Windows7 - STOP Updating Media Player

I have Windows7, and my MP3 player is a ZEN M.
When I connect my MP3 player to my PC, Windows Media Player pops up. I use that to organize my music.
On the bottom right of the Media Player, it keeps saying “Updating Media Player” (going on for hours).
How do I get it to STOP? I don’t want updating media, I want updating MP3’s. It keeps downing loading all the “SOUNDS” from Windows7.
Thanks in advance,
Scotty13

Open Media Player > Click 'Organize' > Select 'Options'
In the Library tab, uncheck "Retrieve additional information from the internet"
Under the Player tab, move the Automatic Updates to "Once a Month", and uncheck “Add local media files to Library when played" and “Add remote media files to Library when played”
Close Media Player, then reopen to test whether these steps help.

Thanks, I think that worked. I’m not getting the media from Windows7 anymore, but it still says updating media library.

Now my pictures and videos keep adding themselves to the player. I don’t want them, just my music.

Second, when I delete a song, I get $IZQSPI6 added under OTHER / Unknown Album for each song I delete. They are all different codes, but start with a $ sign.

Thanks for you help, I really do appreciate it.


Scotty13

You can stop WMP from monitoring the win7 Pictures and Videos libraries.

1. Go to Organize > Manage Libraries.
2. Select the library which you don’t want Windows Media Player 12 (WMP 12) to monitor.
3. Right-Click on the library location and select Remove.
4. Click Organize again and click 'Apply media information changes'.

For the updating problem, try this solution.

I've struggled with same problem for a whole day and found a workaround. There is a special file called "wmpfolders.wmdb" which stored information about all folders looked through by WMP. You can find this file in you local app folder: c:\Users\[your name]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Media Player. What you can do with this file is mark a folder so WMP will ignore it and will not update any files stored in this folder. To do so edit this file with any text editor (it just a plain XML) and replace Exclude="0" with Exclude="-1" to mark folder as excluded.
You can exclude specific subfolders or any top level folder.

Source: windows media player 12 constantly updating media library

Ok, let's start from start, as I've read a bit around, and seen all kinds of misunderstandings around this issue.

1) WMP Library sucks everything in it's sight
2) This is 100% true for anything in Windows 7 libraries (Music, Videos, Pictures)
3) I want some folders to be removed from WMP Library
4) I do NOT want these folders removed from Windows 7 Libraries
5) If I remove folder through "Manage Libraries" in the WMP menu, it effectively removes them from Windwos 7 Libraries (which is not what I want)
6) If I uncheck "Retrieve additional information from the internet" none of my WMP media will get updated, and that is NOT what I want
7) Editing "wmpfolders.wmdb" had no effect, tried with "-1" and "1", erasing lines, and similar - no help so far, it seems to get reset every time WMP starts/closes

My problem is following:
- I have folder D:\My Documents\My Pictures which I DO NOT want in WMP Library but I DO WANT IT in my Windows 7 Libraries (as that's where all my private photos are, useless for WMP indexing, but great to have at hand)
- I have folder F:\Karaoke which I DO NOT want in WMP library as it contains MP3+CDG files for KaraFun application, and NOT normal MP3 files whih I usually listen to, but again, I DO WANT it to stay in my "Music" Library in Windows 7 itself
- both of these folders keep being indexed by WMP, so my WMP Library is mostly useless as it's stuffed up with 125GB of data from those 2 folders which contain about 60.000 files

So, does anyone know how to FORCE WMP to "Exclude" these folders, and never ever look at them again... I do mean EVER.

I'm not even worried that much by the constant "Retrieving media information..." .. I'm more annoyed by not knowing which MP3 in the WMP Library is "real MP3", and which one is just backgourn music (in form of MP3 file) that's intended for karaoke..

And I've read around the Net, and most answers revolve around these few things already mentioned. But non of them help for more than few minutes. As soon as I exit WMP, and when I come back after a while and open it - it again starts sucking those karaoke MP3 files into its library

Hopefully someone can help with this..

Good observation Lux. As a workaround, I pinned my "My Pictures" folder to Favorites (to maintain easy access) and left the Pictures library empty. So I can still get to pictures, and WMP doesn't index them. Need a simple "only index music, videos, photos, etc. option"

STOP Updating Windows Media Player 12
A problem which I had with WMP12 was my thousands of photos were being loaded up, WMP was in a constant state of `updating.`
I never wanted my photos to be in the WMP library anyway as they are stored on an external HD and in a partion. Having researched this there is a host of difficult to understand and very time consuming methods to sort this out, many of which did not fully resolve this issue. However I recalled how when I had another problem with WMP 12 I resolved this using Microsoft Fix It Centre and found the libraries were empty, so here is a solution to this problem.
Back up all your music, video and photos.
Download: Microsoft Fix It Centre and install.
Microsoft Fix it Center Online
Open WMP 12 (this may also work for other version of WMP) go to the ORGANISE tab> manage libraries> go to each heading ie music videos pictures > in each highlight all the library locations> click on REMOVE > OK
Open Microsoft Fix It Centre: Windows Media Player Library > Install > Run > detect problems and apply fixes for me. A warning may display libraries are corrupt this is fine.
The WMP 12 should now have the libraries completely empty.
WMP 12 > ORGANISE tab> manage libraries> go to each heading, music and videos (only) select the ADD and locate your source(s) for the music > OK. Repeat for videos.
WMP should now start to retrieve only your music and videos and eventually the media information.

I think I've found the answer to this problem. In-case no-one else has already - Right click on the music tab on the left hand side of wmp (underneath play-lists). Select manage music library. Delete the source of music from the list. This has worked for me. The albums no longer appear in C:\ music library but they're still there under your username. W.B.

recudes585 said:

I think I've found the answer to this problem. In-case no-one else has already - Right click on the music tab on the left hand side of wmp (underneath play-lists). Select manage music library. Delete the source of music from the list. This has worked for me. The albums no longer appear in C:\ music library but they're still there under your username. W.B.

I have been trying to do this for years. Your simple steps totally worked. Thanks so much!