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How to fix 'Windows Media Player encountered a problem while playing the file'?

Anonymous
2017-10-07T22:14:07+00:00

How to fix 'Windows Media Player encountered a problem while playing the file'?  Thank you.

JY Lee

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Music, photos, and video

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-10-09T00:12:36+00:00

    it is WMP 12 for Windows 7, and the error message I got is as below screen.  Thank you for your help.  Thank you.

    Jong Lee

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-10-09T13:34:34+00:00

    My apology.  It was an MP3 file I tried to play when I got the error message.  Your help will be greatly appreciated.  Thank you.

    Jong Lee

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-10-09T10:47:12+00:00

    Hi - we really need to know what file type is involved here... and can you usually play other similar files without a problem?

    If it is a video file of some type try downloading VLC media player because that will play almost anything unless DRM is involved or the file is corrupted. It's free and highly regarded... Ric.

    http://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-10-08T18:52:51+00:00

    Hello JY,

    Thanks for entrusting the Community users to help you meeting these kinds of concerns. We'd love to be precise on the tips that we will give you. And in order for us to do it, please provide information for the following items:

    What is the exact error message? Providing a screenshot for this will be really helpful.

    What is the version of your Windows Media Player? Check this this link on How to determine the version of Windows Media Player.

    Meanwhile, the most common reason for receiving errors when trying to play a media file is the compatibility of the file to your player. Please refer to this article about the File types supported by Windows Media Player.

    All the best.

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  5. Anonymous
    2017-10-09T17:43:00+00:00

    It does seem likely that particular file is corrupted... it may have occurred during the download process.

    Are you able to access the site and try re-downloading? Alternatively you could try in the other direction and see if it is possible to upload the file to Google Music. If it cannot upload the file, that more or less confirms that it is damaged or has had some form of copy protection added.

    If you do not already have a (free) Google music account it is worth having as a means of backing up important audio files... it will match those it can to its own database, but anything else will be uploaded from your file(s)... available from https://play.google.com/store

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