itunes cannot locate music in my library

I have the same problem. ITunes will not play my music. I found the music in the ITunes music file. But iTunes says it cannot find the original file. I recently downloaded some new music from the cloiud and that plays just fine from iTunes. I am not at all computer savvy and need someone to explain the exact steps I need to take so I can do whatever I need to do. Can I transfer what is in ITunes music to some other location so it will play? If so, how do I do that? Should I delete all my music and redownload? What is the easiest way to fix this?

If you can tell me the real location of a "missing" file and the path shown on the Get Info > Summary tab for the same track I may be able to suggest a remedy. Otherwise there is a detailed description of how to use my FindTracks script on the previous page.

tt2

(I tried to reply to your answer to me but there is no reply option on any entries after the first page?)

At any rate, my music is in ITunes Music folder.

When I click the get info iTunes says it is in the ITunes Media/Music folder.

I have found that if I go into the I tunes music folder and play a song and then go back to ITunes and stop it and play it again from I tunes, I can then access it from iTunes. I have done that for 2 songs now. Am I going to have to do that for all songs?

What is the location of the media folder given under Edit > Preferences > Advanced? If your library was created prior to iTunes 9 then the media folder is normally called iTunes Music, otherwise it is called iTunes Media. It sounds like iTunes may has accidentally reset the path to the current default. Changing it back to iTunes Music, then closing and reopening iTunes may well sort out the issue. Otherwise use my script.

tt2

I don't know what you mean by "edit > preferences> advanced". Where do I find that? Windows Explorer? ITunes? Where?

Also, when you say I can change the path back to iTunes music, how do I do that?

(I am fairly inexperienced at this)

In iTunes. You may need to use Alt or Ctrl+B to enable the menu bar. Once you've opened up Edit > Preferences > Advanced you can read of the current media folder path and use the Change button to alter it.

tt2

I just had a similar problem - some 400 files apparently lost, although I could find each one and restore it separately. The paths were different: itunes was apparently looking for that music in a folder called "transfer" rather than in the actual, unchanged "itunes" folder locations. If prompted to let itunes use the actual location to find other missing files I would of course agree, but it never worked.

However, closing itunes and deleting the hidden "sentinel" file, before reopening, restored everything in my library.

Many thanks.

(Now can Apple fix this so it does not happen again?)

Glad to hear you got it fixed. 🙂

To secure your library against similar problems in future see Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy.

tt2

Sadly, I was wrong. Deleting the "sentinel" file gets rid of all those exclamation marks only until I try to sync the ipod once again - the same thing, involving the same files as far as I can make out, happens all over again. The files remain on my ipod, for which I am glad, but I cannot play them on my computer without finding and 'restoring' each one separately. I really, really hate this.

OK. Let us recap.

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.

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. Either way if you give me both paths I may be able to offer further suggestions.

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.

To make sure WMP isn't moving things around see Getting iTunes & Windows Media Player to play nicely.

If your library has been moved from one system to another at some point then it may be worth checking the file permissions of your iTunes Media folder and any other folders where media is stored. See Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows.

Also check the media folder under Edit > Preferences > Advanced is as you expect it.

tt2

The difference in the location in every case that I have checked is as follows for ICKM.m4a [aka "Help!"]: the file is in

C:\Users\...\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\Music\F38\ICKM.m4a

but iTunes thinks it should be in

C:\Users\...\Music\transfer\Music\F38\ICKM.m4a

This started, for me, with the last iTunes update. I do not use Windows Media Player.

What is the media folder as listed under Edit > Preferences > Advanced?

tt2

C:\Users\..\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music

OK, so I guess these files were recovered from an iPod at some point and iTunes hasn't been allowed/able to rename them. What are the options for Keep... & Copy... in advanced preferences?

tt2

Where do I find said "Keep ... & Copy" options? There is nothing of the sort apparent under Edit > Preferences > Advanced...