HELP! "Original File Could Not Be Found" iTunes 7 UPGRADE

I've just found the same problem as soon as I opened iTunes after auto-upgrading to version 7.

When I try to locate the old music files via the dialogue box option offered, it finds a directory called Previous iTunes Libraries with today's date. But if I select this nothing happens.

MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.8)

If you find the song first you can direct iTunes to it by going all the way down the path to the song itself but this is very tedious and time consuming. I have the same problem you do with over 16000 songs so obviously I can't recatalog that many songs. I'm looking for another solution. If you find one please let me know. Thanks, Ann

Same problem. Anyone have a solution yet?

Hokay, soh

Select all your music and hit delete

Unless you've told it not to show again, a window will come up saying "Are you sure you want to remove the selected songs from your iTunes library"

Select remove

On the ensuing window, it will ask you if you "want to move the selected songs (including those purchased in the iTunes store) to the Trash, or keep them in the iTunes folder?

Select KEEP

Now navigate to your iTunes music folder:

Music>iTunes>iTunes music

You can drag the iTunes music folder into iTunes to add to your library. All your music should now be imported to your iTunes library.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE be careful when deleting the music from the library. Since the music isn't being played in the library, obviously the original file isn't linked to the song in the library, but you never know. I would feel awful if you deleted all your music. So, be sure to select KEEP.

Good luck

I followed your instructions because I was having the same problem. My library dropped from 4000+ songs to 850. Any thoughts?

Ye cats! This upgrade and its "updating iTunes library" just left 99 percent of my 5,600 songs MIA with grey exclamation points. It managed to retain most of the iTunes purchases and a couple of audiobooks, but everything else is toast.

In the past, I've been directed to the hodge-podge of iTunes-related AppleScripts designed to weed out dupes and do housekeeping, but I've found many of them out of date and/or fatally flawed. When, oh when, is Apple going to get some reliable, smart internal tools to fix these kinds of glitches?

Are there thorough instructions available here to just wipe out the current iTunes trainwreck and start over from scratch? I have my playlists archived (learned that the hard way in an early upgrade) and I don't care about playcounts or ratings or that stuff. I'd just like for iTunes to be smart enough to keep track of the songs in its database from version to version.

Tim

titiger,

Others have found this article helpful in resolving this:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301895

Hope this helps,

Generik

Dual 2.3 GHz PowerPC G5 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

If it were me I would delete the "itunes Library" file... then find all my music and either drag it into itunes or pick it in the "add to library" under file.

good luck

JD

No help for me. My most recent "previous" iTunes Library was ancient, so after trying what the article suggested, I lost all my recent playlists, imports and pod casts - PLUS - the same files could still not be found.

Actually, that article may be addressing a different problem - which the article states as: "After upgrading iTunes, if your music and videos do not show up in iTunes..."

In my case, the songs "show up" in iTunes - they just won't play.

Since this problem seems to be ongoing, I wonder if pooling some information might get us closer to a solution. Here are my observations; please refute or confirm based on your experience:

1. In every case, if one song on an album can't be found, then every song on that album can't be found.

2. In my case, not every album is affected, but after trying numerous fixes (none successful) the same albums are consistently not found.

3. Some have indicated that music added their library after a certain date is the music that cannot be found. That is not my observation. Sorting my library by Date Added or Date Modified does not show any pattern in my case.

4. I believe the most (but not all) albums which cannot be found also have problems with the album artwork, but I can't tell if that is a symptom or a cause.

Whether the artwork can be seen or not is not consistent. Sometimes iTune's browser window shows the album art, but if you 'Get Info' for any track on the affected album, no artwork is displayed in the get info panes. At various other stages of troubleshooting, the browser does not show the album art either, but then at some later stage, the art reappears in the browser (but never in the get info tabs).

Many, but not all, of the affected albums have art which I have added, using one of two Apple Scripts: a. Fetch Art (v1.2 - http://members.cox.net/afriesen3//fetchart/index.html), or, b. Find Album Artwork with Google ( http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/scripts11.php?page=1#findalbumartwork).

Most of the 2000 songs in my library were ripped from my collection of CDs, some were purchased from the iTunes store, and a few are mp3 downloads or ripped from vinyl LPs. Many of my CDs are from obscure artists which are not available from the iTunes store, so album artwork was not available from Apple.

Of the 23 albums (or partial albums) I have purchased from the iTunes Store, 9 will play and 14 won't. Of the 9 that will play, the album artwork is visible in both the browser and 'get info' tabs. Of the 14 'bad' albums (which have songs that cannot be found), the artwork is visible in the browser, at first, but NOT in the 'get info' tabs. After looking at get info, on the 'bad' albums the album art often (but not always) disappears from the browser, and re-launching iTunes will sometimes (but not always) cause the 'bad' album art to reappear in the browser (but never in the get info panes).

Sorry for the long post, but maybe with more data, a pattern will emerge that may point to a solution.


Quicksilver G4, was 867MHz, now 1.47 GHz (FastMac CPU) Mac OS X (10.4.8) 1 GB RAM, SeriTek 1S2 SATA PCI card, Adaptec 2930** SCSI card

I no longer believe there is any direct connection between the artwork and which files can not be found. The strange disappearing/reappearing album artwork seems to more a function of the differences in the way artwork from the iTunes store is stored compared to artwork from other sources.

I finally gave up on finding a one-button fix and, I manually re-established the links to each music file. It didn't me as long to fix my 800 files as I spent looking for an 'easy' solution.

Has anybody had the problem re-occur after fixing it? If so, what version of iTunes?

I had the same problem. I was so frustrated and overwhelmed by the potential time it would take to fix, I let it sit for a week. When I opened iTunes, I was told there is a new version (7.1.1). I installed it and voila! iTunes can find all of my songs again on my external drive. Thanks Apple, for taking care of what you call a "minor compatability issue."

1.83 GHz MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.8)

so i share a computer with 3 other people, and the four of us have ipods. two shuffles, the old and the new one that came out, a nano and my ipod video. recently, when i add music to my playlist and i press apply so that it can add the music, a message appears saying that my ipod could not be updates and etc. also in the message, the following number appears : [-50]. ivd already gone through the whole website on itunes...ivd even installed the new itunes and tried again, i even restored my ipod and deleted all my songs, though i still have them in folders...and it still doesnt work. anyone know whats going on? i think its similar to the replys on this topic.

Hi Gary

I don't think I've got the time to go through all your problems, but the following may help a little.

I upgraded to iTunes 7.1.1 yesterday and today found a few "strange" occurrences. The first is album art. I ran "Get Album Art" last week but I'm not sure how much I received but there are some definite new ones there.

First, list your songs by name and look for duplicates. I have found with some duplicates (careful here, you might have the same song on two different LPs/CDs), using Get Info, the album art is on one but not the other. The one it is on has no link to the Music Folder. The one with a link to the music does not have the album art but, it will show up in browser.

To fix, open the file with the album art, select "Artwork" at the top right. Click on the artwork and copy. Select next (it might be previous), to get the file without the artwork. Select "Artwork" and paste. The artwork will now be on the file with the music. You can now select the file with artwork and no music and delete it.

How this happens I have no idea. I now have a strange set-up in that I have three libraries on an external drive with over 13,000 songs in them. I had to do that because I am still using my iBook 500 with a 20GB drive. My iTunes is on that along with the Music Library but no music folders. Apart from duplicates, some with no links, it works fine. I am slowly getting through this lot and deleting the ones with no links. I have some songs four times and that is how it should be, they feature on four different LPs from the same band! I am sure some, if not all, of the problems were caused by my lack of knowledge when I set the whole thing up. I cannot honestly say any were caused by the upgrade.

Hope the above someone.

TY

I am following this thread also.
Needless to say I am pretty frustrated so far also.
I have come at this problem 6 ways from Sunday, and have not solved it.
I have about 140gb of music on an external drive, and about half of it either has the dreaded exclamation point next to it, OR, comes up with the "Original File could not be found..." message.
The music is there!.....I just cant iTunes to find it.

Any other ideas out there folks?

Many thanks in advance.

wabi