I need help. Since Groove Music agressively took over my files without my knowledge or consent, I have not been able to burn files I recorded since that happened, even though I found out how to uninstall Groove, deleted those files from my Music “folder” and uninstalled and reinstalled Windows Media player several times. I then exported these same files again, but still cannot burn them to CD using Windows Media Player. I have effectively been prevented, seeming, from burning new files. I still can burn files that were exported before Groove Music seized control, but none since. I am at my wits end. Please, someone, HELP.
I use Audacity to "record’ LPs in my collection, to convert them to digital, then burn CDs (yes, consistantly old fashioned). I convert them to high quality .wav files and put them in my Win 10 Music section. During the conversion, Groove somehow “took” the file. I don’t know how it got loaded on my computer; absolutely no idea. When Media Player wouldn’t burn them, I took a closer look and saw a small blue circle in front (left) of the file name (song title) with a white G in it. I clicked on Properties, I think, to find out that the G meant Groove Music. That was the first time I heard of Groove Music. At any rate, even though I’ve successfully uninstalled it (and it wasn’t easy, it doesn’t show up in programs. I had to use DOS commands.). and reconverted all the files from Audacity anew, Media Player still will not burn those files. Am I standing alone out here?
Groove Music player is a new “Universal Windows Application” that ships with Windows 10. That is why you have it.
There was in my opinion no need to uninstall Groove Music.
You can change the file association specifically for WAV in several ways. Right-click any WAV file, choose “Open with”, then “Choose another app”, select the application you want to use, ensure the box “Always use this app to open .wav files” is checked (ticked), then click OK. The file should open in your chosen application, which is a good way of testing it works.
Or hit the Windows key, type “Default Programs” (without quotes), click the search result that appears, then in the window that opens, scroll down and click the link “Choose default applications by file type”.
Also instead of uninstalling Groove Music you could have simply used another application than Groove Music as default music application for all media files, From the steps above, don’t scroll down in the window that opened, just click “Groove Music” under “Music Player” to choose another application as music player.
Note that you don’t have to use Windows Media Player to burn audio CD’s. You can use the disc-burning function directly thus: https://www.easytechguides.com/burn-a-cd-or-dvd-in-windows-10.html. Be sure to choose “With a CD/DVD player” when you burn, or your disc won’t play in a standalone CD player.
Alternatively there are free third-party disc burning applications like CDBurnerXP (it is meant for Windows 10 too).
I don’t think any of this is an Audacity problem. If you still need help after reading the above I recommend asking here: Windows 10 Forums.
Gale - thank you for your very helpful response. You may be right about the Groove Player. However, since I did not download (it just appeared) and my problems involved only files I had exported from Audacity after Groove appeared, I logically assumed that it was the cause of the problem. I have been transferring my LPs in this manner for 7 months (over 60 LPs) without a problem, so this has me baffled. I tried burning directly from Win 10 as you suggested, but that wouldn’t work either, so it seems that the files are coming into my Music folder more or less copy protected. Is it possible that there is a setting in Audacity that does that that I may have inadvertently activated? I am at my wit’s end over this, because I am effectively prevented from making playable copies of my Audacity recordings. Thanks again for your help.
Audacity won’t copy-protect files, but Windows 10 might very well do it. Groove Music is a Windows 10 Store App. It is the default application in Windows 10 for playing music and video files. You might find the following tip helpful: wikiHow to Convert Protected Audio Into a Plain MP3
I don’t believe it’s Digital Rights Management of the sort noted in wikiHow to Convert Protected Audio Into a Plain MP3. Even if it was, and you exported the recording as WAV rather than degrading it by exporting as MP3, what would be to stop the same protection happening again?
It could be a permissions problem. If Windows Media Player or the CD burning engine is running with administrator privileges, it won’t accept a file from an application not running with administrative permissions. Certainly if you just open Windows Media Player it does not run as administrator by default. Have you tried File > Open… in Windows Media Player, then added the files to a playlist before you make a them into a burn list?
Gale - thanks for the valuable information. I downloaded the disc burner you recommended, totally deleted all the files that would not burn, and I am now able to burn files, so I guess we’ll never know what the problem was. However, during the course of my problem, Audacity began to run very slowly, so I uninstalled it and re-downloaded from your site. I’ve done this before with no problem, but this time I keep getting an older version, not 2.1.2 (I think it’s 2.0.5; right now I’m not on my home computer). It looks different, and I like the current version more. Can you help with this. I will add that I am running this on Windows 10. Thanks Gale.
This is our download page http://www.audacityteam.org/download/windows. Left-click the link that says “Audacity 2.1.2 installer” then 2.1.2 should pop up for download. If you still get some other version offered, empty the download list in your web browser or download manager then try again.
When you obtain Audacity 2.1.2, I would recommend enabling the “Reset Preferences” checkbox that appears half way through installation, then when you launch Audacity, confirm you want to reset preferences.