How to Repair a Corrupt WMP Database: Recovering Music

Woman listening to headphons
Sam Edwards | Getty Images
by Mark Harris
Updated November 26, 2017

If your Windows Media Player no longer allows you to view, add or delete items in WMP's library, then there’s a good chance that its database has been corrupted. To fix this problem, rebuild the WMP database.

  1. Press Win + R to open the Run dialog box.
  2. Type or copy/paste this path into the text box: ​
    1. %userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player
    2. and press ​Enter.
  3. Delete all the files in this folder—excluding folders.
  4. To rebuild the database, simply restart Windows Media Player. All the relevant database files will now be created again.