I have 72 playlists.
MM 4.1.4.1709
Phone Data
Galaxy Note 2, KitKat 4.4.2
All my music is either mp3 or flac.
MixZing Player
Google Play Music App
Phone Directories
* Music is located on external card.
- As seen with Windows File Explorer: Computer\SCH-I605\Card\Music\Beck\Odelay\
- As seen with Android's file manager: /storage/extSdCard/Music/Beck\Odelay\
- As seen with Windows File Explorer: Computer\SCH-I605\Card\Playlists\
- As seen with Android's file manager: /storage/extSdCard/Playlists/
Problem Statement Summary
When I open either MixZing or Google Play, some of my playlists display the music that should be in that playlist, but oddly, some playlists appear to be empty. The weird thing is, when I physically look at the playlist file, they seem to all be created correctly. That is, the physical playlist files all look correct, however, inside of a music player app, many of my playlists are empty.
Details
As you can see here (MixZing) and here (Google Play), the playlists Acoustic, Altered, and Angst have songs in them; 8, 18, and 22 respectively.
However, the playlists Anthems, Arena, and Bachata have 0 songs in them. This is the problem.
1) I looked at the physical files themselves. They appear to be good. For example:
Angst (Angst.m3u, a good playlist):
Anthems (Anthems.m3u, an empty playlist):\Music\Alice In Chains\Dirt\13 Would.mp3
\Music\Megadeth\Cryptic Writings [Remastered]\03 Use The Man.mp3
\Music\Godsmack\Godsmack\12 Voodoo.mp3
\Music\Wire\154\01 I Should Have Known Better.mp3
\Music\Mick Karn\The Tooth Mother\07 Little - Less Hope.mp3
I don't see anything about the format of the playlists. They appear to be identical other than the music they point to. BTW, both playlists contain both mp3 and flac.\Music\The Beatles\Magical Mystery Tour [Stereo, FLAC]\11 All You Need Is Love.flac
\Music\Led Zeppelin\Remasters\15 Stairway To Heaven.mp3
\Music\Lynyrd Skynyrd\Lynyrd Skynyrd - Box Set - Disc 1\15 Free Bird.mp3
\Music\Queen\News Of The World (MFSL)\01 We Will Rock You.flac
\Music\The Who\Meaty Beaty Big And Bouncy\06 My Generation.mp3
2) Next I verified that the files they point to actually exist. This file is in the empty Anthems playlist, but as you can see, it's on the device.
3) The Playlists folder seems to be in order.
4) I believe the playlists in MM look fine. Angst and Anthems
5) I've rebooted the phone many times. No love. I've synced many times. Still no love.
Final Thoughts
The problem doesn't *seem* to be MM since both the good and bad playlists exist, appear to have correct data, in the right format. However, I have two different music player apps telling me that Anthems is an empty playlist, so I'm not 100% sure. Hence, this post.
Proper debugging techniques say:
1) Form hypotheses and make sure that your expectations match what you observe.
2) Try to find the difference between the functional Angst playlist and the non-functional Anthems playlist. Whatever differences exist between the two playlists, that's what may be causing the problem.
However, I have run out of hypotheses to check, and I can't detect any differences between these two playlists. I've hit a brick wall.
Plea For Help
I'm leaving for Mexico on Sunday and I really want all my music. Can some kind soul please help me figure out what's going on?
