I saw this in the beta's / RC and still see it now. When entering the 7MC music library (Albums) view the library looks like its rebuilding itself.

The number of albums is increasing slowly, the covers aren't visible and the default icons appear and then disappear, flashing, it eventually gets to the correct numbers of albums count, but becomes unresponsive you have to exit and go back in to the Music library several times before it finally settles down again and you then see all your albums with the covers.

I have about 650 albums in my library. I've seen this happen on lots of Media Centers with different hardware / networks, where the music is stored on a WHS and also where the music is stored on a local hard disk drive.

It's very annoying and embarassing when it happens especially when showing potential customers at work, I cringe..

Why does 7MC still do this Microsoft ???

 UPDATE: To save people trawling through the entire thread.

Here are the videos of the issue happening.

Possible work around:

"I tried the suggestion made by jaggedaz turning off Media Sharing and also disabling the "Maintain my star ratings as global ratings in files" setting in WMP12. I did that remotely on all the 7MC clients at one of these sites. Went there this afternoon and now none of them are showing this behaviour of the Music Library rebuilding. I rebooted the 7MC PC's tried going in and out of the Music Library several times and they all worked perfectly. I can't say for sure this issue has been fully resolved by this work around but it does certainly seemed to have improved things from what I've seen today. "

 

 HERE, HERE!!!!!!!

Seriously, it's effing horrible. Why is it only WMP's library that does this, the Zune software never has any problems and it builds the library faster too - 45 minutes vs 16 hours for WMP. WTF.

Here's an idea MS, ditch the WMP team and integrate Zune.

The Win 7 media library is better than Vista since at least it is programmed to be smart enough to look for pictures only where you tell it to look.  Overall, I haven't seen a good media library yet, so for music I use Music Browser so I can navigate by folders (which MC is incapable of doing) rather than tags (which are never perfect).  That way, I turn off my music library monitoring.

 

 

i'm going to stick this in my favorites. still gathering parts for my build - but this just sounds horrible.

does this only happen on music - or other media as well?

I had the same problem with Media Center rebuilding Music/Photo/Video data base when I was accessing it via Xbox 360.

Then I noticed that if I went to the settings and clicked on "Close"  The data base stayed cached on the XBOX and did not rebuild the next time I went in.

I know its not the same scenario you described... but give it a shot.

Fritz1

But I agree this is a horrible experience.  My son NEVER exists the XBOX that way..  My wife no longer uses it because of this.
Bad move MSFT.

With nearly 500 albums the best I've managed is to copy my files to the local machine using a robocopy script each time I fire up MCE.  I have a a larger MCE W7 machine that I use as a server with 3 W7 MCE's running in the various rooms of the house.  The rebuild time was woeful over the netowrk (who knows why it always rebuilds as previously said), but the best solution I came up with while still using MCE is to copy the files locally - doubles as a great backup!

 

Having said all that, I'd love to see a solution too

My workaround (on my desktop):
always leave WMP running.  If I have to reboot the box, launch WMP after it's up, and let it rebuild the library (which I know from experience it'll need to do.)  Leave WMP open.
There's a logic to this:  MC uses the WMP library.  If the WMP library is intact, MC is happy.

Unfortunately, this doesn't work for Extenders, as they'll have their own WMP library database (unless, of course, you leave the Extender running 24/7.)  But, it, at least, takes care of the local account.

Having more issues tonight, just copied over a few new ablums from another drive into the music folder that WMP watches. Some of the albums have been added OK whilst others have not shown up at all in WMP12.

Opened Zune and everything is there first time with no problems. There's no update library button any more in WMP12. Don't fancy deleting the whole library just to pickup a couple of missing albums.

Media Center should use Zune for it's media library integration in future releases as WMP can be temperamental at best and generally sucks IMHO.

 

I am experiencing the same problem the original poster described. The problem began after I enabled the "Automatically allow devices to play my media" and "Allow internet access to home media" options within Windows Media Player. When I turn those features off the music library no longer rebuilds itself.

These are some of the fixes I've tried so far:

- Moved all music from D:\Music to C:\Users\\My Music.
- Disabled the "Retrieve additional information from the Internet" and "Maintain my star ratings as global ratings in files" options within media player.
- Manually deleted the media player library/database files and let it rebuild.

To reproduce the problem I enable the media sharing and streaming options, stream a music file from my media center to my laptop, and then enter the media library on the media center. This leads me to believe that when streaming media that the music files are somehow updated which triggers a re-index in media center.

I'm torn between dealing with 5 minute waits while the music library rebuilds each time I want to use it on my media center or not being able to stream music to my laptop and work PC. I really hope Microsoft can address this issue. I'm a big fan of Media Center and have invested a ton of time and money into this thing and I hate that a bug like this ruins part of the experience for me.

jaggedaz:

I am experiencing the same problem the original poster described. The problem began after I enabled the "Automatically allow devices to play my media" and "Allow internet access to home media" options within Windows Media Player. When I turn those features off the music library no longer rebuilds itself.

These are some of the fixes I've tried so far:

- Moved all music from D:\Music to C:\Users\\My Music.
- Disabled the "Retrieve additional information from the Internet" and "Maintain my star ratings as global ratings in files" options within media player.
- Manually deleted the media player library/database files and let it rebuild.

To reproduce the problem I enable the media sharing and streaming options, stream a music file from my media center to my laptop, and then enter the media library on the media center. This leads me to believe that when streaming media that the music files are somehow updated which triggers a re-index in media center.

I'm torn between dealing with 5 minute waits while the music library rebuilds each time I want to use it on my media center or not being able to stream music to my laptop and work PC. I really hope Microsoft can address this issue. I'm a big fan of Media Center and have invested a ton of time and money into this thing and I hate that a bug like this ruins part of the experience for me.

 

 Very interesting indeed, thanks for replying. I will turn off these settings in WMP and monitor see if it makes a difference.. 

How often do you see this issue with the Music Library rebuilding in 7MC ? Everytime after you have been streaming music to the laptop? or is it more random and just happens sometimes?

 

I can tell you that it only occurs when I have the media sharing and streaming options are turned on. After turning off those features for the last week the media center returned to normal.

I just tried turning off the "Retrieve additional information from the Internet" and "Maintain my star ratings as global ratings in files" on my laptop as well. I then streamed a track, restarted media center on my media center it did not rebuild the music library. I'm hoping it's as simple as the star ratings causing a file update and that by turning this feature off on both machines it resolves the problem. I'll report back if I see the problem come back, but I have a feeling it will re-index the next time I reboot the media center. I'll give it a try tomorrow.

hey cw-kid,

Check to see if the .m3u (play list) gets updated from your newly added Music folders.

I've had this issue since I moved all my music to my new WHS 4 weeks ago. PP3 lets me integrate my Music share into WMP12, but the data base won't update anything that has been added since (EXPECT- the .m3u play lists!)

So, like many others (including MS support) has suggested, I deleteed the Media Player user folder and tried to get WMP12 to rebuild it's data base.

No Luck, but only worse. After letting WMP12 run for days in hopes it would slowly update, I get "the is no music in your Library'

It won't show Folders, Artists, Albums or genders. BUT - it goes and updates all my .m3u (play lists) form my entire (445 GB) music library. I can select a play list, open it, see the tracks, play them and also see the album art in 'now playing'.

Opening Music in WMC7 shows 'NO Music in your Music Library'. I have done a Repair Install of Windows 7, but that did not change anything.:-(

I contacted MS support and they suggested and I did:

1) uninstalled WMP12 and WMC, then reinstalled.

2) deleted the media player folder & data base and let it rebuild

3) when I tried to add the Music share to WMP , it was already found and started to update. (only the play lists)

I even removed the Music share folder from WMP and readded it. The folders never get updated. I did backup the Media player folder and can then see all the folders, but not those that are added since I moved my music library to my server. Yes, sharing is enabled for everthing in the WHS console.

In the Wndows Explorer Library, everything is blazing fast and search works fast a great. So I can't blame my network of WHS. My video files all play without issue as well.

After a few restarts and letting my WMP run for the last 24 hours, only the play lists are viewable. It just stops updating and says complete.

Foobar2000 sees everything without issue and instantly updates when I move a new CD rip to my server.

MS support is calling me this evening for what I hope will be a resolution. I'll post back with my next move.

Could a MS update have killed their own WMP? Searching the forums for days, I'm not alone with issues.

 

Has any one else broke WMP12? 

 

I wanted to mention that my problem was not the "there is no music in your library" message, it was exactly as the first poster described where the music library displays with my existing albums, but immediately hangs while the number in the lower right of the screen slowly grows as it's re-indexing or updating all the albums. I believe the database still has the music in it, it's just updating every single track or something which causes the interface to hang up.

Good new though -- since I disabled the "connect to internet" and "maintain global star rating" on both machines, it no longer rebuilds/updates the database. I rebooted and it still works. I can stream to my laptop and go back to the media center and it seems to be working beautifully. I'll report back again if the problem returns, but I think the key here is to disable any options that may update the mp3 files on ALL computers connecting to the library.

BTW -- disabling the "connect to the internet" option actually makes everything snappier. Newly added albums show up immediately in my library instead of it analyzing each new file it finds.

 Well, seems like creating a new administrator user account did the trick. Copied my files over and was good to go.

WMP found my Music share as soon as it was added and updated all my folders. There must have been something corrupted, but it was not in the user/Media Player folder that holds the data base files. 

Now I wonder what else to backup when it goes down again.

Disabling the "connect to the internet" sounds like a good way to get WMC a bit more speed.