Why is iTunes asking to locate the original file if I'm using Match?

I have two locations for my audio files: my laptop and an external harddrive. With my external hd plugged in, I ran iTunes Match, so my songs are listed as Purchased, Matched, or Uploaded. But, iTunes won't play any songs where the original files are on the external hd. I thought the point of Match was so you didn't have to have all your music on your computer.

With iTunes Match enabled the location of the music library is not changed to the cloud. The local files stay exactly where they were, and iTunes keeps looking for the files to play. If the external HDD is unplugged of course iTunes can't find the file to play it.
If you want to stream the best practice is to create a new, empty iTunes library and enable iTM on that library. To create a new library launch iTunes while holding down the Option key then select "create new library." Do not have iTunes scan for media. Enable iTM and you will now be able to stream.

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I home shared from my PC to my new Mac and now my iTunes can't locate the original files?

It was working fine for about 12 hours but now my iTunes can't locate any of the files. None of my songs will play, even those I downloaded directly from a CD. Help?

It sounds like this is much more than an iTunes problem. I suggest you post in the operating system forum version for your computer (we have no idea which OS you are running nor what model computer).

Itunes cannot locate the original file

The majority of my itunes library has little exclamation marks next to the songs, and whenever I click to play the song, a pop-up states "The song "name of song" could not be used because the original file cannot be found. Would you like to locate it?" and if I press yes, then I have to go into my music and then search for it. I was wondering why it says that after years of having itunes and most importantly if there was an easier/less time consuming way to locate the original files to play my songs.

Hi, shopper2472.
The exclamation marks (and the accompanying note) inidicate the files aren't located where iTunes expects them to be. This is most often happens when the files have either been deleted or moved to a different location.
If they have been moved, the best solution is to get them back where they were in the first place. iTunes will be able to find them again - happy ending.
Sometimes though, it seems iTunes loses track of files for no apparent reason. In this case, your only alternative - other than finding them one by one and letting iTunes know - would be to start a new iTunes library all over again.
Regrettably, this method loses playlists and related information (Ratings, Play Counts, Dates Last Played, etc.) If that's not a deal-breaker for you, delete the current entries in your Library by highlighting them - iTunes File menu > Select All - and then right-clicking > Delete . You remove the entries from your Library but keep the files themselves in your iTunes Music folder, assuming that's where they are in the first place.
You can then add them back into your Library by selecting the iTunes Music folder in Windows Explorer and dragging it into the Library entry in the iTunes Source List (left-hand column).

I'm finding that songs that I have imported to Itunes are suddenly showing with "Exclamation" marks and Itunes tells me that the original file cannot be found. When I tell it to locate the file, it can't do it.

I'm finding that songs that I have imported into Itunes and played before are suddenly showing an"Exclamation" mark and Itunes tells me that the original file cannot be found. When I tell it to locate the file, it can't do it. I went to the Itunes help for locating files, but that still won't do it. It seems that somehow they are getting deleted, but not by me that I know of.
Can anyone help me?

Maybe you rename it. Somehow the path to the songs have changed if not deleted.
In Finder go to "Macintosh/Users/username/music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music" that's where all your songs located so if those songs are not there you get an exclamation mark. You can delete those entries in iTunes and re-import again.

Cannot Locate the Original File ? ?- Help Please

Hi ,
I have Consolidated my Library to New folder on my External Hard-Drive. so i Know that all my music is in One palce..
I have a Problem, If i try and play a Track, It Now get a message saying Cannot Locate the Original File..& has this ! against the track..???
What has gone wrong ?
Many thanks

Unfortunately I'm in the same boat. Somehow I cannot locate over 30 GB of music that just disappeared?!
Moved the iTunes folder from my Music folder from the HD to my 250 GB external drive. I did not rename it. Kept it the same name. Went into the Advanced folder in iTunes Preferences and chose to use the external drive as my source for music. However, I noted that an iTunes folder always reappeared in my Music folder on the HD. Didn't realize that I had to Consolidate libraries until later on, but did so the next day as I attempted to figured out why it wasn't working ("cannot locate original file"). When I open iTunes, all of my songs and playlists are listed (I assume this is cache), but none will play except for a few random artists (most have "!"). When I go back and look at the actual iTunes Music folder, it has only these random artists listed (I assume these are the (only?) original files?).
Not sure where everything else went when I haven't deleted any iTunes files? I've read quite a few threads with this same problem without any real answers. When I use Spotlight to locate the original songs, I get zero found.
Is there any easy answer as to where my songs went or am I looking at taking this Mac in for some file retrieval.
Many thanks to anyone that can help.

How can I relocate songs from my Itunes? Itunes tells me that the original files can not be found! can someone help?

How can I relocate songs from my Itunes? Itunes tells me that the original files can not be found! can someone help?

punzete wrote:
I can't do it that way. I erase these songs from the iTunes Library, but when I sycronize the iPhone, all these songs are copied again to the Library. Isn't there any way to stop that? Everything I buy on iTunes Store through my iPhone cannot be erased from the iPhone?
WHY can't you do it the way 100 million people do it?

HT1349 I am trying to burn music to a CD - message says: unable to locate the original file and will not burn the playlist. Is there a setting that I must change. ?

I am trying to burn music to a CD-R- message says: unable to locate the original file. Music is on the iTunes program but will not play or burn. Is there something I should change to be able to burn to CD?

If they were songs you purchased from itunes, try redownloading them from your purchases...
if that doednt work, make sure the optuon to copy files to itunes media folder is checked in settings, then find and download from the net. and re-add them to your library

Diappearing photos replaced by an exclamation point within a triangle. Prior to loading Lion I could put the image number in finder and locate the original file for that photo. How do I restore photos now?

I had problems with photos disappearing and being replaced by an exclamation point within a triangle. I can see the photo in the thumbnail summary but when you click on it, the screen goes black and the exclamation point within a triangle appears along with the info on the original image number (i.e., img_1120.jpg). Prior to loading Lion, I could go to Finder, enter the image number and locate the original file for that photo. I could then restore it for editing, copying into Print Shop directly, etc. That no longer works after installing Lion. How do I restore photos now? I have 100s of photos that I have been going back to the original files and restoring and I am frantic that I will no longer be able to get to the original files. Please help! Thanks

The ! turns up when iPhoto loses the connection between the thumbnail in the iPhoto Window and the file it represents.
What version of iPhoto? Assuming 09 or later:
Option 1
Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Rebuild iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one. .
Regards
TD

Asking if I want to locate the original file I just clicked on. I did move my music from one computer to another and am now getting this error on about 50% of my music. HELP! Suggestions?

ERROR when I click on newly moved music files.
"The song ______ can not be used because the original file can not be found. Do you want to locate it?"
Help!
I moved my itunes files from one computer to the other and now I'm getting this error on about 50% of my songs when I click on them.

Moving a library from machine to another can require some preparation if it is to go smoothly.
As long as the files are organized within a media folder in a way that is vaguley consistent with iTunes, i.e. folders for artists, with subfolders for albums, then my FindTracks script might be able to relink the files.
tt2

ITunes can't find the original file?

I have my entire iTunes collection on my iPod and, supposedly on my laptop. Yet every time I click on a laptop song, I get a message telling me that ITunes can't find the original song, do I want to look for it? I then have to run "Search", wait for the song to appear, and click on it to add it to my usable library. Then, I get two listings for the same song, and if I eliminate one listing, I get the "can't find original" message again. I have just under 60 gig of music and I don't want to search and add thousands of songs when they are already in there somewhere. I appreciate greatly any one's expertise in helping me solve this frustrating problem. Thanks!

Hi, Mike-D.
I'm assuming your music files are all in one centeral location - the iTunes Music folder or what have you.
There are a few basic strategies for dealing with your unfortunate situation:
1) Telling iTunes where the lost songs are on a one by one basis.
2) Moving the songs to where iTunes thinks they are. Unfortunately, there's no way to find out where that might be.
3) Start with a new iTunes library. Regrettably, this method will lose your playlists and related information (Ratings, Play Counts, Dates Last Played, etc.).
If that's not a deal-breaker for you, delete the current entries in your Library by highlighting them - iTunes Edit menu > Select All - and then right-clicking > Delete . You remove the entries from your Library but keep the files themselves in your iTunes Music folder, again that's assuming that's where they are in the first place.
You can then add them back into your Library by selecting the iTunes Music folder in Windows Explorer and dragging it into the Library entry in the iTunes Source List (left-hand column).

Why does imovie need to keep the original file after I have edited?

I record basketball games with my ipad and I keep the footage but cut the video so I can make highlights for the season. Thing is, these original videos are usually close to 10GB each and over an hour long.
I might have 5 minutes of highlights when Im done.
So to save space in my Imovie projects, I kept the clips i want and deleted the videos. When I came back to add more video to my season project, it said missing file.
Does it need to save the entire original media after I cut the video? I dont want to keep every game on my computer, I just want to keep what I cut and throw the rest out. But Imovie is asking for the original file.
Any solutions for this, or do I need to upgrade to a more professional editor?

Hi
You are using a - Non Destructing Video Editing program.
Meaning that Your movie in making ==> Project - DO NOT contain any movie or material at all - BUT only a text document pointing to where material is stored e.g. folder iMovie Event's, other hard disks, DVDs, CDs or USB-memories.
And if any of these storage's are moved or disconnected - iMovie get's lost and can not View Your Project.
iMovie - do not have any "Media Managing Function" as FinalCut Pro (as it can reconnect moved material and create a complete contaning folder)
Even when You Shared Your movie - there still will be links back to material - to make it possibly to further editing's, and Sharing in other resolutions.
This is the cost of working this way. So I use an external hard disk for storage
- MUST BE - Mac OS Extended (hfs) formatted - UNIX/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange will not work for VIDEO
- Moving Video Event's - MUST BE DONE WITHIN iMovie Application - ELSE connections will be broken - meaning HARD to IMPOSSIBLY to mend later. Be aware !
All other material I store in Folders named as movie project + date - all from start on the external Drive.
Yours Bengt W

My iTunes account says that it cannot locate the original file for all of my songs. My iPhone still has all the music and is able to play the songs, if I sync and backup my iphone will the songs be replaced with the empty copies from my itunes library?

So basically I tried to back up my itunes library to my external hard drive and when I followed the instructions and then went to play a song it said Orginal file cannot be found. It said that for all of the songs. I'm not sure how to fix what I did, I already tried consolidating and all of that stuff and it didn't locate the files. I'm guessing that I somehow deleted the original songs along the way. I synced my iPhone without knowing what I did and surprisingly all of the music is still on my phone. So now that I've completely screwed up my iTunes account, I need to know how to get all my music back onto my iTunes account and have that library only on my external hard drive, not my computer. Everything looks fine on my iTunes besides the fact that it cannot locate the files but what I'm afraid of is me syncing and backing up my iPhone and then being left with no music because it syncs to the empty songs. How can I fix this? and if I can't fix my iTunes library is there anyway for me to still be able to backup my iphone and all the music on it, without erasing my music?

Well I'm not sure if I correctly backed up my itunes library because when trying to open itunes from that back up it keeps saying original file not found. Okay this is going to sound confusing but bear with me. I "backed up" my itunes, meaning I just dragged and dropped the iTunes folder into my external hardrive, and then I changed the destination on iTunes to open from my external hardrive. It was working fine when I did that, however I did that just on my own, I didn't know about consolidating the files or any of that so I hadn't done that before copying the folder to my external hard drive. I can't remember but I'm pretty sure I deleted the iTunes folder after I had copied it to my external hardrive. So I did that and it was working fine, I was able to open my itunes with my external hardrive. BUT yesterday I thought that I hadn't done it correctly because I didn't consolidate the files and all that, so I wanted to be more thorough and do that, I followed the steps to do that but when I did that I think it got all the files from my computer and not from my external hard drive so it basically didn't find anything on my computer because I had deleted them. And like an idiot, I replaced the iTunes folder on my external hard drive (the one I did correctly the first time), with the one I did wrong. So I believe I pretty much deleted all the music files from both my external hard drive and my computer. Please correct me if I'm wrong?
I believe getting all my music back on my itunes is a lost cause. BUT I still have all my songs and stuff on my iPhone. My question is, if I plug my phone into my computer and sync it, will it erase all my songs from my phone? A little more info, my iTunes still has the names and stuff of all my songs, they just can't be played because the files are missing, my iPhone doesn't need to erase and sync when I plug in my phone because it's already synced to my computer. What I'm afraid of is when I plug in my phone to backup and sync, will it erase my music because it can't find the files on my computer or external hard drive anymore? Or will it just leave the songs because they're already there (on my phone) and only sync the new songs that I've downloaded? I just need to know is my iTunes still going to be functional as far as me being able to backup my phone?
I have a lot of songs purchased from iTunes but a lot (like 60%) are from CDs that I no longer have. So re-downloading my music would only account for 40% of my library.

I had to uninstall my itunes off of my computer for technical reasons.....now that it is installed once again most of my music will not play. It has an error message that states can't locate the original file. How do I fix this?

I had to uninstall my itunes off my computer for technical reasons. Now that I have installed back most of my music won't play....the error says cannot locate original file. How can I fix this?

If you didnt cut and paste your music from the original location, it should still be there!
Go to the original Location of your music, Hope this helps.

(!) How to locate the original file for missing songs?

song could not be used because original file could not be found. Would you like to locate?
I got this message when I last tried to synch my ipod. The message said there were 100 files which could not be found.   Actually more than 100 songs show the exclamation mark that says the file can not be found.
Previous posts on this issue suggest the underlying file has been changed or moved out from the ITunes organisation. Well the last time I synched my ipod on Lion a few days ago it was fine. On Sunday I wiped my hard drive, carried out the upgrade to Mountain Lion as a clean install, and used Migration Assistant to bring my user data over. After that I ran cclean and disk utility permissions and disk verification. Then this happened.
I migrated my iTunes Library to an external hard drive six months ago. That was disconnected during the upgrade so I am not sure why the files can’t be found now.    Anyway, I want to recover the missing files . I could not find them by name, album or artist on the external drive. So I thought I would find them in Time Machine backup #1. I couldn’t!. Nor could I find missing songs on my alternate Time Machine backup #2. Both Time Machine backups are set to include the external drive. Songs recognised in iTunes are visible in the backups, but not the ones that are missing.
I have a third backup volume which was a clone of the Lion setup before I did the upgrade, but I can’t access this or Mac for a few days.
I did have some permissions failures after the 10.7.4 upgrade which resulted in creating 2 new standard user accounts. Maybe I’v e got some files across these users? But in that case I’d have seen problems before the upgrade?   I notice a fair number of these are compilations imported from CD about 4 years ago. Bu tnot all.
(1). Is there a smart way to list all the files that are missing?
I can scroll through all of ITunes Music to see where there are exclamation marks. I’d like to only list these missing songs.
(2). How can I locate the missing media files?
- a search on Name / Album / Artist hasn’t found them in live drives or on TM backups. I’ve still got the missing songs on my iPod, however.
Once I can answer these questions with your help I’ll know what would be the best way to try to recover, and to work out what went wrong. I’m shocked that I can’t find them in backup.   Eventually I can restore audio from original source. If they were photos that went missing from library and backups then I would have no way to get back!
(3) could this happen in iPhoto? (shiver)

Thanks for taking the time to look at my problem. Shared is empty and I didn't back it up - I only transferred the standard and Admin users to the clean install of Mountain Lion.
But I got some valuable insight into how the iTunes library is set up from your article on split Libraries. I'd like to see it in the Tips for iTunes for Mac.   My Itunes library was set up in pre-Itunes 8 structure, and as I'd moved it to an external drive it didn't get migrated to the new structure in recent upgrades, perhaps?
I found your article extremely useful : https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3991. That gave me the means to restore the missing files more quickly than getting the original CDs out and re-importing them to iTunes.
So I've now restored the missing files and started the backups rolling ....
I still don't understand how they went missing. However the best backup was the Ipod itself.

Song and Artist Info missing under itunes but not in the original file, and putting track number next to certian songs. Help

i recently updated my itunes...today i opened it up and moticed abuout 100 songs missing...they are now at the bottom of itunes song list with a number next to them with information mission such as this the example below
01 human                                                                 (this song should have the killers name as artist and cd title, etc)
01 hosanna     hillsong united                                 (this song should have the cd title to it)
02 lay me down                                          burning light
02 leave out all the rest
02 let it be                       the beatles
03 papercut
when i go under the original folders and files in the itunes folder everything is normal no missing info, etc. but under itunes orgnising its picking and choosing the same songs and putting the track number next to it and others songs in the same cd not. plus info missing. under the infor when i click right button all info missing there...but not under original file.
please help

A response on this subject from another post:
It could be that you have inadvertently imported these CDs into iTunes as part of a compilation. If so, the artists won't show in the artists menu on the iPod.
To check, highlight the tracks on one of the offending artists CDs in iTunes, right click and select "get info". This brings up a multiple song info window, and from there you can check if you have 'yes' in the box marked "part of a compilation".
If you have, select 'no' instead and click 'ok'. Do this with any CD that has this issue. This will alter the info in iTunes, and you should then connect your iPod and synchronize the changes.
The problem arises because the information contained on the Gracenote CD Data Base (where iTunes gets all it's album/artist/track info from), is sometimes incorrect. It can show CDs as compilations when in fact they are not.
ramstigo wrote:
I had an earlier post on this subject with a similar problem. I tried what you suggested and it worked indeed. You can select the artists from your Ipod on Itunes and after highlighting the artists/albums affected, click NO on the compilation box and the issue is resolved: the artists appear on the list.
Thank you so much!!!!.

Why is iTunes asking to locate the original file if I'm using Match?

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