NS_E_WMPCORE_WMX_LIST_ATTRIBUTE_NAME_EMPTY Fix

Cause #1: A corrupt playlist file (WPL or ASX) with an empty attribute name

What's actually happening here is that Windows Media Player (WMP) is trying to parse a playlist file — either a .wpl or .asx — and it hits an XML element where an attribute (like name or title) exists but the value is an empty string. The spec says that's invalid, so WMP throws error 0XC00D1091 and refuses to load the playlist.

I've seen this most often after copying playlists from older Windows 7 machines or after a metadata editor saves a partial update. The blank attribute can be hard to spot because Windows doesn't show raw XML by default.

How to fix the corrupt playlist

1. First, find the playlist file that causes the error. Open WMP, try loading each playlist until you hit the error. Note the playlist name.
2. Open File Explorer and navigate to %USERPROFILE%\Music\Playlists (or wherever your playlists are stored).
3. Right-click the offending playlist and choose Open with → Notepad (or any text editor).
4. Look for attributes like name="" or title="" — that's the culprit. You'll see something like:

   <media src="song.mp3" name="" />

5. Replace the empty string with something — even a single space works, but I prefer a placeholder like Untitled:

   <media src="song.mp3" name="Untitled" />

6. Save the file and try loading the playlist in WMP again. The error should be gone.

The reason step 5 works is that WMP's XML parser treats an empty attribute value as a violation of the schema. Once you put anything in there, the parser moves on.

Cause #2: Third-party metadata editors or sync tools leaving incomplete attributes

If you use tools like MediaMonkey, iTunes (yes, even with WMP), or older sync apps like Windows Media Device Center, they sometimes write playlist files with partially filled metadata. A common scenario: you edit a playlist on your phone, sync it back, and the tool writes a <param name=""> tag instead of a proper attribute.

This is especially nasty because the blank attribute might not be on the <media> tag itself — it can be on a <param> or <entry> element.

How to fix it

1. Open the playlist in Notepad as described above.
2. Search for name="" and param name="". If you find a <param> tag with an empty name, you can either delete the whole <param> line or set a name.
3. If you see multiple blank attributes, a quick fix is to use Find & Replace: replace name="" with name="Track" (or whatever makes sense).
4. Save the file and test in WMP.

Pro tip: If the playlist is hundreds of lines, don't manually edit each one. Use Notepad++ or VS Code with regex: search for name="" and replace with name="Track". Saves your sanity.

Cause #3: Damaged registry or WMP settings (rare but possible)

In less than 5% of cases, the playlist files are fine — the error is triggered by a corrupt registry key under WMP. This usually happens after a Windows update that borks the media library database or after a failed uninstall of a codec pack.

How to fix registry-level corruption

1. Close WMP completely.
2. Press Win + R, type regedit, press Enter.
3. Navigate to:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Preferences

4. Look for a key named LibraryLocation or MediaLibrary. If it's pointing to a missing or corrupted database file, that can cause the error. You can delete that value (WMP will recreate it on next launch).
5. Also check HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\RecentFileList — if there's a stale entry pointing to a deleted playlist, remove it.
6. Restart WMP and try again.

I've only needed this fix twice in ten years, but when the first two causes don't apply, it's worth checking. The reason registry corruption triggers this specific error is that WMP tries to load metadata from the library database, and if the database is half-broken, it can produce empty attribute names internally even if the file on disk looks fine.

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