WD Live won't find my music

Cave71 · October 15, 2015, 2:12am

Hi, I hope I have posted this in the correct section. I am new here.

I recently bought the WD Live Player, primarily to stream my digital music through my home theater system. So far I have “shared” my music folder, but I am having trouble with finding/playing music.

When I turn on my WD Live and go to “music”, it finds no content (regardless of what source I select) However, if I go to “pictures” it finds all of the album artwork & photos that I have stored in my music/artists/albums folders. I also have a few music videos stored in those folders, which wd live also finds and can play, yet it finds no videos from my windows video folder. Any idea why it finds “other” media in my music folders but not my actual music?

I am running windows 7 home premium, sp1 if that helps.

mike27oct · October 15, 2015, 4:39am

When you say the WD cannot find your music, do you mean you are getting this message?

“There is no media in the current folder.”

If you are, then see this thread:

"There is no media in the current folder." (Oh yes there is!)

Also, you may be be sharing your folders incorrectly, so check that.

You really need to have all your same type media in the same main folders, meaning music files together, photos, together, videos together, so, the WD finds them better. It looks at file extensions to determine what kind of files they are.

Cave71 · October 15, 2015, 4:39am

Yes, I get that message, however I have been trying to find this music for 3 days and it still won’t load. It finds my windows folders, including files within the music folders, but no music. I have connected an 8gb usb flash drive, which works within minutes, but “my music” folder still shows “no content”. I also tried to connect my 1tb ext hdd with no luck either, the wd unit just “blinked” (loading content) for 3 days and eventually froze altogether. I was able to access music from another pc in my home network earlier today, but it has now disappeared/no content as well…???

All music on all computers in my home are organized in the same manor. Folders are as follows: My Music, Artist name, then Individual albums. Which all work from my WD Live Hub, and sent to another home theater system in my home.

Cave71 · October 15, 2015, 4:39am

I should probably clarify that my photos and video folders have (also) not yet appeared. Only the few photos and videos which are within my music folders will display.

mike27oct · October 15, 2015, 4:39am

Yes, I get that message, however I have been trying to find this music for 3 days and it still won’t load.

Well, then follow the instructions in the link I provided. I also think your network is not set up right yet. If you have lots of music (as I do): over 10,0000 tracks) then Windows needs time to catalog it all completely before it can let the WD know what is there. Otherwise ,one get the message about no media in the folder.

Cave71 · October 15, 2015, 4:39am

Thanks so much! I’m sure there is something odd with my network setup too. I’ll absolutely give your link a shot and update my post when I get it sorted out. Cheers!!

Cave71 · October 15, 2015, 4:39am

Well, I’ve had what I would call limited success. I had my music, videos and pictures working beautifully for a couple of hours today. I had to go out, so I shut off the WD. When I came home & turned it back on, I get a message that says “The last content source has been removed”. Nothing was changed or removed. I simply shut off the WD Live and turned it back on a few hours later…??

mike27oct · October 15, 2015, 4:39am

1, Are you sure you actually turned it OFF, or just in standby?

I never turn off the WD; I use it like I do the cable box – on all the time unless it acts up.

Cave71 · October 15, 2015, 4:39am

I powered it off via the red button on the remote. The red power light on the front panel went off. I will absolutely take your advice and leave it on all the time now!

mike27oct · October 15, 2015, 4:39am

Cave71 wrote:

I powered it off via the red button on the remote. The red power light on the front panel went off. I will absolutely take your advice and leave it on all the time now!

I do not have an SMP; rather an earlier model. Nevertheless, I know there is a short press and long press on the SMP remote, and one puts it in standby and the other turns off power – but I do not know which one does what. So, see if you can search the forum or refer to the manual for which is which.

Also, you do not need to take my advice about leaving it on all the time. That is your choice. If it gets too hot as some owners have said, I would turn it off or raise it up above any furniture it is on and could damage with too much heat, Raising it less than an inch ought to be sufficient. My Live Plus does not have a heat issue, and by always staying on, it is always ready to use. I have a Roku, and it doesn’t even have a power on/off switch. Lots of these kinds of devices can stay on with no problems and use very little juice when doing basically nothing.

Hopefully, you got it all working again, too.

ronmaz · October 15, 2015, 4:39am

A short press (about a second) puts it in standby mode.

A long press (about 3 seconds) turns it off completely.

mike27oct · October 15, 2015, 4:39am

3 seconds may or may not do it. The user manual says hold down power button for 5 seconds to completely shut down unit.

Cave71 · October 15, 2015, 4:39am

I just hit the power button briefly, so it would have gone in to standby. I am still having trouble getting my music working on the WD. I’ve been following the steps as described in your link, it’s worked once and believe it will work again. Thanks again for all the help!

mike27oct · October 15, 2015, 4:39am

It takes my PC over an hour to completely catalog all the music it can share; I now have over 13.000 tracks. Every so often I need to do it all over again. Set this process in motion, and go away for over an hour and mow the lawn or somethin’ !

Cave71 · October 15, 2015, 4:39am

Thanks again Mike27oct, your suggestions have worked again. My music collection is rather substantial (3.5TB) and it took the better part of 8 hours for it to reappear. I will simply follow your directions any time I run across this issue, I also think leaving the unit on may help too!

mike27oct · October 15, 2015, 4:39am

3.5TB of music!!! Good grief. My 14,000+ files in iTunes Media folder takes up a mere 85GB. I’m surprised it did not take 8 DAYS rather than 8 hours to get your task done. Your pushing the envelope, for sure.

OK, good luck, and happy listening. Glad I could help.

Steffen_2009 · October 15, 2015, 4:39am

Also an idea from my side.

A music collection larger than 500GB runs best with turning the WD media libary “off”.

I can not understand why some other media-boxes think it is not possible to have more than 1000 music CDs in a collection and don’t provide their customers the really essential feature to turn the libary off (the WD has :smiley:)

TonyPh12345 · October 15, 2015, 4:39am

Heh. That’s collection obsession. I don’t think it’d be humanly possible to listen to 3.5TB of music in several lifetimes. :laughing:

mike27oct · October 15, 2015, 4:39am

Yea, it would first take several lifetimes to digitize 3.5TB of music; let alone listen to it!

One might say I, too, have collection obsession since only the tip of the iceberg of my collection has been digitized; most still resides on 1000+ LPs and 1000+ CDs, (I never got into 8-track or cassettes). Most new music I purchase is now digitized from eMusic, although last night I did buy another CD from Amazon, because in many cases music is less expensive on a CD rather than digital d/l – the mp3 downloads of same CD was a buck more from Amazon. Go figure!