Windows Media Player 12 and USB Drives

ChrisStayner21 · 26 Aug 2010

Hello all,

Maybe you will be able to help.

I am trying to use Windows Media Player 12 to sync media files to my flash drive. I dont know whats going on, but WMP12 doesnt see it. It shows up just fine in explorer, can read and write files to it just fine and everything. The problem lies in WMP12. It doesnt show up in the media player at all.

It never appears in the left side column, never in the sync list, and will not show up in the options dialog where you can make it refresh the device list. It is not just this flash drive either, but any that I plug in. Doesnt matter the flash drive, USB port, what it is formatted to, anything. I am no newbie to Windows issues, I can fix the vast majority of them on my own, but I am lost with this one.

Any ideas?

Lordbob75 · 27 Aug 2010

Hello Chris, welcome to the forums.

First off, lets open an elevated command prompt (hit start, type cmd, then right click and select "Run as admin").
Then type sfc /scannow.
Does it come up with any errors?

~Lordbob

Night Hawk · 27 Aug 2010

Welcome to the Seven Forums! ChrisStayner21

Typically usb drives both external hard drives as well as flash/pen drives will come with Fat 32 volumes if not exFat volumes on the larger capacity models. Windows will not sync files with any other format then NTFS being the native file system. You will find this to be the case with the build in backup tools as well.

If you haven't already tried this a reformat of the flash drive to NTFS could be what is needed due to that reason.

Lordbob75 · 27 Aug 2010

Night Hawk said:

Welcome to the Seven Forums! ChrisStayner21

Typically usb drives both external hard drives as well as flash/pen drives will come with Fat 32 volumes if not exFat volumes on the larger capacity models. Windows will not sync files with any other format then NTFS being the native file system. You will find this to be the case with the build in backup tools as well.

If you haven't already tried this a reformat of the flash drive to NTFS could be what is needed due to that reason.

For reference, I just popped in a flash drive, and WMP12 DID see it. It popped right up on the left.
I was thinking this was an error in WMP12 because of that.

~Lordbob

Night Hawk · 27 Aug 2010

Which file system? Fat32, exFat, or had you already reformatted it to NTFS? WMP should be more wider platform while that presented a problem with the backtop tools where NTFS was a requirement.

If you saw results with one drive it may simply be a problem with the one ChrisStayner21 has there. The make and size seems to have a bearing with removables it seems.

One brand may have a problem with some boards as far as usb ports not being adequate or being taxed with other devices pulling things. That will effect syncing.

When getting into 3 or 4 brands here I ran into these problems. Some would be quick and reliable while others were ? when trying them on different machines.

Lordbob75 · 27 Aug 2010

Night Hawk said:

Which file system? Fat32, exFat, or had you already reformatted it to NTFS? WMP should be more wider platform while that presented a problem with the backtop tools where NTFS was a requirement.

If you saw results with one drive it may simply be a problem with the one ChrisStayner21 has there. The make and size seems to have a bearing with removables it seems.

One brand may have a problem with some boards as far as usb ports not being adequate or being taxed with other devices pulling things. That will effect syncing.

When getting into 3 or 4 brands here I ran into these problems. Some would be quick and reliable while others were ? when trying them on different machines.

FAT32, should have mentioned.

EDIT: Both FAT32 and FAT appear in WMP12. Formatting to NTFS to check.
Confirming that NTFS also appears.

~Lordbob

Night Hawk · 27 Aug 2010

Since you are getting immediate results the next item to consider is the make and model flash drive or the board simply not seeing the adequate 100mA on a particular port. A worn port wouldn't help either.

Lordbob75 · 27 Aug 2010

Night Hawk said:

Since you are getting immediate results the next item to consider is the make and model flash drive or the board simply not seeing the adequate 100mA on a particular port. A worn port wouldn't help either.

I tested mine with 4 different types of flash drives.

Now just waiting to hear from OP.

~Lordbob

ChrisStayner21 · 27 Aug 2010

Thank you all for your responses.

Lordbob, I will try that sfc /scannow when I get a chance. It looks like it will take a while, so I do not have the time as of now.

It should not matter to WMP what file system the flash drive uses, as I also have seen it work on different machines with both FAT32 and NTFS, and that has also been confirmed by a good friend of mine.

I know that my USB ports are providing more than enough current to the drive, and I have tried all available ports on my system. One would have to work.

Over the years, I have gained a collection of flash drives by all sorts of makes and models, *none* seem to show up, no matter the format, port, etc, though these same ones seem to work fine on another Win7 Ultimate 64 bit system. And all of these work on my system, and seem to be seen by everything but WMP.

Night Hawk · 27 Aug 2010

You could have a WMP problem if you have a variety of drives running into the same problem. Or you may have to follow what Lordbob75 did there and reformat a few to see if the factory volumes if still present are "dirty"(corrupted) as the expression goes.