Windows Media Player library issue...

[Duke87 1,070]

Okay, so... a little backstory: years ago, when I went and digitized my music collection, I ripped it in wma format. Fine for playing, but on the occasion that I wanted to edit a file, I had to first convert it to mp3 so Audacity could handle it. As a result, several of my albums have most of the tracks in wma format but one or two in mp3. This has never been a problem before, but now I have a new computer and apparently Windows Media Player in Windows 7 refuses to group tracks of different filetypes together in the same album. So I get this:

...which is stupid, because I don't want to listen to the album in two separate pieces based on filetype. But anyways... I tried to combine them, find some setting that would group them together. I found nothing. So, I figured, well, I guess I'll just have to convert the rest of the tracks to mp3. I did, and last night it worked just fine. But when I flipped open my computer this morning, now I was once again staring at the same separated list you see above. The wma files (which I deleted) cause an error message when I attempt to play them (naturally), and their mp3 replacements refuse to show up in the library no matter what I do (though they play just fine when accessed through my Music folder in Windows Explorer). I even tried pulling out the CD and reripping it; unhelpful. What's more, when I attempt to delete the wma files from my library, nothing happens.

So, out of ideas, I appeal to you, citizens of the internet. Does anyone have any idea what the hell is going on here and what I can do to fix it?

[Odainsaker 2,133]

Windows Media Player 12, which is what comes automatically bundled with Windows 7 in the U.S., is simply rubbish. Its unforgiving library system seems prone to corruption, lyrics display during playback is bugged, and the removal of the Advanced Tag Editor makes me even miss the quirkiness of Windows Media Player 11. I liked putting in lyrics for my songs and detailing its history and credits, but these are no longer currently possible with WMP 12. Some buttons counter-intuitively change positions when you change playback screens...who designed this!?!?! Also, be sure to disable any online retrieving of music info, as it will unleash havoc upon your files. Reverting down from 12 to Windows Media Player 11 involves such hassle and Registry tinkering that it is likely not worth the effort.

From the Windows Media Player 12 toolbar, you might try choosing Tools>"Restore media library..." This is supposed to rescan your media directories and rebuild the library from scratch. This often clears most library issues. I've also found deliberately putting certain song files into their own album subfolders useful in preventing WMP from creating erroneous library groupings or scrambling in-file album cover art. There is also an option buried somewhere in Windows 7 Help outside the WMP program that can find and fix WMP library corruption issues...it was useful in, among other thing, finally getting rid of the double-listing of tracks bug that was befuddling me.

[Duke87 1,070]

I tried your restore library idea and... it made things worse. I now have duplicate entries all over the place (as you mention); I had none before.

So, screw it, I'm installing WinAmp. Problem Solved.

[Odainsaker 2,133]

Oh no!

Let me see if I can remember, as I immediately had this problem straight out of the box on a new system...closing WMP, try going from desktop to Start (or the bottom-left blue Windows button that used to be on XP Start) and then choose "Help and Support."  From there, search for "Windows Media Library Troubleshooter" and run it.  The Windows 7 troubleshooter should actively scan through your WMP library and check for and repair corruptions, of which the double-entry syndrome is apparently a common one.  The horror of running an actively-tracking library based on under-the-hood metadata and hidden indexes.

Sadly, the Microsoft boards are full of Win 12 frets:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itpromedia/threads

This entry may help:
Windows Media Player has Double Listings?

I've found myself doing the cumbersome ritual of taking my music files to my laptop, which still runs XP and WMP 11, making edits there, and then bringing them back to the desktop running Win 7 and WMP 12, which I treat as just a mere play-back player rather than an all-in-one media editor.  There have been indirects hints of a potential patch, but I am not holding my breath.

I hope these help.
 

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Does WMP play .flac files?  If it did, you might be better off with .flac than .mp3.  Both are lossless, but .flac seems to be the better of the two.

You will probably need to find a converter for .flac.  My CD ripper does it quite happily.

[hummer0328 6]

Sorry to tell you, but both .mp3 and .flac aren't lossless.  .mp3 is a lossy form of compression and at anything less 192kbs sounds terrible (a very hollow/flat sound). It removes sounds that, supposedly, you aren't able to hear (which simply is not true) .flac is a lossless compression of the original .wav file. Your sound card basically converts it back to the original .wav while processing it. Converting .mp3 to .flac is pointless as you will never get the original sound back at the waist of lots of space.

Sure .flac takes up much more space (200-500MB per album), but sounds far superior given decent speakers/IEMs (In Ear Monitors). My entire music collection is .flac and I wouldn't have it any other way! (+ a pair of Klipsch S4 IEMs using a finely tuned 15 band eq & parametric eq on my laptop)

WMP does not play .flac natively as MS has their own lossless format (wma lossless), but the codec is easy to download and install.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

If you go directly from the original CD to .flac it is pretty good.  I wouldn't convert .mp3 to anything because I realize it has problems,but SC3 wants mp3s in its sound folder if you want your own sound.  Flac came out long after the game was boxed.

I have a general converter that will do flac to mp3, but I only use it for game music.

[hummer0328 6]

Well, there is nothing wrong with going from .flac to .mp3 as .flac is a completely lossless form of the original CD .wav, just takes up about 1/2 the space. Ripping either .wav/.flac to .mp3 should give you bit for bit the EXACT same result.

It is possible to go from .mp3 to .flac, but is pointless as it would still sound the exactly the same as the highly compressed .mp3, only take up 5-10x the space.

[nathanthemayor 1,261]

That happened to me once. However, I fixed it.