Fix NS_S_WMPCORE_PLAYLIST_IMPORT_MISSING_ITEMS on Windows 10/11

The 30-second fix: check file locations

What's actually happening here is that WMP successfully reads the playlist file (like an .m3u or .wpl), but can't find every track it references. The error code 0X000D1107 is a warning, not a failure — the playlist does import, but some items are missing.

Open the playlist in Notepad. Look at the file paths. If they look like C:\Users\YourName\Music\Song.mp3, those files need to be in those exact spots. If they're relative paths like ..\Music\Song.mp3, WMP checks relative to the playlist's own folder.

Move your music files back to their original locations, or point the playlist paths to where they actually live. That's it for the simple case.

The 5-minute fix: rebuild the playlist from scratch

If the paths look fine but WMP still skips tracks, the problem is likely corruption in the playlist file itself. This happens when you edit a .wpl file by hand or copy it between drives.

1. Open Windows Media Player.
2. Drag the individual music files into the WMP library (or use Organize > Manage libraries > Music to add the folder).
3. Create a new playlist inside WMP: click the Play tab, then Save playlist, give it a name.
4. Export that new playlist: right-click it, choose Open file location — you'll see a fresh .wpl file with correct internal formatting.

The reason step 3 works is that WMP-generated playlists use a strict XML schema. Third-party playlists or hand-edited ones often break that schema, causing WMP to silently drop entries it can't parse.

The 15+ minute fix: repair library database and file permissions

If you still see the error, the issue is deeper: WMP's library database has lost track of your files, or Windows itself can't read them.

Step 1: Reset the WMP library database

This clears WMP's internal cache of all music metadata and forces a full rescan. It doesn't delete your music.

1. Close WMP completely.
2. Press Win + R, type %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Media Player, hit Enter.
3. Delete everything in that folder. Yes, all of it. WMP will rebuild these files when it launches next.
4. Reopen WMP. It'll appear empty at first — give it 5–10 minutes to scan your monitored folders.

Step 2: Check file permissions

WMP runs under your user account, but sometimes a file's NTFS permissions block access silently. Right-click a missing song file, go to Properties > Security. Make sure your user account appears in the list with Read & execute permission.

If you see weird entries like SYSTEM or TrustedInstaller but not your username, click Edit > Add, type your username, check Read & execute, and save.

Step 3: Use a third-party playlist cleaner (if you're brave)

For really stubborn playlists with hundreds of tracks, I use MP3Tag or MediaMonkey. These tools parse .m3u files more robustly than WMP. Import the broken playlist into MediaMonkey, let it scan for missing files, then export a clean .m3u or .wpl.

Why this works: MediaMonkey uses a more forgiving parser that ignores malformed lines, while WMP's parser is strict and drops the entire line if it hits a syntax error. You'll often find a single corrupted path breaks the whole playlist import.

What not to do

• Don't run SFC or DISM — this isn't a system file corruption issue.
• Don't reinstall WMP — the player itself is fine.
• Don't mess with the registry — there's no key that controls per-playlist item parsing.

If none of these steps work, the real answer is: stop using WMP for playlist management. Switch to VLC, foobar2000, or MusicBee. They handle broken playlists far more gracefully, and you won't see error codes like this again.