How to Turn Off media Sync Entirely in Windows Media Player

[SocialAbility]

By default all external drives launches video and sound files through auto play settings. I am using a usb drive. It has some audio files. When I connect it media player scans the audio files and then sync them with it. I can see clearly it in the playlist. I want to stop this. I do not want Windows Media Player to scan any of my external drives. Is there some internal settings available that can allow me to disable this.

[Domi.nick]

The sync is default feature I think. I will advice you to see something related to that in the options. Or else you can simply turn of autorun. it will help you to get rid of this issue. Many media players detects the files store in flash drives and try to add them in their play list. The same is applicable for CD/DVD's also. This might be irritating. Go inside Control Panel and try to look for settings inside Program defaults. I am sure you are going to get something related to that there.

[Judy B]

I am too looking for the sync settings in Windows Media Player. I had been through a number of different threads that does not provide any settings and many users had already complaint about the same. It looks this is some kind of internal default feature that cannot be stopped. I found some threads that provide information on stopping this through registry tweaking.

[deanbrady69]

My system freezes on that. When I hook a usb drive, Media Player loads on the screen. The entire system freezes for some while. That is the reason I stopped using Media Player. I had uninstalled it. I think there is no settings at all available which can really help to block the sync. You can do one thing. Right click on the usb drive and click on Properties. Just check there is any settings associated with Windows Media Player in that.

[bored@work]

Yes here is a registry tweak for that. Tweaking that will disable the auto play settings. Also you can go in Msconfig and disable WPDBusEnum services. It is a Portable Device Enumerator Service. Once this is stopped or disabled Windows Media Player will no longer read your audio and video files.

[erkko13]

I tested that WPDBusEnum service. I had disabled that now the problem is solved. Windows Media Player no longer reads the device at all. I hope you must also check that and see whether it works in your system.

[fourgotten]

That may be the way that it SHOULD work, but (at least in my case) even if you run through the sync wizard and tell it never EVER ever ever to ask you about this device again, it STILL asks... each and every f*#&ing time that I walk into range with my phone's bluetooth feature on... which is especially irritating when I'm in the middle of watching a video. I believe that the point that some of the other people were trying to make is that WMP has no business asking if we want to sych with every single thing that we plug into the computer. If we want to synch devices with WMP, then that's fine... we CAN configure it ourselves... WMP should mind it's own danged business.

[Daaani]

I see this thread started in November of 2008. It's 3 years later and the issue is still annoyingly present. I wish someone would have a fricking solution to stop the stupid auto sync of Windows Media Player (I have version 12). And besides all the issues mentioned before I can't even Safely Eject my U3 cruzer until I actually close out of WMP because it does "its job" of scanning the flash drive and just keeping it constantly "in use". I am not even accessing anything audio or video related from the device. It is ridanculous, but i guess I'll have to switch to a much cooler player. Someone mentioned Winamp... Any other cool suggestions?

[RodiRoadie]

Here's a simple work-around that works for me:

1. Right-click task bar and open task manager.
2. Click Applications tab.
3. Insert flash drive or mp3 player.
4. When WMP opens Sync and accesses the portable device, even though the WM player itself doesn't open, it shows up in the applications tab. Simply highlight it and click "end task." WMP immediately stops accessing the device.

I burned out two 4GB flash drives before I found this "solution"; none since. I'm not certain that Sync had anything to do with this, but every time I inserted a drive into the computer, it would run for three or four minutes. This has to have some effect on the life of a flash drive. VLC is a great alternate player. It has a lot of functions and tools that WMP doesn't have. Unfortunately, it's a little buggy in Vista. Nothing major, but sometimes it freezes up when you overuse the slow-play and fast-play functions and you have to shut it down and restart it. Works great in XP though.