Yes, Windows Media Player 12 Sucks
A. It constantly won't detect new MP3 files I've added to my My Music folder.
B. It doubles up songs in the Library view.
C. It has no explicit "Re Sync with folders" button. Syncing is entirely a cross-your-fingers crap shoot.
D. The main thing I hate:
The two crappy solutions Microsoft Support personnel always give for items A & B are, to paraphrase:
Lame Solution #1: "Your WMP12 database files are corrupt. Turn off the Windows Media services. Go into the database file directory and delete the database files. Then, turn the Windows Media services back on."
AND
Lame Solution #2: "You need to uninstall WMP12, then reboot, then reinstall it."
Just 2 examples threads and solutions. There are many examples elsewhere on the web.
Songs do not appear in the library
Songs are doubled-up in the library
Ok, so I've done both, and WMP12 continually still suffers from items A & B. I will say that my Windows 7 64bit install is on a very reliable computer that's way overpowered for WMP12 (due to my video and audio editing needs). Generally, the OS works just fine and has been mostly reliable for the 2 third-party apps I use most (Vegas and FL Studio). Yet, MS cannot get their own music player app to work properly. Pitiful.
The situation I describe just tells me that Windows has become, and probably has been for a long time, a monolithic over-packed operating system that doesn't do any one thing truly well. Kind of a big fat package of low quality apps. Seriously, Microsoft engineers cannot even get a simple music library app to work without lame, invasive workarounds. A lot of people on the web ask about items A & B, and the response by Microsoft support people and self-proclaimed Windows experts is always the same.
You ask: "Why did you ever choose to use WMP as your MP3 app?".
Great question. The 2 key reasons I choose to use WMP as my music library/sync app are (1) because Sansa seems to suggest their player works well with WMP and with WMP playlists, and (2) it was available to me in Win7, so I figured I paid for it and it should work well. So far, the Sansa device does work well with the mp3 files and playlists. It's just the WMP app sucks. One poster suggests MediaMonkey as an alternative to WMP, so I think I'll try it. I don't encode to WMA, so there's no reason I should stick with WMP. I'm sure Microsoft paid Sansa a big load of cash to promote WMP in their user guide and marketing.
If I find a great alternative to WMP, I'll update this post. I'm sure that will be easy and very soon.
Side note: why I chose the Sansa:
- It doesn't lock me into having to use iTunes to load it. I prefer to buy my MP3s from Amazon. In a word, Amazon *rips*.
- It has a Sleep shutoff timer, which is critical for when the bambino is going to bed and needs music.
- It's small
- The rechargeable battery lasts a long time.
- It has an sideloadable MicroSD slot (in addition to the internal memory, 8GB in my case)
- It was $10 off at Costco. I got the 8GB Sansa Clip+ for $44.
So far, the Sansa has performed beautifully.
