# Help: Corrupted Windows Media Player



## danwarren (Jun 9, 2007)

Hello there, this is the first time i have posted here, i hope someone can help?

My windows media player (currently WMP 11.0.5721.5145) seems to be in some way corrupted.
Heres what's wrong.
1. I can't add files to the library. When adding files nothing appears in the library.
2. I can't monitor folders. When i choose a folder to monitor it does not add folders to the library, when i go back to add a folder again no folders are listed.
3. WMP will not recognise my Windows Mobile 5 Device / Storage Card for sync purposes.
I however can play media files in WMP. When trying the automatic add to library option, nothing is added to the library.

I have searched for help everywhere and nothing has resolved the problem.
I have tried rolling back to WMP10 only to find the same problem and have also tried fixing the library as detailed in this topic on tech support guy, http://forums.techguy.org/multimedi...-media-player-11-a.html?highlight=wmp+library
I read on a microsoft knowledge base that programs such as ccleaner (which i have used in the past) may effect WMP registry but offers no way to fix it.
WMP and activsync works fine on my laptop but this is not where my music is stored and doesn't get used very often (I have tried importing the library to my PC)

Here's some more info:
WMP 11.0.5721.5145
ACTIVSYNC 4.5.0 (BUILD 5096)
PC runs XP SP2

This has had me really frustrated and spending many hours trying to fix it, I really hope some one can help Please?
Thanks
Dan


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## Blackmirror (Dec 5, 2006)

Hello has it ever worked


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## danwarren (Jun 9, 2007)

to be honest i don't know. apart from playing the odd file in WMP i have allways used Itunes and Winamp before that. I have never added files to the WMP or needed to until i bought my WM5 device


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## Blackmirror (Dec 5, 2006)

do you get any errors at all 

have a look in control panel administrative tools event viewer for any related errors and post them please


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## danwarren (Jun 9, 2007)

Thanks for helping but i'm not really familiar with the event viewer. I take it i'm looking for system errors when i'm using WMP and adding to the library in event viewer?
Windows doesn't pop up any errors when WMP is in use.
Another problem i just noticed is that i can't delete / create playlists in WMP


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## Blackmirror (Dec 5, 2006)

Yes its quite easy have a look it might pinpoint the problem

if you have an xp cd you can try 

start run sfc /scannow this will repair system files

or
Also - you could Start > Set Program Access and Defaults > Add and Remove Windows Components, and try to remove and reinstall WMP from there...


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## danwarren (Jun 9, 2007)

i can't find any related error messages in the event viewer
I will search for my XP disk and try to fix that way.
Will get back to you shortly.

Thanks again


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## Blackmirror (Dec 5, 2006)

Im not sure that error is related .. but i am checking


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## danwarren (Jun 9, 2007)

i have tried scanning xp disk for components and removing / adding components, neither have fixed the problem.
i am lost as to what to do now


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## Blackmirror (Dec 5, 2006)

did you run start run sfc /scannow ??


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## danwarren (Jun 9, 2007)

Hi, blackmirror
yes i did run sfc /scannow. It just scanned for missing components and then finished! no reports or errors or any other info!? I hope i did it right?
I also tried removing and adding components from the control panel, with no luck.
Again i uninstalled wmp11 and tried to install wmp10. It won't roll back, when i uninstall it just rolls back to wmp11 with no error messages. When i try to install WMP10 i get an error saying that wmp10 is not compatable with this version of windows?
This has me really stumped! I'm usually quite good at fixing things myself.
I'm really hoping i'm not going to have to restore xp on my pc!

thanks for your help
Dan


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## Blackmirror (Dec 5, 2006)

have you tried in safe mode to reinstall


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## danwarren (Jun 9, 2007)

yes but i can't get it to work in safe mode and safe mode with command prompt, i get the error: 
WINDOWS FILE PROTECTION CAN NOT INITIATE SCAN ERROR: 0X000006ba [PPC SERVER UNAVAILABLE]


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## Blackmirror (Dec 5, 2006)

Do you mean you cant get into safe mode or that error happens when you try to uninstall


Go to add/remove programs. Click 'Add/RemoveWindows components'. Scroll down and uncheck 'Update Root Certificates'. Click 'Next. When it finishes, go back and check 'Update Root Certificates' and click 'Next'.


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## danwarren (Jun 9, 2007)

sorry i didn't make it clear. i can run in safe mode but cannot do sfc /scannow , i get the above error
have done the update root certificate thing


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## Blackmirror (Dec 5, 2006)

I dont think you can run sfc /scannow from safe mode and you have said it ran through ok 
in normal mode
have you tried rolling back wmp in safe mode ??


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## Blackmirror (Dec 5, 2006)

http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html#medialibrary
have a look here


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## Butch311 (Jun 22, 2007)

Hi there !!! I found this site as my last resort as well. I'm also having the same exact problem as DanWarren. I have looked everywhere and tried everything that has been posted / listed.

I have deleted the Media Player folder; I have removed WMP from Add/Remove Programs - Windows Components; I have deleted the .WMDB files found on my computer...all to no avail. Everytime WMP11 starts up, I can not find my Library, I can not add Music to my Library and my Sandisk Sansa e270 is NOT recognized by WMP11, even though WinXP itself recognizes it.

Ironically, if I rollback to WMP10, everything works. I can add Music to my Library, my Sansa is recognized - all is fine. I would stay with WMP10 but unfortunately, it can't transfer Playlists to my Sansa correctly.

As soon as I update to WMP11, all the issues come up again.  

Now... I will admit that I'm running out of disk space on my Optiplex GX280- 6 GB Free (I'm already setting up my new Vista machine (XPS 710) but of course, Vista doesn't recognize my Sansa at all...Sandisk is looking into why they're not being recognized by Vista). I wouldn't think that that would matter so much. I've been that low for the past 3 months and have been working fine with WMP11 and my Sansa. Everything stopped about 4 days ago.

Anyone have any thoughts, comments, ideas ?? I am at wits end and really don't want to rebuild my Optiplex....

Thanks in advance.


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## Oregon_Rider (Jul 4, 2007)

Anybody figured this one out yet? 

WMP11 used to work on my Win XP - MCE computer then one day it said that I had no music.

I'm having the same problem as others: I can't get WMP to find my media files and it won't keep the folders that I add in Monitored Folders.

If MCE weren't dependent upon WMP I would scrap this M$ POS software and just use Media Monkey or Foobar but MCE needs the MCE library to function as a jukebox.


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## zaith (Jul 6, 2007)

Been using WMP11 since it came out, worked fine and then a few days ago I have no files in my library. Files still exist on comp in the same folder, same place, but when I try to add this folder to the monitored folders section, it will show it in the section right as I do it, but the next time I open monitored folders, the folder is gone. I can play music, but it will not add the music to the library, it just appears in the now playing section. It seemed like this happened totally randomly, help?


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## zaith (Jul 6, 2007)

durr, maybe I should read thread help before adding... Blackmirror's link provides what you need to know to solve this problem, and it worked perfectly for me. For XP, Simply rename the folder:

Documents and Settings/"User Name"/Local Settings/Application Data/Microsoft/Media Player

To rename, you may need to ctrl+alt+delete and end the windows network sharing process

I renamed my folder "Media Player 2"

Rebuilding library as I type this, thanks for the help!


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## Butch311 (Jun 22, 2007)

Sorry guys that it took so long... I had to move and my computer was down for about 2 weeks. But I got it working for me... Hopefully this will help someone else !!!! 

Zaith, I have also tried that link but it did not work for me.  I followed it exactly to the letter but I still couldn't get WMP 11 to recognize my library.

:up: This is what I ended up doing and I finally got it working :

1. Cleaned up *all* my Temp directories
2. Rolled back to WMP 10
3. Ran RegClean (even though it's really not made for WinXP)
4. In the Registry, I manually deleted any entries that still had WMP 11 left in them
5. Rebooted (just to clear out the Registry in memory and just in case...)  
6. Once rebooted, I went into my Profile and deleted the "User Name"/Local Settings/Application Data/Microsoft/Media Player folder. Yes I know, I deleted it. I got really PO'd that it wasn't working so I thought what the hell - I'll just delete it.
7. Just for kicks, I looked in the "User Name"/Application Data/Microsoft folder and found yet another Media Player folder   I also went ahead and deleted that one along with the MMC folder.
8. I rebooted again - you never know.
9. Once rebooted, I realized that I had downloaded and saved the Beta version of WMP 11. I went ahead and installed that version.

Once the installation completed, I opened it up and OMG !!! - it started scanning my HDD and importing any music that it found. I quickly disabled the standard directories that it wanted to scan and just gave it the ones that I wanted it to find. Within minutes, it wanted to upgrade itself to the Final version of WMP 11. I clicked on "No" and let it continue building my library. I let it build during the night and the next morning, I upgraded it to the Final version of WMP 11. I plugged my Sansa e270 and it recognized that as well (albeit from scratch... I had to format it and re-sync my music  ).

Now the only thing that I'm unhappy with is that it changed the "Last Modified Date" to the day when it started building the library again, even though I had not modified the song. 

Oh well... little things to work out *BUT* I got it up and running again !!!!!


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## yankees26an (Mar 27, 2007)

why are you using wmp, nevertheless trying to fix it!

Use Itunes or Winamp, or thousands of other players that are better than this


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