Windows Media Player isn't showing files properly

TKR99 · 22 Jun 2023

Hard to describe exactly what the issue is here.

Windows 10-22H2
WMP - 12.0

Basically I recently moved Win 10 to a new SSD and then also moved the music partition to a new SATA drive so 2 changes WMP had to contend with. I've 4 primary playlists 2 of which had no problems with very few missing files mainly from artists I didn't bother copying over. But my Christmas playlist is missing well over 100 files in that they show in the playlist but oddly it can't locate them despite the file path being exactly the same

Windows Media Player isn't showing files properly-wmp.jpg

. They're the ones at the top with no times against them.

I've tried rebuilding the library but it hasn't fixed the issue - not the first time this has happened & usually I just delete all the empty entries & add them in again, but with well over 100 I'd rather find a fix if one is available.

On another note, since reinstalling WMP it now shows ALL my partitions in the left hand column - it never did that before & again, I can't find a way to change it. I've quite a few partitions (don't ask!) so it's a bit annoying to see them all showing when only 1 has music on it. Anyone come across that before & found a way to prevent it?

Try3 · 22 Jun 2023

In order to re-use old playlists you also need to have set your Music folder & your monitored folders [WMP, Organise, Manage libraries, Music] to be the same as you had before and the files must be in the same relative path [including drive letters] to those folders.
OR
You can manually edit the wpl files in Notepad to put in absolute paths.
The file paths in a playlist's wpl file look like this
<media src="..\..\..\Audio\SomeSubFolder\SomeSubFolder\SomeSubFolder\SomeFile.wma"/>
and those myriad .. relate to WMP's relative path manipulation.
You can edit it to this syntax to get rid of all relative paths
<media src="F:\Audio\SomeSubFolder\SomeSubFolder\SomeSubFolder\SomeFile.wma"/>

The navigation pane on the left is set up in WMP, Organise, Customise navigation pane so you can set that to include or exclude chosen entries such as those unwanted drives.

All the best,
Denis

TKR99 · 22 Jun 2023

Thanks Denis
Halfway fixed :). Still stuck on the playlist thing - I thought I did have them kept in the same folders but perhaps Windows opened up other instances of them that I missed & I then have backups too so it does get a shade confusing at times. But all the folders & file locations should have remained the same as not only did I copy everything across fully I then also ensured I provided the partition the correct drive letter to try & prevent such problems, but maybe missed something.

How or where do I locate the "wpl" file(s) or do I create that myself?

Try3 · 22 Jun 2023

The wpl files are in the Playlist subfolder of the Music folder. That's where WMP creates them and subsequently where it expects them to be.
- Since you ask the question, I guess that you have not copied the Playlists to the same location as they were in the original.
- If you tried to play them from somewhere else then that would confuse WMP's relative path mechanism. You need to copy them to the Playlist folder so that you can then play them from within WMP.

If your Music folder path is a subfolder of your user folder, as it is by default, then you will also need to use the same UserName in the new disk/Windows installation because that's part of the Music folder path.

You can manipulate wmp files. I do it all the time
- I gave up with manipulating relative paths.
- If I manipulate a playlist because of file locations then I always write absolute paths in the playlist file.
- Once I have put absolute paths in the playlists I can play the playlist file, the wpl file, from anywhere. It no longer has to be in the playlists folder & I do not have to worry about what I've used as the Music folder path, the monitored folder paths, the UserName, ....

Denis

TKR99 · 22 Jun 2023

Hmm that explains a lot perhaps. Somewhere along the way WMP either created the playlists in a subfolder I called External files, so I then always placed that folder first in the Library folders as the default. And that's where it's picking this problem up. SO I at least now can replace those with some backed up ones & see whether that maybe does the trick.

You live & learn.

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer this minor query Denis - it's those like you who make forums like this so valuable!! :)

Try3 · 22 Jun 2023

TKR99 said:

Somewhere along the way WMP either created the playlists in a subfolder I called External files, so I then always placed that folder first in the Library folders as the default.

If they are in the Music folder path or any other monitored folder path they will get picked up by WMP. But if, as I believe, that's not where WMP wrote them then its relative path mechanism will go wrong when you try to play them.
Might I suggest you make a playlist within WMP then, in WMP's navigation pane, right-click on that new playlist & select Open file location so it takes you to the folder it has written the playlist in.

I was never able to find any method for getting WMP to put its playlists anywhere other than ...\Music\Playlists.
I copy them around the place for my backups / archives and keep a shortcut to my ...\Music\Playlists in my SendTo folder so I can easily copy them into the right place when I want to use them [I normally only keep a dozen of so there in order to reduce the clutter in WMP's navigation pane].

Thanks for the nice comments,
Denis