You cannot view, add, or delete items in the library in Windows Media Player 11

Symptoms

When you try to use Microsoft Windows Media Player 11, you may experience any of the following symptoms:

• You cannot view, add, or delete items in the library.

• When you try to use the Apply media information changes option, no changes are applied, and the progress indicator does not appear.

• You receive an error message that states that the library database has become corrupted.

• The player's Monitored Folders list is empty.
  

• Folders that are added to the Monitored Folders list are not saved.

Cause

This problem occurs because the Windows Media Player library database has become corrupted.

Resolution

To resolve this problem, clear the Windows Media Player database. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Exit Windows Media Player.

2. For Windows XP:
   
   Click Start, click Run, type %userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player, and then click OK.
   
   For Windows Vista:
   
   Click Start, All Programs->Accessories->Run, type %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Media Player, and then click OK.

3. Select all the files in the folder, and then click Delete on the File menu.
   
   Note You do not have to delete the folders that are in this folder.

4. Restart Windows Media Player.
   
   Note Windows Media Player automatically rebuilds the database.

If this does not resolve the problem, clear the Windows Media Player database cache files. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Exit Windows Media Player.
   

2. If you are running Windows XP, click Start, click Run, type %userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft, and then click OK.
   
   
   
   If you are running Windows Vista, click Start, All Programs->Accessories->Run, type %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft, and then click OK.
   

3. Select the Media Player folder, and then click Delete on the File menu.
   
   

4. Restart Windows Media Player.
   
   
   
   Note Windows Media Player automatically rebuilds the database.

More Information

The Windows Media Player library uses a new and more robust database to store information about media. This includes the name, the location, the associated images, the ID3 tags, and the WMA tags of each file. This database is stored in the following folder.

For Windows XP:

%userprofile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player
For Windows Vista:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Media Player As with any database, information that is stored in the database or the database itself can become corrupted. The Windows Media Player library database can usually recover automatically from database corruption. However, the database may become corrupted in such a way that Windows Media Player cannot recover the database.