Windows 8.1 RTM XBOX Music App Experiences

[jwckauman]

I had access to Windows 8.1 RTM through MSDN so I went ahead and installed it (my Windows Media Center app broke in the preview edition so I needed that working). After I restored my music collection to the hard drive, installed Zune and got that working, I took a chance and opened up the XBOX Music app. I asked it to look at my collection and went to bed. This morning I found the following:

• It actually finished importing my collection (9207 tracks). No errors. This is a mix of Zune subscriptions, iTunes purchases, and CD rips.
• It actually imported my ZUNE playlists. Never seen that before.
• The ZUNE playlists are quick and responsive.
• The application is quick and responsive. It plays all of the above types of tracks very well.

As I keep working with it, I'll let you know what I find, but so far so good. I just wish we could still use the XBOX music app to sync to our Zunes. I have several of those and use them for running/walking/exercising (I don't want to carry around my heavy Lumia 920 when I'm running).

Anyone else playing with the latest version of the XBOX music app?

Jim

 

[WanderingTraveler]

Thanks. I'm actually debating on whether I should buy a Surface 2 (alongside a desktop, of course.), well, Microsoft did state that they would try to fix up the XBOX Music app in Windows 8.1.

 

[dgr_874]

Please post more! The xbox music thing is the only issue keeping me from switching.

 

[Gungzwei]

Do you get the media usage error for DRM when playing a Zune song on WP8?

 

[skwayb]

I have a huge collection of songs (50,000). The last XBOX Music app that was release on 8.0 found all of my music. Now the app that comes with 8.1 can only see 14,000 songs. I wish there was a way to force it to start looking for new music again.

Anyone know how to fix this.

 

[dougolupski]

I have 32000 songs and like the update 8.1 preview app the RTM version begins to crash and max out my CPU. Begins to sign in and just hangs. ARRRRRGGGGGGG I just want the zune player back as standard I never had an issue with it.

 

[dgr_874]

Try removing all your music from the music folder under your libraries. Then open xbox music, delete your cloud collection and close xbox music. Readd all your music back to the folder and reopen xbox music to find all your songs.

 

[dougolupski]

Try removing all your music from the music folder under your libraries. Then open xbox music, delete your cloud collection and close xbox music. Readd all your music back to the folder and reopen xbox music to find all your songs.

I'm going to try that when I get home tonight. I read up on a few MS forums where people did basically what you said. Fingers crossed as my library has been screwed up since Win 8, Win 8 Preview and now 8.1

 

[gsquared]

Try removing all your music from the music folder under your libraries. Then open xbox music, delete your cloud collection and close xbox music. Readd all your music back to the folder and reopen xbox music to find all your songs.

This one post needs to be made a sticky.

 

[xconomicron]

I have a huge collection of songs (50,000). The last XBOX Music app that was release on 8.0 found all of my music. Now the app that comes with 8.1 can only see 14,000 songs. I wish there was a way to force it to start looking for new music again.

Anyone know how to fix this.

refresh the index. Control Panel>Indexing Options...should automatically re-index your files.

 

[dgr_874]

Any luck?

 

[dougolupski]

Well I have got my collection back in, that only took all night with the amount of songs I have. Cleared the cloud collection and am currently updating my new cloud collection. Hopefully by the end of the night I will have a better answer. One thing I do remember from Win 8 was how long it took to go through and match the albums to the cloud.

 

[Piratelooksat40]

Good lord. I swear every time they update something they screw something else up. I have no idea why they have to make it so hard, when it actually worked so good with Zune.

Does anyone know if there is a way to log into your Xbox/Zune music account without making your entire PC have to use that Microsoft account? It was nice to be able to have a PC and E-mail account that you used for your professional life, but then if you wanted to listen to music you could just log on to your Zune account. I just tried to log on to xbox music and it tells me it has to log my whole PC on to a Microsoft Account. I really just don't understand why they feel the need to drive users away, but I think this is the straw the broke the camel's back for me.

 

[wpn00b]

Does anyone know if there is a way to log into your Xbox/Zune music account without making your entire PC have to use that Microsoft account?

I just use the Zune desktop software to log into that account and stream music. My phone sometimes allows me to use my song credits also, so I use those for my 10 free each month over WiFi after making my choices through the desktop.

I totally agree though. I have no idea why they didn't just leave Zune desktop alone.

 

[dougolupski]

So I got the cloud collection all updated per DGR's instructions. It did freak out once and I removed the music app and reinstalled and it all went pretty ok after that. The main issue was updating the cloud collection, it would periodically lock up when trying to sign in while it was still trying to update the collection. Once it was updated I havent had any issues.

 

[dgr_874]

Good to hear! I have had about the same experience you have.