Songs do not appear in the Windows Media Player library

Anonymous

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?

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Anonymous

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:

Exit Windows Media Player.
Click Start, click Run, type %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Media Player, and then click OK.
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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Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

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

Once the file attributes are cleaned up, make sure Media Player is closed. ClickStart , ClickRun, Copy and paste in: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft, ClickOK

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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137 additional answers

Anonymous

2012-01-10T23:41:05+00:00

I began my expierence with WinAmp years ago. The interface is fairly simple to use ... I can EASILY delete the entire playlist, and then re-add it. My comment is this pertaining to WMP 12. I HATE IT! I have spent the last 2 ****ing hours trying to simply REFRESH my list because some files I have deleted and are not available in the WMP interface. I SIMPLY want to REFRESH my list and I can't. The above instructions will be tried by myselfsometime later as i'm fed up with messing around with this just to do a simple task. You'd figure Microsoft, with all their money, would release something USEFUL to the general public that would INCLUDE a SIMPLE button to "refresh" the media library list and rid it of anything that may have been deleted off of my computer, but still shows up in the library list. I totally accept the challenge as well as the instruction that I or anyone else has to do in order to use any media player. However, in my opinion, an individual should not have to spend over two hours to simply fins a way to do something. Also, I would like to comment to the individual who has taken the time to type out instructions on how to do this - I am very greatful. However, I must say this as well ... in real life, not everyone wants to type these "old dos-like" commands into a RUN box just to complete a simple task. Anyway, I am one frustrated human being. I have lots of patients and can solve my share of computer problems, but truely, I'm about to never open up windows media player again ... I am a fan of windows products as they all seem to "work together", but come on Microsoft, get your butts and release an application that has the end user in mind! And please, do it somewhere like "TOOLS ----> REFRESH MEDIA LIBRARY" (please wait while Windows Media Player refreshes the media library and updates any changes. When this process is complete, you will have the most current and accurate list at your fingertips! Thank you for choosing WMP12 insert progress bar here) ... Now wouldn't that be a great feature of a $200 OS that comes bundled with a media player? Honestly ... I mean this is 2012 now and people really do use computers more for playing music, movies, and viewing their photos. I still get seem to understand WHY the development didn't figure these concerns out BEFORE putting the software together! These guys/gals truely DO NOT care to create a user Interface that is both user friendly and jam packed full of features. Come on! I mean Pay me the bucks theat these neglegent individuals get and I'd make something MUCH better. I'm done. Maybe I'll go to the open source community and see what they have to offer ... I'd place a .01 cent bet and GLADLY pay for postage to mail the penny myself.
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Anonymous

2011-12-22T21:01:57+00:00

stitch665,

I have gone through the process above to no avail. My system will create a new DB but I can not do anything with it.

Mike
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Anonymous

2011-12-20T03:20:22+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:

Exit Windows Media Player.

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

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.
ok after you delete media player folder & it goes to te recycle bin do i empty the recycle bin with all the stuff in it.
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