How to Refresh Media Library Locations in Windows Media Player
Refreshing media library locations in Windows Media Player updates your music, video, and picture lists by forcing the built-in app to scan your hard drive for changes. This action fixes missing files and removes old titles from the 5 default media folders or any custom directories you added.
Windows Media Player keeps broken links when you move or delete files outside the program. Telling the app to scan your saved folder paths again gets your library matching your actual hard drive contents in just a few clicks.
Click Settings on the left sidebar in Windows Media Player, then click Refresh to rescan your folders. This updates the library to show any new or moved media files.
How to refresh library locations
To refresh media library Windows Media Player contents and find missing music or videos, you need to trigger a manual scan from the settings menu. Open Windows Media Player, click the Settings button on the left sidebar, and select the Refresh button to update your database and bring all new files into view without reinstalling the app.
- Open the open the Windows Media Player app.
- Click the Settings button located on the left sidebar.
- Click the Refresh button in the settings menu to scan your folders and update your library.
The app relies on the Windows Search Indexing service (a background feature that catalogues files to speed up searches) to work correctly. Running services must include Windows Search for the library database to update properly. Note: Changing system services may require admin privileges.
Summary
Updating the Windows Media Player database ensures the software sees every file on the local storage drives. Forcing a rescan fixes missing media issues and keeps the collection organized.
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About the Author
Richard
Tech Writer, IT Professional
Richard is a writer at Geek Rewind who turns complex IT tasks into clear, step-by-step guides. He draws on years of hands-on experience in system administration and enterprise IT operations, focusing on Windows, Linux and WordPress: the problems people actually run into, and the fixes that work. His server and WordPress guides come from systems he runs himself. Richard builds and maintains the platform behind Geek Rewind, from its Ubuntu servers and Nginx configuration to its custom WordPress plugins. Many new tutorials start with readers' questions, and he's always glad to answer them in the comments.
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