Comments on: WMP: How to Erase, Reset, and Correct Your Windows Media Library

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 07:37:24 +0000

If I wanted to completely backup my music directory, including the windows media library, would it work if I manually copied my music directory (with all the files) and then copied these very same .wmdb files to the same directory on the backup PC??

By: Lucas

Lucas — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:31:29 +0000

Thanks. I was doing it a far more tedious way before. I should have thought of the .wmdb thing. :)

By: Sai Das

Sai Das — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 18:13:08 +0000

Searching on Step #3 produces nothing in W&U 64bit WMP12

Now what?

By: Banhmi_keppate

Banhmi_keppate — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 21:05:00 +0000

tks bro i worked perfect

By: superdave

superdave — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 03:10:00 +0000

i would like to point out that i havethe same issues but much worse with itunes and haven’t found any solutionyet

By: Aloush37

Aloush37 — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 02:38:00 +0000

will doing this delete any playlists?

By: Logan Young

Logan Young — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 10:08:00 +0000

Very simple, but were it not for this guide, I wouldn’t have found it. Thanks a lot.

@Brandon: The necessity for this has nothing to do with Microsoft. The need to do this comes out of how we maintain our file systems. Things get moved, removed, replaced, copied, overwritten, etc. You can’t expect WMP to know where you’re moving your music to all the time…
It’s simple housekeeping. Every few months, clear out your library as per above, reset your library folders and import your music again. Now I know about this guide, I’ll be adding this on my bi-yearly maintenance along with defragging my drive.

By: Laurelwreath Hope

Laurelwreath Hope — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 23:52:00 +0000

I have Win 7 and Media player 12. The only change was I drop the [list] in the command line deleted the files and opened the Media player and volia everything was working great. Thanks so much for this it really helped!

By: Tazz3L

Tazz3L — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 19:50:00 +0000

Thank you! This worked for me with the added step of having to go into safe mode to delete the last of the library files. The WMP re-indexed everything, including my play lists!
(I had to use safe mode for the last library file because XP kept saying the file was in use and it could not delete it.)

By: Wb640

Wb640 — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 17:16:00 +0000

Did not solve my problem yet, of WMC not showing my movies anymore. Also, the *.WMDB files were locked, had to issue before deleting first these:
taskkill /F /IM ehshell.exe
taskkill /F /IM ehtray.exe
net stop /y WMPNetworkSvc