cd ejects without ripping after information message

Turn off Eject CD after ripping in Windows Media Player Legacy; the media-information warning only means album and track names could not be downloaded and does not prevent the CD from being ripped.

Change the rip settings

1. Open Windows Media Player Legacy.
2. Maximize the window so all menu options are visible.
3. Insert the audio CD.
4. Select Rip settings.
5. Clear Eject CD after ripping.
6. Under Rip settings, optionally select:
   • Format → MP3, WMA, or WAV.
   • Audio quality → your preferred quality.
7. Select the tracks and click Rip CD.

Microsoft’s documented procedure is to insert the disc and explicitly select Rip CD; ripped files are saved to the Music folder unless you changed the destination. ^1^

Handle the media-information warning

You can rip the CD with the tracks shown as Unknown and edit their information afterward. If you want Windows Media Player to retry the lookup:

1. Press Ctrl+M if the classic menu is hidden.
2. Select Tools → Options → Privacy.
3. Enable Update music files by retrieving media info from the Internet and the option to retrieve CD/DVD media information, if displayed.
4. Confirm the PC is online, reinsert the disc, and retry.

Windows Media Player obtains album, artist, and track information from an online service; its privacy setting must permit that lookup. ^2^

If the information still cannot be found, rip the CD anyway. In the library, right-click the resulting album and select Find album info; select a match or manually enter the information. ^1^

If it still ejects before copying any tracks

1. Try playing one track from the CD in Windows Media Player.
2. Confirm the drive remains visible in File Explorer → This PC after insertion.
3. Try another known-good audio CD. If only one disc fails, that disc may be unreadable or not a standard audio CD.
4. If every audio CD ejects, close Windows Media Player and clear its database:
   • Press Windows+R.
   • Enter %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Media Player\
   • Delete the files inside that folder, but not the folder.
   • Reopen Windows Media Player and retry.

Clearing the database is Microsoft’s documented recovery step when the Windows Media Player database is corrupted. ^3^

If the drive also disappears from File Explorer or other applications, troubleshoot the optical drive rather than the metadata lookup. ^4^

References

1. Burn and rip CDs | Microsoft Support
2. Why is CD data not loading in Windows Media Player? - Microsoft Q&A
3. [Windows 10](https://support.microsoft.com/windows/apps/windowsmediaplayer/troubleshoot-windows-media-player-errors#summary)
4. Your CD or DVD drive is not recognized by Windows or other programs