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gavin_dFlag for United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

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MS Windows MediaPlayer not seeing all audio files

Windows Media Player
Version 11.0.5721.5280
Operating System
Media Player Binaries
Other Binaries
Version: 5.1.2600 System Locale: en-us
Service Pack: 3.0 User Locale: en-gb
Build Lab: 2600.xpsp_sp3_q
Architecture: x86 Indiv Version:
Processors: 2

Issue is Media files added to library - "disappear" after a few days.
Have - cleared the Media player database - this works - then files start disappearing again over time
Have Cleared the database cache files- this works - then files start disappearing again over time
Someone mentioned to check the attributes of the files -done no change
Note: this will affect different files at different times.

All files can be located and played from Explorer - if manually added. However they will still not be in the library after a restart.
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ZamZ0

It might be that your library has been corrupted, especially as the actual music is still there. But before you go about deleting the library and creating a new one, there are a couple of steps that you should do.

1. Check whether the location of your music files is specified in the library settings

2. Make WMP search for those files again.

OK – here we go:

Open WMP and click on the Library Tab
 Click on the tiny little down arrow below the same tab
 A drop down list appears. Click on More Options.

A new window appears. Click on the Library tab of this new window.
 Click on the Monitor Folders button
 Ensure that the location where you store your music files is shown there. If it isn’t there’s an option to add it. Ensure that the “Add files previously deleted from the library” checkbox has a tick in it.

Click on OK and it will automatically start searching for those files again.

You can wait for the library to finish searching, or close the progrress box – the library will continue to search in the background. But if you leave it open, you can see whether or not it adds any more files.

If you closed it, leave WMP open and see if the albums/songs are added.

This is all pretty standard stuff really – and is available in the help.
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ZamZ0

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ASKER

Will try this tonght. thanks
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ASKER

Hi, just getting round to checking this out again. Yes have been using the library search feature to check and add files.........sometimes it finds them and adds them.......other times it does not. Either way found or not they disappear again after a few days.
I will try to clear out the "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Media Player".

I suspect the app Dbase cannot cope with the amount of data.

WMP =  Version 11.0.5721.5280
Operating System XP
Version: 5.1.2600 System Locale: en-us
Service Pack: 3.0 User Locale: en-gb
Build Lab: 2600.xpsp_sp3_q
Architecture: x86
Avatar of gavin_d

ASKER

Have found the "CurrentDatabase" file.....have copied and will delete and rescan all.
You might also try updating WMP:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-media-player-details.aspx

And any  Windows Updates / Service packs available

Start/run:

wuapp
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ASKER

So far have renamed and deleted "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Media Player" - and am re-scanning my default music folder. Will take probably an hour or so............