how do i get rid of exclamation points

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jg2011 Author

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how do i get rid of exclamation points

Transfered itunes library from an old windows to new windows 7. All the songs have exclamation points. How get rid of them

HP, Windows 7

Posted on Mar 11, 2011 9:40 AM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

272,719 points

Mar 11, 2011 9:49 AM in response to jg2011

You need to reconnect the library with the data. Attempt to Get Info on a track, cancel when asked to try to locate the file and note down the location given on the summary tab. Now search your computer for the actual location of that track. If you post back both locations, and the location of your *iTunes Library.itl* file, I can probably sort you out a set of step by step instructions to repair things.

tt2

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Answer 2

jg2011 Author

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Mar 11, 2011 9:56 AM in response to turingtest2

not a very tech savy person. so if you can give me a step by step explaination. I would appreciate it. thanks

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

272,719 points

Mar 11, 2011 10:35 AM in response to jg2011

Highlight the first track in your library. Press CTRL-I. This should give you a dialog box that says "The song <Name> could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" Click No. On the Summary tab of the next dialog box will be a line that reads something like:

Where: file://localhost/<some path>

For example if I rename the first track in my library as a test I get:

file://localhost/D:/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/a-ha/Take On Me/01 Take On Me.mp3

Now assuming you've copied all the necessary media across, your actual file will be at some other path, not the one iTunes is expecting. For example, if I had moved my iTunes folder from my D: drive to my E: drive then the actual location of the example file above would now be:

E:\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music\a-ha\Take On Me\01 Take On Me.mp3

My iTunes Library file is located at D:\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl, but the usual location is <User's Music>\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl. If you are not sure where yours is then the script iTunesXMLPath will tell you the location of the XML file which is in the same folder.

Those three bits of information should be enough for me to work out why iTunes is confused and tell you how to sort it out.

tt2

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Answer 4

Mar 11, 2011 11:55 AM in response to turingtest2

HI!
I am having the same issues after the most recent iTunes update, lost my library and cannot find it. I tried your suggestion on locating it but in my case it says all my music is under "localHost/user", whatever that means! Any ideas?

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Answer 5

turingtest2

Level 10

272,719 points

Mar 11, 2011 12:10 PM in response to valbertsons

valbertsons wrote:
HI!
I am having the same issues after the most recent iTunes update, lost my library and cannot find it. I tried your suggestion on locating it but in my case it says all my music is under "localHost/user", whatever that means! Any ideas?

I'm pretty sure yours is a different issue. Try this:

*Empty/incomplete library after upgrade/crash*
Hopefully it's not been too long since you last upgraded iTunes, in fact if you get an empty/incomplete library immediately after upgrading then with the following steps you shouldn't lose a thing or need to do any further housekeeping. In the *Previous iTunes Libraries* folder should be a number of dated iTunes Library files. Take the most recent of these and copy it into the iTunes folder. Rename *iTunes Library* as *iTunes Library (Empty)* and then rename the restored file as *iTunes Library*. Start iTunes. Should all be good, bar any recent additions to or deletions from your library.

See Music Folder Files Not Added and Super Remove Dead Tracks for clean-up tools , if required.

tt2

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Answer 6

Mar 11, 2011 1:19 PM in response to turingtest2

Hi! The only thing that comes up under Previous iTunes Libraries is iTunes Music Library.xml, there are no older dated libraries or anything. I am stumped.

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Answer 7

Jun 5, 2011 8:45 AM in response to jg2011

I have the same thing. I downloaded two .zip albums from the Internet, and now whenever I try to put on the second one, all the songs on the first album get exclamation marks. Then I re-import the first album and the second album gets marks. This makes no sense!

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Answer 8

M j u

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Mar 1, 2012 10:16 PM in response to jg2011

Troubled by exclamations? Here is the EASIEST SOLUTION

Right click the headings row in your iTunes library (the one with the Name, Artist etc) and check Beats Per Minute

1 Highlight every song in your iTunes library

2 Right click and select get info

3 Enter "999" in the BPM box and click OK

4 All your missing songs will have a blank BPM, all the non missing songs will have a BPM of 999

5 Sort your library by Beats Per Minute, delete / move etc all songs with a blank Beats Per Minute

6 Highlight all the songs in your cleaned library, Get Info, and reset BPM to blank

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Answer 9

turingtest2

Level 10

272,719 points

Mar 1, 2012 11:22 PM in response to M j u

But what if I use the BPM field? Your "solution" just destroyed all my data. There are better ways. For a Mac use Super Remove Dead Tracks, for PCs use iTunes Folder Watch with its option to check for dead tracks on startup.

BTW The original poster lost interest in this thread a year ago.

tt2

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Answer 10

Jun 21, 2012 4:40 AM in response to turingtest2

Saw your post here, and I see the path where the song is. But, how do I tell iTunes where it is and how to find it? And do I have to do that with ALL the songs? It won't let me copy and paste the path, either.....

Thanks,

Jill

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Answer 11

turingtest2

Level 10

272,719 points

Jun 21, 2012 5:01 AM in response to jilltn155

Hi Jill,

Looks like this thread has a mix of Windows and Mac advice in it, possibly for a slightly different problem

Here is my current advice for broken link issues for Windows users...

This 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, or that 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.

Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to get info, then cancel when asked to try to locate the track. 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, or a drive letter has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions.

Alternatively, as long as you can find a location holding the missing files, then you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes.

tt2

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Answer 12

Jun 21, 2012 8:04 AM in response to jg2011

I found the answer some months ago, apparently I had imported the files into iTunes, expecting Windows to recognize that as a file transfer so the .zip would extract. I later found out the way that iTunes handles importing and that it doesn't make a copy, it simply has an internal directory. I have since stopped using iTunes. VLC handles my needs now that I have a non-iPod MP3 player.

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