[dmills79]

I had about 75 songs on my windows media player library. About 2 weeks ago when I went to listen to some music, every song that I tried to play displayed an error message, and then one by one the songs in my library began to disappear!! WTF?! I've tried everything that I can think of to no avail. Any suggestions?

[DoubleHelix]

Where were the actual files stored? Are they still there?
Did you make a backup?
How did you obtain the music?
Was it ripped from your own CDs? Downloaded? If so, from where?

[dmills79]

Some of it was ripped from my cd's and some of it was downloaded as mp3 files from rhapsody. The files were always stored on the WMP library and in my documents filed in my music folder. Now I can't find my music anywhere.


Actually I've found about 8 songs, but the wmp can no longer play them for some reason.

[stantley]

Do a Windows Search on the whole hard drive and look for *.mp3. Are all of your files Mp3's or do you use other formats?

What error messages do you get when you try and play them in WMP? See if they will play in a different media player.

[dmills79]

Originally Posted by stantley

Do a Windows Search on the whole hard drive and look for *.mp3. Are all of your files Mp3's or do you use other formats?

What error messages do you get when you try and play them in WMP? See if they will play in a different media player.

Thanks but I tried that already. I was able to find some of my cd ripped music in an itunes folder for some reason. It was labled as an m4a file. I don't even know what that is. I can't find any of my napster stuff.

[DoubleHelix]

If the files aren't on the drive, that would explain why Windows Media Player gave an error trying to access them. They must have been deleted by someone. You could try a data recovery program like Recuva.

[dmills79]

They used to play just fine. I've had them on my computer for almost a year. Then one day I go to play them and one by one these error messages popped up with each song. Then they started disappering.

[stantley]

Originally Posted by dmills79

I was able to find some of my cd ripped music in an itunes folder for some reason. It was labled as an m4a file.

It looks like iTunes has converted the files to m4a and then moved them, which would explain why you can't find them and why you can't play them with WMP. WMP doesn't support m4a.

Do a search on *.m4a and convert them back to mp3 with iTunes. I don't have iTunes so I'm not sure which option it is, but there must be some way to stop it from converting and moving your mp3 files.

[dmills79]

Originally Posted by stantley

It looks like iTunes has converted the files to m4a and then moved them, which would explain why you can't find them and why you can't play them with WMP. WMP doesn't support m4a.

Do a search on *.m4a and convert them back to mp3 with iTunes. I don't have iTunes so I'm not sure which option it is, but there must be some way to stop it from converting and moving your mp3 files.

I've tried all of your suggestions and I still can't find the music that I purchased from rhapsody. I even downloaded recuva to no avail. I'm bummed about this. Computers can really make a person want to do some crazy things sometimes.