Windows Phone 8 Music Library gets corrupted

[anon5997486]

Hi Team,

I recently switched from a Lumia 900 to Lumia 720. Although I am very happy with WP8 as a whole, I am very disappointed with the PC<-->Phone syncing mechanisms. The Windows Phone desktop/Windows 8 apps are pathetic and nowhere come close to the automatic functionality Zune offered. However, after experimenting with different things, I have settled on using good old Windows Media Player to sync music and have transferred my pictures and videos to skydrive. However, I am facing a few peculiar problems (I am using a Sandisk Class 6 16Gb memory card to store Music/Photos/Videos).

1. I sync music to the phone using windows media player and everything works great. However, after a few syncs, when I go into Music+Videos, nothing shows up under "Artists" and "Albums". I can confirm that all my songs are still there, as I can see them under "Songs", but they disappear completely from "Albums" and "Artists". Is there any fix to this? Something I am doing wrong?

2. Certain Albums have multiple (up to 3) entries for the same song in Albums. I can confirm that physically there's only one file on the memory card, just that the player shows duplicate entries. If I delete any one of the entries, it deletes the actual file and none of the other entries then play.



Is there any way to refresh/rebuild the music library database on the phone itself? This is pathetic, making my phone almost unusable for listening to music. Currently the only way I can fix this is by deleting all music from my phone and re-building partnership with Windows media Player and then waiting for hours for the music to get copied again. I even changed the SD card file system from Fat32 to exFAT

 

[anon5997486]

Just a quick update, I don't have Xbox cloud music in my country, so that couldn't be causing the multiple entries.

 

[N_LaRUE]

Have you tried using Nokia Music instead? If so does it do the same thing? I don't use the X-Box music+video app except for videos.

 

[anon5997486]

Hi N_LaRUE , yes I have. Even Nokia Music shows the same duplicate entries (Problem 2). For problem 1, I haven't tried, will try replicating it the next time it happens.

It looks like they use the same database. Also, the Windows Phone desktop app shows the multiple entries. However, i can confirm that there's only one file present.

 

[boxa72]

That's odd! I know about the music + video duplicates but wen I use Nokia Music I have no such problem. They should just use 1 music player n then all that would stop!

 

[Muessig]

Welcome to WPCentral! Have a read through this: http://forums.windowscentral.com/wi...s/222709-windows-phone-music-tips-tricks.html Hope that helps!

 

[N_LaRUE]

Hi N_LaRUE , yes I have. Even Nokia Music shows the same duplicate entries (Problem 2). For problem 1, I haven't tried, will try replicating it the next time it happens.

It looks like they use the same database. Also, the Windows Phone desktop app shows the multiple entries. However, i can confirm that there's only one file present.

There is this older thread discussing this issue. There appears to be several methods with which to deal with this situation: http://forums.windowscentral.com/windows-phone-8/205464-duplicate-songs-when-sd-card.html

Since I have a 920 I don't have an SD card. I had to put my phone in because it bricked on me and I haven't had any issues since. I usually transfer music via Windows Explorer.

One of the solutions states that the SD card has some hidden files on it that appear to keep information on your files and you should delete these and format the SD card in the phone. Read the thread and see how things go for you. Also ensure that you shut off all the Xbox Music+ Video settings.

Good luck!

 

[anon5997486]

Looks like all apps use a common library to track music. I deleted all music from the phone (from the SD card), except one



The default Music player still shows multiple versions of the same song



So does Nokia Music



So does the Windows Phone Desktop app



Looks like I have to delete/sync all over again

 

[anon5997486]

There is this older thread discussing this issue. There appears to be several methods with which to deal with this situation: http://forums.windowscentral.com/windows-phone-8/205464-duplicate-songs-when-sd-card.html



Since I have a 920 I don't have an SD card. I had to put my phone in because it bricked on me and I haven't had any issues since. I usually transfer music via Windows Explorer.

One of the solutions states that the SD card has some hidden files on it that appear to keep information on your files and you should delete these and format the SD card in the phone. Read the thread and see how things go for you. Also ensure that you shut off all the Xbox Music+ Video settings.

Good luck!

Thanks reading that thread now.

I could not find any hidden folders in my case though.

 

[Muessig]

Have you tried to manage your phone's music library through Windows Explorer instead of the Windows Phone App? I looks like you didn't actually delete all the files in the folder. If you delete everything in the Music folder so that it's completely blank, turn off Xbox Music sync (even though it might not be in your country, it still might have an effect on the duplicate files) and use Media player or just send your music files across through copy and paste, hopefully that will sort your problem.

 

[anon5997486]

Have you tried to manage your phone's music library through Windows Explorer instead of the Windows Phone App? I looks like you didn't actually delete all the files in the folder. If you delete everything in the Music folder so that it's completely blank, turn off Xbox Music sync (even though it might not be in your country, it still might have an effect on the duplicate files) and use Media player or just send your music files across through copy and paste, hopefully that will sort your problem.

Have you tried to manage your phone's music library through Windows Explorer instead of the Windows Phone App?
Yes, that is how I deleted all the files.

I looks like you didn't actually delete all the files in the folder.
The one file remaining was deliberately left there to see how many copies of one song I would see.

If you delete everything in the Music folder so that it's completely blank, turn off Xbox Music sync (even though it might not be in your country, it still might have an effect on the duplicate files) and use Media player or just send your music files across through copy and paste, hopefully that will sort your problem.
THere's no Xbox sync in my country. And what you descrive above is exactly how I sync my files. However, the duplicate entries show up after a couple of days/syncs.

 

[N_LaRUE]

Have you tried any of the suggestions from the thread yet?

Just a thought. Have you tried segrating your music into folders within the Music folder?

 

[anon5997486]

Have you tried any of the suggestions from the thread yet?


Just a thought. Have you tried segrating your music into folders within the Music folder?

Yes, I have. That thread mainly has 2 scenarios

1. Xbox cloud services causing duplicate entries.
2. The hidden files

both are not applicable for me. Also, windows media player does segregate music by artist\album, so yes.

I think in my case, the problem starts when I sync more than once.

once again formatted and synced everything using WMP. Will wait and see when the problem crops up again.

 

[anon5997486]

Here we go again!! Now its problem number 1. Before the songs could get duplicated, the albums and artists have disappeared. As you can see, the songs appear in the songs list, but not in the albums and artists lists. They don't appear in the albums list in Nokia Music either. Playing the files shows that they do have the album/artist info in the idv tags, but somehow the library is corrupted.











WP7 was so stable, I never had to reset the phone or copy all my stuff over to it again.

 

[Muessig]

This is a strange problem I've not seen before. There are only a couple of things I can think of for you to try:

1) Seems you're copying your music over which really should work but can you try putting the music you want on your phone onto it through a playlist?
2) Try a Soft or a Hard reset and try again?

The music management for WP8 isn't by any stretch of the imagination perfect as we can see, but I think there's a 'reboot' of the music management, or at least Xbox Music rumoured to be coming very soon.

 

[anon5997486]

This is a strange problem I've not seen before. There are only a couple of things I can think of for you to try:

1) Seems you're copying your music over which really should work but can you try putting the music you want on your phone onto it through a playlist?
2) Try a Soft or a Hard reset and try again?

The music management for WP8 isn't by any stretch of the imagination perfect as we can see, but I think there's a 'reboot' of the music management, or at least Xbox Music rumoured to be coming very soon.

I actually ended sync partnership with Windows Media player and am using the "Windows Phone Desktop App" to sync all my music now. If I see problems with that as well, I will do a factory reset.

I miss Zune :crying:

 

[d_abbatelli]

Same set of problems on a Lumia 620 with microSD...
Tried all the possible solution suggested everywhere, still no success.
Right now, I stopped wasting my time and I'm hoping GDR2 will fix everything... Looks like we'll have to wait a couple of months more though..

 

[anon5997486]

Same set of problems on a Lumia 620 with microSD...
Tried all the possible solution suggested everywhere, still no success.
Right now, I stopped wasting my time and I'm hoping GDR2 will fix everything... Looks like we'll have to wait a couple of months more though..

Hi,
Do you also use windows media player to sync?

 

[Muessig]

I will try to play around and emulate this problem over the weekend, guys. Have you both got suggestions turned on?

 

[OzRob]

Same set of problems on a Lumia 620 with microSD...
Tried all the possible solution suggested everywhere, still no success.

This has been my experience also. Using some of the suggestions in the various threads on this issue I've managed to get my music working for a time, but eventually something triggers a return to duplicate files. There is something really borked with the way locally stored music is indexed in WP8.