Fix error – Windows Media Player encountered a problem while creating or saving the playlist

My favorite Music Player is Windows Media Player and I have been organizing all my music into playlists for years.
By default WMPlayer keeps all the user’s playlists here:
C:\Users\Username\Music\Playlists

But this can be lost if OS is corrupted or if we re-install another Windows version.
So, just to be safe I keep all my playlist wml files in another location on my data drive:
E:\Music\_Library\Playlists

But today all my playlists in WMPlayer disappeared and when I tried to create a new playlist I got this error message:

I checked my directory in E Drive and everything looked fine. So I knew the problem was in the WMPlayer itself.
Here’s the fix that worked for me.
You can try these steps if you are facing a similar issue.

– Go to Organize menu -> Manage Libraries -> Music

– As you can see in this screenshot below, it was having trouble finding my “Default save location” even though I could access it just fine using Windows Explorer.

So, just remove it and re-add it.
Then right click on it and set it as default.

Press “Ok” and you should get all your playlists back.
Write to me in the comments below if you are having any more problems restoring your playlists.

16 thoughts on “Fix error – Windows Media Player encountered a problem while creating or saving the playlist”

  1. This was driving me crazy! I moved my music libraries to another drive, and I guess I deleted the Playlists folder. All I had to do was add a Playlists folder to my new drive and set it as the default save location, and it fixed it! Thanks a lot. 🙂

  2. thank you so much!!!!!
    I was looking all day for a solution, and you saved me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    thanksssss!!!

  3. CHABANE ABDELLAH

    i have a problem whene i clicked at music in the menu manage Libraries doesn’t show anything …
    please help

    1. CHABANE ABDELLAH

      i have a problem whene i clicked at music in the menu manage Libraries doesn’t show anything …
      please help

  4. Thanks for the info, but didn’t solve the problem. I’ve tried all the options now, admittedly I haven’t been able to delete all Media Player files – the CurrentDatabase file wont delete. Only option now appears to be to find alternative software. Yah Microsoft.

  5. OMG…thank you…thank you…
    I was going crazy trying to figure this out.
    Thought I had lost all my playlists.
    Tried rebooting and everything but still no luck.
    This post just saved me.

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