# help! reinstalled windows media player won't play music after a crash!



## kml1nj (Sep 3, 2001)

how do i find and reattach licenses to windows media player (wmp) files after a crash that required me to reinstall windows 2000? without these "licenses" my music won't play! i paid "Microsoft help" to tell me that i was supposed to have backed up these "licenses" that they attached to each of my own cds that i loaded on my system! now they say that there is nothing they can do. file recovery utilities that i bought did not help. i could not play the music with another player like real player or winamp. they did not work when i converted the wma files into mp3's. HELP!!!! (thanks!)


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## Pazzeratzi (Aug 27, 2001)

Maybe slightly too late but can u use system restore?


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## kml1nj (Sep 3, 2001)

system restore cannot help. thank you for trying.


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## Max19 (Jul 31, 2001)

I've never heard of licensing problems with Windows 2000 and Media Player. Could someone fill me in on what this is about?


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## kml1nj (Sep 3, 2001)

dear max19:
the latest version of windows media player automatically encrypts the music you download or otherwise install on your own computer (in my case i loaded on cds) and play with the media player. windows then calls these "licenses", but does not automatically back these up for you when you exit the system or otherwise notify you that they are there (perhaps hidden in some faq, but not prominent). 
in my case, my computer crashed and now microsoft is telling me that these "secretly" encrypted files with their hidden l"licenses" cannot be played on my machine. some of those cd's i lent to my friends and even though i am totally legally able to play that music, these fake little microsoft licenses that supposedly can never be restored says that i can't. of course, if i knew about them, i could have backed them up, but no one told me. protect yourself and (1) don't use a program that secretly encrypts to play music and (2) back your music and and "licenses" up.
hoping still that someone can help me...
thanks.


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## Davey7549 (Feb 28, 2001)

kml1nj
Sorry to bother you since you were kind enough to answer Max's question. I find this situation interesting and am sorry it has happened to you, but could you tell me what version you are running of media player. Since I use Media player to play through but record music playing in a different fashion I would like to be more aware of this license issue.
Thank you Dave


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## kml1nj (Sep 3, 2001)

dear davey:
i was running media player 7.1, which is the most current version. i understand that 6.5 does not encrypt (ie: no licensing issues), but that this old version may not be supported on windows 2000, which is my operating system.
i am trying to play cds that i loaded on myself and these do not work. i do not know if napster-type downloads would be encrpyted, but i think that they would be and you would never know, right!?
in media player look in tools. click the tab under license management and choose "backup now". i would also recommend saving music files either by burning cds or on an LS120 or other high capacity storage device. 
i don't mind answering your questions, but i still sure hope someone can help me. this is a major public problem that no one really knows about. microsoft is quietly siding with music industry anti-napster-types and at least should have had the courtesy to let the rest of us protect ourselves and our rightfully installed music files!
for more info, please see the article "microsoft wins new friends as anti-piracy superhero" dated february 1, 2001 by john borland at http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn.
and we all thought that free media player was so cool....

(please somebody help...)


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## Davey7549 (Feb 28, 2001)

kml1nj
Thank you for the info and time. If I find a way to help out I will let you know. 
Thanks again 
Dave


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## Max19 (Jul 31, 2001)

So are you having a problem playing actual original audio CDs? Or are you having a problem playing MP3 files? I don't understand what exactly your problem is.


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## kml1nj (Sep 3, 2001)

Dear Max:

This is what I did:
I went to the store.
I bought some cds.
I loaded them onto the hard drive of my own computer.
I played the music with windows media player.
My computer crashed.
I re-installed the operating system and recovered my files.
My music will not play because of this secret licensing.
It was my own music.

I still have a lot of it, but some I lost or lent out or had borrowed from my friends and don't have those cds anymore.
I had made special playlists.
Microsoft could have autimatically backed up my files with the "licenses" every time I closed the file, but it now tells me you have to manually do that and because I did that I can never play my music again. My own music on my own hard drive.

Someone very smart will know a way of bypassing the windows platform, but that is not me.

Hoping for help


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## Max19 (Jul 31, 2001)

What do you mean by "loaded them onto the hard drive"? Does that mean you ripped them into MP3 files? Did you rip them into WAV files? Did you perform a disk copy?


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## kml1nj (Sep 3, 2001)

dear max:

to play your cds in windows media player, you put the cd in your drive, choose "cd audio" in the player, and it will COPY the file to your computer and play it as a proprietary .wma file. they are not mp3 or wav files, they become wma files.

i am enjoying this chat, but really looking for someone to help me.
you don't seem familiar with windows media player and given my current predicament, that would be a good thing, i would say.

let's hope i get so lucky.


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## spook (Jun 19, 2001)

I just reloaded windowsME with media player and cannot access my previously recorded CD's. The following message comes up when I click on media library: "system cannot find the path specified".
I think they are gone forever.


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## eddie5659 (Mar 19, 2001)

Hiya

Trying to get my head round this also, but I have found this:

http://wmlicense.smdisp.net/licenserequest/

What you do is email Microsft, and they send you a license with instructions on how to install it. Is that what you mean?

And this is the FAQ on the license:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnwmt/html/wmsdk_faq.asp

Regards

eddie


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## spook (Jun 19, 2001)

Hi eddie, I read your info and certainly you have got to be kidding, all that BS just to retrieve my own files on my own hard drive.....forget it. MS can stuff it but thanks for the info anyway. Have a Merry Christmas.


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## eddie5659 (Mar 19, 2001)

Hiya

spook: That was for kml1nj, as he was saying about the licenses. 

As for yours, when you say reloaded, do you mean over the top or is this an upgrade from another OS? if so, they may still be there, but under a different path.

Use Find Files and Folders to have a search for the names of some of the music files that you stored. 

Regards

eddie


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## spook (Jun 19, 2001)

Hi eddie, i thought we were all on the same problem...sorry. I loaded winME over winME to correct some corrupt files, which it did but media player cannot find the original path to my music.


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## eddie5659 (Mar 19, 2001)

Okay

Can you click File | Open, then Browse to the files? Have you tried Find Files, as they may have moved. Mind you, sometimes the installing of an OS causes the original files to be lost.

Just have a look first with Find Files...

eddie


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## spook (Jun 19, 2001)

eddie, I did a search on *.wma and found all my music files for media player. If you 2click on a file it will open media player, play the music and create a duplicate in the media library. When I closed out the player and reopened it from my desktop, went to the library and clicked on the same song, it played as though it had never been lost. It also appears to have updated the info on the original song too so they both will play. This is one way to recover but ,man, what a pain if you have a big library.


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## ezymony (Jan 27, 2001)

seems like you could change your default player to winamp or some other media player and still play your music


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## spook (Jun 19, 2001)

I haven't played with that recently but some time ago I tried to have realplayer play those files with the WMA extension and it didn't recognize the format.


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## eddie5659 (Mar 19, 2001)

Hiya

Realplayer won't play any WMP file types. These are usually only ram or rm file types. 

As I say, the installing of the OS over the original just causes some files to be moved to another location. I had the same problem when I upgraded to 2000. All my files were there, just took a while to find.

eddie


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## mgbtt (May 1, 2008)

I bought a new computer with the new version of windows Media player, I also am having this problem. I copied my music from my old computer to a strage device and then to the new computer, the new computer recognises the music titles, art ect..., but wont play with out getting a "licence"(I did buy the music by the way). How do you get the "licence"? The player prompts you to obtain the licence through MSN, and I try, but it still wont play. It will play the music that I didn't buy on line that was on my old computer.


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