How do I import .m3u playlists from my phone?

Get answers about syncing MediaMonkey 4 with iPods and other devices.

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Daboa
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2013 8:46 pm

How do I import .m3u playlists from my phone?

Post by Daboa »

I recently changed computers and the only copy of my playlists that I have is on my phone from syncing with MMW. I have the music on my computer, but not the playlists. What would be the simplest way to get the playlists from my phone onto the computer, such that the computer can play them?
Last edited by Lowlander on Sat Aug 16, 2014 3:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Moved to correct Forum
Lowlander
Posts: 56491
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: How do I import .m3u playlists from my phone?

Post by Lowlander »

This is often not possible as Playlists refer to files. You didn't say what device you have and if it's running MMA.
Daboa
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2013 8:46 pm

Re: How do I import .m3u playlists from my phone?

Post by Daboa »

The playlists are from MMA on my phone. I understand that the playlists refers to the location of the files, but I thought maybe I could import the playlist and then use a plugin to find the missing files. Or am I better off recreating manually?
Lowlander
Posts: 56491
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: How do I import .m3u playlists from my phone?

Post by Lowlander »

If they're playlist files (M3U or PLA) you can copy them like any file through USB with Windows Explorer. You can use Notepad to edit Playlists and adjust the Paths.
Daboa
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2013 8:46 pm

Re: How do I import .m3u playlists from my phone?

Post by Daboa »

I finally got this after trying multiple things. The main thing I had to do was change the format of the playlist files created by MediaMonkey for Android. For example, I had to change

/storage/extSdCard/Music/Disney/Disney/01 Can't Wait to be King.m4a

to

..\Music\Disney\Disney\01 Can't Wait to be King.m4a..\Music\Disney\Disney\01 Can't Wait to be King.m4a

where ".." means the root of my drive (actual path is Z:\Music\Disney\etc....). The easiest way to do this was to open all of the files in Notepad++ and do a Find and Replace on all open files, replacing "/storage/extSdCard/" with "..\" and replacing "/" with "\".

After that, I imported the playlists using the Import M3U script (because it imports them without making them "imported playlists") and everything was fine. Note that if the file is nor formatted correctly, the playlists may seem to import but appear as blank.

M3U script: http://www.mediamonkey.com/addons/brows ... mport-m3u/
donphillipe
Posts: 14
Joined: Sat Nov 29, 2014 1:54 am

Re: How do I import .m3u playlists from my phone?

Post by donphillipe »

I do not know why this is not made a FAQ and put in the knowledge base. There is a large group of people who use Media Monkey who have a record collection from perhaps many years and they are not like those who are purchasing new music and syncing new boxes all the time. No need to "sync" and try to figure out all the mechanics of that process when the music collection for the most part stays static or even in the case where someone finds syncing is beyond their scope of understanding. I would estimate many others in my category have established a jukebox sort of function using MediaMonkey or WinAmp on the PC and they are always looking for easy ways to port their collection over to a new phone and one replacing the last one that just went in the drink.

Therefore what I think is missing from the MediaMonkey help documentation is:

HOW TO EASILY MOVE MEDIAMONKEY PLAYLISTS FROM WINDOWS TO ANDROID

First of all I recommending pulling the SD card out of the phone and plugging it in a Windows Machine which will almost always cause a file copy to go much, much faster than copying over the phone's USB interface. Be sure to compmletely power the Android phone down prior to removing the SD card to minimize any potential mishaps from moving it in and out of the phone. Then don't power the phone up until the card is returned, especially if you have moved some of your apps to the SD card. If windows says there is a file error and on the card and the card needs to be scanned, then let it scan and it will fix the bit that is flagged stating the data source was not properly closed by Android. What you want to avoid here is clicking on anything saying "Format". If Windows wants you to format the SD card, and it's not a new one, there is something seriously wrong.

If this is a new SD card, be sure to investigate your phone's capacity for SD cards. You may find that some user in a foreign country from a Google search says your phone uses up to a 64Gb card and you have only been able to make it accept 32Gb cards and all the local phone shops may be telling you to stick to a 32Gb when you really want a 64Gb. In most instances, this is because Windows will only format a SD card in the Fat32 format up to 32Gb and anything larger Windows formats in extFat format, which Android can't process. You can get around this but will need a free Windows tool in this case called EASEUS Partition Master which will allow you to format a 64Gb SD card in Fat32 format. Just start the application in Windows with the SD card in an adapter and plugged into the Windows machine. (In most cases it will be the drive on the bottom but this is not guaranteed.) Then look on the EASEUS menu to find the card in the list, delete all partitions on the card (only) and add a partition on that same 64Gb card of a Fat32 and click the apply button at the top. Watch and you are done. You can now use your Windows machine to copy files from your old SD card to your new larger one. If you click on the wrong line here in EASEUS, you've wiped out your windows drive so don't be foolish and click on something if you don't understand this app. (Note if you do not realize that re-partitioning a SD card erases all the data on it, then this narrative is not for you and you need to stick with the Syncing options to try to manage your multiple installations via the normal app interfaces.)

Now the minimum is to start to build your library on your new Android is to create a folder named Music and Playlists on the SD card. Fill the music folder with any hierarchy structure you wish of your music library. Under the Playlist folder will place your M3U files. If you are copying from another Android phone, then try them as they are and a day after the indexing begins, they may start to appear even if they are not in the exact format with the exact correct card name. However if you have taken the M3U files from Windows MediaMonkey, WinAmp or any other windows application, you will have to edit out all the file information to the left of the song name and replace Windows nomenclature with Androd's.

As you begin your M3U editing session, you'll also have to know the name that Android knows your SD card by. This is found under Media Monkey Android, clicking the three dots in the upper right hand corner and selecting Options from that list. From options choose Library Folders. Now you should have already done this or you need to now set up where your Music and Playlist folders will be located. I put mine on the SD card and deleted anything from under Internal Storage (use the + and trash can symbols to edit). Now make note of the name of your SD Card. Mine is "sdcard1" and while I was ready to edit my M3U files to include this new card name (my old phone SD card was named "sdcard0"), Media Monkey was smart enough to read my M3U files and determine what my goal was and imported the playlists even though the M3U file pointed to "sdcard0" from my old phone when my SDvcard name on this new phone was "sdcard1". So your results may vary.

I now keep two M3U lists now (Windows and Android) and I just manually modify my music folder and playlists on the Android phone using a text editor like notepad when I need to update something. With this process you must realize that when you make the initial transfer of your Music and Playlists folders to your new Android phone, that the initial indexing of the files can take a day or longer depending on the size of your music library. So don't panic if you see a blank playlist page right after you have installed MediaMonkey on Android and are just customizign your SD card by loaded everything in the two folders, Music and Playlists. Check back in a day or two and it should be resolved.

Here is an example of where I altered the format of my M3U file from windows to work on Android:

/storage/sdcard0/Music/Patsy Cline/Patsy Cline - Crazy.mp3
/storage/sdcard0/Music/Patsy Cline/Patsy Cline - San Antonio Rose.mp3
/storage/sdcard0/Music/Patsy Cline/Patsy Cline - She's Got You.mp3

Now if I can ever convince the developers of MediaMonkey to provide an option to stop the database lookup during the "could be rapid but NOT" process of creating playlists, then a large group of playlists could then be managed with MediaMonkey. The developer must have never tried to use a large music collection and riffled through the selections, trying to make quick playlists on the fly, because each time you catch a song in MediaMonkey with drag and attempt to drag it into a playlist, behind the scenes MM opens the file and does some other behind the scenes database action which makes a quick playlist creation impossible.

If an option was provided to stop the database ties as a prelude to rapid playlist drag and drop, then playlists could be made in 10% of the time that is now required while one clicks on a song (the app churns and churns looking up something) and then finally after up to a minute the app releases and allows the song title to be moved into a playlist. This is really not usable but since the only viable app of this type, it becomes necessary to struggle through the process.

Otherwise, Media Monkey remains the cat's pajamas!
Lowlander
Posts: 56491
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: How do I import .m3u playlists from my phone?

Post by Lowlander »

Go to Device Profile in MMW (Tools > Options > Portable Device Sync), select which Playlists you want synced, sync and the Playlists will be on your device: https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index. ... oid_device

Although a direct SD sync may be faster, you'll be relying on the limited Android Media Scanner to pick up the files, metadata tags and Playlists (fine if you're not using MediaMonkey on Android). A direct sync between MMW and MMA will be better to get more metadata as well as Play History across.
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