M3u Playlist Importing

Question

Level 1

8 points

M3u Playlist Importing

Just downloaded itunes for the first time and now need to import all my playlists into it.

They were created mostly using WinAmp and are in m3u format, when I right click them and select itunes to play, nothing happens. If I drag and drop them into the itunes Playlists section, the name of the playlist appears, but nothing more happens and if I click on it it just allows me to change the name.

The playlists are all linked to mp3s on my PC.

Windows 7

Posted on Aug 23, 2010 6:32 AM

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Answer 1

ed2345

Level 9

62,438 points

Aug 23, 2010 3:56 PM in response to motnworb

M3U format contains the full pathnames of each file. Does iTunes have all your files in the same place on the same computer as they were when you created the M3U in Winamp?

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Answer 2

motnworb Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 24, 2010 5:02 AM in response to ed2345

Not entirely sure what you mean, I haven't moved the songs or changed the names from what they are in the playlists. I have one music folder, it contains every single mp3 I have, the playlists folder is a subfolder in the music folder. If I double click the playlist, every song plays fine in WMP or winamp.

Or are you saying that I need to put all the songs into the itunes library first?

I have a music library of over 10,000 songs, but not all are in playlists and many I never listen too. For my iphone I just wanted to put on a few of the playlists.

I'm completely new to itunes and have never owned a mac, so I may be missing very obvious things to do here. Having said that I'm slightly OCD with my mp3's, so I know they are all where they should be and properly named.

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Answer 3

ed2345

Level 9

62,438 points

Aug 24, 2010 3:49 PM in response to motnworb

motnworb wrote:
Or are you saying that I need to put all the songs into the itunes library first?

I have a music library of over 10,000 songs, but not all are in playlists and many I never listen too. For my iphone I just wanted to put on a few of the playlists.

Not all 10,000 songs. However, all the songs that you want your iTunes playlists to refer to must be in the iTunes library.

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Answer 4

motnworb Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 27, 2010 6:52 AM in response to ed2345

Okay, thanks so far.

I've done that, all my mp3's are now in the itunes library, now how do I get it to do something with my m3u files?

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Answer 5

ed2345

Level 9

62,438 points

Aug 27, 2010 8:26 AM in response to motnworb

Drag the M3U file to the word Playlists on the left pane of iTunes. It will create the playlist with that name. And if iTunes can find the files (in other words, if the iTunes library entries point to the same file location where the M3U says they are) then it will automatically add them to that playlist.

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Answer 6

motnworb Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 31, 2010 12:10 AM in response to ed2345

I've tried that several times and all it does is create the name of the playlist, but no songs at all appear in it.

The files definitely haven't been change since the m3u was created, otherwise it wouldn't work with WMP or winamp and all the playlists still work fine with those.

Is there any way the itunes library could be looking at a different location if all I've done is import from the same folder as the m3u's are pointing too?

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Answer 7

ed2345

Level 9

62,438 points

Aug 31, 2010 3:18 AM in response to motnworb

motnworb wrote:

Is there any way the itunes library could be looking at a different location if all I've done is import from the same folder as the m3u's are pointing too?

Yes, that is quite possible. If the files were added to iTuns while the "Copy files..." preference was turned on, it would have made new copies in the iTunes Media folder, and would not be referencing the same copies that WMP and Winamp are seeing.

Check the value of that parameter at Edit > Preferences > Advanced.

To see exactly which copy of a file iTunes is referencing, right-click a track in the library and choose Show in Explorer.

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Answer 8

motnworb Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 27, 2010 7:20 AM in response to ed2345

Okay, I've still not got this sorted out. There's no way I will ever be able to switch to an Apple mp3 player if I can't use any of my exisiting playlists, I've got 101 playlists with thousands of songs on, I'm certain there must be a feature for this though.

The files itunes is looking at aren't copied, I already had that unchecked in prefernces, when I looked at the explorer pathway it opened up my standard music folder, so it is looking in the same place as my other media players.

So I have the m3u file, I have all my mp3s in the itunes library. All I need to do is get itunes somehow to look at the m3u, read the mp3s that are on it and either save it as that or convert it into a format it likes.

Help much appreciated.

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Answer 9

Katrina S.

Level 7

24,131 points

Sep 27, 2010 9:50 AM in response to motnworb

I think you're going to have to try something like M3U2iTunes

I haven't tried it personally, since I don't have any m3u playlists to import into itunes; but from the description of your issue, this should do the trick. Since it always names the playlist the same ting every time, you'll have to rename it on import, I think...but still a lot faster than building them by hand in iTunes.

Here's another one I found, from a regular poster here on AD:
itunes add_m3uplaylist
http://mysite.verizon.net/teridon/itunesscripts/index.html

Good luck, and let us know whether one of those works!

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