[rdohne]

My old laptop crashed. I have a new Dell, running XP. I have my songs in the default library location My Documents/My Music/Itunes/Itunes Music. When I open my music library on itunes, I see my songs. Many of them have an explanation point in the leftmost column. When I double-click on a song to play it, I receive a message: The song _____ cannot be played because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?

I say "yes," then I find it in the appropriate folder (My Documents/My Music, etc). and it will play. I have verified that on my edit-preferences-advanced file location is correct (My Documents/My Music/Itunes/etc.)

Please help. The music is all there (infact the are many duplicates, but that's a question for another thread), and I can play it when I click on the file. I just don't know why iTunes is not finding it.

[CDATech]

I would clear the entire itunes library and recreate your library. This will NOT delete the actual files but instead just recreate the iTunes index of the files. Try it. Just select all the songs and press the delete key. If it asks you if you want to keep the files make sure you select that option. Then go to File and I believe it's called "Add new Directory" and add the directory you mentioned.

[rdohne]

THANK YOU. That seems to have done the trick. Since we're on a roll, could you suggest how I might get rid of all the duplicates in my library?

[DarqueMist]

you'll probably have to delete the dupes from the music folder manually (which could give you that same not found issue again if you delete any that iTunes is pointing to)

to keep it from duplicating files again go to
> edit > preferences >advanced >general tab
look for a boxes labeled "keep iTunes folder organized ..." and "copy files to iTunes... ", theres probably checks beside them... remove the checks so the boxes are empty then click ok

[sup2a]

the thing with itunes is, if you rename a folder or move it, it will not find it... don't know why... but i had the same problem and it took me hours to import all my songs again (it also sync'd my ipod with no songs so i had to put them on all again)

[CDATech]

Those are the straightest arrows I have EVER seen!!

/sarcasm

[Couriant]

I think the dupes happened because it found your original iTunes database from the old machine that contains the list of songs.

I get it all the time.