By now, I guess you all must know that I am still working with Microsoft Windows 7 Pro 64bit and I do run into a problem now and then. This time it has to with the Windows Media Player and the inability to delete files that no longer exist so let me take you through the steps. First I click on the Start menu>All Programs>Windows Media Player. This brings up the Library>Videos>All Videos, and down below it displays a list of all the videos on my computer and among those videos are many than have been moved to a USB drive or deleted but they still show on the list........and I would like to delete those that are no longer on the computer but when I right click on them, and then on delete, nothing happens. I also tried changing the name but that does not work either so that leaves me with hundreds of videos that don't play, don't change names and don't delete. Anyone got a way to get rid of them?

There two things that I'd try and both are under the 'Tools' tab in Windows Media Player.

1. Under the Tools tab try 'Apply Media Information Changes'.
2. Under the Tools tab go to 'Advanced' and try 'Restore Media Library'.

Either of the above could take a while to complete.

_________________

Hi Jay, I had no luck with the above, so I opened the videos folder in my Library and moved all the videos to a USB drive, so now when I go to my Video Folder, it is empty which seems to me to be a very normal happening............but, when I open the windows media player, everything is still there but it cannot be played, deleted, moved or renamed. It does play ok when I plug in the USB drive. Is it possible to remove the Video Folder from the Library and then open a new one that would have nothing in it?

If you open Windows Media Player and go to the 'File' tab you can select what drives/folders are included in each library. From the main Media Player window select the 'Manage Libraries' then pick what Library you want to deal with. From there you can pick and choose what drives/folders you want to include.

_________________

I selected "Manage Libraries" from the main Media Player Window and then selected Videos. When I do that, it opens every video file that I ever stored in my Video Folder but I cannot make any changes, I cannot add, I cannot remove, delete, save, open, play............nothing.

Manage Libraries SHOULD let you add/remove folders from the library.

_________________

1. I no longer have a single video file on my computer.
2. Windows Media Player shows that the files are still there under "Libraries>Videos
3. When I go to the Windows Media Player and try to change them, I get an error message that they must have been moved.
4. I added a short new video to Library>Videos and that one I can Edit, Play, Delete, Move.
5. I added one of the moved videos back to Library>Videos and I can Edit, Play, Delete, Move.
6. All of the thousand or so others that display in the Window Media Player cannot be edited, played, deleted or moved.
7. When I click on My Computer>Libraries>Videos, it displays the new video and the video I added back, just those two, nothing else.
8. I think this calls for another visit to Victoria's Secret just to get my mind off Computers.

When you scroll through the library do you see any folders listed that may be open (probably either at the beginning or end of the list)? The reason that I ask is that you really should not see individual videos on the Manage Libraries. You should just see folders that have been included in the library.

As a note you must have at least one folder in a library. If you find a folder, and it is the only one, you will need to add another folder before you can remove the one that should be there that has all the bad listings.

_________________

1. When I first open Windows Media Player, there is a list of folders on the left.....Music, Videos, Pictures, Recorded TV, and Other Media
2. On the right, it always opens the Video Folder and it displays about 1000 videos. They all display the same image but have individual names. None of these can be opened, moved, or deleted.
3. When I click on Manage Libraries, it opens 4 folders, My Videos, Public Videos, My Documents, and My Pictures
4. To the right of the 4 Folders is Add or Remove.
5. When I click on Add, and select Music, it adds music to the folder list
6. When I click on Remove and then select Videos, it removes Videos from the Folder List, however, nothing happens. All 1000 of the videos remain as does the Videos selection to the left.
7. When I go back and repeat the process and open Windows Media Player, and manage libraries, it repeats step 3 except My Music Folder is added and Videos Folders is gone.
8. Then back to the beginning again and open Windows Media Player and on the left, the Videos folder is still there and all 1000 videos remain????

I really don't think that you are fully understanding what I'm trying to say. Mayhaps someone else can step in and explain better than I.

_________________

I don't have any PCs with Windows 7 these days, but on Windows 10 I opened Windows Media Player and it looks similar to what I recall from earlier versions of Windows.
On the left it shows:
My name
Playlists
Music
Videos
Pictures
Other Media
USB Drive 1
USB Drive 2
USB Drive 3

(The three USB drives are identified by volume name)
When I click on Videos it presented me with a list of videos in the right pane that are found within my libraries.

When I go to File, Manage Libraries, and select Videos, I have a single folder shown - \My Videos
If I remove \My Videos from the Video Library, videos in the right hand pane are all videos that were previously found in other folders -- typically various folders containing mostly photos. If I then repeat the File, Manage Libraries, Videos and add \My Videos to Videos, nothing changes immediately, but eventually Windows Media Player updates the list to include the newly added folder files.

For the videos you are seeing in the right hand pane after removing \My Videos within Manage Libraries, right click on any file to view properties of the file. It should show the file location. Is it within the \My Videos folder or some other folder? For one of the files that you say cannot play and present the message that it may have moved, what happens when you right click and select Delete from the pop-up menu?

Under Organize at the upper left in the menu bar, select Options. Do you have options checked for "Add video files found in the Pictures library"? How about "Delete files from computer when deleting from library"?

I will assume that you had \My Videos in the video library and you moved the files (to the USB drive) contained therein using Windows Explorer. Is that correct? Or did you move the entire folder from your PC to the USB drive?

After you used the Manage Libraries option to remove \My Videos from the Video library, did you then use the option Jay recommended: "Under the Tools tab go to 'Advanced' and try 'Restore Media Library'." If not, please try that. You might want to close and re-open Windows Media Player after it runs.

_________________
stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

Thanks Steve. I don't have Windows 7 on anything either, not even a virtual machine although I'm thinking about putting it back on a VM. Been even longer since I've used Windows Media Player although I like. It just seems a bit flaky in Windows 10. I've been using Power DVD. Another good player that has gone away is Media Player Classic although that is still available, just no longer worked on.

_________________

Hi Steve, went down you list and did the following:

When I open Windows Media Player, I also show on the left playlists, music, videos etc; On the right however, it opens 1000 videos, none of which can be edited. They will not do anything when right clicked to edit, cut, copy, move etc; I might add that the new folder "My Videos" that I created does not display on the left, it just automatically opens to Videos and displays the 1000 videos.

Now, going back to my desktop and selecting "My Videos", it displays there with all the other folders in the Library. I added 2 new videos to the my videos folder and they open and play and can be cut or moved or opened with another video player if so desired, however, when I go back to the windows media folder, they do not display or get added to the list of 1000 videos.

When I right click on any of the 1000 videos and click play, windows says it cant find them, When I right click on edit, it highlights the name, I change it, but it goes back to the original name, when I right click on delete, nothing happens, when I right click on properties, it shows the location on my "C" drive that it used to be in before it was moved to the USB drive, and when I click on "open file location", it does nothing.

Under Organize, both of the options you mentioned are checked.

Under the tools>advanced>restore media library, I did that and now the two new videos that I added now display with the other 1000 videos. They both play and can be edited but the other 1000 are glued in place and cannot be altered.Then I closed Windows Media Player and opened it again and the new videos no longer displayed. I did notice while they were there that they had the exact same names as those in the 1000 and were side by side. So I opened the file on my USB drive and changed the name 1 letter and posted it to my videos on my "C" drive and then went back to Windows Media Player and all the new videos appeared??? Closed Windows Media Player and opened it again and none of the new videos appeared but there is an arrow at the bottom saying it is updating WMP. Waited a while and the player updated, so now I had 1000 videos that were no longer on my computer, 1 with the name 0 Anna, one named 0 Mimi and Jose that could be altered, one named the same 0 Mimi and Jose that was part of the 1000 and could not be altered. So, it looks to me like I can add videos to the windows media player but not delete any of the 1000 that are no longer on my computer.

Can you tell us how you moved the 1000 videos from C: to the USB drive? And when you moved them in Windows Explorer, did you move the entire folder to the USB drive?

When you open Windows Media Player and the 1000 videos are displayed, but seemingly can't be deleted from the library, is the USB drive connected?

Also, please uncheck (for now) the option under Organize - "Delete files from computer when deleting from library" and try to delete one of the phantom files.

_________________
stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

I moved the folders from C to the USB.

When I open the windows media player, the USB drive is not connected.

I unchecked that option under Organize but still unable to delete any of the files.

See what Steve has to say about this idea before doing but you might try copying (not moving) the folder back to where it was on the C: drive and see if you then have control. If you have control then use Manage Libraries to see if you can then delete or remove. If the Videos folder is the only one listed you may need to add an empty folder before removing.

You can remove files from a Library but should not just get rid of the folder through Explorer.

_________________

I was hoping that unchecking the delete option might work, but it was a long shot. Do leave it unchecked for now, though.

Plug the USB drive that you moved the Videos folder into the PC.
Then open Windows Media Player.
You should now be able to access the files from the Library -- I hope.

Assuming you can access the files, and with the option to delete unchecked, try removing the Videos folder using Manage Libraries within Windows Media Player -- while the USB drive is plugged in.

If that works, we can try a few other things to get things back to working properly. What I believe happened is that moving the \Videos folder from within your \User folder confused Windows Media Player -- particularly with the USB drive unplugged. That folder is a special System folder and should not be moved to a removable drive.

_________________
stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

Hi Steve......I tried everything you talked about but nothing seems to affect the windows media player. I even added back 50 videos while working in C, Libraries, My Videos and they all display and work. When I went to the Windows Media Player to check it out, down at the bottom right is said the player has been successfully updated, however, nothing changed in the media player, the new videos do not display there.

What does this mean? "I even added back 50 videos while working in C, Libraries, My Videos..."

Open Windows Explorer. On the left pane, below "My Computer" (or This PC or Computer -- without Windows 7, I don't recall what you see), do you see a shortcut for "Videos" along with Documents, Music, Pictures and the computer's drives? If so, right click on Videos and select properties and then go to the Location tab. Where is the Videos folder actually located? That is, where is the shortcut pointing?

In Windows Media Player, Manage Libraries, what folder or folders are specified as belonging to the Videos library?

_________________
stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

What does this mean? It means I turned my computer on then went to Saved Games which is where I store Videos that I like the most and highlighted and copied 50 videos. Then I clicked on My Computer on my desk top and this opens my C drive, E drive R drive and my DVD drive F on the right.

On the left it opens a long list of all the folders on my computer, starting with Desktop, then Libraries>Document>Downloads>Music>Pictures>Vidoes. I then clicked on Videos and pasted in the 50 Videos.

The shortcut is pointing to C>users>Allyson>My Videos

In Windows Media Player, Manage Libraries, it lists My Documents>My Pictures>My Music>My Public Music>My Videos

Thanks for the clarification.
Okay, it appears that your Library for Videos is fine in Windows Explorer.

I'll need to think on possible next steps to repair the database in Windows Media Player (the Library showing all of the moved videos that you can't access via Windows Media Player). It might be a while...

_________________
stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

Steve, I'm re-posting the above in case you missed. I may be wrong but consider it a possibility. My thinking is that, once everything is back in the library and fine, another folder could be selected through Manage Libraries then 'My Videos' could be removed through Manage Libraries. From there the contents of My Videos could be deleted as they are still backed up on the USB drive and My Videos would no longer be part of the library system. Once emptied My Videos could be restored to the library or not as desired.

_________________

Yes, Jay, that's certainly worth a try.

We appear to be in agreement that it appears that moving the \Videos folder to the USB drive caused the problem with Windows Media Player's view of the files and restoring them to the \Videos folder on C:\ may allow access to the files within Windows Media Player.

_________________
stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

My thinking is just putting back to before the issue as to the library. I figure that once the library is restored then things could be done properly.

_________________

No luck with putting the files back, they do not show in the Window Media Player, just the same 1000 that cannot be edited. I think that I will move everything in my Libraries to a new folder......maybe call it Allyson's Libraries and see how that works.