the original file coul not be found. Would you like to locate it."

    iTunes will no longer play my music, all the albumss are there but it if I click on a song to play it I get a message saying " The song (name of song) could not be played because the original file coul not be found. Would you like to locate it."

    You get this message because  iTunes can’t find the file. This can happen for a number of reasons:
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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

  • 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.
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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.
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    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

  • I have just downloaded all of my music into the new itune's however all of my music has an "!" buy it and I get an error saying "original file can not be found". How do I get my music back?

    I have just downloaded all of my music into the new itues, however; all of my music has an "!" but it and I get an error that says " original file can not be found".
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    I can't  download iTunes to my Vista virtual machine to test it out right now because iTunes is down, so I can't verify the pathname, perhaps your issue and the iTunes being down are related somehow?
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