Windows media player

More of a rant unless anyone knows a cure!

I'm using Windows media player 11 on windows 7 with all the latest updates. All my music is stored on a sata hdd in a dock connected using the esata port on my main pc. When I try to play one of my playlists or any music selected in media player it says the music cannot be found,(it is there and hasn't moved) also if I click and drag mp3's into the play pane it says it cannon locate the file. However if I close media player and get it to open automatically by double clicking on a mp3 file I can then play all of my music without a problem. I can also replicate this problem from my laptop connecting to the same sata drive only though the network.

Why?

 

It could be a drive letter issue, ie. the playlist expects the files to be on drive D: when they are on E:.
But it could be a Windows media player issue too, I have noticed that wmp will not stream (play to) unless the file is on local drive.

 

Suppose could make sense. The drive is always there (always plugged in and starts up with the PC) and is always drive G:. Its almost like it ignores the possibility of there being a drive G:, so when I try to play a song or playlist it just says its not there. Then if you close WMP and double click a mp3 saved on drive G: it knows drive G: exists and will then play anything from that drive whether from the playlist or dragged and dropped.

I just find it weird, I often find weird quirks in programs My other half isn't so keen when I can break his programs!

 

Here is a thing you could try. Create a new playlist with just few songs/files save it, close WMP reopen WMP and see if the playlist still works.

 

Possibly because the directories have changed since you first did a media search in the player. I've encountered this many times since I first started using it. I'd recommend removing all media from within the player (not from the harddrive, just the file lists in WMP), and then, in WMP - ALT to get the menu open, File - Manage Libraries (Music) and removing any invalid directories and adding the music directory(ies) from your external drive. Even when moving the harddrive, the drive letter will be stored in the windows registry so it'll stay a constant as long as you don't format the PC. Even if you install a new hard drive in between.

If this doesn't work, you could CTRL-A select all the music you have outside of WMP, then right-clicking and "add to windows media player" or something around there. This should work.

As a last resort, you could try changing the drive letter manually. See the link below for detailed instructions.

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windows7/ht/change-drive-letters-windows-7.htm

 

Hi, thanks for the options. I don't think it can be that the directories have changed as I have a fairly new set up on my laptop (formatted it a week or so ago it was the same both before and after that I can remember).

I would hate to think how long it would take to "add to windows media player" I have a lot of files!

Wow changing the drive letter seems so much simpler than I remember - I think last time I changed a drive letter I was using Win 98 se!!!

Thanks for your suggestions, I have just thought of a solution, ditch wmp again and go back to win amp!

 

Using Win Amp instead sounds like a sensible alternative, WMP has gotten progressively worse over the years; too simplified for it's own good. Shame, really. It used to be good.

 

I think Win Amp was always one of the first things I reinstalled whenever I formatted a computer. I think I just never installed it this time as the playstation wanted to use WMP.

Land of the Vikings eh....I was just reading about Viking fire festivals the other day!

 

Yeah it's a good, compact player. Aye, the arctic circle is where it's at. Fire festivals eh? Yeah we've had some strange rituals and traditions in the past.

 

I run winamp & iTunes through the PS3, so I'd say ditch WMP.

 

Yea VLC plays everything I throw at it including 'broken' files. Regarding G: drive windows assigns a drive letter to all drives so the hard drive in the computer tends to be called C: and a CD/DVD drive tends to be labelled D: back in the day a floppy drive was nearly always drive A:, My external HD is drive G: because I already have C: and D: as hard drives E: and F: CD drives.