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Windows Media Player 12 Library is completely broken for me
Windows Media Player 12 Library is completely broken for me
- I cannot get WMP 12 to import my library. I have searched all the related posts and have since disabled Media Sharing, deleted my %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Media Player directory and tried reimporting, etc. but nothing works.
I have a large mp3 collection shared on the network from another Windows box. I add the folder (tried as a mapped drive and UNC path) and it begins importing. After about 30 minutes into the import (the CurrentDatabase_372.wmdb hits just under 400MB) my WMP player stops importing and all of the icons in WMP turn to red x's and my library is gone. I close and reopen WMP 12 and the library is empty and the CurrentDatabase_372.wmdb is small and it strarts importing again. Rinse, lather, repeat.
I am going nuts as WMP11 on Vista handles this same setup perfectly. I am at my wits end on what else to try.
I am running a legit Windows 7 Ultimate X64 RTM install.
Here is a screenshot of what WMP12 looks like when the import dies:
http://imgur.com/HaeG2.png
Answers
- Hello all. Just to add in my 'guess what, it's happening to me too' comment.... This is crazy.. One thing that did work for me was to try it in a new profile on the same machine and it has so far rebuilt and not crashed. BClancy hit the nail on the head - how did this get to RTM?! This is starting to drive me nuts...
However.. today, I seem to have made progress.. as stated above, all seemed to be well when creating a new Profile and importing in the same way. I then deleted that profile, as it was only a test, but it did successfully import my whole library. I then went back to my original and main profile, and reset the permissions on my music folder allowing the WMPNetworkSvc full access then switching straight back to read only. I did all of this with the Windows Media Network Sharing Services in a stopped state.
I started WMP 12 earlier this morning and allowed it to rebuild the library and it has now completed - I closed and opened media player and it was still there, then rebooted and again, it was still there. Weird, but not complaining. I will add to this post if it goes wrong again.- Marked As Answer byVivian XingMSFT, ModeratorFriday, November 27, 2009 10:10 AM
All Replies
- Check that W7MP can see your library storage location by ripping a cd and checking that it builds a database correctly.
Is the music collection on the machine you are trying to access it from or on a networked drive? - The library is on a network drive. It can see the library storage location fine, because it displays and play the files correctly when it first starts importing. It isn't until about 30-40 minutes into the import process that it dies and looks like the attached screenshot. I have no idea if it is choking on a particular file or hitting a certain library size that may be causing the problem.
- I am having the exact same problems as duckworth...cannot get my music collection loaded into WMP12. Tried all the same fixes also to no avail. Please get this fixed soon MS!
If anyone has overcome these issues successfully, please post your solution.
BTW, that screenshot is exactly what my screen looks like after WMP 12 chokes on my library. My mp3 files are all stored on an internal NTFS HDD on my Windows 7 machine and will play if directly accessed through Windows Explorer or other media application. - BUMP
- OK, I Just confirmed this is definitely a problem not specific to my computer. I just clean installed Windows 7 Ultimate x86 on an old test machine, opened WMP12 and added the same network folder of mp3's and it crashed about an hour into the import with the same appearance as the screenshot I posted above and the library disappears.
So the problem has to be one of several things:
- The large size of the library
- The fact that the library is on the network (in my case)
- A specific file or file is causing it the player to crash
At this point, from the other posts I have read I think there is a size limit to the library. I think I will start a thread to see what the largest library that people have successfully loaded is. - I have a music library of just over 300GB, around 30,000 tracks. 1/4-1/3 is on my local c: drive, the rest on a local external eSata HDD drive. WMP 11 in Vista handled it fine. WMP 12 in Win7 HP cannot read it in after several tries (clearing library and starting over). It keeps "updating" forever, and WMP 12 will not close normally during this unending process. I cannot even kill WMP 12 using Task Manager. It is constantly accessing my external HDD. One folder on the external drive has 135 GB of music in it, and WMP 12 is evidently choking on updating the library on that folder. The library is still being updated, it just takes forever. I have turned off internet updating of music files so that the update process could (should?) run faster, with no effect. Shall I keep waiting? Does anyone have any suggestions?
- OK, so I just tried some more things to narrow down the problem. I tried adding the local files to the library on a clean install of Windows Server 2008 R2, which has the same version of Windows Media Player 12 as Windows 7 and had the same problem. So it isn't network related, nor is it related to Windows 7 specifically. I also removed the "Maintain my star ratings as global ratings in files" option.
So it has to be down to 1 of 2 things...
- The large amount of files in the library
- A specific file or file is causing it the player to crash
- I just found that my library update problem was related to two corrupted files in my library. The update would always stop and hang on one of two artists, so I did a disk error check. The check detected and fixed disk problems on files from the same two artists. I then deleted those artists and re-copied them from a backup. The library then updated fine. At least one track is still corrupted, I think from its original source (a friend). It is interesting that WMP 11 just skipped over this file on making its library, but it hung WMP 12 completely.
So, duckworth, it seems like your #2 item was the problem for me. WMP 12 never crashed for me, but would hang. It couldn't get past the disk error on reading my files. The bad files were on an external eSata HDD. - To further try and narrow the problem down I watched all file activity with Process Monitor as WMP12 added my music to the library and it actually finished reading all of the files in the directory I added. Then it proceeded to write to the CurrentDatabase_372.wmdb for a good half an hour before it crashed. I tried adding only the last files that were read by WMP12 just to confirm that they weren't and issue an it had no problem with those particular files on their own. So something is killing the library database on the post file scan process.
- What file types are involved here? MP3, right? I'm curious if there's some memory leak or something else going on here, since the player's images not showing up indicate something catastrophic is going on. You might want to check Task Manager:Processes : Show Processes from all users, and turn on Working Set // Handles // GDI Objects and see if anybody is being particularly piggy.
Can you add subsections of the MP3 collection successfully? Or are they all in one giant folder? What file types are involved here? MP3, right? I'm curious if there's some memory leak or something else going on here, since the player's images not showing up indicate something catastrophic is going on. You might want to check Task Manager:Processes : Show Processes from all users, and turn on Working Set // Handles // GDI Objects and see if anybody is being particularly piggy.
They are all MP3. I Have added various folders of the collection successfully, but have never been able to add the entire collection which is in one root folder structure seperated into Artist/Album folders. I have tried from 3 machines (Win7 x64, Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 and Win7 x86) and they all do the same thing. I will try looking at memory usage next.
Can you add subsections of the MP3 collection successfully? Or are they all in one giant folder?
- I also have the same error as duckworth, I am importing 550Gb of music. WMP 12 also seems to have changed some of the ID Tags as there a number of albums that I have created almost 2 years ago now coming up with Unknown album. Several albums now do not have album art or the wrong album art which I then have to correct. At this stage I am giving up until this is fixed as there are too many inconsistencies; my backup which is running on Windows Vista has none of these problems. Vista is now my 'good' backup - not my 'bad' backup - this is not good!
Can someone confirm a change in ID Tag versions? Could this be the root of the problems?
Seems this has been around since January how did this get to RTM?
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=722422
More confirmations:
http://steelpangolin.wordpress.com/2009/09/13/wmp12-dont-bother/
http://www.sevenforums.com/music-pictures-video/27188-wmp-12-does-not-recognize-id3-tags.html - Hello all. Just to add in my 'guess what, it's happening to me too' comment.... This is crazy.. One thing that did work for me was to try it in a new profile on the same machine and it has so far rebuilt and not crashed. BClancy hit the nail on the head - how did this get to RTM?! This is starting to drive me nuts...
However.. today, I seem to have made progress.. as stated above, all seemed to be well when creating a new Profile and importing in the same way. I then deleted that profile, as it was only a test, but it did successfully import my whole library. I then went back to my original and main profile, and reset the permissions on my music folder allowing the WMPNetworkSvc full access then switching straight back to read only. I did all of this with the Windows Media Network Sharing Services in a stopped state.
I started WMP 12 earlier this morning and allowed it to rebuild the library and it has now completed - I closed and opened media player and it was still there, then rebooted and again, it was still there. Weird, but not complaining. I will add to this post if it goes wrong again.- Marked As Answer byVivian XingMSFT, ModeratorFriday, November 27, 2009 10:10 AM
- I'm also having problems with the library. But in my case, I can't add ANYTHING in it. Not even a directory with some pictures.
Tried deleting the db folder, etc. But it just doesn't let me add directories. :s - I want to add my situation here as well. I have been running Vista Ultimate 64 for 2 years now and just upgraded to Win7. I used the upgrade option and all went smoothly. Smoothest I have ever seen an update. Unfortunately, I just added a 1TB drive and I got cute - adding an M: drive for my music and a P: drive for my Photos (my videos have always been on a V: drive) and then moving all of my Windows libraries to correspond with the drives.
Now media player cannot find any of my music or pictures. It can see all of my videos (still on a V: drive), but it doesn't even respond when I click on ORGANIZE/MANAGE LIBRARIES/MUSIC. Nothing. The same for Photos (also moved to a new drive). Videos - as I said - work fine.
I have stopped all the services, deleted the Dbase files, restarted my computer several times and have no luck. I am not sure at all even where to start. One website mentioned the "WMP's Tools:Advanced:Restore Media Library menu tool" but I have not seen such a thing.
As always, any help is greatly appreciated.
K - Press CONTROL+M to see the player's menu.
If you enter "Libraries" on the Start Menu and go there, can you click on the Music and Pictures locations there and get to your files... ? - In the libraries, all of my files are visible and I can navigate through them all.
Thank you for helping me find the restore media library - the first try didn't work, but I am still playing around with it and hopefully will find success soon.
K
PS.
As I have played around, I cannot set the rip destination - I click on the change button and nothing happens. The "restore media library" simply closes WMP and does nothing. All of my music is visible in the Library in the start menu, but WMP refuses to allow me to look.
However, it will see my pictures. Now, no videos or music, just my pictures.
I'm very confused...
Should I reinstall? - Another addition. It appears that my MY MUSIC and MY VIDEOS are no longer personal folders. I looked under my user name and had neither listed. I right-clicked on the folders and did not see the LOCATION tab - indicating that they have lost the personal file designation and, although my LIBRARIES tab will allow me to look into them and see what's there, nothing else - not WMP or iTunes - will see them or allow me to use them.
I will need to go and find a way to reassociate them in Win 7.
K - @KTvan: Right-click on the Start menu's start button. Click Open Windows Explorer. Right-click on "Music". Are the Library locations valid/set correctly... ?
- I just fixed it. I went into the registry, and checked all the values there. Each of the folders were pointing to different drive locations - all of them invalid. Once I corrected them, everything else worked.
K
