When looking at my Itunes songs that I have purchased and imported from CD, every song has an exclamation point next to it and says it can't be found. Why? and how do i fix it?

all of my songs in itunes have exclamation points next to them - why?

Hi Paula!
The exclamation points are due to iTunes not being able to find your music. This can be caused from either music being deleted from the computer or if the music folder has changed locations.
iTunes does not actually store the music in the program. All music is saved on the hard drive of your PC. iTunes just creates a link to their location and if that link is broken the exclamation points appear.
I see you're using a windows computer, the best way to locate these songs and add them back in to iTunes is to search for them.
You can click on your start menu, then in the search field type either the title of a particular song or .M4P
This should locate the music for you. Once you locate all the music or the one in particular you can right click on it and select properties. In properties you will be able to see the location.
An example of a location is, C:User Name/Documents and Settings/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media
Once you have that location you can go back to iTunes, click on a song with an exclamation, it will ask you if you would like to locate the file. Say yes and then direct the path to that song and after you select the appropriate song for that 1 file iTunes will ask you if you would like it to locate the other songs that are missing. Just say yes and your library will be back!

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But if they don't, you can open the XML file in iTunes Folder using a Text edit program to see what the common pathname is to the iTunes Music folder or where your content is located.
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vlonnon

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I have tried all of the suggestions and still keeps asking me to authorize my computer for only a few songs that I have purchased.... HELP???!!!

Delete and redownload them if doing so is free in your country.
(69918)

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I have a laptop that has (or had) pretty much all of my music, both burned from CDs and downloaded from iTunes. My 17 year old son on occasion syncs his iPhone and iPad with this laptop. As of the last sync (as best I can determine), many songs that I purchased in the past few years are now missing, in that they have an exclamation point to the left of the song title, and when I try to play the song, I get an error message that says "The song could not be used because the original file could not be found" or something to that effect. As it turns out, the file seems to be erased. This has happened multiple times, and I could be wrong, but I believe that there are some songs that had the exclmation point last time he synced that now don't, and vice-versa. There is not an obvious correlation or grouping as to why these songs are missing (e.g,. they were not all purchased on the same date, not all songs from one artist are missing, etc.).
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2. Why does this happen and how can I prevent this from happening again (since it has happened multiple times)?
Thanks.

1. iTunes won't offer cloud downloads for songs that it "thinks" are in your library, even if it "knows" the files are missing. If you've exhaustively searched for the missing files and there is no prospect of repair by restoring to them to their original locations, or connecting to new ones, then delete that tracks that display both the missing exclamation mark and are of media kind Purchased/Protected AAC audio file. Don't hide from iTunes in the cloud when asked, close iTunes, then reopen. You can download from the cloud links or iTunes Store > Quicklinks > Purchased > Music > Not on this computer > All songs > Download all.
2. Why? Not sure, perhaps 3rd party tools or accidental key presses combined with previously hidden warning messages when trying to organize the library. There is a hint that using the feature to downsample media as it is synced to a device may also be involved, though I've not replicated it. Whatever the reason a backup would protect your media.
tt2

When looking at my Itunes songs that I have purchased and imported from CD, every song has an exclamation point next to it and says it can't be found. Why? and how do i fix it?

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