Invalid or missing files

If files show up as invalid/missing files the reason is that the music information is available in iTunes but the actual file is missing from the hard disk. This may occur because of several reasons, some of them are.

  • For example you mistaken moved the music folder which had files added to iTunes library.
  • Your music was on external disk which is not plugged to computer right now.
  • Or the iTunes library is corrupt or not upto date

Follow this example below to find out how to resolve this.

In the windows below we have 2 invalid/missing files. Let’s resolve the first item whose Artist is Jordin Sparks.

invalid-window

iTunes should already be already open. Switch to iTunes and click songs. Then sort the songs by artists by clicking on the artists column. This will help us easily locate the missing file.

iTunes-sort-artists

Now scroll the list to find Jordin Sparks songs. You will notice exclamation mark in front of music/video files if they are missing or iTunes can not find them.

iTunes-exclamation

When you try to play Jordin Sparks Battlefiled song in this case, iTunes will show following error message.

iTunes-locate

Click locate button to locate the actual file on your computer. Once you locate it iTunes will remove exclamation mark from this song and this particular item will be fixed. iTunes may fix other songs automatically if they are all located in your specified location or you may have to repeat the above process for remaining songs.

Cancel the synctunes sync by pressing No and then sync again.

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