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My computer is a pool of documents, pictures, music, movies, and other file types. I have been taking backup of all my smartphones and other devices on my Windows 10 computer to store my favorites relive those files as and when I miss them.
Windows explorer is bucketed in different quick links like Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos, and other quick links to organize and categorize the files as per their type. At the time we also store them at different locations and face a hard time finding them back on our computer. This article is going to help you find music files in Windows 10 and older versions.
Best Way to Find Music Files in Windows
Explore Music Folder
Introducing the most widely used process to find music files in Windows 10 and earlier versions. The Windows operating system is smart enough to detect the file types when you try to download them. For example, when you try to download a music file from the web, it will automatically open the path of the Music folder as the default destination folder. Hence the first step is to explore the Music folder with the music icon next to it to find music files in Windows. There may be sub-folders inside it.
Enable Artist Sorting
When you try to find music files in Windows, you can explore the files sorted by name, date, or type. But you can also add more sorting options by right-clicking on any of the sort tags and selecting ‘More’ option.
Put a check in front of ‘Album’ and ‘Album Artist’ and click on the ‘Okay’ button. Once done, you will find additional sort tags with the name of ‘Album’ or ‘Artist’ name to narrow down your search by sorting the music files as per your need.
Run Extensive Search
This is one of my favorite options to search for anything on a computer. Make use of the extensive search box on the top right side of the window.
Simply add an asterisk (*) symbol before the extension name as shown in the image. You should be aware of the extension keywords of the file that you are looking for.
There are several extensions associated with the music files. We are only aware of the most common ones like MP3, WMA, AAC, WAV, 3GP, and FLAC, etc. There are hundreds of other music file formats that people use for composing various types of music compilation. There are a few points that you need to take care of while you find music files in Windows.
- Use the asterisk symbol with a dot before the file extensions. Example, (*.MP3)(*.WMA)(*.MP4) etc.
- To run a search on the entire hard drive, ensure that ‘This PC’ or ‘Computer’ is selected in the left-hand side panel.
- This will run a search in all the folders and sub-folders of the hard drive.
- Let the search complete before you jump on to a conclusion.
- When you hover the mouse on the found file and stop on the icon, it will show you the file details. Here you can find the path of the desired file.
- If you wish to take a backup of the search result, you can Select All (Ctrl + A), Copy (Ctrl + C), and Paste (Ctrl + V) them all in a new folder. All the music files will be centralized in one folder.
Use a Music Player to Search
If you are not a Windows Media Player fan, you can install any of the music player software on the computer. Once you will tell the software where to find music files in Windows, select ‘This PC’ instead of a specific folder. It will look for all the music files and bring down everything in its library. You can sort them by folder, artist, name, or duration to segregate them further. When you will check the file properties, you can also find the actual location of the music file on the hard drive. You can also merge audio files using software to create a jukebox.
Use Start Search Bar
If you are aware of the name of the file but not the location, you can run a search with the name. It’s simple, click on the ‘Start’ button or the ‘Search Bar’ next to it. If you have a Cortana search, use that! Type in the file name and hit the ‘Enter’ key. Look for the desired file in the list of search results. Right-click on the file for more options.
Summing Up
After going through this article, you will no longer look for options to find music files in Windows. This article sums up almost all the options that you can use to search for music files. You just need to learn a little bit about the few extensions (Just the basic ones) that are associated with the music files.
