Windows Media Player cannot find the file.

Hi WebDad,


a)      Which file format you are trying to play using windows media player?

b)      what is the exact error message?

Check whether the file format is supported by windows media player. Check the article mentioned below to know which file format is supported by windows media player.

Windows Media Player

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/C00D1199


In the meantime follow the steps in the methods given below and check

Method 1:

It might be that the Windows media player library is corrupted. I would suggest you to rebuild Windows media player library.

If you want to rebuild you library, follow the steps mentioned below.

1.      Shutdown windows media player.

2.      Stop the media sharing service.  Go to Start->Control Panel->All Control Panel Items->Administrative Tools->Services.  Right-click on the “Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service” and select Stop.

3.      Navigate to “c:\Users\”your username”\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Media Player.  Now delete the files named CurrentDatabase_***.wmdb and LocalMLS_*.wmdb.

4.      Start the media sharing service.

5.      Now restart Windows Media Player.

Windows Media Player library: frequently asked questions

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/Windows-Media-Player-library-frequently-asked-questions


Method 2:

Try to delete the files in safe mode and check whether you are able to delete the files or not. Follow the steps mentioned below to boot into safe mode.

To use a Safe mode option, follow these steps:

1.      Restart your computer and start pressing the F8 key on your keyboard. Select safe mode from the menu.

For further reference check the article mentioned below.

Start your computer in safe mode

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Start-your-computer-in-safe-mode


Method 3:

Follow the steps mentioned below to delete the files.

1.      Open any program (e.g.  Notepad).

2.      Click on “File” and then select “Open”.

3.      Navigate to the file that you want to delete and then delete the file from that program.

This bypasses Windows Explorer's Indexing feature which sometimes takes an eternity when the file is huge and/or it's in a folder with a lot of other files or when it's in a folder with a corrupted file. Explorer cannot complete the indexing of everything in the folder but apparently it never gives up.


Hope it helps

Azeez Nadeem - Microsoft Support