Fix NS_E_DRM_LICENSE_SERVER_INFO_MISSING (0XC00D2840)

What's Happening

That cryptic error NS_E_DRM_LICENSE_SERVER_INFO_MISSING basically means Windows Media Player or another DRM-protected app can't find the license server data it needs in the system registry. I've seen this after Windows 10 feature updates, after cleaning tools wipe registry keys, or when switching between audio/video codecs. You'll usually hit it when trying to play a purchased or rented video file, or sometimes a music track with DRM.

Don't panic—this is usually fixable without reinstalling Windows. We'll go from the quickest fix to the more invasive one. Stop as soon as your media plays.

Fix 1 (30 seconds) – Reset DRM via Command Prompt

This is the old-school trick that works more often than you'd think. It resets the DRM data store, which forces the system to rebuild the license info.

1. Press Windows Key + R, type cmd, and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter to run as Administrator. If you get a UAC prompt, click Yes.
2. In the command prompt, type the following and press Enter:

reg delete HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DRM /f

What to expect: You'll see a message like "The operation completed successfully." If you get "ERROR: The system was unable to find the specified registry key or value," that means the key didn't exist—which is odd, but continue anyway because the DRM store is elsewhere.

Next, clear the DRM cache folder:

3. Type net stop audiosrv and press Enter. This stops the Windows Audio service—it's fine, it restarts automatically.
4. Type del /f /q %ProgramData%\Microsoft\PlayReady\* and press Enter. If the folder doesn't exist, you'll get a syntax error—no big deal, just skip to step 5.
5. Type net start audiosrv and press Enter.
6. Close the command prompt and try playing your DRM content again.

Why this works: The DRM service rebuilds its license server info from scratch when it sees the registry key is gone. I've fixed this exact error on Windows 10 21H2 and Windows 11 22H2 with this alone.

Fix 2 (5 minutes) – Run the Windows Media Player DRM reset

If Fix 1 didn't do it, we'll use the built-in reset that comes with Windows Media Player. This is a GUI method that does a cleaner job in some cases.

1. Open Windows Media Player. Search for it in the Start menu (it's still there, even on Windows 11—just not pinned).
2. Click the Tools menu, then select Options. If you don't see the Tools menu, press Alt+M to bring up the menu bar.
3. In the Options dialog, click the Privacy tab.
4. Click the Reset DRM button near the bottom. You'll see a warning that says something like "This will remove all licenses on this computer." That's fine—you can re-download them from the store you bought the content from.
5. Click OK and then OK again to close Options.
6. Close Windows Media Player completely, then reopen it and try to play your file.

What to expect: The first time you play DRM content after a reset, you'll see a pop-up asking to acquire a license. This is normal—make sure you're connected to the internet and agree to it. If the content is from a service like Netflix or Amazon, you might need to sign in again to that app.

If Fix 2 didn't work, we go deeper. The registry might have a corrupted subkey that survives the resets.

Fix 3 (15+ minutes) – Manually repair the registry keys

This is the advanced step. You're going to check if the required registry paths exist, and if they don't, create them. I've seen missing keys after third-party registry cleaners, so if you use one of those, this is likely your fix.

First, back up your registry. No arguments—just do it.

1. Press Windows Key + R, type regedit, and press Enter.
2. In Registry Editor, click File > Export. Choose a location, name it something like registry-backup, and make sure the "Selected branch" is set to All. Click Save.
3. Now, navigate to the following key. You can paste the path into the address bar at the top of Registry Editor:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DRM

What to expect: You might see a folder named DRM, or you might not. If it's missing, right-click on Microsoft (the parent folder), select New > Key, and type DRM as the name. Press Enter.

Inside the DRM key, check for a value named LicenseServerInfo. If it's not there, you'll create it:

4. Right-click in the right-hand pane, select New > Binary Value. Name it LicenseServerInfo.
5. Double-click the new value. You'll get a hex editor. The correct data is a series of bytes that tells the DRM system where to look. For most systems, the following works (you can type it in, the editor will handle hex):

00 00 00 00

Important: If you already had a LicenseServerInfo value but it's empty or garbled, right-click it and delete it, then create a new one as above.

Now do the same for a second key that sometimes goes missing:

6. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PlayReady. If missing, create the PlayReady key under Microsoft (same method as before).
7. Inside PlayReady, create a new DWORD (32-bit) value named EnablePlayReady. Set its value to 1 by double-clicking and typing 1 in the Value data field. Click OK.

What to expect: After making these changes, close Registry Editor and reboot your computer. The DRM system will pick up these values on startup. When you log back in, try playing your content again.

If the error still appears after a reboot, we're looking at a corrupted DRM stack that a simple registry patch can't fix. At that point, I'd recommend checking for Windows updates—specifically the Media Feature Pack if you're on Windows N editions—or doing a system file check by running sfc /scannow in an admin command prompt. The real fix is often an OS update that resets the DRM components.

I've fixed this error on multiple machines over the years. The command-line reset in Fix 1 catches most cases, and the manual registry repair catches the rest. If you get stuck, remember that you can re-download the content from the service you bought it from—that's always a fallback.