Serious Problem With Windows Media Player

You can open any song in Audacity, and export it as .mp3

Audacity (R) | Free Audio editor, recorder, music making and more!

WMP has a feature that add's tracks to the library when played, this can be turned off in options. There is also a button that will restore the media library to defaults that are set by the user.

It's not exactly a quick solution but usable. I use Total Recorder, can be set to record anything getting to the speakers and save as different formats. Works good recording music from sites like YouTube, etc.

When you delete a track in WMP, it asks whether you just want to remove it from the WMP Library or delete the track from your computer.

It sounds to me like you have selected delete from computer & set the checkbox for never ask me again.

This won't restore anything but can help prevent future accidental deletions.
Clear the checkbox for deleting from the computer in WMP, Organize, Options, Library.

As for your current situation, I'm afraid that your only salvation will be restoring the missing files from your backups.
You might also find some recent deletions can be restored by using WMP, Alt key, Tools menu, Restore deleted items.

You might also find some recent deletions can be restored from your Recycle bin.
You might also find that a utility such as Recuva can find & restore some more recent deletions.

Personally, I find that it is better to do mass deletions & reorganisations in File explorer with WMP closed.
And, if the reorganisation involves moving an audio file, what I actually do is copy it to its new location then delete the original copy. This stops WMP from attempting to alter the Library to match the new locations without my agreement.
I also manually edit playlists in Notepad to match any such mass changes.
I might also delete & rebuild the whole WMP library by using the Restore media library item shown above.


I appreciate that you are going to focus on getting back your files for the time being.
When you have done all that you can in that regard, do post back to say whether or not you still have any interest in converting WMA to MP3. I think the answer will be, No.
I've had some MP3 players & smartphones that can play WMA files and others that could not. I have not used any Bluetooth media players.



All the best,
Denis

InChoirer said:

But how do I do that?

It's in Options [one Options tab is shown in my second diagram].
I suggest you look through all the choices in all the tabs in Options after you have finished recovering files as far as you are able.


All the best,
Denis

Try3 said:

When you delete a track in WMP, it asks whether you just want to remove it from the WMP Library or delete the track from your computer.

It sounds to me like you have selected delete from computer & set the checkbox for never ask me again.

But I've always done that for over the last 20 years, and that seems to usually apply to songs you want to delete from an album, and usually WMP shows you that option. But as far as deleting songs from a playlist, the option is to "Remove from playlist" and it has worked like that for over the past 20 years, but now all of the sudden when it's just supposed to only remove the song from the playlist, it now deletes the song from my computer. But it looks as if something is corrupted.

Try3 said:

This won't restore anything but can help prevent future accidental deletions.
Clear the checkbox for deleting from the computer in WMP, Organize, Options, Library.

I already found that solution at a Microsoft site, but that doesn't bring back my deleted files or help with the other new problems that I've recently encountered.

Try3 said:

As for your current situation, I'm afraid that your only salvation will be restoring the missing files from your backups.
You might also find some recent deletions can be restored by using WMP, Alt key, Tools menu, Restore deleted items.

I'll try that, and I even had the bright idea this morning to just get some of the CDs that I still have left remaining (some of them have been sold and some of them were borrowed from a friend), and just re-rip them to my computer. However, I did that once for two songs that got messed up on a CD, but I couldn't do that with two entire CDs, so I deleted the CDs, closed WMP and then reopened it and then tried to rip the entire two CDs back to my computer (via WMP), but it just wouldn't do it. My computer acted like it tried to rip the CDs, but it then immediately ejected the two CDs both times. So, now the two deleted CDs can't be re-added to WMP, but I also had trouble locating them in File Explorer.

Try3 said:

You might also find some recent deletions can be restored from your Recycle bin.

After it's been emptied?

Try3 said:

You might also find that a utility such as Recuva can find & restore some more recent deletions.

I'll try that.

Try3 said:

Personally, I find that it is better to do mass deletions & reorganisations in File explorer with WMP closed.

That's how I update my external hard drive.

Try3 said:

And, if the reorganisation involves moving an audio file, what I actually do is copy it to its new location then delete the original copy. This stops WMP from attempting to alter the Library to match the new locations without my agreement.

I hate to show my ignorance, but how exactly is that done?

Try3 said:

I also manually edit playlists in Notepad to match any such mass changes.
I might also delete & rebuild the whole WMP library by using the Restore media library item shown above.

Sorry, but you're getting way above me.

Try3 said:

I appreciate that you are going to focus on getting back your files for the time being.
When you have done all that you can in that regard, do post back to say whether or not you still have any interest in converting WMA to MP3. I think the answer will be, No.

I can tell you that now... NO! lol

Try3 said:

I've had some MP3 players & smartphones that can play WMA files and others that could not. I have not used any Bluetooth media players.

I really love it, and I'm using a great little free app called Oto Music, which plays lossless WMA files from your phone in your car via Bluetooth in all its lossless glory.

InChoirer said:

Could you elaborate? How will that help?

Audacity is a music editor/convertor.

That's all it will help with.
It will ofc play music as well, but it's main function is as a music editor/convertor.

Personally, I use it to grab the audio from youtubes... using it's recorder function.

I guess the short answer is that Audacity is a must have for any audiophile.


I use Foobar2000 as an audio player, and VLC for videos.

Try3 said:

Personally, I find that it is better to do mass deletions & reorganisations in File explorer with WMP closed.
And, if the reorganisation involves moving an audio file, what I actually do is copy it to its new location then delete the original copy.

InChoirer said:

I hate to show my ignorance, but how exactly is that done

Each ripped track is a file in your computer that can be seen in File explorer.
All I meant was that if I am in File explorer "moving" audio files between folders [such as moving them from a folder containing tracks by many artists into a folder that I've named after a specific artists] I don't really "move" the files - I copy them, I paste them in the new folder, I delete the original file.
I've seen WMP getting confused by moves before so I copy the file and paste it into its new folder instead and then I delete the original copy. WMP does not get confused by that.

Example 1 - I had some Motown Chartbuster albums containing tracks by all that label's artists. They were all together in folders that had been named Motown Chartbusters Vol 1, Motown Chartbusters Vol 2, ... and I "moved" [copy, paste, delete] each track into a folder I had named after the appropriate artist for that track. So I "moved" I can't help myself from a folder named Motown Chartbusters Vol whatever into a folder named The four tops.
Example 2 - And this is where WMP can really get confused. I "moved" a track from my huge collection of radio documentaries from a Radio folder to a RadioArchive folder that is not part of the WMP Library. If I had not done it by Copy-Paste-Delete but moved it instead, when I reopened WMP it would have searched for the moved track and kept it in its Library. I have far too many Radio recordings to be able to manage them all easily within WMP. By "moving" [Copy-Paste-Delete] them into my archive folders I can play them again at some time in the future without having them clutter up my WMP Library today.

InChoirer said:

I also manually edit playlists in Notepad to match any such mass changes

I only need to edit WMP Playlists because I move things around [such as moving things into my RadioArchive].
You rarely have to edit WMP Playlists. I just find it convenient.
You can see where WMP keeps its Playlists by right-clicking on one in WMP's left-hand pane [its Navigation pane] and selecting Open file location. WMP Playlists are .wpl files.
You can then see how Playlists are structured by looking at one in Notepad. Just drop the .wpl Playlist file of interest into a Notepad window.
e.g.

Code:

<?wpl version="1.0"?>
<smil>
    <head>
        <meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Windows Media Player -- 12.0.19041.3636"/>
        <meta name="ItemCount" content="42"/>
        <title>Music Roy Orbison</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <seq>
            <media src="..\..\..\Audio\Music\Roy Orbison\The essential Roy Orbison\Crying.mp3"/>
            <media src="..\..\..\Audio\Music\Roy Orbison\The essential Roy Orbison\Dream Baby.mp3"/>
            <media src="..\..\..\Audio\Music\Roy Orbison\The essential Roy Orbison\In Dreams (1987 version).mp3"/>
            <media src="..\..\..\Audio\Music\Roy Orbison\The essential Roy Orbison\Its Over.mp3"/>
            <media src="..\..\..\Audio\Music\Roy Orbison\The essential Roy Orbison\Blue Bayou.mp3"/>
            <media src="..\..\..\Audio\Music\Roy Orbison\The essential Roy Orbison\Love Hurts.mp3"/>
            <media src="..\..\..\Audio\Music\Roy Orbison\The essential Roy Orbison\Only The Lonely.mp3"/>
            <media src="..\..\..\Audio\Music\Roy Orbison\The essential Roy Orbison\Running Scared.mp3"/>
            <media src="..\..\..\Audio\Music\Roy Orbison\The essential Roy Orbison\You Got It.mp3"/>
            <media src="..\..\..\Audio\Music\Roy Orbison\The essential Roy Orbison\Oh, Pretty Woman.mp3"/>
        </seq>
    </body>
</smil>

I repeat, you will hardly ever have to edit them manually.
If you look at the structure, the central section lists the tracks in that Playlist.
That ..\..\..\Audio\Music\ bit is a relative path leading to my Music folder.
I often replace the ..\..\..\Audio\Music\ bit with an absolute path such as F:\Audio\Music\ because that allows me to store the Playlist anywhere I want [which I cannot do with the relative path in there].

Code:

            <media src="F:\Audio\Music\Roy Orbison\The essential Roy Orbison\Oh, Pretty Woman.mp3"/>

If I do edit a track's title or its path, I do that in Notepad whilst WMP is closed.
I repeat, you will hardly ever have to edit them manually.

All the best,
Denis