iTunes playlist is empty on import

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Level 1

47 points

iTunes playlist is empty on import

So I'm trying to transfer a playlist from one Mac to another - both have the same library of songs. I export a playlist from one to the other via local network, but upon importing it into iTunes on the second Mac, it shows up as an empty playlist - properly titled, but empty.

When I check it by importing it back to the first Mac, it shows up correctly - a perfect copy of the first.

I've tried both m3u and m3u8's, creating duplicates of playlists and importing those - everything short of using Home Sharing, which imports the tracks as well, creating unnecessary duplicates of all the tracks in the playlist.

...hmph...

MBP i7 Core - 15", MBP Core 2 Duo - 15" 2.4GHz, Mac Mini Core 2 Duo - 2GHz, Mac OS X (10.6.4), MacBook Pro Upgrade - 4G RAM

Posted on Jul 20, 2010 7:24 PM

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Answer 1

ed2345

Level 9

62,462 points

Jul 21, 2010 2:23 PM in response to ninobravo

ninobravo wrote:
I export a playlist from one to the other via local network, but upon importing it into iTunes on the second Mac, it shows up as an empty playlist - properly titled, but empty.

The "Export" command creates a XML listing of the playlist. It does not do anything with the content. if you want to transfer content, the easiest way is probably to use Home Sharing.

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Answer 2

ninobravo Author

Level 1

47 points

Jul 21, 2010 3:17 PM in response to ed2345

From my previous post:

"...Home Sharing, which imports the tracks as well, creat[es] unnecessary duplicates of all the tracks in the playlist."

Home Sharing is of no use to me in this case, as I've already got the tracks in both libraries.

The "Export" command gives you the option of Plain Text, Unicode Text, the aforementioned XML, M3U, and M3U8 formats. I've attempted to export M3U, and M3U8's - both of these, as well as XML should export a play list of titles & metadata. All of these options provide song titles at the very least.

So where do the titles go when I transfer to another Mac...?

Thanks for trying, though...

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Answer 3

ed2345

Level 9

62,462 points

Jul 21, 2010 4:12 PM in response to ninobravo

OK, I did not realize that you in fact already have the content on the 2nd machine.

The Export, whether XML or M3U, contains the metadata and also the full paths. It works fine when you export from iTunes and import to another player on the same machine, as tha player can use the exact same paths to find the file. I'd suspect that if you import to iTunes on another machine that has different pathnames, iTunes, even though it can display the metadata, would not be able to locate the files. Just a theory.

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