# Can't add mp3 files to Windows Meda Player

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-add-mp3-files-to-windows-meda-player/841066>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 30, 2019, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-add-mp3-files-to-windows-meda-player/841066 "2019-09-30T22:27:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-add-mp3-files-to-windows-meda-player/841066/1 "2019-09-30T22:27:07Z")

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I know WMP is horrible. It’s terrible. I can’t install anything of any kind on my work laptop, and WMP is all I get. I put this new album into the Music folder, in the band’s main folder. This went unnoticed by WMP. I can’t get it to notice these new files for love or money. I can’t even find the version of the program, because the big companies have started hiding this information.

Any help would be appreciated.

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**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-add-mp3-files-to-windows-meda-player/841066/2 "2019-09-30T22:35:59Z")

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You might be able to download VLC onto a USB stick and just run it directly off it:

> **[How to Get Portable Version of VLC Media Player for Windows](https://www.vlchelp.com/get-portable-version-vlc-media-player-windows/)**
>
> If you are looking to download the portable version of VLC Media Player, you can get it from the official source or from trusted third party websites

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**Author:** ![mjmlabs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mjmlabs/32/69_2.png) [@mjmlabs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mjmlabs)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-add-mp3-files-to-windows-meda-player/841066/3 "2019-09-30T22:43:17Z")

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Dunno if this is among the failed attempts thus far, but …

[ul][li]“Organize” drop-down (upper left) \>[/li][li]“Apply media information changes”[/li][/ul]

… should force WMP to rescan all media folders for files and check their metadata.

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**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-add-mp3-files-to-windows-meda-player/841066/4 "2019-09-30T23:24:06Z")

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My fault. I was adding untagged songs, because for some reason the band sold .wav files, untagged. I converted them to mp3, but these were the untagged ones. As far as I can tell, WMP doesn’t have a way to put in tags, so I had to do it at home. The tagged ones land where I expected.

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**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2019, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-add-mp3-files-to-windows-meda-player/841066/5 "2019-10-03T00:09:48Z")

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I use [WinAmp](https://winamp.en.softonic.com/download) for music.