Windows 10 Media Streaming Won’t Turn On!

Many users still prefer the Windows Media Streaming over other apps to stream their local content from a Windows 10 PC to other devices on their network. This usually comes to convenience as users tend to trust Microsoft over other developers when it comes to streaming needs.

However, some users have recently reported that the Windows 10 media streaming won’t turn on. This is an annoying problem if you regularly use the Windows media player to stream your local content. Here I shall discuss how you can solve this error if you can’t turn on media streaming on your PC.

How To Fix If Windows 10 Media Streaming Won’t Turn On

Many users have recently reported that Windows 10 media sharing options are either greyed out or enabling the feature does nothing on their devices. If you too face this, here are some simple solutions that you can try to solve this error. Make sure to try these solutions in the order they are provided, as you may find any of these solutions working for you.

Solution 1: Enable Windows Search Indexing

One of the easiest solutions if the media streaming keeps turning off, is to enable Windows Search Indexing feature. If you disable this feature on your PC or some other app turned this off, here are the steps that you can follow:

1. Open Control Panel on your PC. You can do so from the start menu or from a Run dialog.
2. Click on Programs and Features.
3. From the left pane additional menu, select Turn Windows Features on or off.
4. In the Windows Features dialog, click the checkbox next to Windows Search Indexing to enable this feature.
5. Click on OK and restart the PC to implement the changes.

Now check if the Windows 10 media sharing error persists.

Solution 2: Restart Media Sharing Services

If the Windows Search Indexing feature was already enabled or starting the feature did nothing, you can benefit by starting the services that are related to the Windows 10 media streaming. Restarting the services can free the locked Windows services.

Here are the steps that you need to follow for the same:

1. Open the Services console. You can type services.msc and press Enter in a Run dialog to launch this.
2. Here, locate the Windows Media Player Networking Sharing service from the list.
3. Double click on it to open the Properties window for this service.
4. Here, first Stop the service by clicking on the appropriate button.
5. Next, change the startup type of the service to Automatic from the drop-down menu.
6. Now click on the Start button to launch the service.

7. Repeat these steps for the following services as well:
   UPnP Device Host
   Computer Browser
   Workstation
   SSDP Discovery Services
8. Close the Services window.

Now check if Media streaming keeps turning off or not. Your error should now be resolved.

Solution 3: Allow The Automatic Play Option

Before streaming your content over the network, you will first need to enable the Automatic play option in Windows 10. This is actually fairly easy to perform, and you can enable this within a few clicks. You will find the options here:

1. Launch the Windows Media Player. You will find it inside the Windows Accessories folder in the Start menu.
2. In the ribbon menu, locate and click on the Stream option.
3. Here, click to enable the option that says, “Automatically allow devices to play my media”.
4. Restart Windows Media Player for the changes to take effect.

If this feature was blocking Windows 10 media sharing, the problem should now be resolved.

Solution 4: Change Group Policy Value

Some users reportedly solved the Windows 10 media streaming won’t turn on error by simply making a simple change in the Local Group Policy Editor. This is also a very common cause of the error, and you should be able to solve this by following these steps:

Note: If you are on Windows 10 Home, read here how to use gpedit in Windows 10 Home.

1. In a Run dialog box, type gpedit.msc and press Enter to launch the Local Group Policy Editor.
2. Navigate the following path by clicking on the respective values in the left pane:
   Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Media Player
3. From the right pane, double click on the entry that says, “Prevent Media Sharing”.
4. Click on the radio box next to Disabled.
5. Click on OK and restart your PC to implement the changes.

Now check if the ‘Windows 10 media streaming won’t turn on’ error persists.

Solution 5: Rename Windows 10 Media Streaming Folders

If none of the solutions provided above helped, you can try renaming the Windows 10 media streaming folders in order to recreate the cache library for the Windows Media Player application. Follow these steps:

1. Open a Run dialog.
2. Type the following pathname and press Enter to launch File Explorer:
   %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Media Player
3. Inside the Media Player folder, locate and delete all the files with the .wmbd extension.
   
4. If you cannot delete these files, go back to the Microsoft folder and rename the Media Player folder to the following:
   Media Player Old
5. Restart your computer after renaming the folder.

The deleted or renamed library database files will be recreated when you restart your PC, and your Windows 10 media streaming errors should be resolved.

Wrapping Up

So there you have it. Now you know how to solve if the Windows 10 media streaming won’t turn on. If you found this useful or to discuss further, comment below.