Windows – How to right click and play audio folder on Windows Media Player 12

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.

The solution for me is as weird as the issue itself, but since I've already created the question, I'll provide the answer as well.

All I needed to do is to duplicate a file in the music folder and to remove it. After that Media Player started to add all other files. I have previously moved all the files to another folder and then brought them back, and that didn't help though, so the solution is even stranger.