Windows 7 Media Player not playing MP3 files from USB drive

Question

I have Windows 7.

I plug in a USB stick containing MP3 files

I open Windows Media Player and select the drive letter of my USB stick, I then see all my music nicely grouped into artist and album just like the MP3 files on my hard drive.

I right-click on an album, hmmm... no 'Play' option - just 'Add to sync list' and 'Delete'.

OK, so I'll try just playing one trac, so I right click a single track - again there is no 'Play' option just 'Add to sync list, 'Delete' and 'Properties'.

So I try double-clicking a track, nothing happens

I can't even create a playlist by dragging the files onto the 'Drag items here' playlist pane.

If I access MP3 file that are on my hard drive then it all behaves as expected - I get a 'Play' option when right clicking an album or a track.

If I open the USB drive in Windows Explorer and double click a track then it plays.

What's going on?

I am at work so could there be a policy that is preventing me doing this?

Answer 1

It seems that this is actually the normal behaviour. USB memory sticks show up in Windows Media player but only for syncing files - there is no play option. The only way I could find of opening the files is to use File -> Open... from the main menu. It is possible to open several files at once by dragging a selection rectangle over them.

I used to use Media Player to play from my external hard drive by setting it as a library location but this isn't allowed with most memory sticks as they Media Player detects that they are removable devices.

If you have a spare external hard drive then you could try using that instead and add it to Windows Media Player's library locations. To do this, right-click Music in the left-hand pane, then choose Manage Music library and click the Add... button.

Unless you are really set on using Windows Media Player, my advice is to download foobar2000 and install it on to the memory stick in portable mode - suitable for use at work as no files need to be installed on the host computer. Using Library -> Configure you can tell it to look at a folder on the drive that contains music, and any new files get indexed automatically.