NS_E_WMP_LICENSE_REQUIRED (0XC00D120A) — missing rights fix

When this error hits

You open a WMA or WMV file — usually one you bought or downloaded from a store like the old MSN Music, Zune Marketplace, or a subscription service. Windows Media Player starts loading, then pops the dialog: "Windows Media Player cannot play, burn, or sync the file because the media usage rights are missing." The exact error code in the Details is 0XC00D120A. The track might be DRM-protected music you bought a decade ago, or a video rental that expired. Either way, you're stuck.

What's actually happening

The file has a digital rights management (DRM) wrapper — Microsoft's old PlayReady or Janus DRM. That wrapper checks for a local license file stored in a hidden folder on your PC. If that license is missing, corrupted, or expired, Windows Media Player refuses to play the content. The error code 0XC00D120A maps to NS_E_WMP_LICENSE_REQUIRED. It's not a codec problem, not a corrupt file — the audio/video data is fine. The DRM license is the key, and it's gone.

Common triggers:

• You migrated your music to a new PC without transferring the DRM licenses.
• You reinstalled Windows and lost the license store.
• The license had an expiration date that passed (common with rental content).
• You ran a disk cleanup tool that nuked the hidden DRM folder.

The fix — reset the DRM license store

The only reliable way to fix this is to delete the local DRM folder and let Windows Media Player rebuild it. Then the player will try to reacquire the license from the original server. This works on Windows 7, 8, and 10. Windows 11 uses a different DRM system, but the old WMP still reads this folder.

1. Close Windows Media Player completely. Check Task Manager — kill any wmplayer.exe processes.
2. Open File Explorer and enable viewing hidden files. Click View > Options > Change folder and search options. Go to the View tab, select "Show hidden files, folders, and drives," and uncheck "Hide protected operating system files." Confirm the warning.
3. Navigate to the DRM folder. The path depends on your Windows version:
   • Windows 7 / Vista: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\DRM
   • Windows 8 / 8.1 / 10 / 11: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WMP\DRM
   ProgramData is hidden by default — that's why step 2 is required.
4. Delete everything inside the DRM folder. Don't delete the folder itself, just the files inside. You'll see files with names like drms64.bak, License000.tmp, V9R0CH0X, and possibly subfolders named Backup and Temp. Select all, delete.
5. Restart Windows Media Player. Try playing the file again. WMP will create a fresh empty DRM folder. If the license server is still alive, the player will contact it, download a new license, and the file will play.

If that still fails

Resetting the DRM store only works if the original licensing server is still online. Microsoft shut down the PlayReady license servers for many older stores — MSN Music went dark in 2006, Zune Marketplace in 2011. If the server is dead, you're out of luck. No amount of folder deleting will bring it back.

Your options then:

• Strip the DRM using a tool like SoundTaxi, NoteBurner, or TuneFab — these capture the audio as it plays and re-encode it to MP3 without DRM. This requires the file to play at least a few seconds, which it won't if the license is completely missing. So this only works if you have a valid license on another PC.
• Find a non-DRM version. Buy the track again from a modern store like Amazon Music or Bandcamp — they don't use DRM. Rip your CD if you still have it.
• Accept the loss. Old DRM-locked files from dead stores are a dead end. Microsoft killed the servers, and no fix on your end can revive them.

One more thing to check: if you're using a 64-bit Windows but a 32-bit version of WMP (unlikely, but possible if you installed an old codec pack), the DRM store location differs. But for 99% of users, the steps above are the full story.

Why step 3 matters

The folder you're deleting isn't just random junk. It's the license store — a database of encrypted binary blobs that contain your usage rights. Deleting it forces WMP to treat every DRM file as new, so it renegotiates with the server. The reason this works is that the server, if still online, sees a fresh client request and issues a new license. The old one is gone, but the server doesn't care — it issues a replacement as long as your account is still valid. If the server is dead, nothing works.