When I try to play a song iTunes says "Original file could not be found"

I am getting a "!" next to my songs, and the message that the file cannot be used because the original file cannot be found.

iTunes' library keeps track of where your tracks are located. If you move a track, or keep your music on an external drive and don't turn it on before starting iTunes, or your computer's file system becomes corrupted, or iTunes' library gets corrupted, or..., then iTunes goes to where it thinks the file is located, can't find it, and you get !

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When I try to sync i get the message "original file could not be found. What does that mean?

When I try to sync i get the message "original file could not be found. What does that mean?
Have i lost all the music on my computer?

iTunes' library keeps track of where your tracks are located. If you move a track, or keep your music on an external drive and don't turn it on before starting iTunes, or your computer's file system becomes corrupted, or iTunes' library gets corrupted, or..., then iTunes goes to where it thinks the file is located, can't find it, and you get !

Itunes says "Original File could not be found"

I've moved my Itunes music folder to a different location to accommodate more music. I've also created a new library in another location with other music (reasons aside). Also, the Advanced pane shows the correct location of the Itunes files. All worked just fine, opening Itunes with option key to be able to choose the correct library. Now, when I click almost any tune in after opening the original library, Itunes says "Original File could not be found - would you like to locate it?" I could but I certainly don't want to do this for each and every song. How can I do this "en masse" and How can I avoid this in future? Thanks in advance for any help.

am pulling my hair out now after to many hours on this issue.. Surely Apple must be able to sort this issue by now.
My itunes library is 5+ yrs old now and therefore 10,000 songs, numerous podcasts, videos etc etc. not to mention loads of rating information, hundreds of playlists created from last played, rating, genre etc etc, therefore i cannot afford to loose all this valuable data attached to my itunes library. However recently half of my library appeared with exclamation marks all over it, though i cannot work out why as all the music files are in the location specified in preferences, path etc.
It seems that itunes just wont bother looking at this path and syncing with whatever is there. Yeah fine i can add the whole itunes music folder again and it will import every song again so i go from 10,000 to 20,000 songs, i could deal with this with a dupe eliminator that are freelu available on the net but the new imports without the exclamation marks cleary dont have the historical data of play counts, last played ratings etc etc attached to them so its no different from deleting and starting again.
I have tried all the options in this post and none of them deal with the simple issue of just look at the location that it listed in the preferences and search for the file u think is missing on mass!!!
Its not rocket science so why havent Apple fixed this. !!!
If anyone has got a solution for this or work around that doesnt involve completly writing off years of rating and creating playlists based on numerous historical data then i would be bery appreciative!!

I can't listen to at least 100 of my songs on itunes. When I try it gives me a message that it can't play that song because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it? What do I do?

When I try to listen to certain songs a message pops up that the original file could not be found. Do you want to locate file? I don't know how this happened and I don't know what to do. I have tried repairing Itunes and also uninstallng and reinstalling. I have restarted my computer and even done some troubleshooting. When I tried hooking my ipod up to my computer to see if that would help I got a message that said "At least 100 songs could not be transferred, including "You found me."" I have no such song in my itunes. Can itunes get a virus?
Does anyone have any ideas what I can do? I'm at a loss and would really like my itunes to be back to normal.

I was not complete clear.
Since you never changed the settings in the advanced section of iTunes preferecnes, you have to chech that your music is really in the location setted in the folders reported in the advanced section. If not you have 2 ways: reset the position of this folders or in the actual disk organisation or in the pointing on the preferences.
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.
Users/YOURHOMEFOLDERNAME/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music

HT1923 I am using windows 7 and have upgraded itunes to 11. Now when I open my music library in itunes and click on a song it says "original file could not be found" Over 2000 songs come up this way and locate does not seem to work. Before the upgrade all

With Windows 7 I upgraded itunes to 11. Now in my itunes library, when I click on a song "original file could not be found" comes up. This happens with over 2000 songs, but it seems to be ones I recorded from cd's. Locate does not seem to work. Has anyone else had this problem?

Highlight a song that is supposedly missing, press CTRL+I to Get Info, say no when asked to locate the file, then look at the summary tab. Where does iTunes "think" the file should be? Where is it really? You may need to give a configuration file a minor tweak.
tt2

TS1424 can't play some songs,keep getting original file could not be found...on my pc

Cant play certain song while in music libary comes up original file could not be found on my pc

Are the files still on the computer? If so, point iTunes to the files.

Getting error message when trying to play songs from library saying original file could not be found

when trying to play songs from library, getting message saying original file could not be found .. my full library all says the same .. can anyone help ?

Hello Ceeclass,
I suggest this article named iTunes: Finding lost media and downloads found here http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1408.
It should help you locate the media that is not playing in the iTunes library.
Take care,
Sterling

My partner deleted my itunes (10) library. I use a WD external back-up and retrieved my itunes library, but when i try to play a song i get the message 'could not be used because the original file could not be found Would you like to locate it?'

My partner deleted, by accident my itunes library. I have an iMac 10.6.7, Itunes 10. I use an WD passport as an external back up and retrieved my itunes library but now get the message "could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" so itunes is not recognised the exclamation marked songs, how do i get the retrieved files recognised. At times I get fed-up with Apple blocking files being used, although I like the product its restrictions are so silly!

You not only have to retrieve the library file from the backup drive but the actual music files (usually stored within the "iTunes Media" folder) as well.

When I try to play a song it says "orginal file not found"

When I open itunes and try to play a song I get an error message that says "original file not found." What does this mean?

Hello samdogman - I am having the "original file not found" problem and found your post in my search for solutions.
I'm not sure how this happened. I erased a couple of songs the other day and think I erased those song files.
If I was to go to each folder stored in my iTunes folder and add folder to library I will have duplicate songs..correct? Will consolidate library create duplicates as well?
I would appreciate any help you can give me. Thx.
You have to actually have the song file paths saved
in your iTunes library memory. Don't drag them into
iTunes--they'll play until you turn off your computer
but they're not getting saved in your library this
way. Instead of dragging a folder/file into iTunes,
go to the top line in iTunes and select "file">"add
File to library" OR "add Folder to library". Browse
to the location of the files/folders you want to add
and click "ok". Now iTunes will have the actual path
to your music stored and will be able to find your
songs.
Or, to make things go quicker. You can go to the
advanced tab and click on "Consolidate Library", then
you can browse to your music file location and add
all of your music files at once.
Dell 700M Windows XP

Itunes purchases - original file could not be found

Last night I made an 11 item purchase. At the time, my Ipod was connected to my PC and after download was complete, I synced. The new songs are on my Ipod. However, they cannot be found on my computer, or so iTunes tells me every time I try to play one.
This is my only authorized computer, I am using Windows XP and iTunes ver. 7, music and podcasts only.
I have gone through the "transfer purchased from iPod" exercise a number of times. The first few times, a progress window would flash so fast that I could see only the name of one song. Presumably, that song was transferred from ipod to itunes. However, when I ask to play it, I am still told that the file cannot be found. I have searched and searched for it! Now when I try to transfer, itunes and ipod talk to each othe (
My music folder is on an external HD, but that hasn't proved to be a problem with previous purchases.
I did discover that in my preferences, on Advanced|General tab, the option "copy files to itunes folder when adding to library" was not checked. I checked to enable. Would that have made a difference? I don't recall unchecking it and other purchses (without check) have been okay and are all accessible both from itunes and ipod.
For the heck of it, I purchased just one song just now with absolutely no problems. Synced and it's on ipod and itunes. HOWEVER, just before I synced, I unchecked in itunes the 11 songs which I'm writing about -- the ones that are on ipod but itunes can't find. Well, they're no longer on ipod. My sync option is "only checked files," but I didn't understand that since they were already on the ipod, unchecking them would remove them!
This is so frustrating. Can anyone shed any light?? TIA!!

am pulling my hair out now after to many hours on this issue.. Surely Apple must be able to sort this issue by now.
My itunes library is 5+ yrs old now and therefore 10,000 songs, numerous podcasts, videos etc etc. not to mention loads of rating information, hundreds of playlists created from last played, rating, genre etc etc, therefore i cannot afford to loose all this valuable data attached to my itunes library. However recently half of my library appeared with exclamation marks all over it, though i cannot work out why as all the music files are in the location specified in preferences, path etc.
It seems that itunes just wont bother looking at this path and syncing with whatever is there. Yeah fine i can add the whole itunes music folder again and it will import every song again so i go from 10,000 to 20,000 songs, i could deal with this with a dupe eliminator that are freelu available on the net but the new imports without the exclamation marks cleary dont have the historical data of play counts, last played ratings etc etc attached to them so its no different from deleting and starting again.
I have tried all the options in this post and none of them deal with the simple issue of just look at the location that it listed in the preferences and search for the file u think is missing on mass!!!
Its not rocket science so why havent Apple fixed this. !!!
If anyone has got a solution for this or work around that doesnt involve completly writing off years of rating and creating playlists based on numerous historical data then i would be bery appreciative!!

Itunes match, original file could not be found

Hi,
When I try to access songs via itunes match, I get an error that states that the file cannot be located. Additionally, I don't have the icloud icon on all of my albums, but it shows that over 16,000 songs are on the cloud. This problem appears to only affect one computer, on my laptop and iphone, its not an issue. And yes, all are authorized with itunes match already turned on.
Marlon

Provided that the Songs have already 'uploaded' or 'matched' the issue sounds like a local one with the specific library concerned.
Would recommend:
1. Take a secure backup of all the Songs in the library;
2. Select all Songs in the library and delete (do not also delete from iCloud);
3. Restart the iTunes client.
At this point you should have access to all your Songs from the iCloud - if needed any further Songs can be recovered from the secure backup. You can either download all Songs or simply stream Songs as needed.
It is worth checking your operating systems versus the iTunes Match minimum requirements as well.

HT1386 When I sync my i-phone with my pc, will it pull audio from my phone to my i-tunes on my pc? My problem is I have songs on my pc that will not play - the message says "original file could not be found"... They play on my phone.

I am not sure if the synching will pull the audio from my phone and replace the 'not working' files on my i-tunes, or if it will replace the working audio on my phone with the non-functioning audio on my pc.
Thanks for any insight...

No it won't. You are getting that message because those song are no longer in your my music folder and itunes doesn't know where to look for the file.

Original file could not be found. file is.itc2. will not allow me to play song.

Original file could not be found. There is an exclamation mark before the song, and it says "original file could not be found" the file is ITC2. Can someone please tell me how to fix this?

Do you use anything such as Windows Media Player, whcih may have done something to the files?
The message is blunt - the file cannot be found - it is no longer where iTunes thought it was.
Try looking in the folders where you would expect the music to be located. Look at the example below. In the first shot, you can see the correct path to the file. In the second shot, when iTunes can no longer find the file, because I have renamed it, the path changes slightly, but the original path is buried in there anyway.
Basically, the path is:
iTunes\iTunes Music\<Artist name>\<Album name>\<song name> or
iTunes\iTunes Music\Compilations\<Album name>\<song name>
Then you will have to work out what went wrong and correct it yourself.

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,
Shellyboo

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

When I try to play a song in my itunes libery I get an error saying "this song could not be used because the original file could not be found". I do I restore the file?

When I rry to paly a song in my itunes libery, I get an error saying "this song could not be used because the original file could not be found". I do I find the orginal file?

Hello crispinofromfl,
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
For more information, take a look at:
Where are my iTunes files located?
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
Have a nice day,
Mario

When I try to play a song iTunes says "Original file could not be found"

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