ITauthor

I was tagging an MP3 file and I noticed that the tag changes didn't show up in Windows Media Player 11. The rule seems to be that if you play an MP3 in Windows Media Player, WMP reads the tags first time, stores them in its database and from then on, if you open that same file (same file name in same directory) then WMP gets the metadata from its local database, rather than reading them off the file.

So you can force the new tags to show up by either changing the name of the file, or moving the file to a new location, but as soon as you change its name back to what it was, or move it back to the directory where it was the first time you played it, the original tags will show up again in WMP's list pane.

I thought clearing the cache would sort this problem, but if you go to Tools > Options > Privacy and click Clear Caches, the old tags still show up.

The solution is fairly drastic. You've got to blow away the existing database. The effect is that from that point on WMP starts reindexing all your media as you play it - filling up its database again. Note: you don't lose your playlists - these are stored elsewhere.

Here's what to do:

1. In Windows Explorer, go to the following directory:
   
   On XP:
   C:\Documents and Settings\$USER$\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player\
   
   On Vista:
   C:\Users\$USER$\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Media Player
2. Delete any files you find named CurrentDatabase_*.wmdb and LocalMLS_*.wmdb.
   
   If you can't delete the files, make sure Media Player isn't running. You may need to use Task Manager to kill off any Media Player processes that are running. For example:
   
   wmpnxcfg.exe
   wmpnetwk.exe (you have to list processes by other users to see this)