Windows Media Player Playlists not working anymore ?

The playlists that are generated by Windows Media Player have a different structure and file extension than generic m3u playlists which are supported by all software mp3 players. Windows Media Player Playlists are saved as .wpl files and a big difference is that they store the absolute path to the songs.

This means that the Windows Media Player playlist cannot find the songs anymore if you move the songs to another directory or hard drive. I’m going to show you a way to quickly fix the path in the wpl files so that they point again to the right directory. I suggest you use a software like Notepad++ for this because it has a nice find and replace feature and because I’m going to use it to demonstrate how it is done.

Lets say you moved your mp3 location from c:\mp3 to d:\music\mp3. What you need to do is locate the wml - Windows Media Player Playlist - file and open it in Notepad++ or another editor that supports find and replace operations. Every song in that playlist is listed in that file with the full path starting with c:\mp3.

Click on the Search menu and pick Replace from the contents. Enter c:\mp3 in the Find What form and d:\music\mp3 in the Replace With form. This will replace all c:\mp3 strings with d:\music\mp3 leaving the rest of the path alone. Click on Replace All to automatically replace all strings.

Notepad++ should display the changes immediately and all you need to do is to save the Windows Media Player playlist file under the same name. (File > Save).