Fixing issues in Microsoft Windows Media Player 11 & 12

Hasn't ever happened that you started Windows Media Player and it will not show the right information, like the right CD cover of an album, wrong song information or it will not play the music or video that you know is there, or WMP (Windows Media Player) is not loading?… This could be the cause of a bad (corrupted) database, sometimes we just need a fresh start and we can do this by re-building Windows Media Player database.

Windows Media Player 12 Screen

Hasn’t ever happened that you started Windows Media Player and it will not show the right information, like the right CD cover of an album, wrong song information or it will not play the music or video that you know is there, or WMP (Windows Media Player) is not loading?… This could be the cause of a bad (corrupted) database, sometimes we just need a fresh start and we can do this by re-building Windows Media Player database.

This is how we do it:

1-  Close Windows Media Player if it is running.

2-  We need to stop the media sharing service. Go to Start Windows 7 Logo in the search box “Search programs and files” type “services.msc ” and press Enter.

3-  Look for “Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service” Right-click on it and select Stop. See image 1.

You need to stop this service in order to be able to delete “CurrentDatabase_***.wmdb”

Services window in Windows 7Click image to expand. Image 1.

4-Go to Start Windows 7 Logo Click “Computer” and navigate to C:\Users\”your_username”\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Media Player or type this path in the address bar (location path) in”your_username” replace it with your computer username without quotes. See image 2.

Note: You may have to unhide hidden files to do this. For more information refer to the article “How to show hidden folders & files in Microsoft Windows”

Windows Media Player Database and other files' locationClick image to expand. Image 2.

5-  Now delete all of the following files named:  (See image 2)

CurrentDatabase_***.wmdb contains a list of references to video and audio located by WMP after scanning your computer or network path(s) that you specified.

LocalMLS_*.wmdbthere may be more than one file with this name structure delete all of them.

lastplayed.wplhere are stored the names of the last songs you played you can go ahead and delete this one as well.

And theCache***folder.

6-  Start the media sharing service as mentioned in steps 2 and 3 (in step #3 Click Start instead of Stop).

7-  Now start Windows Media Player to rebuild the library. You Are Done!

Conclusion

Windows Media Player is one of the best media player out there, but like any other software application, it is not perfect and sometimes accidents can happen, so this is when a work around comes in handy.

About the author

Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 21 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].