How to Repair a Corrupt WMP Database: Recovering Music

by Mark Harris
Mark Harris is a former writer for Lifewire who wrote about the digital music scene and streaming music services in an easy to understand, no-nonsense manner.
Updated November 19, 2019

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, simply rebuild the WMP database.

Steps for Rebuilding the Database

Music can boost your energy
Sam Edwards / Getty Images

  1. Press Win + R to open the Run dialog box.

  2. Type or copy/paste this path into the text box: ​

    %userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player

  3. Then press ​Enter.

  4. Delete all the files in this folder—excluding folders.

  5. To rebuild the database, simply restart Windows Media Player. All the relevant database files will now be created again.