Windows7 - Cant play MP3s

T

Tesher

Weaksauce
Joined
Sep 13, 2005
Messages
118
Ok, so here's the deal:
I keep my iTunes music folder sorted by iTunes on an external esata drive.
I decided to install Windows 7 last night so I backup my data, turn off the external drive, and then install Win 7 (I was running Vista before and did a reformat before installing).
Everything has been going smoothly so far but when I tried to import my music into iTunes it wouldn't import.
I went to the folder and had to take ownership of the folder and all subfolders to be able to access it.
Every MP3 has a little lock on it and cannot be played by WMP or itunes. I have figured out that sharing them with the Homegroup fixes this and then they can play. My problem is setting the share with for the folders doesn't apply that attribute to the files so I would have to manually go to the mp3 and change the sharing for 7000 files.
I've tried to a search for everything in my itunes folder by type=.mp3 but it only returns mp3s that I manually changed.

This is a very annoying problem. Anyone got any ideas?
 
Did you right click on the drive and set the permissions for the entire drive to your account?
 
I had originally just tried that for the iTunes folder only.
I just tried it and the MP3s are still "locked"
 
Use WinAmp or WMP...? Can other programs access the content?

iTunes is shit for music mgmt.
 
I don't believe Apple has released a compatible version of iTunes yet for W7. When I did the upgrade on my laptop, it said I should uninstall iTunes before proceeding as it wasn't compatible. Maybe wait for Apple to relased a new version of iTunes....
 
iTunes works on Windows 7 (as much as it ever *works* POS software I wouldn't have other than my phone).

I've never seen the locked icon the OP is referring to on an MP3, only on encrypted drives. Are they DRM'd MP3s? Did you user encrypt the directory on your other installation?
 
Ok, gonna try and answer all the questions.

Using WMP or any other media program will not work unless I change the sharing on the file.
The MP3s are not DRM'd.
The drive is/was not encrypted.

The problem is fixed by right-clicking on the files and setting them to be "Shared With" and then "Homegroup (Read/Write)"
I just need to find a way to apply that attribute to every file.
 
Ok, I have managed to fix the problem. I had to download a third-party utility to search my music folder for all files with an MP3 extension (because windows search would not list any results).
I then copied all the MP3s found in my results into one folder and was able to change the sharing settings on all of them at once.
It was a hassle that could have been avoided if windows would apply sharing attributes to files within folders.
 
You might've had some owner attribute problems. You can add a "Take Ownership" option to the right-click menu. I've found it to be invaluable.

Paste this into notepad and save it as a .reg file.
Code: 
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00


[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\runas]
@="Take Ownership"
"NoWorkingDirectory"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\runas\command]
@="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F"
"IsolatedCommand"="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\runas]
@="Take Ownership"
"NoWorkingDirectory"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\runas\command]
@="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" /r /d y && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F /t"
"IsolatedCommand"="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" /r /d y && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F /t"
 
You can change attributes on all files at once, I am not sure what sharing with your windows home group has to do with playing files locally. It sounds like the permissions on those files are all screwed up and/or you dont know exactly what you are doing.
 
I had ownership and full-control local permissions on all the files. The only way to make the files accessible without Administrator escalation was sharing with the homegroup.
 
Last edited:
That's strange. I've never had any issues even remotely like that and i've been running windows 7 since beta and have been using itunes.
 
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