windows media player problem

Question

I have lost my WMP's ability to recognise any CD - keeps telling me "unknown artist" EVEN after trying to load up Bowies "Ziggy Stardust" CD ?

I have followed some of MS "solutions" including "uninstalling WMP" to no avail - when it was reinstalled - it went on a "indexing march" which has taken 12hrs still not complete so I aborted it.

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Moved from: Microsoft 365 and Office | Other

Answer 1

Can MusicBrainz Picard handle a 9,000-CD music folder?

Yes, safely and at scale. Picard was designed for very large libraries (tens of thousands of tracks).

How Picard tagging works in layman's term, think of Picard as a smart librarian, not a player.

Picard does 3 things only:

• Reads the tags already inside your music files
• Matches them against the MusicBrainz database
• Writes standard tags back into the files

It does not:

• Play music
• Change file formats
• Delete anything
• Move files (unless you explicitly enable that)

Will Picard’s tags be read by Windows Media Player?

Yes, perfectly. Picard writes industry-standard tags that WMP understands.

Answer 2

You did everything right. Windows Media Player is not broken on your PC.

The CD metadata service that WMP uses has been deprecated.

Result: All CDs show “Unknown Artist”, even famous ones like Ziggy Stardust.

Do this (final test):

Insert the CD

Open File Explorer

Right-click the CD → Properties

Click Hardware → note the drive model

Now open any other ripper:

• MusicBrainz Picard (recommended)
• Exact Audio Copy

If that software identifies the CD instantly:

• Drive is fine
• Disc is fine
• Internet is fine
• WMP metadata backend has been deprecated.

If your goal is simply to rip CDs with proper artist/album names:

Easiest replacement

MusicBrainz Picard

• Free
• One-click lookup
• Recognises Bowie instantly
• No setup drama

Closest to old WMP feel

MediaMonkey

Looks familiar

Strong CD metadata

Actively maintained

You can still play the files in WMP afterwards if you want, once tagged, WMP reads them fine.

Answer 3

You’re not doing anything wrong. You’ve already fixed the most common cause (TLS). If TLS 1.2 is enabled and it still shows “Unknown Artist”, then WMP is being blocked after the TLS layer.

Next, try this:

Press Win + R

Type:

services.msc

Find: Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service

Double-click it

• Startup type → Automatic
• Service status → Start

Click OK

Reboot

If this service is stopped, CDs will never resolve metadata, even with TLS enabled.

Answer 4

Thanks for sharing the details, Gordon! Try to re-enable modern TLS so WMP can talk to metadata servers

Windows Media Player cannot retrieve CD metadata if TLS 1.2 is disabled. This often happens after:

Hardening tools

Old IE tweaks

Security software

Corporate policies

“Privacy” scripts

When TLS is off, WMP silently fails → Unknown Artist forever.

Step-by-step (2 minutes)

Press Win + R

Type:

inetcpl.cpl

→ Press Enter

Go to the Advanced tab

Scroll all the way down to Security

Make sure ALL of these are checked:

• Use TLS 1.2
• Use TLS 1.1 (optional but recommended)

Make sure these are unchecked:

• SSL 2.0
• SSL 3.0

Click Apply

Reboot the PC

Open WMP → Insert a known commercial CD (Ziggy Stardust is perfect)

Metadata should now resolve within seconds.

See if this helps. If you need further assistance just let me know.

Best regards,

Kimberly