Something strange has happened in my Itunes and was wondering if anyone could help me. I was trying to listen to some music in my library and keep getting this message, "The song could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" I click on locate but don't really know what to do from there.
I have no idea what is going on. It's quite a bit of my library like this, songs I've downloaded from Itunes and others Ive burned from disc. Are these songs lost somehow?
Any help would be much appreciated. This sucks.
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It sounds like you moved your music at some point. Is there any way this might have happened? Did you move it to a new folder, put it a folder deeper, pull it up a folder, etc.?
I just transferred my library when i built my new computer. My best advice would be to delete you itunes library (select all and delete in itunes). If prompted only delete from library, NOT the file. Once your itunes is blank, re-add your music. It'll take awhile but it's the best cure for this problem IMO.bg34 and MikeHoncho like this. -
That’s exactly what happened. When iTunes says it can’t find a song, it’s because the file on the hard drive has been moved somehow.bg34 likes this.
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I just let iTunes manage my library and add songs to its own folder structure. That way nothing gets lost.bg34 likes this.
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Yep, it was a *****. A friend asked me to upload some music onto his mp3 player, an off brand one. So I used Realplayer since Itunes wouldn't recognize it. I added songs to Realplayer library and then half my itunes library wouldn't play? Even songs I didn't move. It's like it got corrupted somehow, why would that happen? I ended up searching all files and folders for every artist who's songs wouldn't play. Had tons of duplicates, just got done deleting the bad ones. Good lord what a nightmare. Thanks for help.
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I can’t even begin to describe what sort of evil Real Player (Really? Real Player? People still use that thing?) could have done to your system. It’s possible that Real Player moved songs from where they used to be to where it wanted, thus throwing iTunes off through no fault of its own.
Next time your friend wants you to give him some music, either give him a gift card, burn the songs to disc, or create copies elsewhere on your hard drive before you go adding them to foreign software.bg34 likes this. -
Not sure why you would expect iTunes to recognize what is obviously not an Apple product. Besides, iTunes only syncs its library with only one device at a time; even if it recognized your friend’s MP3 player, iTunes would then basically overwrite your library with whatever was on his device. You’d have lost a hell of a lot more than just a few songs.
And the reason why it’s difficult to move music out of iTunes to another computer is basically to prevent the casual piracy you and your friend were engaging in.