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iPod Classic 160GB doesn't comunicate with old MS7 PC computer

I have an old IPod Classic 160GB that was syncd with an old

MS7 PC. Now when I try to open iTunes music it gives me a pop up The song

"whatever" could not be used because the original file could not be

found. Would you like to locate it?  have

1250 songs listed and get the same message with each. What to do? The iPod has

all the music. can I sync it with this computer or another one?

If you can, please help!

iPad 2, iOS 9

Posted on Jun 8, 2020 1:41 PM

Reply
14 replies

Jun 8, 2020 5:23 PM in response to HankH15

The "missing file" issue with exclamation marks happens if the file is no longer where iTunes expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the file, one of its parent folders, or the drive it lives on has had a change of drive letter, or you've moved a non-portable library to a different path (see Make a split library portable for details). It is also possible that iTunes has changed from expecting the files to be in the pre-iTunes 9 layout to post-iTunes 9 layout, or vice-versa, and so is looking in slightly the wrong place, or that you've been too aggressive when deleting duplicates. See Getting iTunes & Windows Media Player to play nicely if you're trying to access your media with any other media players.


Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to Get Info, then click No when asked to try to locate the track. Look on the file tab for the location that iTunes thinks the file should be. Now take a look around your hard drive(s). Hopefully you can locate the track in question. If a section of your library has simply been moved, a folder renamed, or a drive letter has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions. If the difference between the two paths is an additional Music folder in one path then this is a layout issue. I can explain further if that is the case. If everything is where it is supposed to be try Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows.


In some cases iTunes may be able to repair itself if you go through the same steps with Get Info, or when playing a track, but this time click Locate and browse to the lost track. It may then offer to attempt to automatically fix other broken links. Although it says something like "use the same location" I think it expects to find the tracks in the same artist & album layout they were in previously, with one systematic change to the path.


If another application like Windows Media Player has moved/renamed the files, or the library has been moved from OS X to Windows, then the chances are that subtle differences in naming strategies will make it hard to restore the media to the precise path that iTunes is expecting. In such cases, as long as the missing files can be found somewhere, you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes. See this post for an explanation of how it works. It might need some tweaking if your media is in a non-standard layout.


If you want me to try to provide specific advice please post back the following details:

  1. The location of the media folder under Edit > Preferences > Advanced
  2. The location of a sample missing track shown under Get Info > File > Location that begins file://localhost/
  3. The true path to the file whose details you gave in 2


Note the addition of file://localhost/ (and the flipped direction of slashes in Windows) is normal for a file that isn't quite where iTunes is expecting to find it.




Should it necessary, see Recover media from an iPod - Apple Community.




tt2

Jun 9, 2020 3:17 PM in response to HankH15

The My Music vs. Music difference is likely not too significant, Windows adds the My prefix in your own profile and when viewing other profiles it can display the folder as <User>'s Music, but the underlying folder name is just Music.


Do you have artist folders stored up in the main Music folder? Does your iTunes folder contain both an iTunes Music folder and an iTunes Media folder? iTunes Music is the older (pre iTunes 9) name for the media folder. Ideally all the content would be in the iTunes Media folder. Normally I'd advise against moving anything by hand but given iTunes is currently confused about where to find things now might be the time to put things in the current layout. See the screenshot in Make a split library portable to see what I mean. I can give detailed advice if you can give me an idea of what you've got stored where.


tt2


Jun 9, 2020 2:50 PM in response to QuickPost

To turingtest2:

Thank you for your help and advice. I have some trouble in

understanding and doing as you instruct but I’m trying.


Unfortunately for me I am not a Techie, but not completely

computer illiterate either.


I have “located” about 12 files using the “locate” pop-up

that iTunes gives when I try to play a file then it asks if I would like iTunes

to find other missing files in my library. It then tells me that iTunes was not

able to locate any of 1283 missing files. It tells me that files that could not

be found are marked with a !.

1.The location of the media folder under Edit >

Preferences > Advanced


C:\Users\HankHolmes Z11\iTunes\iTunes Media


2. The location of a sample missing track shown under Get Info

> File > Location that begins file://localhost/


C:\Users\HankHolmes Z11\Music\Chopin Piano Classics


3. The true path to the file whose details you gave in 2

(Found in Windows Explorer)


C:\Users\HankHolmes Z11\My Music\iTunes/iTune Music\Music\Chopin

Piano Classics


 


I did note the flipped direction of slashes.

Jun 10, 2020 10:53 AM in response to turingtest2

In iTunes there is an Artists folder.

[Edit>Preferences> Advanced] shows it to be in iTunes Media folder.


In Windows Exploerer> under iTunes Media there is only “Automatically

add to iTunes”.


Under ITunes Music there are many folders including Automatically

add to iTunes, many Artsts and Album names, and a “Music” folder that contains

what appears to be all of the Artists.


Under ITunes Music there is also other folders including

Podasts, including “Previous iTunes Libraries for each year 2009 > 2019,

each individual “year” opening the Artists that were on my iTunes that year.


The iTunes folder inside my user's Music folder contains

folders including iTunes Music which contains the same folders as mentioned

above under iTunes Music.


I have not backed up to an external hard drive or cloud,

although it might have been a good idea. Since it is on my iPod I thought that

that was like an external hard drive, but I guess not? Since the computer that

I have my music is quite old and no longer supported by Windows I am thinking

about “backing up” to an external hard drive or another computer. First, I need

to get this one working!

Jun 12, 2020 9:44 AM in response to HankH15

New problem?? For a

while I was able to play my iTunes music on my computer but then it quit

playing them. When I double clicked them it signaled it was playing and showed

the file in the control bar but it was stationery. I could move the indicator but

then it did not move itself. No sound although it was not muted and was turned

to full sound. When I clicked the pause/off button it indicated this.

I could play not iTunes

music on WMA but iTunes music from File explorer went directly to iTunes and

did not play. What to do?

iPod Classic 160GB doesn't comunicate with old MS7 PC computer

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