Possibly a solution to Windows Media Player (version 12) eating ram, and eventually crashing.

Skull Kid · Feb 10, 2022

New face here, but not for the "Windows forums" :) I just wanted to share a possible solution for the incredibly high ram usage of Windows Media Player. Usually, on my desktop (and possibly laptop as well, although I don't think it is hardware specific...), I found out that Windows Media Player keeps trying to download information to update my album info.

Now, after I reset my router, it works flawlessly??? Seems so... now Windows Media Player consumes about 45 MB of RAM... compared to 500-1 000 MB of RAM. It usually crashed on around 1 000-2 000 MB of RAM... incredible how it can consume so much RAM just for trying to download some metadata! :scream:

So, I believe the solution is to restart/reset the router. If not, I don't know why it suddenly stays at 45 MB of RAM usage... I am not a programmer, so :wink:

EDIT: Please see this post for how I solved it. In case you wonder :)

Skull Kid · Feb 10, 2022

Guess I spoke too soon... it's back up to ≈450 MB now. I assume it is a problem with Windows Media Player itself then...

jvickers · Feb 10, 2022

Skull Kid said:
Guess I spoke too soon... it's back up to ≈450 MB now. I assume it is a problem with Windows Media Player itself then...

I had a similar problem with Groove. It would also consume my entire CPU at times. I simply switched to Winamp. I know it's not a solution. Just wanted to let you know you aren't alone in this. I'm sure someone who uses Windows Media Player on a regular basis will have better advice.

CornishRattler · Feb 10, 2022

I just uninstalled WMP and got one that worked, never had any trouble with it since

Skull Kid · Feb 10, 2022

Right now it seems to stay at around 500 MB in RAM. It doesn't go back down to 40-50 MB though... but it still doesn't crash, so that's good.

jvickers · Feb 10, 2022

Skull Kid said:
Right now it seems to stay at around 500 MB in RAM. It doesn't go back down to 40-50 MB though...

Try what @CornishRattler did. That seemed to work.

Skull Kid · Feb 10, 2022

jvickers said:
Try what @CornishRattler did. That seemed to work.

Ok then. I'll report back soon.

EDIT: Ok. Windows Media Player uninstalled and installed back. No change. But it helps to switch off the setting that automatically downloads metadata from the web. There must be some metadata files that doesn't like Windows Media Player or vice versa.

It constantly, every time I start up Windows Media Player, despite being set to only download what's missing, kicks up to around half a gig of memory. But it must be that it somehow fails to apply that missing metadata to the songs it wants to update... hmm... I also used the feature to apply media changes. No Difference there...

EDIT2: Now when I think about it, I should download the K-Lite Codec Pack. That solved the problem in the past. I got some flac songs that might be the cause of Windows Media Player not being able to update them with fresh metadata...

EDIT3: I ditched K-Lite Codec Pack, and reset my library instead.

Skull Kid · Feb 10, 2022

Also an interesting thing: the 64-bit version of Windows Media Player does not seem to have this problem. It stays at approximately 80 MB of memory usage.

Ghot · Feb 10, 2022

Another option is to simply switch to Foobar2000,
and then remove WMP in Programs & Features > Turn Windows features on or off.

foobar2000

www.foobar2000.org

Awesome program. Just switched myself. Beats WMP hands down.

CornishRattler · Feb 10, 2022

Ghot said:
Another option is to simply switch to Foobar2000,
and then remove WMP in Programs & Features > Turn Windows features on or off.

foobar2000

foobar2000

www.foobar2000.org

That was my solution

Skull Kid · Feb 10, 2022

Sure can. But the annoying thing is, I have solved this in the past. Nowadays it doesn't crash that often... but not too long ago it used a gig of memory... that's ridiculous... but I have solved this in the past... I just don't remember how I did it...

EDIT: I experimented with removing all songs from my library only, not from the hard drive. I suspect that it is some album or set of files that makes Windows Media Player go bananas... I removed all albums except for one. Now it stays on 30-40 MB's... in memory.

The-Hive · Feb 10, 2022

Skull Kid said:
Also an interesting thing: the 64-bit version of Windows Media Player does not seem to have this problem. It stays at approximately 80 MB of memory usage.

Could well be because Windows 11 is 64 bit

Skull Kid · Feb 10, 2022

The-Hive said:
Could well be because Windows 11 is 64 bit

I know the 64-bit version of Windows Media Player plays nicely, but the 32-bit version does as well. There is, as I previously mentioned, some file(s) that Windows Media Player doesn't like that lies in the library... and I suspect it has to do with metadata.

EDIT: I removed the "unknown" artists and albums, so far so good with memory usage not going nuts...

Ghot · Feb 10, 2022

You can lead a horse to Foobar, but you can't make them... download and install it.

The-Hive · Feb 10, 2022

To my mind on windows 11 always install the 64bit version if there is a choice

Skull Kid · Feb 10, 2022

I also noticed that Windows Media Player 64-bit crashes when ripping CD's... although I can use the 32-bit version for that. No problem. I think I'll stick with the 64-bit Windows Media Player from now on.

The-Hive · Feb 10, 2022

Could be your system or settings, many user are using WMP12 with no problems

Skull Kid · Feb 10, 2022

The-Hive said:
Could be your system or settings, many user are using WMP12 with no problems

I'm sure that may be the case, but this has happened on both my desktop and laptop. Without changing any settings in Windows Media Player at all. Oh well, I'm gonna try troubleshooting this on my own. Hopefully I'll remember soon enough what I did to solve it :)

Hazel123 · Feb 10, 2022

I don't use Windows Media player. It's really old. Goes back to XP. There are better alternatives for Windows 11 I'm sure.

Skull Kid · Feb 10, 2022

The crossfading feature is one of the reasons I like it. If the new Media Player that soon will arrive in Windows 11 has that, I will switch that instead for sure.