Songs do not appear in the Windows Media Player library

Anonymous
2009-11-10T05:30:29+00:00

WIndows Media Player 12 not adding songs

I got my new PC with Windows 7 this afternoon, and copied over 10,000 songs into My Music folder.  None of these songs will show up in Windows Media Player 12 song library. My Music folder is one of the default save location in WMP Libraries.  Only 3 songs are showing up in the Library, and these are the three on the Public Music folder.  Yet when I add a song to the Public Music folder, it gets added to the Library. Then when I close WMP and re-open it, we're back to the original 3 songs!  I spent an hour with HP support this evening and did not get any where.  I have tried system restore.  I have tried restoring media library.  I think my WMP may be corrupt.  Any thoughts on what I'm missing here?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Music, photos, and video

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Anonymous
2010-11-08T18:58:41+00:00

I read this on another topic, try it.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Hi,

This problem occurs because the Windows Media Player library database has become corrupted. 

To resolve this problem, clear the Windows Media Player database. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Exit Windows Media Player.
  2. Click Start, click Run, type %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Media Player, and then click OK.
  3. Select all the files in the folder, and then click Delete on the File menu.

      Note You do not have to delete the folders that are in this folder.

 4. Restart Windows Media Player.

Note Windows Media Player automatically rebuilds the database. 

If this does not resolve the problem, clear the Windows Media Player database cache files. To do this, follow these steps:

   1. Exit Windows Media Player.

   2. Click Start, click Run, type %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft, and then click OK.

   3. Select the Media Player folder, and then click Delete on the File menu.

   4. Restart Windows Media Player.

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Anonymous
2010-12-18T07:21:53+00:00

I had same symptoms as cturner003 in a 64 bit Win 7 environment.  But the problem was entirely different from everythin I read up to Nov 2010.   As I started looking into the file properties under the details tab, I noticed that all of these files had file attributes 'R' and 'S' set.  Turns out that somehow all of my music got marked as 'Read Only' \ 'System' files when I restored them.  My fault I'm sure.  Tried all of the solutions up to the Nov 2010 entries to no avail.  Finally discovered the issue.  Once I changed the file attributes, all of the music started showing up in WMP.  Should have picked that up sooner.

For these files, I couldn't find any way to change the attributes except through the command prompt.

1.  Click Start, Click All Programs, ClickAccessories.  Thenright clickCommand Prompt and select 'Run as administrator'.

2.  Type Attrib /? to get familiar with the attributes command.

3.  My music is stored in the path c:\users\glym\music.  So I fixed the problem with the following command string:attrib -r -s c:\users\glym\music\*.* /s /d

  1. Once the file attributes are cleaned up, make sure Media Player is closed.  ClickStart , ClickRun, Copy and paste in: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft, ClickOK
  2. Delete the 'Media Player' folder completely.  That gets rid of the database and the cached entries.

6.  Restart Media Player . . .  Bingo!

Thanks Microsoft for several useful Knowldege Base articles that I plagiarized here.

 

 I was having an issue like this. No new tv shows I was recording and adding to my videos folder would show on one pc, but showed fine on two others, all win 7 64bit home prem.

steps 4 5 and 6  worked like a charm for me. I didnt do anything but steps 4,5 and 6 Thank you.

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  1. Anonymous
    2009-12-27T04:52:13+00:00

    And to add another thing missing from MP12 that MP11 has, you was able to have the option to add your own album cover. That option is great to have if you like mixing your music songs and creating your own albums. That falls to the 'wasteside' with MP12.

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  2. Anonymous
    2009-12-26T16:09:05+00:00

    To Fix this problem:

    It sounds like you have a corrupted Database, so you need to delete it and rebuild it, by re-adding your media to your database.

    NOTE: These steps will delete your media list, so you should make a backup of any of these files before you do this, especially if you have purchased music via one of the online music shops. I would recommend just cutting all your music and placing it in a different folder through a different directory.

    I.E If you music is located in my music, then cut it and paste it in a temporary folder in My Documents.

    First: close your Media Player.

    Second: go to the start menu.

    Third: go to your control Panel.

    Fourth: go to Administrative Tools.

    Fifth: go to Services.

    Sixth: Scroll down to the Ws, and right click on everything that says Windows Media Player and click stop. Do it for each one. Most of you will only have one; Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service.

    Seventh: Click Start Menu

    Eighth: Copy and Paste:

    %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player\

    into the Search Programs and Files search bar, and press enter.

    Ninth: You will see a bunch of files. You can just delete them, but I would back them up to a different folder first.

    I.E Cut it and paste it into a Temprary Folder somewhere else on your drive(My Documents works fine.)

    Restart Windows Media Player.

    Add all of your music files back to the Library Folders(Music), and it should automatically detect them all.

    After it does this you can clean up:

    Delete the files you backed up, that were found in the

    %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player\

    folder.

    Afterwords, return to Services, and renable the services that begin with Windows Media Player!

    How to get there:

    (go to the start menu.

    go to your control Panel.

    go to Administrative Tools.

    go to Services.)

    Your problem should be fixed now!

    *Edit

    Didn't see the last post that had an explanation on how to do this as well.

    Realized it AFTER I typed out the entire way to fix the problem, from my memory.

    Fail.

    OMG... thank you SO much, this fixed my problem. !!! Do I have to keep the music in c/users/username/my music? I have a desktop folder I use but I suppose I could just make a shortcut of my music in the desktop

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  3. Anonymous
    2009-12-26T04:11:58+00:00

    To Fix this problem:

    It sounds like you have a corrupted Database, so you need to delete it and rebuild it, by re-adding your media to your database.

    NOTE: These steps will delete your media list, so you should make a backup of any of these files before you do this, especially if you have purchased music via one of the online music shops. I would recommend just cutting all your music and placing it in a different folder through a different directory.

    I.E If you music is located in my music, then cut it and paste it in a temporary folder in My Documents.

    First: close your Media Player.

    Second: go to the start menu.

    Third: go to your control Panel.

    Fourth: go to Administrative Tools.

    Fifth: go to Services.

    Sixth: Scroll down to the Ws, and right click on everything that says Windows Media Player and click stop. Do it for each one. Most of you will only have one; Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service.

    Seventh: Click Start Menu

    Eighth: Copy and Paste:

    %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player\

    into the Search Programs and Files search bar, and press enter.

    Ninth: You will see a bunch of files. You can just delete them, but I would back them up to a different folder first.

    I.E Cut it and paste it into a Temprary Folder somewhere else on your drive(My Documents works fine.)

    Restart Windows Media Player.

    Add all of your music files back to the Library Folders(Music), and it should automatically detect them all.

    After it does this you can clean up:

    Delete the files you backed up, that were found in the

    %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player\

    folder.

    Afterwords, return to Services, and renable the services that begin with Windows Media Player!

    How to get there:

    (go to the start menu.

    go to your control Panel.

    go to Administrative Tools.

    go to Services.)

    Your problem should be fixed now!

    *Edit

    Didn't see the last post that had an explanation on how to do this as well.

    Realized it AFTER I typed out the entire way to fix the problem, from my memory.

    Fail.

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    1 person found this answer helpful.
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