Mp3 No longer recognized

Recently neither me or my daughters Mp3 players are recognized or found by either of my media players. MediaMonkey or WMP.

A Sandisk and a Insignia. The only way to transfer the music to them is to copy the songs to the folder. This isn't a problem except it isn't the same because the library doesn't "see" the new tracks. They will play but no library listing so I can't select a certain album or list of tracks. I'm at the mercy of what is coming up next on the play list.

What have I (or she) done to the comp! And, how can I try to fix this. I tried reformatting the Mp3 players, re-enabling the autoplay option and reinstalling MediaMonkey. No go.

Windows XP Pro

Have you checked there's Tag data in each mp3? On Windows you know what's in the mp3 file because of the filename. On the mp3 player the filename's irrelevant, all that gets displayed are the ID3 tags.

http://easytag.sourceforge.net/ lets you see what state your tags are in on your Windows copy of the mp3 directory. Depending on where I bought them I often find I have to clean them before I can use them.

Are you using wmp11?

Sorry I think I stated that wrong. It's the Mp3 players themselves that aren't recognized by the media players. I have always used Mp3tag on the files themselves with no problems. I can transfer and play the songs by copy/pasting them but that doesn't do anything for identifying and sorting the albums in the Mps players library. When I select music library the only option I have is play all. No albums show or are correctly sorted.

WMP11 and Media Monkey. Neither any longer can find the mp3 players and they did last week (or so).

I'd sort of got that first time, I was fishing a bit. I've no idea how either recognize a mp3 player. It's possible that something ran which wiped all your IP3 tags but it would only stop the playback on the device the way you described, it wouldn't stop the device from appearing in the Windows program. I shouldn't really have spoken, it's not my field.

But.

http://www.mediamonkey.com/support/i...leid=7&nav=0,1

You might try loading up that library set and see if it puts you back in business.

I'm not at that computer at the moment but will look into that more in a bit. I'm not too concerned with WMP as I don't use it unless absolutely necessary. Also Insignia is a pre-recognised <is that a word? brand with Media Monkey so there are adjustments already built into the player, which makes this more puzzling.

"known to be compatible", apparently.

It does sound as though something evaporated from your system. A long time ago it might have been called bit-rot but I've not seen it called that in ages.

The only thing I can think of that has been deleted is an autorun.inf file, besides some cookies. But having the player plugged in and then trying to sync it "should" work right?

Just like it did last week, yes. Something changed, it needs putting back as it was somehow. Re-installing packages perhaps.

OK I'm back at the offending computer now. Do you mean MS Service Packs?

I'm installing todays updates now. I'll try it out after they are installed.

No, I meant WMP11 and Media Monkey.

I don't know. I've tried everything.

Updated drivers in device manager.
Tried to manually and automatically sync.
Restart, reinstall.....Both media players.
Format the Mp3 players.

I see it in My Computer and device manager but these stupid media players simply won't.

Update, just re re-installed WMP11 and when I plugged in the Insignia player I got the new device prompt. WinPatrol then prompted me to allow a new auto start, Application Compatability Client Library. So whatever that is must have been what was missing.

The Mp3 player now shows up in Media Monkey as well.

Looks like it was the Application Compatability Client Library?

Thanks Spot. I was done uninstalling and reinstalling. You talked me into trying it again and it worked.

I'm going to redo my library and actually have control over it now!!

You just have time to get a pint to celebrate too.