A Fix It solution is available from Microsoft Support

Nov 14, 2011 09:52 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft is offering an automated fix designed to resolve issues Zune owners might experience after upgrading the software for the digital media player device, in which songs become incorrectly associated with albums.

This particular problem is not exactly new, and KB 945319 has been available for a while now, helping users out.

Here is how Microsoft describes the symptoms of this particular glitch:

“After you upgrade the Zune Music + Video software on your computer, you notice that the songs in your collection are now associated with the wrong album titles.”

According to the software giant, the issue can only occur after a Zune software update. The Redmond company notes that upgrades can cause the actual music files to be tied to wrong metadata.

As users know, metadata refers to the information accompanying files, including album art and artist name, for example.

There is one method that customers can try ahead of deploying the automated Fix It solution from Microsoft Support, namely, removing and adding monitored files.

Users need to click Settings in their Zune software, then select Software, Collection, and Manage. A pop-up screen will appear allowing them to Remove content folders that are experiencing problems.

Via the Manage button, the correct folders can be added back, after which users should try to sync their music once again.

“If this doesn't work, rename the ZuneStore database file,” Microsoft informs. “First, close your Zune software if it’s open. After you run the Fix It solution, below, and open the Zune software, your collection will automatically start to rebuild. This process may take anywhere from several minutes to an hour, depending on the size of your library.”

The Fix It solution is available through KB 945319, and it will automatically perform a set of actions that users can also do manually, including: “Close the Zune software. Click Start and in the search box, enter %userprofile%\appdata\Local\Microsoft\Zune. Locate the ZuneStore folder. Right-click and rename it to ZuneStoreBackup.”