Windows 7 blocking my music files

I store my music on an external drive. When I try to play the music in iTunes, some of the tracks won't play. I can solve this by going to the individual song, unchecking "read-only" and adding myself to the permissions. The problem is that I have 11,000 songs, and so doing this for every song is impractical.

I have tried the following:
1. Take ownership. It was successful, but it doesn't change any subfolders or solve the problem.
2. I have selected the higher-level folder and unchecked "read only", applying it to all subfolders, but nothing changes.
3. I have added permissions to the folders and subfolders, but Windows 7 deletes these permissions and reverts the folders and files back to administrator.
4. I have shared the files and folders with myself, but this has no effect.

Please help. Thanks.

I want to add that this does not appear to be an iTunes issue. When I try to open the files in Media Player, I get this message:

"Windows Media Player cannot access the file. The file might be in use, you might not have access to the computer where the file is stored, or your proxy settings might not be correct."

defective said:

I store my music on an external drive. When I try to play the music in iTunes, some of the tracks won't play. I can solve this by going to the individual song, unchecking "read-only" and adding myself to the permissions. The problem is that I have 11,000 songs, and so doing this for every song is impractical.

I have tried the following:
1. Take ownership. It was successful, but it doesn't change any subfolders or solve the problem.
2. I have selected the higher-level folder and unchecked "read only", applying it to all subfolders, but nothing changes.
3. I have added permissions to the folders and subfolders, but Windows 7 deletes these permissions and reverts the folders and files back to administrator.
4. I have shared the files and folders with myself, but this has no effect.

Please help. Thanks.

I want to add that this does not appear to be an iTunes issue. When I try to open the files in Media Player, I get this message:

"Windows Media Player cannot access the file. The file might be in use, you might not have access to the computer where the file is stored, or your proxy settings might not be correct."

have you authorised the audible account under advanced?

Itunes should co-exists with MS players just fine.

I use Zune personally as a player/and digital purchases, but I do have 1 PC in the house that uses iTunes for a ipod & digital purchase.
File formats can be played across both PCs regardless which store they were purchased from.
Well, at least so far they have been sharing back and forth without issue.
My Zune player plays music from the itunes library, and vise-a versa.


This sounds like some form of file permission and/or sharing problem possibly, rather than the players.

On the External, how exactly do you have your music stored?

You may try Making a new folder, and move all the music into it.

Then, for share permissions, rather than sharing with individual users, try choosing and Adding "Everyone" from the drop down list.
Does this help?

Well Im confused, and from what I read on that article it seems completely false.
But decided to double check on this.

By accessing the shared library and playing back music from that PCs iTunes library, my PC has no issue.
As I mentioned, Zune is my default player but I did try it with WMP and it played back the M4A files without issue.

I even tried playing a Music Video I know for 100% certain was purchased through iTunes and both Zune and WMP played it back without issue.

Out of pure curiosity, I transfered a couple of the music tracks, and a video to my own PC.
Nero was able to convert the Video to Nero Digital, as well as convert the music to MP3.
You can not do this if theres DRM embedded.

In fact, how Zune reports purchased iTunes music:




So I fail to understand what this about.
What exactly am I missing here?


The only issue I know of, in terms of DRM, comes from Zune.

Songs that have been purchased are fine no matter what you wish to do with them, as they are DRM free.
However, songs downloaded using the Zune Pass will only work on a Zune Device, or any of the 3 PCs that are registered. Also, you can not convert the file nor burn it to a disc.

The player itself does not seem to matter, only that the PC is registered.

Is there a iTunes version of the ZunePass?
If so, removing the DRM would be illegal. Otherwise, DRM should not be a factor for music you own. Such your CD rips, or music you purchase digitally.

t-4-2 said:

All that I am saying is : WMP does not play itunes music without conversion.

Please get a music file downloaded from itunes, and without converting, try to play it in WMP.
Does it play ?

The ceratinly do in thier native format, without issue, and they have no DRM either according to Zune.



@Defective:
Did you try changing the permission on the Music folder to "Everyone" to see if the issue resolves itself?

I could be wrong on this, but I do not think you should change to folder itself to Read Only.
The host PC may need to have more access?? Not sure there.
But, you can set your sharing options to be read only. This way any PC sharing can only read, yet the host still has full rights.


Let me see if I can find someone more knowledgable than I with diagnosing Sharing/Permission problems to help you.