Windows 7: 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."

have you authorised the audible account under advanced?

>>>>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."

Itunes is Apple product.
Windows Media Player is a Microsoft propgram.
Do you think Microsoft will be so gracious to accept Apple products into its own application ?

Windows does not support anything from itunes.

Install Real Player if you want to play itunes music.
OR,
Install VLC which plays any file formats.
VLC Media Player | Free Download

Adding ....
You might want to post your issue to Apple - itunes forums.
Here is one of them :
http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/

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?

In case it has been mis-interpreted...
I am saying Windows Media Player will not play music from itunes.

I am not saying one cannot install itunes in Windows based computer.

Excerpt from this link :
http://www.aimersoft.com/itunes-drm/...ia-player.html

Why can't you play iPod iTunes music video movie on Windows Media Player

1. iTunes music video movie has DRM (Digital Rights Management) which attempts to control use of digital media by preventing access, copying or conversion by users to other formats or players. (Files with DRM restrictions are generally obtained from Subscription Services and must be updated periodically to have the License revalidated. Upon expiring, the files will prompt to "please sync to continue your music subscription" when selected on the MP3 player.)
2. iTunes iPod music, video, movie are in unique formats that can't be recognized by Windows Media Player. As you might know, iTunes iPod music is in AAC (DRM'ed .m4p and non-DRM .m4a) format, video and movie are in DRM-protected .m4v or .mov formats, while WMP plays .wma, .mp3 audio and .wmv, .avi ,.mp4 video.

There is a way to paly itunes in WMP, with a DRM Media converter. It will be explained in the link above.

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.

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 ?

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I am fairly certain that it is a permission/access issue. I have added permissions for my wife and myself (both administrators), leave the folder, and upon my return find that those permissions have been deleted. But still, "administrators" has full authority, so, in theory, it should work. It doesn't.

I store my files under my music/itunes/music/[individual folders]. I have tried copying the files to a new folder, and that doesn't work either. I had the same setup under XP, and had no issues. After I upgraded to 7, I could no longer access the files (just like now). I figured that my external drive was incompatible, so I bought a new one and copied all the files to the new folder. That worked for a little while, but then the same issue cropped up with the new external drive.

I'm at a loss. I will go to one of the outer folders and unclick read-only. I will tell it to apply that change to all subfolders and files. It will take several minutes to make the changes, blurring through all the file names. However, when I go into the subfolders and files, nothing has changed. The ONLY thing that works is if I modify an individual file.

I suspect it is some intended security feature of Windows 7, but I have no idea how to bypass it.

Thanks again.

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.

I just changed the permissions to include everyone. I now have changed the permissions to every level down to the folders holding the individual files (band name). There, no matter what I do, I can't make a lump change to the individual files. They are no longer read-only, but "administrator" is the only permission and they have a picture of a lock on each file. It says that administrators have access. But even though I am an administrator, it won't let me play the file and says it can't be accessed. This happens no matter the source of the file (amazon, itunes, emusic, daytrotter, etc.). The only thing that lets me play the file is to change the permission on the individual file. Very frustrating.

As ar as I know, I am not sharing the files with anyone. It's a single family computer.

Again - I appreciate the help.