songs on iPod have disappeared from iTunes library

PJS


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Some songs that are on my iPod have an exclamation point next to them in my iTunes library. When I try to open the files, a pop-up box appears saying "This song could not be used because the original file could not be found." I have tried to locate the song files, but they are nowhere on my computer. I have followed all the steps listed here

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1408?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

but with no luck.

How can I get them transfer these files from my iPod back to my computer? Does anyone have any idea why this happened? I think these files used to be in the library but they no longer are. Why do they disappear?

Thanks!

PJS
 
C

chas_m

Guest
There are a number of reasons why the songs might have disappeared from your iTunes library, too many to speculate on what happened without a lot of further detail. The *most common* reasons are that the songs were deleted by the user who thought they had been copied into the iTunes Library when they hadn't; users monkeying around with the iTunes Library for "organizational" purposes and destroying the database structure; the computer deleting the songs because they are not part of the user's authorized iTunes library (ie they were brought in from someone else's iTunes library); and Home Sharing being turned off, where the songs in question actually belonged to another computer's library and were never really on the computer in question, just "shared" from a different one.

Assuming none of these things are the case here, you can probably put the songs back on your computer from your iPod using a third-party tool such as Senuti (iTunes backward, isn't that clever) or [URL="http://www.macroplant.com/iexplorer/buy-now/']iExplorer[/URL] (which I prefer). Both cost, but Senuti has a 1,000 song trial mode that is free so if we're talking fewer than 1,000 songs, that's probably a good bet.

Pod to Mac is a better tool IMO for complete recovery of a lost library -- it retrieves photos, e-books, voicemails and whatever else (ie everything) that was on your iPod rather than just songs, videos and playlists as Senuti does. Senuti is $19 and iExplorer is $35.
 

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