windows media player database

<a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/default.aspx">
  <img class="right" src="/space/windows_media_player.jpg" /></a>

I spend most of my time in Linux, [inside VMWare](/space/fedora_core_3_on_vmware),
but I do use Windows for a few things like music. (VMWare's sound drivers are a
little unstable.) I use [Windows Media
Player](http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/default.aspx), since I'm
lazy and it comes with Windows.

Recently I had to switch Windows users on my computer. To get back all my stuff,
I had to copy all of the files in _C:\Documents and Settings\olduser_ to
_C:\Documents and Settings\newuser_.

This worked surprisingly well, except for my playlists. When I started WMP, and
when I tried to play any playlist, it complained:

> Windows Media Player encountered an unknown error. This can occur when another
program or operating system component encounters a problem but does not
communicate the nature of the problem to the Player.

I first realized that a number of playlists (.wpl files) were in _C:\Documents
and Settings\All Users\Shared Documents\Shared Music\My Playlists_, so I copied
those into _C:\Documents and Settings\newuser\My Documents\My Music\My
Playlists_.

Second, I looked inside the playlist files themselves. A number of them had
olduser's playlist directory hard-coded. So, I changed every line like this:

    <media src="C:\Documents and Settings\olduser\...

to this:

    <media src="C:\Documents and Settings\newuser\...

(There were a _lot_. Thank god for emacs [search-and-replace in
dired-mode](http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/Operating-on-Files.html#Operating%20on%20Files).)

Now, when I ran WMP, it showed multiple copies of each playlist, but it still
complained and wouldn't play them.

After some more head-scratching, I realized that it was caching the playlists in
its database. I went into _C:\Documents and Settings\newuser\Local
Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player_ and deleted \*.wmdb. When I
restarted WMP, it rebuilt the database from scratch and it was happy again.

Moral of the story? Don't change Windows users if you can possibly help it. It's
_really_ painful.

See also:

  * [fedora core 3 on vmware](/space/fedora_core_3_on_vmware)
  * [invert mouse in Beyond Good & Evil](/space/invert_mouse_in_Beyond_Good_&_Evil)