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Windows Media PLayer Won't Play Files When Offline

Anonymous
2019-03-31T20:01:49+00:00

I have a laptop computer and map all of my personal files on this computer to my desktop computer, then make them available offline.  Both computers operate on Windows 10 Professional 64-bit.

I recently gave my laptop a "refresh" (i.e., I reinstalled the OS) and since then have not been able to play media files through Windows Media Player when offline.  Oddly, while WMP will initially return an error message that reads, in part, "Windows Media Player cannot find the file...," once I click to play the same file again, it works.

This was reported on another thread -- https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/windows-media-player-has-trouble-playing-offline/fcf32ca4-2394-41da-9e77-ce04826b5419.  But the solution offered there is to undo a Windows update.  I'd prefer to avoid having to do that, if possible, particularly since I have cleaned up the "Windows.old" folder/files.

Any suggestions??

Thanks!

ZM

Windows for home | Other | Music, photos, and video

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-04-03T16:30:34+00:00

    Thanks for your help with this, will vote and comment to bring it to the attention of the engineers.

    1 person found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2019-04-01T03:36:48+00:00

    Yes!  To reiterate, what I have set-up is one-way sharing.  "My Documents," My Music," "My Pictures," and "My Videos" on the desktop are shared under my username/password and then defined as the "My Documents," "My Music," etc. location on the laptop and made available offline.  All files, including the media files, are accessible on the laptop, both when online and when offline.

    As such, I am pretty confident that this problem is a WMP issue.  For whatever reason, when I am offline from the desktop, the application does not register that the files are available offline when they are first accessed within the application.  When offline, it takes accessing (i.e., double-clicking) the individual media files a second time for the application to recognize that they are available offline.  When I am online, they are available on the first try.

    My problems are identical to what are explained in this other post (link).  I'm just hoping there's an alternative to undoing a Windows Update.

    ZM

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-04-01T00:42:22+00:00

    Which version of Windows 10 is currently installed? See how to verify:

    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wik...

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-04-01T00:03:09+00:00

    Hi, Andre,

    Thanks for your suggestion.

    I removed each mapped network drive from the libraries in WMP and also deleted the cache of WMP from the AppData files in my User Profile. As before, upon opening and re-adding those offline folders to the library (while offline), WMP does not populate the libraries.

    Now, once I reconnect to the home computer, it will populate the libraries.  But then, it will return to the described behavior when I return to being offline -- that is, I will have to double-click each music track twice for it to play.

    Thanks,

    ZM

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  5. Anonymous
    2019-03-31T20:58:36+00:00

    Hi mallettzg

    My name is Andre Da Costa; an Independent Consultant, Windows Insider MVP and Windows & Devices for IT MVP. I'm here to help you with your problem.

    I would remove the mapped network drive, restart, then re-map again to see if it resolves this issue.

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