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General discussion

Gray "!" iTunes 8 annoying song location issue...

Jun 12, 2009 1:46PM PDT

Ok so first of all I'm using iTunes 8, and a 1GB Sansa C240 MP3 player, and I'm using Windows XP SP2.

The Problem: Ok so I probably have somewhere over two hundred songs on my iTunes music library right now. The problem is is that for a while now, iTunes has been losing the original file locations for multiple random songs (they'll have a gray "!" next to it). It does this to random songs and at random times, and it's really annoying cause I have to click "Get Info" and it will say something like: "Could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?", and I click yes, and I find the song, double-click it, and it's in. It's not a big deal, but when I have to do it for over five different songs, it can be a big pain cause it sometimes deletes the album art, too, and it just takes a long time to go through each one and re-locate it for iTunes. I locate all of my songs for iTunes from a folder I keep all my MP3 songs in, by the way.

Discussion is locked

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There are too many reasons for this.
Jun 12, 2009 9:32PM PDT

We have an open discussion about it but the one thing I learned is that some didn't like others not giving the correct answer. Please accept that there are multiple causes.

My most common cause is Windows Media Player's setting of "rearrange and rename my music." The second cause is limewire and such software.
Bob

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Can you be more specific?
Jun 13, 2009 3:02AM PDT

Can you be more specific? Like explain those two causes? In the mean time, I'll try to fix it given with what you suggested.

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Sorry no.
Jun 13, 2009 3:22AM PDT
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What's WMP have to do with iTunes?
Jun 13, 2009 7:10AM PDT

But what does Windows Media Player library have to do with iTunes 8's library...?

I guess I'll just have to figure out how to fix this on my own since you people insist I look it up myself... Talk about a waste of a topic.

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Just like me helping you change a tire.
Jun 13, 2009 12:59PM PDT

I might ask you to do some work. WMP can tinker with your files so why not turn that off now?

Remember we have a LONG discussion about this in the forums. It looks like some members forget these are not support forums but discussion forums with unpaid volunteers. As such you get to help us help you.
Bob

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Doesn't matter anyway, I fixed the issue
Jun 13, 2009 3:10PM PDT

Sorry I misunderstood the forum. But on a different forum where I posted the exact same question (VideoHelp), I was able to get some good help there.

My problem was that I kept moving my files into different folders, which was confusing iTunes cause its pointed to the file on the Desktop, so whenever I moved that file, iTunes didn't know where it went, thus I had to look for it.

Problem solved.

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At least you found the cause.
Jun 13, 2009 9:17PM PDT

Just wondering. Do you think people expect software to find files when we move them around?

-> To wit, do you remember OS/2 (the OS) where such a thing was supported?
Bob

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Never really thought about that
Jun 14, 2009 1:41AM PDT

Never really thought about that.

And for the second sentence, I don't get what you're saying?

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Just recalling an old OS
Jun 14, 2009 2:57AM PDT

IBM years ago had an OS called OS/2. One of its file system features was to notify the applications when files moved from place to place. That was decades ago so not everyone remembers features lost over time.
Bob

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Ah ok.
Jun 14, 2009 3:47AM PDT

I understand. That would be useful for today, too, maybe.