Can I Go Back To An Earlier Time With WMP?

[Leo6]

I'm wondering if I can go back to an earlier date with WMP? I accidently clicked on the wrong "button" and completely messed up my music library. I would like to go back to a couple of days before that happened to "undo" the mistake. How can I go about doing this?
I was trying to fix a problem with tracks that I had ripped from a CD. I clicked on "Include All", thinking it meant all tracks of that one CD. Instead, my entire music library ended up being shredded, for lack of a better term, right before my eyes.:shock:
All of my mp3 downloads were re-imported and the volume was re-levelled. Now they sound strange because the volume had already been levelled once when I included them in my library the first time. All of the cassettes that I had imported from Audacity were in my library as albums, but now have been separated into individual tracks and scattered about, now listed as "Unknown Artist". The same happened to some CD's that had been ripped. Also, the album art has disappeared from many.
I would sure appreciate any help you can give me.

 

[Slartybart]

No, you'll need a time machine to do that

Sorry Leo, I couldn't resist the pun.

I wish I knew the answer, but the Library function of WMP always 'confused' me. I understand the concept, but implementing it drove me nuts. I too have shredded my well organized libraries in the past - never figured out an undo.

That should not disparage you though - there are lots of folks around here that might know the solution.

I'm not sure if a restore point would work - so hold off on that. A restore point does not affect user files - if the library information is in an appdata xml file, then it will not help.

Again, my apologies for the pun. Good luck.

 

[Leo6]

Hey, thanks for your reply Slartybart. I did try "System Restore" just after it happened, but it had no effect at all. I've noticed that there is a "Restore Media Library" in Tools of WMP. I haven't tried that because I don't know what it does. I'm afraid that I might delete the entire library. Yeah, I'll wait and see if someone knows how to do this.

 

[Slartybart]

Have you tried this?
Open the Windows Media Player Library troubleshooter

I'm not sure if this will solve the problem your having with WMP, but it's worth a shot:
Restore Deleted Library Items

 

[Stephanie]

Hi Leo6

If you do make a full backup (Macrium, Paragon etc your system drive) installing the backup archive would set your system back.

 

[Leo6]

Thanks for your reply Stephanie. I'm kind of new to computers, so I'm not sure exactly what you meant. Most of my music files are also located/stored in other areas on my computer, so those ones should be okay. There are quite a few though that only seem to be located in "My Music". Then there are "I-tunes" downloads which, if I'm not mistaken, aren't stored on my computer at all, but rather on their site? If I have to delete the entire library ( I don't want to but I may have to), I should be able to import the files that are stored in other areas of my computer back into my library, but what about those files that are only stored in "My Music"?. Also, some of the files don't sound right since this happened. If I try to back them up now won't I just be making back ups of the messed up files?

 

[Worker]

Re: Tapez!

...All of the cassettes that I had imported from Audacity were in my library as albums...

Leo;

Dude, another chummer who does the tapedubbin' thing with a male-to-male 0.5mm, a studio tape deck with a stereo jack and his motherboard's Line-in to Audacity! Made my day, bro'. ^_^

A lot of the time I digi-dub cassette tapes to see what different correction (hiss/treble pass) methods work well with tapes of various age. A good friend and neighbour left me almost all of his tapes when he moved out of the house across the street from me several years ago, and very few were more recent than 1970s vintage (although in excellent shape in most cases); others I've drummed up from yard sales and thrift stores; the always-nice thing is that unless you really dig tapes for music playback, you can get huge batches of them for a pittance and telling him their musical fate, they'll probably be happy to know they'll have a good home. Some tapes I have are barely ten years old, although I admit they're in the minority in my library.

BTW, the specs I've included in my profile are for my new custom rig, which is built as of last post from the company doing the deed, and tomorrow it'll start on its way here (predictive arrival date is Friday the 8th). I'm happy to post the specs of my current/old rig, although it'll be a backup for emergencies (part of the reason it's going into redundancy, and the getting of the new rig, is that half its system RAM died a month ago; it only had 1GB to start with before that). Currently typing on it, I mean, which is why it might be relevant to other bodies.

-Worker.