sonjafrombrampton

Q: why cant itunes player locate downloaded files?

why cant itunes player locate downloaded files?

Posted on Feb 18, 2015 4:59 PM

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Q: why cant itunes player locate downloaded files?

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  • by joe_7399,

    joe_7399 joe_7399 Feb 20, 2015 6:48 AM in response to sonjafrombrampton
    Community Specialists
    Feb 20, 2015 6:48 AM in response to sonjafrombrampton

    Hi sonjafrombrampton,

     

    Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!

     

    It sounds to me like some of the songs you try to play in iTunes do not play because iTunes cannot locate the file. If this is correct, please read over and work through the steps in the attached article to help resolve this situation. 

     

    iTunes: Finding lost media and downloads - Apple Support

     

    Best regards,

    Joe

  • by hhgttg27,

    hhgttg27 hhgttg27 Feb 20, 2015 7:24 AM in response to sonjafrombrampton
    Level 5 (5,440 points)
    iTunes
    Feb 20, 2015 7:24 AM in response to sonjafrombrampton

    What files, and where were they downloaded from?  How were they added to your iTunes library?

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 Feb 20, 2015 1:05 PM in response to sonjafrombrampton
    Level 10 (86,986 points)
    Apple TV
    Feb 20, 2015 1:05 PM in response to sonjafrombrampton

    The "missing file" error 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, one of its parent folders, or 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. In the case of a library moved from one system to another there are also potential permissions issues. See Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows.

     

    Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to Get Info, then click No when asked to try to locate the track. (Due to a bug in iTunes 12 you currently have to say No twice!) 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, a folder renamed, or a drive letter has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions. If the difference between the two paths is an additional Music folder in one path then this is a layout issue. I can explain further if that is the case. The information contained in the two paths may also reveal if some other software is responsible for moving things.

     

    In some cases iTunes may be able to repair itself if you go through the same steps with Get Info but this time click Locate and browse to the lost track. It may then offer to attempt to automatically fix other broken links.

     

    If another application like Windows Media Player has moved/renamed the files then the chances are that subtle differences in naming strategies will make it hard to restore the media to the precise path that iTunes is expecting. In such cases, as long as the missing files can be found somewhere, you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes. See this post for an explanation of how it works.

     

     

     

    I may be able to give some more focused advice once there is a clearer picture of where things are.

     

    tt2