Windows Media Player Playlist no longer works after moving the audio files to a different partition?
Published: Jan 25, 2006Send your feedback
Symptom
After moving the media files to a different partition in the hard drive, or to an external hard drive, the existing Playlist may not work, and Windows Media Player may exhibit the following error message when you double-click the custom Playlist file:
Windows Media Player cannot find the specified file. Be sure the path is typed correctly. If it is, the file does not exist at the specified location, or the computer where the file is stored is offline.
Resolution
The media files location is stored in the Playlist (.WPL) file. Moving the media files to a different location does not automatically update the custom Playlist. To resolve the problem, in Windows Media Player, right-click the corresponding song title, and choose Error Details... Then update the Path accordingly.
If there are a large number of songs, then you may need to use this approach and modify the Playlist file contents directly:
Open the Playlist file using Notepad. You'll find lines similar to the following, within the <seq> tag.
<seq>
<media src="G:\Songs\pon malai pozudhu.mp3"/>
<media src="G:\Songs\Vaasamilla-malarithu.mp3"/>
<media src="G:\Songs\Erikkara.mp3"/>
<media src="G:\Songs\Paada Vanthathu.mp3"/>
</seq>
Use the Replace all feature in Notepad and replace every instance of the string G:\ with the new drive-letter (say H:\). Save the Playlist file now.
