iPod Exclamation point

[Howard Brazee]

What does it mean when a playlist in my iPod has an exclamation point next to it?

I created that playlist at home on my Mac, but noticed it at work on an XP machine.

(I synchronize by the clumsy method of turning on synchronization at home, and then switching to manual when things are synchronized. I know that there has to be a better way, but I haven't discovered it).

 

[miles01110]

It can mean lots of different things. What message comes up when you double click on the song to play it?

 

[Howard Brazee]

The ! is next to the smart play list in the iPod on iTunes. A quick check doesn't show any song which looks like it has a ! next to it.

The same playlist on the rest of my iTunes doesn't have an !.

Just a thought. That smart playlist references a different playlist that isn't synchronized. It excludes songs which are on my Christmas playlist.

 

[darklyt]

Can you play the playlist on your iPod? When the exclamation mark appears next to something in iTunes, it means it can't be found by the path it expects it to be on.

 

[Howard Brazee]

It's a large play list. It is possible that there is a song that I cannot play, but I haven't discovered it yet.

 

[foxxy.425]

! original file cannot be found

Okay, I have a PC and I have had these songs downloaded on to Itunes forever now. All of a sudden I receive the exclamation point next to the songs, and error message that says original file cannot be found. I synced my ipod today and I barely have any songs available to sync. I am really upset and lost 700 or more songs. Some of the music is original music from Saomoa, etc. Can I recover these songs somehow

 

[Howard Brazee]

Okay, I have a PC and I have had these songs downloaded on to Itunes forever now. All of a sudden I receive the exclamation point next to the songs, and error message that says original file cannot be found. I synced my ipod today and I barely have any songs available to sync. I am really upset and lost 700 or more songs. Some of the music is original music from Saomoa, etc. Can I recover these songs somehow

I don't know, but I want to remind everybody to learn from your experience. Back up!

In this case, have your iTunes on two different computers (preferably in two different buildings). My work computer and my home computer have all of the same iTunes.

 

[foxxy.425]

!

Do you think that apple tech support will be able to recover the songs.

 

[Cinematographer]

When the exclamation mark appears next to something in iTunes, it means it can't be found by the path it expects it to be on.

Exactly. And the exclamation point next to the playlist indicates that the smart playlist is based on another playlist which doen't exist anymore. I've seen that several times.

 

[kh14]

the reason why it wont play is because the song you want to play is not located in the iTunes music folder anymore. If the song is still on your computer but not in the "iTunes Music" folder then i suggest moving it to the correct folder. Hope this helps

 

[Frungi]

The ! is next to the smart play list in the iPod on iTunes. A quick check doesn't show any song which looks like it has a ! next to it.

The same playlist on the rest of my iTunes doesn't have an !.

Just a thought. That smart playlist references a different playlist that isn't synchronized. It excludes songs which are on my Christmas playlist.

That’s exactly the problem. If you changed that (maybe exclude songs in the Holiday genre) or included that playlist on your iPod, you wouldn’t have the !. Really all it means is that your iPod can’t auto-update the playlist, like if you have it sorted by play count or something.

Okay, I have a PC and I have had these songs downloaded on to Itunes forever now. All of a sudden I receive the exclamation point next to the songs, and error message that says original file cannot be found. I synced my ipod today and I barely have any songs available to sync. I am really upset and lost 700 or more songs. Some of the music is original music from Saomoa, etc. Can I recover these songs somehow

What happened? Did you accidentally delete your music folder? If you can’t find the songs, all you can really do is contact iTunes support and explain the situation, and hope they let you redownload the music you’ve bought from them (it’s possible!).

 

[windowpain]

foxxy, you should take a look in finder and see if the files are still on the computer. Please don't go messing in the itunes music folder, if you need to keep things arranged the simplest way to do it is to check the boxes below (see pic) in the preferences menu (its under advanced)

Try using the 'consolidate library' option to move everything to the itunes library (if it isn't already)

It is unlikely (from what you say) that your music has been deleted.

edit: Just realized you are on a pc..but most of this should still be the same. Try seeing if the music is still on your pc somewhere, maybe its in the mymusic folder.