Why can't iTunes Find My Songs?
I have an iTunes/iPod problem. In August I created a library on one of my
computers with about 150 songs. I then created another library on a different
computer. I now want to put my old songs from the first library back into my
iPod. So, today I opened my first library and hooked up my iPod. For all the
songs I clicked (most) I got a message that said "This song could not be used
because the original file could not be located. Would you like to locate it? "
I was so confused. Have I lost all of my songs? The library hasn't been opened
in a while but is that a reason to mess up all the songs? Please help me!! I
want to listen to these songs.
This sounds like a problem with an iPod not being able to sync to two libraries at the same time. If that's the case, then your easiest solution would be to move the 150 song library over from one computer to the other, I think. But let's make sure that the problem isn't with the music library itself. Do you know the name of any one song in the 150? If so, open up the Terminal (Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal) then type in locate "XXXX" where "XXX" is a fragment of the song name you remember, with appropriate upper and lower case letters. You should get something like this: $ locate "Apple Tree" /Volumes/X2/iTunes Library/Michael Franks/Tiger In The Rain/Underneath The Apple Tree.mp3 /Volumes/X2/iTunes Library/The Andrews Sisters/The Best of The Andrews Sisters/Don't Sit Under The Apple Tree (With Anyone Else But Me).mp3 That will tell you the files from your music library are located on your disk (mine is in /Volumes/X2/iTunes Library/ ). Now open iTunes and when it says "do you want to locate it" say YES and navigate to that directory. I think it'll resolve all of them, but if not, you could also open the folder in the Finder and just drag all the album folders onto the iTunes app itself. Or, if you want to move all the songs over, use the Finder to move into the music library, click on all the song folders you're interested in, then command-click on any one selected folder to get the pop-up menu and choose "Make Archive". It'll create a ZIP file that has all the songs you want to move: copy that to your newer computer, then double click it to unpack and simply drag all the music folders onto the iTunes application itself. Try this, and report back to us how it worked out.
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Never miss another useful Q&A article again! Subscribe to AskDaveTaylor with Google Reader. It sounds more like to me that you added the files to the library and it wasn't set to automatically consolidate the music files in the library and you then deleted the originals thinking it had them in your liibrary also but they weren't there. Of course, I may be wrong and it may have just lost your library locations. Posted by: carey at January 9, 2005 10:51 PMmy problem is that i cant find my songs in any folders, i have a dell. i'm just trying to move my library on iTunes from one username to the others. i did accomplish to move it to one username but when i went back to the original username it could'nt locate the "original file" of most of my songs. to make matters worse i erased the library by clicking on one song that i could find,when i double-clicked it, it then replaced all my songs(which had exclamation points next to them)and all my playlists. Now i'm searching My Computer for my songs but i can't find any.Please help me, i'm soooooOOO frustrated can you please help me???!? Posted by: mike at July 9, 2005 6:28 AMFirst, I had a problem when loading a cd into the ipod from my pc laptop, where the original library is stored, and the itune program did not retrieve the song title and artist. Dave My Main Savior to be, help me, I can't access my music library in iTunes. It use to be there. I was able to download songs from this library onto iTunes. Now when I plug in my iPod "Richard's iPod" is displayed but my library is just highlighted, I cant do anything with it, can't play songs, can't download. If I try a message appears.. "The iPod "Richards iPod"is linked to another iTunes music library. Do you want to change the link to this iTunes library and replace all existing songs and playlists on this iPod with those from this library'. Dave I hit the yes button with my iPod shuffle and lost the songs that were on it. No big deal it was just an experiment. There is also a little picture of a lock where the load up bar is. Sorry I wasn't done. Dave can you please tell me what going on. Thanks so much Richard Posted by: Richard at January 4, 2006 9:13 PMSounds like what you might need is an iPod sync application so you can grab your files before you re-associate the unit with your computer. Why it lost that association is baffling, but if you're using a Mac, you'll find that versiontracker.com has a number of different matches for the search "iPod sync", and if you're a PC user, go to download.com and do the same search. Posted by: Dave Taylor at January 4, 2006 11:08 PMWe have a household "server" that has most of our music on it. Most have been copied from CD's (yes, that we'ver purchsed) I also have some music on my own computer. Although all songs are listed in my library, most of them have the exclamation point next to them and iTunes can't find/play them when i click on them. I have tried redirecting iTunes to the network computer that houses the songs but that doesn't work. I'll be da&&%#$(#ed if I'm going to manually direct each and every one of 3,000+ songs. Help!? : / Posted by: donna at January 10, 2006 10:22 AMive been haveing the same problems, only i havent done anything with itunes. i havent had any other IDs or usernames but my own. i download my cd's onto my itunes library and when finished i transfered the songs i wanted onto my ipod nano. this was fine until i went back the next day to change some of the songs on my nano and noticed that my library was not in itunes anymore. The wierd things is that if i go into properties my itunes still says that i have 5.67Gb worth of material in their, which is my colplete library. do you have any suggestions on how i can get my library back so that i can see it. Dave, I had my Ipod hooked up to my computer and when I signed onto Itunes it wiped out my library, completely and the songs on my pod. I cannot find them on my hard drive. Is there anyway to get them back? Thanks! Lynn Posted by: lynn at January 12, 2006 12:21 PMIf your songs are still on your iPod, you can download one of the many shareware ipod sync programs that will let you copy them onto your computer and then import them into iTunes again, without much fuss. If they're gone from the iPod too, well, bad news. They're gone. To find these sync programs, go to http://www.download.com or http://www.versiontracker.com/ (PC or Mac, respectively) and search for "iPod" or "iPod sync". Posted by: Dave Taylor at January 12, 2006 12:31 PMThis stuff makes me want to get rid of my iPod. I recorded my own voice on my iPod and I can't even download it because the iPod is so restrictive. This isn't copyrighted material, it's my own damn voice!!!! I should be able to pull it off of my iPod like any other computer file. Posted by: Dave at January 18, 2006 11:29 AMI have files on my computer in my music file that I tunes won't add into my library. They are all .mp3 files and I can see them in the music folder. When I add them to the library it shows that they are being added, but when I search for them they don't show up in I tunes. Help! Posted by: David at January 19, 2006 11:16 PMRecently I had to have my Dell laptop re-formatted. This meant it had to be wiped clean. Before wiping the laptop I burned a bunch of CDs with all the songs I had loaded to my iPod. I also saved the itunes *.itl and *.xml files that were on the computer. I would like to know if there is a way to restore the playlists I had originally created on my laptop so that when I re-install iTunes I can re-create my playlists. Thanks. Posted by: Brian at February 2, 2006 2:13 PMmy iTunes will not open because my eMac OSx says it they are in an invalid library. Can you help me. Posted by: Elisha Swenson at February 22, 2006 1:05 PMi want to burn a cd for my friend with my songs i have on my itunes, but they will only burn if they are in my library and half of the songs i wanna burn are only saved on my ipod and not in the library. i need to either get my songs from my ipod into my library or figure out how to burn from my ipod. HELP!!! Posted by: halli at April 22, 2006 5:11 PMhi i think i have a problem i was cleaning out my i tunes and created new folders so my songs would be organized and i deleted the old folders and now when i plug in my i pod to update it is saying i can not update because the folders needed to update have been deleted how can i get those folders back? i checked in my recycling bin and they are not there. please help me Posted by: Angela at June 5, 2006 2:08 PMDave, I have a question... you said to go to Application -> Utilities -> Terminal..but where is applications??? Posted by: Mike at June 10, 2006 2:05 PMI have all of the songz in my library but every time i try 2 update my ipod it alwayz sayz "songs on the iPod cannot be updated because all of the playlists selected for updating no longer exist." a couple dayz ago there was a new playlist added called "ipod sellection list" i deleted it though because it was no use. i want the songz back on my ipod pleaz help me Posted by: Jonathan at July 25, 2006 8:23 PMMike, I'm talking about a Mac when I talk about "Applications". A Windows system works differently. Check: http://www.askdavetaylor.com/about_itunes_windows.html Jonathan, I'm really not sure what's happened with your iPod because you definitely can add and delete playlists without affecting what music is actually on your iPod. When you *browse* your music collection by Artist, say, do you see all your songs, or have they all vanished? Posted by: Dave Taylor at July 26, 2006 8:03 AMMy problem is having multiple Ipods (two Nano's, and the 60Gig Ipod), and multiple computers. My wife likes some of the songs my daughter has on her Ipod, and I am not sure how I am going to add those to her Ipod without wiping out her whole library of existing songs. I have found a nifty freeware tool called "Ipod Dump" which basically "dumps" your Ipod's music onto another computer's library. You can find it at http://www.download.com under "Ipod Dump". After you install it, you copy the executable to the root of your Ipod and run it from there. Once you run it, all of your songs on your Ipod will show up and then you can "dump" those songs onto the computer. Be sure to read the help files to understand all the options and how to use it. It takes some getting use to, but it's not bad for a freebie. Posted by: mrmultimediaman at August 28, 2006 8:16 AMUse iPod Viewer (a free download) to get the files off of the iPod. Posted by: stingerman at September 5, 2006 4:28 PMHi, I have the same problem as Jonathan a few posts up. When I plugged in my ipod nano I got the message that "songs on the ipod cannot be updated because all of the playlists selected no longer exist". Now all the music is wiped off my nano. All the music is still in my itunes though, and still plays through itunes. Please help?!? Thanks so much in advance. Posted by: Lane at September 9, 2006 12:38 PMI NEED help! All of my songs on my itunes library,playlists, and ipod and gone! They were mostly all purchased and I had more than 300. I would really appriciate it if you could tell me how to retreive them from my computer somehow! Thanks. Posted by: Unknown at September 25, 2006 3:06 PMPlease How can I insert aCD into Itunes and download Posted by: phil at October 11, 2006 11:21 AMmy ipod nano has been freezing on me alot lately, and a little while ago i d/l a newer version of itunes and every since then i havent been able to put music onto my ipod or take songs off? Whats wrong with it? HELP ME ASAP!! i go every where with it and i need to put new songs on it and take the old ones off. THNX, Dave, thanks for your great articles. But in my case, the songs are there in the hard disk, but iTunes does not "see" them (after changing my booting hard disk by a new one with a new name and reorganizing the folders containing the songs). They all have an exclamation mark and if I double click one of them, it does not play but a prompt allows me to localize it. Then it plays OK. The problem is that I have several thousands of such songs sorted in several folders and sub-folders. How to fix that at once without having to do it ony-by-one? I know that I can drag and drop such folders of songs into iTunes, but I want to do it without losing my ratings and other information like last played, etc. I do not know how to accomplish that. In a nutshell, these songs were localized by iTunes at a time in other booting disk, but now they need to re relocalized without losing their information. And the original hard disk is no longer available. More details about this scenario/problem here: Relocating music i saved songs on my playlist but i cant seem to find them Posted by: tina at November 14, 2006 4:11 PMI have a weird problem with my iPod. On some (not all, not often) occasions when I add music and then try to play it by artist it doesn't list all the music by that artist, some (usually one) but not all. The songs are there because I can find them by song. The only way I have found to get it to work correctly is to do a restore on the iPod after I have added the music. I have two iPods and both have the same situation happen to them. I also have been through three Macs since iPod came out, and this situation has followed me from mac to mac. So I am pretty sure this is not a hardware issue. It seems to have started after apple did the update a couple years back that scrambles the filenames on iPod. Posted by: Steven at November 22, 2006 12:47 PMDave, thanks for your great articles. But in my case, the songs are there in the hard disk, but iTunes does not "see" them (after changing my booting hard disk by a new one with a new name and reorganizing the folders containing the songs). They all have an exclamation mark and if I double click one of them, it does not play but a prompt allows me to localize it. Then it plays OK. The problem is that I have several thousands of such songs sorted in several folders and sub-folders. How to fix that at once without having to do it ony-by-one? I know that I can drag and drop such folders of songs into iTunes, but I want to do it without losing my ratings and other information like last played, etc. I do not know how to accomplish that. In a nutshell, these songs were localized by iTunes at a time in other booting disk, but now they need to re relocalized without losing their information. And the original hard disk is no longer available. More details about this scenario/problem here: Relocating music For the people who had trouble getting music onto their own iPod, I had the same problem and I have a solution for you. In iTunes (I have Windows) go to Edit -> Prefrences. Then go to the iPod tab. You should see a white box with two options above it. Both are about your iTunes playlist and updating your iPod. If you try one or another.. I'm sure one will work. I hope my advice helps. Posted by: Clean at December 4, 2006 9:39 PMI just got a nano as a gift. I tried to transfer music from my pc to ipod. I can not find files on ipod when not plugged into computer however when I plug into computer and got to ipod flash drive I can play my music??? I don't get this at all! Please help! I have itunes on my system but am not able to download songs onto my ipod? Every time I even try some option it says, insert CD??? Posted by: pawan at December 18, 2006 9:25 AMSo I recently got a new computer and a new ipod, and instead of transfering all my songs on itunes from my old computer to my new one, I synced them using my old ipod. I can listen to the songs in my library fine, but i am unable to access my music folder under "Brock's Ipod". What can I do so that I can listen to my songs under my ipod? Posted by: Brock at January 23, 2007 3:58 PMI want to burn a playlist on itunes onto a disk. I insert a blank disk and click burn in the upper right hand corner. It says checking disk... the it says checking playlist... and then it says an eror occured number 261. and with that a wizard pop up comes up saying this file could not be written onto the cd. How do i fix this? Posted by: Austin at February 9, 2007 4:58 PMMy iTunes won't show that my iPod is hooked up! HELP!...please :( Posted by: Bobby at February 9, 2007 5:29 PMwhy cant i find the songs i am ever looking for? Posted by: Sarah at February 12, 2007 3:41 PMMy iTunes is really messed up. No Songs are on my iPod for some reason. I have no idea what is going on. I even tried clearing some songs and then re-uploading them but it still says I can't upload. Thanks! - Chloe Posted by: Chloe at February 20, 2007 12:02 PMHey dave, i was trying to put songs onto my ipod mini and it was trying to upload and the ipod was full. It popped up with that message. Then it popped up with something that said would you like to create a selection list to go on our ipod (or something liek that) and i clicked ok. So a new playlist popped up called Max's ipod selected list. (or sumthing like that) So i took out the ipod and the only playlist on the ipod was that one with all the songs on it. So i deleted a couple of songs to have room to put more songs on. I then deleted that playlist from the itunes. All the other paylists i had were still there and all the songs so i thought it would be ok. WHen i deleted it it wiped all the songs off the ipod. Now when i try to upload them back on it says 'songs on the iPoMax's iPod cannot be updated because all of the playlists selected for updating no longer exist'. what can i do about this and get the songs back onto the iPod. Cheerse Max Posted by: Max Pringle at March 1, 2007 3:35 AMI had a playlist in iTunes (windows) where my music to put on my shuffle was (all the best songs for running). I store all my music on my external hard drive. When I didn't have the external plugged in, and went to charge my shuffle, it deleted all the songs. I plugged the external back in, but itunes now wants me to manually locate every file on the playlist. Is there any way to tell it to just search for the whole playlist in the file it should be in? I don't have the time to redirect all of the songs... Posted by: Lynn at March 4, 2007 4:56 PMI Just recently got a new computer. cuz my old one stopped working the mother board went out and.but the hard drive is still good. But now on my new comp. i do not have itunes.So if i was to download itunes again would i be able to get all my music and videos back on to my comp. Posted by: Daniel Cordova at March 5, 2007 11:06 PMMy dad copied all my songs from iTunes on a CD and now when I try to listen to my songs off iTunes, if it was one my dad copied) I can't listen to them. "This song could not be used because the original file could not be located. Would you like to locate it? " But then whe I try to find it. The Locatiosn box closes, i have search my harddrive and everything and my songs are nowhere. Can you help me? Posted by: Heather at March 13, 2007 6:36 PMHi Dave, I have a similar problem to Daniel Cordova ^^^^^. I had had iTunes on my computer, but to due to an excessive amount of viruses my dad had to remove and reinstall everything including my iTunes library, which was never backed up onto a disc. Is there anyway for me sync my iPod with my new iTunes library? thanks Posted by: Paul at March 20, 2007 2:14 PMI have recently noticed that a lot of my songs are just disappearing for no reason. More and more go each day. I will click on a song, and it will say that it is unable to locate it. So i go to locate it, and i can't find any of my songs anywhere. All the songs that don't work have an "!" mark by it if that is to any help answering my question. All the songs that are gone are all from itunes, or from burned CD's. Please help, i have no idea what to do! Posted by: Kate at March 24, 2007 10:32 PMI can't find my library in itunes. Whenever I open itunes the library is black and all my songs are gone. When I plug in my ipod, itunes recognizes the device and shows my old library only I cant access it. What should I do? Posted by: Amanda at March 27, 2007 3:17 PMthankiuu a lott i finally updatd my i-pod well not fnally actually i only took abou 2 to 3minute but thnx XD Posted by: me at April 4, 2007 2:56 PMI also have the problem: "songs on the iPod cannot be updated because all of the playlists selected for updating no longer exist" and don't know how to fix it. If you have any ideas that would be great. Thanks Posted by: Angela at April 10, 2007 10:22 PMI have all my music on my pc's hard drive in the 'my music' folder (c:\documents and settings\my documents\my music. itunes is pointing to the folder and all the songs appear in my library but some appear with a ! saying the original copy could not be located. When it asks to locate the file I am able and I can play them through itunes. Once the song is played the ! disappears but when I synch my ipod the songs will not copy to the ipod and the ! returns. The songs are on my pc and I can get itunes to find them but they still won't save to my ipod. Posted by: Jeff at April 15, 2007 9:30 PMMore on Ipods I have an issue finding songs and artisits on my ipod. When I plug my ipod into my laptop and browse it through My Computer it will show the artist I want (eg Avril Lavigne) and that foulder will show all her songs. But when I unplug my ipod and try to scrol through the artists its not there. If I try looking for the song they're also not there?? Why is it that they are on the ipod but I cant find them anywhere? It's really pissing my off. I tried removing the whole artist folder and resyncing it which didnt work I renamed every song just in case and I've restarted the ipod so many times I couldn't count. Nothing is working! Any ideas? Posted by: Bianca at April 20, 2007 8:20 PMI have a BIG PROBLEM. YESTERDAY I OPENED ITUNES AND I NOTICED THAT MY LIBRARY AND PLAYLISTS ARE COMPLETLEY ERASED AND I'M AFRAID IF I PLUG MY IPOD IN THEN ALL MY SONGS ON MY IPOD WILL BE LOST. I LOVE TO PUT MUSIC ON MY IPOD BUT NOW I CAN'T. IF SOMEONE WOULD PLEASE HELP ME.... THANKS Posted by: Kasey at April 22, 2007 2:39 PMin iTunes it says songs on the iPod cannot be updated because all of the playlists selected for updating no longer exist how can i get new ones Posted by: Grac at May 14, 2007 11:20 AMI have all of the songz in my library but every time i try 2 update my ipod it alwayz sayz "songs on the iPod cannot be updated because all of the playlists selected for updating no longer exist." a couple dayz ago there was a new playlist added called "ipod sellection list" i deleted it though because it was no use. i want the songz back on my ipod pleaz help me Posted by: Katie at May 14, 2007 1:20 PMHow do I have itunes automatically search for the mp3s located in different areas of my hard drive? Posted by: davide at May 19, 2007 11:41 AMi have a huge problem...i found all of my itunes library and music stuff all gone...and if i were to plug my ipod back in im afraid it would delete all songs on my ipod....what do i do? i just updated my itunes and it maid my playist that started with numbers like 50 cent end up at the bottom of my playist how can i get it back to numbers then a-z ? Posted by: wahkeen hunter at July 12, 2007 9:15 AMOkay, so I don't really think that my problem has to really do with this, but I downloaded a CD to my Windows Media Player, and now I wanna download the songs I ripped from my CD to my iPod. I have to use iTunes to do it, but it doesen't have the songs I downloaded to sync on there. How do I fix this? Posted by: Allison at August 3, 2007 9:53 PMsometimes when i install other mp3 players cd, my songs on computer go missing. so i always make sure i place the songs organized. Posted by: phurbu t namgyal at October 24, 2007 3:33 PMi have anew IMAC however iam not sure how togo on itunes with the last of songst...l hat i acan buy for 99cents please walk me through do igo on safari/or where . ido have songs like six of them that i allready purchase i would like an itemized from step 1 to step2 etc my computer is amonth old paid1,200.00 i had a dell for 6 y2ars and i find this one difficult because i am doingwhat i think i should all iwant is the list of allsongs so icould access it easealy Posted by: marguerite lambert at November 1, 2007 12:49 PMhi iv turned on the computer & i opened itunes & half of my music was gone how do u get it back? why is it then when i go to edit-preferences-automaticlly update when i click playlists-then it goes red my brady's ipod folder and says- ''brady's ipod cannot be updated because the dick could not be read from or written to? please help me!?!?!?! yours hopefully brady Posted by: brady at December 8, 2007 2:43 PMI have managed to put all my songs on itunes and from there on to my ipod. Very happy with that. However what I want to do now is to save all my songs in my library approximately 15gb(i think that is the amaount I have used)on to a cd so they are saved. This is because I am moving and I am not sure if I will take my computer with me. What kind of cd should I be looking for . Is there one that is big enough to take all my songs and if so how do I do it? Dave, I don't mean to even the slightest bit redundant but i my itunes running on Windows. I have around 1600 songs on my external HD. One day i connected my iPod to the PC and all my songs displayed in itunes but all came up with exclamation points. As i clicked on the songs i got the error message that everyone else gets "can't locate file...blah, blah". So when i manually locate the file the song plays but when i disconnect from i tunes and reconnect...the same problem occurs. I see all my songs in my external HD so i know they are there but for some reason my itunes is not recognizing it. Can you assist me? Posted by: Sean at December 10, 2007 8:21 AMHenriette, I'm sorry to say that there's not a CD (or DVD) in the world that can store 15GB of information. A CD can hold about 700MB, so you'd need about 22 CDs. a DVD can hold about 4GB, though, so that'd be easier if your computer can burn DVDROM disks: that'd be 4 DVDs of music. Somehow, though, I bet you have more than 15GB of music... :-) Sean, I would go into the preferences / settings for iTunes and make sure that it's looking for your music library in the right place on the correct disk. Then you can have it rescan your computer for music and hopefully it'll all be fixed. Posted by: Dave Taylor at December 10, 2007 11:55 AMOops, seems like Mr. Dave Taylor doesnt happen to know whats going on in the world today....you can store 25GB on Blue Ray Discs, and 50GB on Dual Layer Blue Ray, you can already buy commercially available Blu-Ray Recorders (around £400). I will forgive the indiscretion if you are not technically minded ;) However thats besides the point :p I have a similar situation only my data is located on a network volume, iTunes is one of my other PCs. iTunes is set to copy the files/folders locally when you add them into the play list across the network, even after this it still cannot locate some of them without me manually setting the pointer...even though it just downloaded them....not how i said some...this doesnt happen with them all... Posted by: Billy Bob Thornton at December 26, 2007 5:29 AMHI, I have had serious problems with my ipod where I could not transfer my library to a new computer. I have been at this for 4 months with various different people helping me. I have eventually managed to get all my library on my new computer "a Dell Inspiron" however every time i click on a song it says it cannot locate the original. the library now looks ok however it will not play songs until I manually find it. any ideas ? thanks in advance Posted by: emmet at January 3, 2008 2:47 PMi try dragging music from my itunes library to my ipod but when i do it won't let me put the music on my ipod. Posted by: Johnson at May 7, 2008 1:52 AMI have two problems: 1. I can't download track titles from itunes when I copy my cd to itunes. 2. When I attempt to update my itunes software, I get the following message: Error reading to file. Verify that you have access to that directory c:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\etc\America\Zone Info\Rainy_River. Thank you in advance! Posted by: Scott at May 12, 2008 7:15 AMI cannot play recently purchased and downloaded music, tthe file cannot be located. Can you help Posted by: B Grant at July 9, 2008 12:42 PMI just bought an iPod Shuffle, but I want to delete songs from my Library without deleting them on the iPod too. Is there any way to do this? Posted by: Melanie at August 15, 2008 8:00 PMhey Posted by: ardell at August 27, 2008 4:56 PMI am having an issue. I am trying to add a file to my iTunes library, but it wont add the file. I dont know how to get the file to show up in the iTunes library Posted by: Randy at October 20, 2008 5:55 PMi just purchased a song and the transaction went through but i tried to look at the song i just bought and it wasnt in my albums or music library anywere am i looking in the wrong spot ? how do i find the song i just bought? it said it was downloaded but i cant find it, please help! Posted by: brooke at October 24, 2008 11:20 AMHello! I recently bought an iphone and updated stuff any synced stuff last weekend. Today I connected my iphone to computer, opened up itunes, and all songs have gone have library. When this has happened before (always unexpectedly!) I have simply recopied the files to the itunes folder from my harddrive where they still appear but it messes up all my "added to" dates and deletes playlists. Is there a better/another way of doing it? Have checked library link in itunes is correct...it is...but still won't recognise location. Posted by: sarah at November 9, 2008 8:26 AMWhen I click on the itunes icon to open itunes, the windows installer box comes up, it tells me to wait while it installs and then says I need to verify access to a directory??? I don't know why all of a sudden this is happening. Can you help?? Posted by: Christy at November 17, 2008 7:14 PMwhen i connect my cable 2 my ipod it doesnt shows on i-tunes that it is connected :S please help someone :) Posted by: Sam Sunter at November 18, 2008 2:12 PMI am trying to add more songs to my I tunes library, but when I try to add more songs to my library they dont appear in my library and i cant update my library because the songs dont go into my library ? Posted by: Matt at November 23, 2008 2:43 PMI have just bought an imac. I have all my music on an exteranl drive. I cannot import the music it has imported 300 songs but I have about 3000 and I go to library /import and nothing happens. any help? I am new to mac and dragging the files across does not work either. arrrgh I am going insane!! Posted by: Jo at December 7, 2008 4:21 PMDave, Itunes is no longer able to find songs which were not purchased from the istore directly or downloaded from CD's. I have around 1400 songs which have been downloaded from other sites and when I click on these songs in itunes it says it cannot locate the file for each of them. I have searched my hard drive and it appears they are nowhere to be found- I don't know how but apparently they have ALL been deleted/removed from the hard drive. Is there any way I can get these songs back?? I have not synced my ipod yet so I am wondering if I can retrieve the files from there somehow? HELP- I am incredibly frustrated and can't imagine what I am gonna do if I find I have lost all these files... I am hoping you can offer some type of solution to this problem. Thanks, Dave Posted by: Dave at December 8, 2008 5:26 PMI installed a new server and now when I try to play songs aor make a new playlist a lot of songs come up with this note : Sorry could not be used because the original file could not be found- how do i locate the files or songs so I can have acces to my songs again in I-tunes. Need a basic step type of answer as I'm not the most computer literate guy. Thanks in advance. Posted by: steve linebaugh at December 10, 2008 3:12 PMi have my ipod given by my dad, my problem is i dont have its cd where i can open it to my computer and put songs on it. my dad did not include the cd and his in other country. is there anything i could find or do to delete and add songs in my ipod? Posted by: Sara at December 19, 2008 12:39 AMi was downloading songs on itunes when i got done i shut off the pc and then the next mornin i went to download them on my ipod then my ipod didnt have and my pc didnt have the songs ethier please help Posted by: Jarrett at January 1, 2009 5:49 PMI just released a tool at sourceforge, which dummy-users can use, when iTunes "lost" their files. It is tested with iTunes 8.0.2. It searches all files in your music directory. But additionally, it also works, when you renamed your files, not just moved them (comparing file names and letting you choose out of the most propable). "DOWNLOAD":http://itunesrepair.sourceforge.net/ (hope you do not regard this as spam). okay, so i was trying to open my itunes and at first it wouldnt open the once i got it open none id my songs were there. it said that my billing address was wrong but once i fixed the problem they still werent there! i had at least 181 purchesed song and about 500 off cd's. im not sure what happen but i didnt have them on back up or anything. now im scared... what do i do. Posted by: hazelyy at January 23, 2009 10:38 AMi have a question dave pls help....... hey dave i just bought a new mac lap top and when i put in my cd to create my libary they are not coming up with the song name artist or any info and i am having to type in all the infomation myself. when i do this however my computer doesnt see the songs as part of an album... this never happened with my old mac... any hints?? Posted by: bel at February 13, 2009 3:14 PMokay soo i have a problemm.....i cant see my library or any playlists orr ANYTHINGG......all i see is a box which i can play my music but i cant access my playlistss or the ituness storee!!! and ive triedd jus about everything :( Posted by: Jamieee at February 27, 2009 8:21 PMmy problem is that i can't find my songs on iTunes... Im trying to find them so I can delete all of them, so I can give it to my sister, but when i get on my library on iTunes... My songs arn't there! Someone help me please. :/ Posted by: ashton at March 8, 2009 10:53 AMi had my laptop wiped because i had i virus, i had bought songs from itunes but i didnt put them on my ipod is there any way to get them i downloaded itunes again i see them in purchase historybut not in libary please help!! Thanks Posted by: jenny at March 22, 2009 5:47 AMDave, hi Hi Dave, i have a question - I just purchased my first I pod - and have been trying to down (or up) load some of my personal cd collection on to i tunes to download onto the unit - it all works well except the i tunes cannot find album or Cd cover - it shows me album title, artist and song tile but no art cover - so i really cannot use the coverflow feature on my i pod - is it something i am doing wrong ? or did i set up something wrong or how can i fix the problem can you help? Enzo Posted by: Enzo at April 14, 2009 1:25 PMI'm in love with a song that sounds like the 'macarena' on itunes store, but I can't stinking find it!!The song is called Macadamia Nut, or something, and it's SOO addicting! All the stupid store can come up with is is a dang song called macadamia, and it sounds like a string on garage band! UGHHHHHHH!!! Anyway, what should I do, or type in, please?
Beccy again. forgotto say that i hav an ipod shuffle, so i cant watch videos. Thanks Beccy Posted by: Beccy at April 16, 2009 5:38 PMhello....i hooked up my ipod to a new laptop and there was a message asking if I wanted to scan for any probems and I clicked "yes". Afterwards I got a message saying that my music and data was tranferred into a "found" folder. Then I found out that all my music, videos and everything else I had just disappeared. However, the ipod indicated that the space is still used, but it is all in the "other" category. Can you help me get my stuff back? thanks.. Posted by: Keith at May 3, 2009 3:57 AMOn the iTunes store, I can't find the songs that I would like to buy. Do you know why? Posted by: Kevin at May 23, 2009 4:19 PMKevin, I don't really understand what you're saying. Are you sure that the songs and artists are *in* the iTunes Store? It doesn't have all CDs by all musicians. If you know that it is in the Store and you can't get to it, well, um, try using someone else's computer to search for it? Then check to see if you have any parental controls or something enabled on your own computer? Good luck. Posted by: Dave Taylor at May 27, 2009 11:25 AMrecently in my itunes when i would click on a song to listen to it, and a little circle with an exclimation point would pop up next to it. Then a window would pop up and say that its "original file can not be found" and ask me if i would like to find it but i would have no idea where to look. Is there a way to fix this so my songs will play from my itunes and to make sure it dosn't happen again? please help me, o and i have windows xp, and i currently downloading the only update avaliable for my itunes right now, so im pretty sure its up to date. Posted by: Heather at June 4, 2009 11:01 PMWhen I plugged in my ipod nano I got the message that "songs on the ipod cannot be updated because all of the playlists selected no longer exist". Now all the music is wiped off my nano. All the music is still in my itunes though, and still plays through itunes. Also, when i try to add songs from my itunes onto my Ipod it doesn't even find it and wont accept. I NEED MAJOR HELP, I LOVE MY IPOD!! :( please help me dave hi dave, why won't itunes play music on my ipod after i delete the file off my hard drive? it still plays on my ipod, but when i connect to the computer it won't play through itunes and says it can't locate the file! I'm just trying to save space on the HD and they ping me for it! how do i get around that? thanks for readin dave Posted by: Ryan at June 28, 2009 4:15 AMDave, hi dave had to clear my computer and now i have no itunes library and can not purchase any songs, it doesnt even show my ipod on the list can you please tell me what to do ? thanks alot Posted by: julia at July 15, 2009 10:10 AMhey its beccy and never mind about what i asked earlier, it was a song from animaniacs, wich was on tv from 1993-1998. so yeah. bye. Posted by: Beccy at August 26, 2009 10:02 AMHi, I have all of my library on an external hard drive... I made the mistake of upgrading to itunes 9 without the external drive on... As part of the upgrade, V9 reset all the file locations it couldn't find to null... and so now I have to relocate the files one by one... is there a faster way to do this with my 9,000 songs?! Posted by: Craig at September 29, 2009 3:10 PMCraig, go to Preferences and just change the location of your library to the external drive. That should do it... Posted by: Dave Taylor at September 29, 2009 7:35 PMI had bought almost 500 songs from itune the computer it was on crashed and i had another computer i was placing songs on and when i hooked in the ipod i accidently erased my library in my ipod how can i get the bought songs back from itune Posted by: Jehsee at October 20, 2009 11:35 AMI accidentally removed all the files from my itunes but they are still on my computer; how do i get them back on my itunes? Please help me. Posted by: Jasyn at October 22, 2009 9:00 PMi just got a new computer and before we got it i put all my songs onto mine and my moms ipod but now i cant figure out how to get those songs onto my new itunes. I clicked sinc and it said some songs cant be played on my new computer? How do I get al my songs back!? Posted by: logan at October 31, 2009 3:41 PMdo you email me the awnsers or do i have to check this website please im desperate Posted by: logan at October 31, 2009 5:21 PMThe best Thing to do after you find out which folder on your hard drive your music is in(Mine is on an external HDD to save space on my Laptop for games)click EDIT on the top bar and select preferences or use the shortcut Ctrl+, once in the preferences window select advanced. there is a box labeled "iTunes Media folder location" click Change... and input the folder location or navigate to. Posted by: cory at November 20, 2009 9:14 PMWhen I sync my ipod it says the movie (which is the main thing I'm trying to get on my ipod) wasn't synced to the ipod because the ipod can't play it, yet the ipod has a video section. Can you help me? Posted by: Ashley at November 21, 2009 12:22 AMDear Dave, Dear Dave, I have all my music on an external hard drive. I deleted and reorganized a lot of music on the drive and it's not reflected in my itunes library. Do you know how I can have my itunes library mirror what I've done on my external hard drive? Thank you, Dave: Hi Dave, Im totally scared. I tired to find a soundtrack on the internet, and the owner of the tracks said i could download it, but when i did, i tried putting it on itunes but... everything was gone! All i had was the sound track! My parents are gonna kill me! PLEASE! I need help! do i have to buy all of our over 10,000 songs we had on there back?! Because i dont have the money!! HELP! -Ivy Posted by: Ivy at December 26, 2009 5:46 PMHow can I get my music folder back to my laptop from an externa drive, so I can listen to my Itunes libraries again. Posted by: Deifilia Lanza at December 29, 2009 8:28 PMI HAVE SONGS ON MY COMPUTER THEY WILL PLAY FINE . I HAVE SONGS ON MY EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE THEY WERE PLAYING FINE 84000. NOW I SHUT IT DOWN ONE DAY AND THE NEXT DAY IT WILL NOT PLAY SONGS OFF MY ECTERNAL WHEN YOU CLICK ON THE SONGS A EXCLAMATION MARK COMES UP WHAT DO I NEED TO DO TO FIX THIS Posted by: RANDY at January 6, 2010 9:20 AMHow does one find which (or how many) playlists a particular song is in?? Posted by: the blacks at January 9, 2010 9:11 AMhi i bougth a new computer and i downladed itunes then i couldnt find any find any of my songs they are still on my i-phone but i want to deleate so and i cant becasue i need to acsess them on itunes to do so help me please many thanks in advance Dear Dave, Katya, I suggest that you launch iTunes on your daughter's Mac, then choose Add to Library... from the File menu and select the new music folders. That should do the trick. Posted by: Dave Taylor at February 6, 2010 11:15 PMDear Dave I saved my music off my computer onto an external hard drive. Then brought it back onto this computer. Now my iTunes says it cannot find itunes in my music folder and therefore will not open itunes. What do I do. Posted by: Doug at February 14, 2010 6:53 PMHello, I can't sync the songs from my itunes to my iphone. There is an exclamation in a grey circle next to all my songs. When I click on the song to play it, a message saying 'song could not be used cos original file could not be found'. How do I sync and get songs on my iphone? Posted by: Eunice at March 11, 2010 5:42 AMYour advice of copying the music folder to my ITunes worked like a charm! Thanks so much for the help! Posted by: Elizabeth Harrington at March 17, 2010 7:31 AMI have a problem... I have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...
I do have a comment, now that you mention it!
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