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iTunes Cannot Locate Song Files...

I have double checked that iTunes is pointed to the right folder as per the iTunes Media Folder Location under Edit/Preferences/Advanced, however, I cannnot play any songs -- I get the message "The file "xxxx" could not be used because the original file could not be found. Do you want to located it?" The strange part is that when I click on "Yes" and used the browser function to locate it, I can go locate and select the song file and that song is then playable from iTunes.

Any thoughts?

Deill Inspiron 6400

Posted on Jun 6, 2010 10:18 AM

22 replies

Fishbone222 Author

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Jun 7, 2010 5:57 PM in response to Katrina S.

Okay...so I did a "Reset" (which reset it to my C drive) in Edit>Preferences>Advanced and then redirected iTunes back to my E drive where I want it get the music files. Then I DID get the prompt referred to above, however, that didn't help and the same problem exists. This is getting really frustrating.

BKKdude

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Jun 7, 2010 7:17 PM in response to Fishbone222

Same here, just used Migration Assistant to move files over to my new macbook and now my itunes can't locate the file. ***???

Fishbone222 Author

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Jun 9, 2010 1:37 PM in response to BKKdude

Problem solved...well sort of. What I didn't realize is that what Edit>Preferences>Advanced does is ONLY instruct iTunes where to put new music that is downloaded...it has nothing to do with getting existing music. Now, what I did was go to File>Add Folder to Library and choose the file where I want to get music from (in this case, per the above posts, my E drive). All of the E drive was added to my iTunes Library. My only mistake was that I added the E drive BEFROE deleting what is in the library, so now I have TWO of every song in the library...one pointing to my C drive and one pointing to my E drive. Any one know how to delete JUST the songs pointing to the C drive from my library???

Fishbone222 Author

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Jun 9, 2010 3:30 PM in response to Fishbone222

PROMBLEM TOTALLY SOLVED. To delete the duplicates, I simply went to File>Display Duplicates, sorted by Date Added (right click on the coloum title and select from the list) and then deleted anything that was not added today (remember that I added everything from E Drive to my library today). All looks to be okay.

Jul 2, 2010 7:18 AM in response to Fishbone222

Did this reset your play counts?

Jul 2, 2010 7:26 AM in response to Kirsty Chestnutt

I guess if you had to delete the original references, it did.

Can anyone offer an alternative? Half the files in my library can be found, the other half can't. If I look at the info for the tracks I discover:

Doesn't work: file://localhost/F:/iTunes/iTunes Music/

Works: F:\iTunes\iTunes Music

Is there a way I can edit a file to change all the file://localhost references to the one that works?

Jul 5, 2010 7:53 AM in response to Kirsty Chestnutt

I need to update some locations in my iTunes library from

file://localhost/F:/iTunes/iTunes%20Music/Music/Artist/etc

to

file://localhost/F:/iTunes/iTunes%20Music/Artist/etc

I've found that just editing the iTunes Library.xml doesn't work, it gets the old references from the iTunes Library.itl file.

Can anyone suggest a way of fixing?

iTunes Cannot Locate Song Files...