Fixing When Windows Media Player Library Won’t Let You Add Files
If you’ve been experiencing the problem where you can’t add files to Windows Media Player’s library no matter what you do, then you probably have a corrupted database, and you’ll need to delete it and then re-add all of your media to the library.
NOTE: These steps will delete files, 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. Your music will not be deleted, just the database.
The first thing you’ll need to do is go to Control Panel \ Administrative Tools \ Services for XP and look for the services that start with “Windows Media Player”. (Make sure Media Player is closed too)
Click the stop button for each and make sure that all of the services that start with “Windows Media Player” are stopped before you continue. Next, open up an explorer window and paste in the following path into the address bar.
%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player\
You’ll see a bunch of files in the folder. I’d advise moving all of these files to another directory somewhere else, but you could also delete them if you were daring enough.
Now when you restart Windows Media Player, you should be able to add music to your library again.
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Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I was about to put a boot through my computer when I happened upon your website. Solved my problem.
Thanks so much Ive had this problem for a few days now
It worked for me! Thanks
THANK YOU!!!
I thought it worked, but then I restarted my computer and the same problem was back! What now?
You guys should really check out that website too if you’re looking for help. It turns out for me I had some sort of attributes set on my files, and if WMP sees the attributes set, it skips the folders.
http://weblogs.asp.net/chuckop.....95139.aspx
Thank very much for your help!
You help me a lot to solve it..
thankyou so much!!
Thnaks a mill!!! so clear and definite, no mesing about!!! You are a legend!!!
I had problems where I couldnt delete playlists or add monitored folders, this fixed the problem….. Why did I not find this solution sooner
Thank you so much. This worked after a few tries. I discovered I was not deleting the media player files in the correct directory. Once I did, it worked just fine.
Thanks for the help.
Thank you so much for the help ! At last it works fine now !
A spot on problem solving. Thanks a million.
Ben
Thanks Man!!!
Great fix, really appreciate your efforts
Thanks so so much!
If you are having the same problem I was where your media player 11 wasnt adding new files to the media watch list and the list remained empty there is a simple fix for that. I found a website that provided a bunch of good info for the fix. You can find the article at http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html#medialibrary but I am also summin it up here for you.
Make sure all media player related services are not running. In the Task Manager these files are wmplayer.exe, wmpnscfg.exe, and WMPNetwk.exe as far as I know. If you run any WMP plugins in firefox close firefox as well (This includes the WMP plugin and FoxyTunes). Also make sure IE and Media Center(If you have it) are closed.
On XP browse to %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\ and then rename the Media Player folder. Upon re-launching media player your WMP should rebuild this folder with the defaults. This will fix the database files as well allowing you to add new folders and files.
On Vista browse to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft and rename the media player folder. Upon re-launching media player your WMP should rebuild this folder with the defaults. This will fix the database files as well allowing you to add new folders and files.
I hope this helps alot of people out there who have this issue and dont forget to check out http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html#medialibrary for any more media player related info. Also give a thanks to the author of that page if you have time.
– Asagron
Thanks, this is very useful!
Fantastic, thank you… worked a treat
May be a silly question but how do you back up music files… weirdly enough, I’ve never backed up anything before.
Thanks,
Brilliant!
top man, cheers thanks a lot.follow it step by step and it should work for you…im running vista and WMPlayer 11
Asagron, that worked perfectly!!!! thank you!
Thanks, worked for me (vista ulimate, WMP11)
Thanks a million. Worked really well!
I almost gave up on this,… I’ve had the problem for over 4 months… almost scrapped WMP entirely…. Works a treat now… THANKS !
Do you lose music files when doing this though?
No you dont loose files when doing this, you only loose the database and your settings I believe(not sure if settings are reset). Media player will say there are no files in the library, just import in like you were starting Media Player for the first time. Do this by selecting the arrow below Library > then add to library. Laura to back up music files you can do this by burning all the files to a DVD or simply by copying them to another hard drive (external or internal). I recommend backing up to an external Hard Drive as a failure in your system doesnt make it hard to get your files off, you just plug it into another computer via the usb/firewire.
- Asagron
Thank you so much! I have been searching Microsoft’s website for the answer with no success. Thanks to Google AND YOU I finally solved the dilemma. I followed your directions and it worked perfectly. I saved the old files (just in case!) as you suggested and am happy to be able to trashe them. What a relief to be able to add files to the library. That feature has never worked from the start. Now if I could only find a way to delete a file that mysteriously keeps appearing on the desktop after I delete it! Thanks again.
Didn’t work for me. But I found an alternate solution.
Quick description
1. Dump all your music files into a new directory created in your root drive. (C:\New folder)
Do not drag files with their directory, just the files only.
Go back to Windows Media Player and add all these files (Voila!!!) (remember to tell the player where to look)
The quick and dirty way of dragging files to your new directory is to search for *.mp3 (or whatever extension your files have). Select all files found, copy and paste into the new directly.
Although your new music files are now not organised in nice album folders, In Windows Media Player they be arranged accordingly using ID3 tags. Now you can share them and stream them to your PS3, turning it into a mega jukebox. Neat
This didn’t work for me, any suggestions on where to go next?
Awesome fix! I should have come across this page much earlier. Damn, now i am used to winamp. But cannot wait to get back to wmp11.
Thanks a ton!
- Asagron you are a godsend!
Wow thanks guys for giving me credit in solving this issue but it was all the author of that website I linked to, I just reposted the info. If you get a chance goto that site and give the author a big thanks as well.
- Asagron
Awesome advice! worked like a charm
Thanks for your helpful advice on getting media player to accept new files to the library. Much appreciated.
G
Thanx a ton…this is exactly what I needed to do!
I ran into this problem today. Turns out of my AVI files was either corrupt or improperly encoded and Media Player kept trying to read it over and over again. Once I renamed that one file to “.avi.TEST” everything worked out fine.
Brilliant! This solved all my problems streaming to my 360. Thanks a mill!
Thank you! I had a little trouble getting this to work. when i got rid of the files in the folder media player refused to rebuild them but i just deleted the folder entirely and now everything is running great Thank you so much for helping me Winamp was getting on my nerves
Thanks a lot. This method worked lieka charm
THANK YOU SO MUCH ! This was bugging the crap out of me, I spent over an hour looking for some type of answer and could not find anything. That is of course after I found this little tutorial. I could not share or add music, plus WMP could not find my music files for some reason…Again I thank you !
AHH Thank you so much this problem was buggin me so much I finally have music on my 360 now ah THX a LOT.
You guys totally saved my life.
Thank you! I didn’t want to have to start using WinAmp!
Hi I have a Vista Premium and my Windows media player wont show live tv I had it working about a week ago but didnt have any volume so I held down the volume + button on the remote control the whole thing closed and now when I open the media player and click on LIVE TV it just minimised the player to my tool bar with out doing anything… hope someone can help its a work computer and I dont want to tell my boss !!
THANK YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!
I was having so many problems until I came across this advice!:
1. My playlists were refusing to open
2. I could not delete playlists or songs from the library
3. I could not add any music to the library
4. The player had stopped finding my phone to synchronise with
Your advice has fixed all of these problems! Thank you again.
Didn’t work for me just ended up with empty library but none of the files found during scanning were added. Another site suggested removing System attribute from directories. Tried this too but it didn’t work either. Given up now resorting to non-microsoft applications which have in built database management tools.
Thank you SOOOO Much for this fix. I had installed WMP11 on Vista using some tricks and it was working great for months sharing to my xbox 360s and other devices, about a month ago it just died. Could not share anything. This fixed it up just right and am back runnint 100%, thank you for sharing your knwoledge to help others.
Thank you for the help. It fixed my problem perfectly – much more informative than the Microsoft article (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925718)
This is an awesome website – a technological gold mine for those of us struggling with the “Perfect OS”. I have been going through the fixes, tricks, and tweaks for about a week.
Too late on this one though, I had already switched to Winamp for music and find it nuch more friendly than the geekanese WMP. Furthermore, it can play midi files that WMP trips over (thinks they are mis-formatted).
Thanks for the help. Once I found your article, my problem was solved in 20 minutes. The step by step guide worked great. Your solution was a tremendous time and frustration saver.
Great guide! It works with WMP 12 in Windows 7 as well… I was almost going to send feedback to Microsoft saying about that when I thought to search on Google… and it seems it isn’t a 7 bug at all! Thanks!
Thanks a million. This may be an old guide, but as the user above also pointed out, the guide still applies to solve the problem when you install Windows 7 and use Windows Media Player 12.
Thanks a Ton i was about to chuck this laptop off a cliff and you advice fixed the problem first shot thanks again.
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank You! Helped me with WMP12 on Windows 7 too.
god bless u. after searching and rebooting i havent found why i could not save music but now wow just wow u saved me !!!
OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH i have been trying to fix this for at least a year and not done it OMG THANK YOU ::D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
Had a problem NOT with adding files to the library, but deleting files from the library. Followed these instructions and worked like a charm. Was able to delete the unwanted songs from the library.
Thanks.
Good Advice. Able to load pictures and music into the media library. But unable to load video files into the library. Individually listed the folder to monitor for media files. Computer scans but not loading files into the library. video files can be played using file, open command. Please advice how to load video files to the library
Loads WMV files and not VOB files in its video library. Using XP Prof. Pl. advice
It workd
Spot on advice, Worked like a charm, Many thanks
Running vista ultimate WMP11
worked a charm! god that was annoying the hell out of me
thanks bro
Thank you sooooo much !!!!!!! It really worked !!!!
Thank you!! Worked like a charm! And it only took a few seconds!!!
OMG! SUCCESS!!
And it kept all my ratings too!
You are my new hero, Thank you!
THANKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! ((((((((((:
I just done that but it hasn’t worked for me :S….
I cant save playlists.
I cant add any files to my media library.
it plays files fine but just wont let me save playlists which is quite annoying, ive deleted everything out that folder but the problems still there, i dont know what to do! help me
thank you sooooooo much
have been struggling to fix this problem
but finally i did it, and thx to u
Wow thank you so much for posting this and thank you to the author of
I have been putting up with this for MONTHS and I am extremely appreciative of this help. Thank you all
You are freakin awesome, im greatly appreciate it, thanx once again!
Thanks so much for this tip…..once I restarted wmp, my files were found immediately.
Thanks
So, so helpful. Thank you.
Thanks a bunch mate, was having major issues, fixed now, once again, Thanks!!!
AWESOME!! Thank you so much, it worked!
I have been dealing with a corrupt library on my media player since march! I also have a microsoft Zune. Since my library got corrupt (anyone know how this happens?), the zune software acted dumb.
Before restoring my WMP 11 library, I backup’ed my library to two external hardrives (I have 65 GB of music) and uninstalled the zune software.
I just got done fixing my corrupt library and now plan to reinstall the zune software. I really hope this works.
Thanks for helping me. I have bookmarked this site.
Wish me luck.
thanks for the info, works like a charm
Thanks man
Wow, you are a savior. I was getting to the point of breaking my keyboard I was so angry. Thank you very much
Thank you soooo much!
I thought I was losing the plot. I just couldn’t get my music to play in Windows Media Player after it became corrupted. Wish I had found your website last week – you are a star!!!! Yeah! I can listen to hours of my music again!
I went in and disabled sharing via Windows Services. Then restarted WMP. All my folder monitors came right back up. I have not renabled sharing yet but I hope it will work again. BTW I had just swapped out a drive and replaced it with a bigger drive prior to this problem.
Marvellous. Worked a treat. Thanks so much for the help
I went through all the steps only to find nothing but an empty skin folder in that directory. there were no files that even remotely seemed like they might be database files for windows media player 11 just an empty folder. I know exactly were my music files are & i keep trying to add them to my library but no success. the last time I had this problem my computer rebooted after an update & it moved all my music from my users folder to my the all users folders, but this is not the case this time. dose Microsoft just hate hate me or something?
Wow, absolutely amazing, i been breaking my haed trying to solve this issue, thanks a mill, really appreciate this help!
This doesn’t Help me, You see, It finds the files and i just doesn’t add it to the windows media player 11 model. it works for the 10 version, but not 11. when i upgrade, it usually adds the files from my previous library, but didn’t, i went to add them and it added everything BUT what i wanted…
i did all the steps up to the part where you are suppose to open up another window and paste the path into the address bar but when i did that it wanted me to click on something else as if i was trying to find something and so i did know what to do and the folders did not show up like they were suppose to, will someone please tell what to do after that, becasue this problem with my media player has been driving me nuts for a very long time
Awesome. Thanks so much!!!! Worked a treat.
Wow it works, thanks! I had this problem with WMP 12 in Win7. I was going to have to resort to iTunes (ugh), but now I can keep WMP. I just wish they would let us go back to WMP 11.
Thanks!
Also had this problem with Windows 7 WMP12, i could not add mp3 files lots of corrupt deleted mp3 files still showed in WMP12 that could not be deleted also i could not copy paste album art.
Excellent problem solved THANKYOU !!
Thanks my boy…
You are the Soft…. The Micro-Soft.. hehe..
Cheers
FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A problem that I had gets solved strickly step by step with no other problems popping up to detour me
in any of the steps. This web site is the BOMB!! Thanks alot I mean a really lot.