Itunes prob- receiving message "the song could not be used b/c the original song could not be found." HELP!!

Question

I recently downloaded about 2300 songs and some videos from my friend’s itunes to my external hard drive so I could add them to my list. The songs are added to my list, however every time I want to play one of the new songs it says, “the song could not be used because the original song could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" The first time this happened, I was completely dumb founded and after about 10 minutes of trying to reach my comp. savvy friends and no one answering I gave up. Therefore, I hooked my external hard drive (ehs) back up and moved all of the songs from the e.h.d over to my itunes music folder. I thought it had worked, but I guess I was wrong because I am receiving the same problem today. I am completely lost and have giving up attempting anymore. Any help would be useful and greatly appreciated.

I should add that when the external hard drive is hooked up the songs play...

Is there any way I can totaly remove them from my hard drive into itunes to they'll actually play or am i screwed and will have to hook up my external hard drive each time so they'll play?

Answer 1

the song needs to be saved onto the computer, like there needs to be a file of it. to find it you just click on the song, when it says would you like to try to locate it, you hit yes, and then search through folders until you open up the file of the original song.

Answer 2

putting them on your list doesn't put them on your computer, it's just a list. the list tells itunes where the file is located, if you take off the hard drive, it cant find it. Itunes cant just remember the whole song out of thin air, it has to have the file.

Answer 3

You need the actual mp3 files as well.your friend has them but
you don't.in your words I think ur screwed.All you have done is
load the song information you need the mp3 files to play the
tunes.