WMP 12 Doesn't show muis from library

Where are your Music and Video files stored - which folders ?? And what is the path to those folders.

the only thing i got from your post is that wmp doesnt populate your library.

im sorry but that doesnt explain what the issue is and what help you would like.
can you explain more what you mean by populate your library.

if you mean the library within wmp then i can possibly help but i need to know what you mean by populate.
please use a screenshot it may help explain too, this would help greatly

Hi WHS and boobah,

What I mean to say is that for some reason WMP 12 no longer displays 99.9% of the music tracs stored on my pc. It happened approximately 1 ½ weeks ago. Perhaps it was something I did wrong. I have scanned the system with the scanner from my Avast Anti-Virus, Malware Bytes, and TDS Killer with no positive results. The Sophos rootkit scan also produced no results . I'm sure it is not some malware problem.

The tracs are and were located in C:\Users\Tom\Music. The rip location is also the same. It has been that way since I purchased the computer 3 ½ years ago.

Online suggestions to solve this problem include variations on turning off Windows Network Sharing Service, deleting all the. wmdb files in C:\Users\Tom\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Media Player, restarting Windows Network Sharing Service, rebooting and allowing WMP to rebuild the database. No joy.

Another suggestion was to turn Windows Media Player Off and On through the Windows Control Panel, rebooting, and the letting WMP 12 rebuild its database. No Joy.

Another suggested turning off network sharing and deleting CurrentDatabase_371.wmdb file from the C:\Users\Tom\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Media Player On my pc the file is named _372.wmdb file. Rinse repeat as above
Still another proposed solution suggested that in addition to stopping the Windows Network Sharing Service wmp.exe*32 should also be stopped as well. Rinse repeat as above.

As an experiment, (after going through the above procedure) I ripped several tracs from a CD that I already had ripped tracs from to the C:\Users|Tom\Music folder and rebooted. Surprisingly, all tracs now appear in the WMP12 library. All tracs are in the location cited above, in the proper artists folder an in the proper album or cd folder of that artist’s folder. I don’t like the prospect of rerecording all of the tracs from my cd’s as well as from cd’s I borrowed, or music I purchased!
One website, answers.microsoft.com suggested going to:

HKEY_USERS(S ?)\YourUserAccount\etc. as opposed to the “first registry key” enumerated below and check the library accounts- (which are)(what should I do)? and HKEY_USERS(S ?)\YourUserAccount\etc. as opposed to the “second registry key enumerated below and check the library accounts- - (which are)(what should I do)? This sounded promising but I could find no such paths in HKEY_USERS(S ?)

“I ran across an answer that may be helpful at the social/technet.microsoft.com that provided this information: Part of the answer reads:
UPDATE: Luckily the first 2 hits searching for "my music" in the registry were the culprits. For some reason they are not pointing to the library but directly to te (sic) same address(sic) where the library was pointing (a mapped network drive that had been removed). Removing the mapping to the network drive from the library apparently did not affect the link for that particular my music destination.
1st registry key: Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders

2nd registry key: Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
If you change the destinations that are no longer accessible (sic) to something that IS accessible WMP should be working again.”

Unfortunately, I don’t have the knowledge of which keys should be changed and to what, or if there are registry keys that should be deleted as well? It may not even solve the problem!

As you can see I have put considerable time and effort to solve my problem with the exception of the registry edit. If you look online using variations of Windows Media Player, Library, corrupt, missing music, etc. you will find many posts for any number versions of Windows Media Player having the same problem. Some are solved by the variations above. Some are not. Microsoft should devote a book to this evidently rampant problem.

I am vehemently opposed to doing a repair install. Reinstalling all the patches and updates from Microsoft plus reinstalling my software is onerous and should not need to be done.

Perhaps you can offer some insight into other options that might work. If it is the registry keys I could use some help in which key to edit/what should the edit be.

I have (hopefully) attached .jpg files showing the data from the two different registry keys mentioned in the (second) registry solution.

Attachment one is from the explorer shell folder key. Attachment 2 is from the user shell folder key

Thanks (and sorry to be so longwinded)
Raiderfan (Windows 7 SP1 64 bit)

Did you try this:

HI WHS,

No I had not tried that. My fault because the menu bar wasn't displayed.

After you suggestion,I was going to try it when a pop-up message appeared saying "Continuing will empty your media library and close windows media."

I must be misinterpreting and not understanding the message as to how WMP 12 works.

Since the music is already stored in the C:\Users\Tom\Music folder(if that is correct), why would it be necessary to empty the media library since the music is already there?

Is the problem that the path (folder) storing the music is incorrect;( i.e. not the default folder WMP 12 would use) and the library would be rebuilt in the correct location? What is the correct default location if not the one I have outlined above?

Sorry, but I don't want to lose the music. Also, I would like to understand what is happening "behind the scene" for curiosity's sake.

Thanks for your patience

raiderfan

I think there is a difference between 'media library' and your 'media files'. It would be normal that your media library gets purged first before it is being restored - else you may end up with duplicates.

But if you want to make double sure that nothing happens, backup your music and video files first. Your folders seem to be at the right default location.