Applications :: ITunes Original File Info Deleted - Library Empty
Jan 20, 2009
In trying to set up shared music among the users of my computer I think I deleted the original file info, even though there was a music folder showing folders for the individual artists in my library. These however now appear to be empty. I have the music listed in iTunes but when I try to open a song I get a window with the following message, "The song "...." could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" But no luck locating the files. The guy at the Apple Genius Bar said I could retrieve the music but refused to tell me how because it is supposedly illegal. I don't know why it is illegal because the tunes were purchased. But he did tell me to google the problem and I have come up empty handed.
All of my movies on my hard drive have crazy file names. I just rename the info from within itunes. I am wondering if there is a way to apply the info in itunes to change the original file names. So that I don't have to change them all manually on my hard drive if I want them in some sort of order. Something like 'apply itunes info to original filename'. I am pretty sure it isn't possible but thought it might be worth a try.
I opened iTunes today and although all my music was listed under "Music" in the Library, every time I tried to play a song I am told that the original cannot be found. So what do I need to do to clear out iTunes "memory" so I can re-load the library?
Info: Mac Pro 2.66 Ghz 8-core, Mac OS X (10.7.2), Radeon 5770
My iTunes music files were stored on an external hard drive. But, unfortunately, the iTunes library file must have been on the laptop hard drive. Now, when I open iTunes music library and playlists are empty, despite my having 120GB of music on the connected hard drive.
Short of dragging and dropping all the music files into the iTunes window, is there any other way of "telling" iTunes where to find my music? I have tried "organize library" and nothing happens.
I have just had occasion to restore the disc containing my XP operating system (yes, I am a PC person too). iTunes Library is stored on a big FireWire box, and was not restored.
The date of my last XP backup was 19/1/09, and iTunes Library knew of nothing I had done since that date, in other words, the song tracks are kept in the iTunes directory, but the library clearly isn't. This is really strange. All the tracks I had added were there in the iTunes library physical directories, but their importing into the library had disappeared. As had some Smart Playlists.
So where is the library actually stored? I note that there are some odds and ends of unrecognizable stuff along with the executable in the XP Programs... directory, presumably this stuff includes the library?
Just to clarify. The executable is on my C drive in the default location, and the iTunes library is on H:iTunes.
On itunes, I have my account/library and my wife has hers. For some reason her library disappeared. Her folder is still in the music folder along with mine, but her music, apps will not show up in itunes and her account name also is gone when opening itunes with option c I can see both accounts and when I choose hers and itunes opens everything is blank if that makes sense.
She is afraid to do a sync because she is afraid she'll loose the apps, music and other items from her itouch. I don't want to mess with it because I'm nervous about messing my library up as well trying to restore hers. Is there anything I can do to get her library to load in itunes and not distrurb mine and resync her itouch and my iphone? I didn't see any answers to this specific 2nd account issue and I hope the description of the issue is clear.
I have a large library and just in the past day, many of my songs have become greeted with the following: The song could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it? I have not moved any files to another location since the last successful play and when I locate the file it is still in the original location. I have many different playlists and I cannot just delete my library or I will lose the content of those playlists...
I accidentally deleted my entire iTunes library. What happened was that I intended to delete all the songs from just one artist but for some reason, my iTunes deleted everything in my library which I have collected over the past 6 years. It gets worse because:
1 - I can't get my files back from my iPod because it died about a year ago 2 - I agreed to move all files to my recycle bin (at that point I had no idea I was deleting my entire library) and when I went to check the bin, none of the files were there 3 - I attempted a system restore but all it did was to return my folders with no files in them 4 - I tried to use a couple of undelete files software but none of them found the deleted files.
I had to restore my library a while ago...no problem, dragged it onto the desktop, iTunes rebuilt it from the .xml file and everything was fine...only problem is now I'm trying to tidy up my desktop and those two pesky library files won't stay deleted from the desktop no matter how man times I trash them...Now, I understand the library file needs to update itself and all, but why can't it keep it's business confined to the iTunes folder?
In the preferences section of iTunes I have it unchecked to "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" but not sure why it would add the file. I have all of my music stored in the default location for iTunes and when I play a file outside of iTunes, it will add it to the library database.
A few days ago I tried changing the name of the middle file in the top row (Currently "iTunes Lib", which is what I think it was originally). I opened iTunes last night and found that none of my music was there. Obviously iTunes is looking for THAT folder, but the name is different.
What can I do to set this right? If I knew the original name of the file, I would try that.
I was changing my track info in my library (of 1 song) and unfortunately I have changed all of my authors and cover pic. of entire library. Is there any chance to change it back? I don’t use an Time machine I use the last iTunes and also the iTunes Match ....
I just home shared from a pc to a mac.I see my library transferred over but how do I get them into their original playlists? Do I have to start all over and do it manually?
Why do they both exist? My best guess is just that they switched to iTunes Library but maintain an identical iTunes Music Library file for now for compatibility (since the XML files exist so 3rd party apps can access the iTunes library).
I've got to a point where the HD on my MacBook is just too small to hold my music library, so for a while now, I've been housing it on an external drive hooked up to an Airport Express. My setup certainly isn't without its fair share of problems. Setup: I keep my own folder structure, with folders for specific categories and playlists. iTunes's music folder structure has never been organized enough for me, so I don't use it. Another reason is I have music in my library that isn't in iTunes (since I don't frequently use it). My music library resides on an AirDisk, while my iTunes database along with some local music folders resides on my Mac.
Problems: Whenever I move songs/albums/playlists from the local storage on my Mac to my remote library, I have to go through and reselect the file location on the AirDisk for every file. I've also noticed that files on my AirDisk typically appear with an exclamation next to them, won't sync to my iPhone, and won't play in things like iTunes DJ unless I manually mount the AirDisk. Even then, iTunes only sees the specific song I clicked. iTunes still thinks other songs on the AirDisk are unavailable (even though the AirDisk is mounted), and thus skips them when playing unless I specifically click a song. Finally, whenever I move my music library around (like putting it on a NAS), I have to go through and manually change the location of each and every song!
All of these problems makes me think there has to be a better way! I've read about using iTunes to relocate the iTunes music library or database to a different disk, using the "Consolidate Library" feature and other built-in features, but it doesn't seem like any of these would work with a custom folder structure. I also know there are various 3rd-party "helper" apps available, but I haven't looked into them. Perhaps a 3rd-party app could simplify the process?
When I used to delete a song from my iTunes library it would ask me if I wanted to also remove it completely from my computer. Now it no longer does and I cannot find a option to get that back. Can someone tell me where I can get iTunes to do this again?
iTunes is showing me bizarre dates in the "Date Added" column. Examples are "6/29/14180", "1/5/145", and "12/29/12364". I should note that I'm running the latest version of iTunes and the latest version of Mavericks, but the iTunes library that I'm using is the library on my Snow Leopard drive (because I don't know a simple way of importing all of that music--25,000+ songs--into the Maverick side).
When inserting an audio cd to import into my itunes library the audio cd is labeled only as track 1, track 2, etc. there is no album info, artist name, artwork.
I just updated my iTunes but it appears it deleted my library. This sucks because I have spent HOURS upon HOURS sorting it, renaming crooked song titles, finding covers and all that stuff. I used time machine to back up my computer like 5 days ago, but I can't figure out how to use it. I wish I could just select that given day (when I made my last backup) and make it turn everything back to what it was back then.How do I do this exactly? I don't care at all if I have to go back to the old iTunes (obviously they will fix this eventually!) - I just want it to look like it did a few days ago.
For some reason, most (not all) of the songs in my iTunes have an exclamation mark beside them that says "The song [song title] could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?"
1) I dropped my computer a week or so ago. At the time it seemed fine with the exception of a small clicking sound from inside the computer.
2) Somone told me that the clicking sound might be because of a harddrive failure (or from a problem with the fan or optical drive). SO I started using Google Drive to backup some of my files, so far however it's only backuped up some of my music (maybe this is why only some of my music works)
3) Whenever I restart my computer now, my trash can becomes full of "Recovered Files". I think I might have deleted these the first few times I saw them.
I have been working on a project and have a completed picture on my flash drive but when I go to open it, it says cannot open because file is empty. It shows that the size of the file is 96 kb and I can see it with the "quick look" option when you left click. This is using CS3 by the way.
Today I went into my Itunes on my Macbook Air using OSX 10.9.5...Normally I play my songs on my Ipad but thought I would use my Macbook instead. The majoirty of my songs have an "i" besides the song and when I click to play it, I get the following message. "The song “*******” could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it"? I then have the option to locate or cancel. The songs are still playable on my Ipad.
When I attempt to songs in itunes on my computer I get an error message that says: "The song < Name of Song Here> could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" All the songs are listed but can not access them.
My OS: Vista Have tried: System restore restoring via back-up Uninstalling then re-installing iTunes Rebooting computer
Have approx 1300 songs only 60 are accessible. Songs are not available on my Itouch. Itouch syncs but no songs there. Issue happened on 2/25 after my wife bought a song from iStore.
I have a bunch of mp3 files that I would like to rename the original file name. Itunes only allows me to change metadata, but to fix broken names and keep organized, I need to change the file name. Once I rename the file, it shows the new name, and then upon playing it, it reverts back to the original name. I do not have any locked permissions. I have parallels and tried to rename them on the windows 7 side but same effect. I tried to shut all programs off so the file was not in use. I even tried to export it as a acc file type. I am exhausted looking for a solution, this is why I am using this forum as a last ditch effort.
I accidentally deleted a whole album off of my iTunes. It contained over a hundred songs from multiple albums. How do I get the album back? Can I use TimeMachine? If so, how? It keeps saying "searching for AirPort"
I can't find the album in my files on my laptop either.
Info: MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.2), I have iTunes 11.1.5 (5)
I have noticed that iTunes has deleted a random selection of music from my library. There is a useful little exclamation mark next to the track it has removed the data of. I have used spotlight to search to try to find the missing file, but without fail it opens my college notes from ten years ago. That's interesting. I suppose it is gone for good and I have to buy it again, preferably from the i-apple-store??
Info: iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1), 3.06GHz Intel Core Duo; 8GB 1067 MH
