How do I import multiple playlists into iTunes?

I, too, may not agree on how some people in this discussion are using Playlists. However, the fact is that there is no no way to export or import multiple Playlists within iTunes. This is an important missing function. One of my clients creates Playlists for the places she's travelled to, friends, family, etc. When I move her iTunes Library over to a new laptop or computer, I have to move some 100-150 Playlists one at a time. It's simple enough but highly repetitive.

Individual Playlists can be exported/imported via the File/Library pull down menus within iTunes. They must be saved as .xml files. I highly suggest creating a sub-folder in your iTunes Media folder (I call it Playlist XML's) to copy them into or pull them out of... This will not interfere with any normal operation of iTunes and serves as a logical place to find them.

"clients creates Playlists for the places she's travelled to, friends, family, etc. When I move her iTunes Library over to a new laptop or computer, I have to move some 100-150 Playlists one at a time"

No you don't.

To copy the iTunes library to a new computer, simply copy the entire /Music/iTunes/ folder from old computer to new computer.

Everything including playlists will be exactly the same.

Great, Chris CA, thanks! Question. I am generally clearing truly messed up Libraries and adding back content from multiple drives by dragging and dropping - simple. However, if I can export/import an existing, clean Library to a new computer, will iTunes "find" the media files on the new computer without it yet being actually in the new Library? I.E., if I correctly copy the files into the appropriate iTunes Media folder, will the Playlists "know" that the files are acutally present? My concern is the Playlists dropping songs, because it can't find the content. THX.

"However, if I can export/import an existing, clean Library to a new computer.

If by import/export, you mean using iTunes, this is not needed.

As noted, just copy the entire iTunes folder.

"will iTunes "find" the media files on the new computer without it yet being actually in the new Library?"

Do you mean you can see the song in iTunes but they are not in the media folder?

If you attempt to play the song in iTunes and it is not in the correct location, iTunes will ask if you want to locate it.

Okay, that's what I thought... so I'll have to address this on an individual basis, depending on the health of the Library. Still, it's great to know in the case of a clean Library, I can skip the export/import of Playlists on an individual basis by either copying over the entire iTunes Media folder or importing the old Library. Thanks!

I am new to iTunes as well, and I have the same problem that others are expressing. However, I don't understand how what Chris and the other iTunes experts are describing can work well... Here's an example:

I have a CD of works by Stravinsky, which includes both Rite of Spring and Petruchka on it. Each of those pieces has multiple tracks, and it is important that they stay in the right order!

I had previously ripped that CD to .mp3s, and created two playlists -- one for Rite of Spring, and one for Petruchka. When I ripped the CD, the track numbers were *not* recorded in either the file name, or in the info with each mp3.

When I import the files into my iTunes library, iTunes wants to list all the tracks for the album (both pieces) in *alphabetical* order. So while I can sort by album, that is basically useless, since you can't listen to those two pieces mixed together and out of order.

If Playlists are frowned upon in iTunes, how would an iTunes expert listen to just Rite of Spring? Even if the track names had the track number in them (so the sort would work), I might want to listen to just one piece without listening to the whole album.

Thanks.

"I have a CD of works by Stravinsky, which includes both Rite of Spring and Petruchka on it. Each of those pieces has multiple tracks, and it is important that they stay in the right orde"

Okay.

"I had previously ripped that CD to .mp3s, and created two playlists -- one for Rite of Spring, and one for Petruchka. When I ripped the CD, the track numbers were *not* recorded in either the file name, or in the info with each mp3. "

Why didn't you add the correct track numbers to the songs? If the info is noT there, iTunes cannot use it.

"If Playlists are frowned upon in iTunes,"

No one said they were frowned upon. For 99% of users, it is completely unnecessary to create a playlist for every album

"how would an iTunes expert listen to just Rite of Spring?"

Is this a single track, a group of tracks or one CD?

If it is a single CD, select the album in the browser and play it.

Or sort by Album or Album by Artist.

Or select the songs, right click - Play in iTunesDJ.

"Even if the track names had the track number in them (so the sort would work), I might want to listen to just one piece without listening to the whole album."

Okay. Then listen to that one piece.

> "how would an iTunes expert listen to just Rite of Spring?"

>

> Is this a single track, a group of tracks or one CD?

Thanks for the response. Sorry if I wasn't clear... by "piece" I meant in the classical music sense, where the piece would be a collection of movements (tracks) played in a particular order. For example, a symphony typically has four movements/tracks, and frequently a single CD (Album) would have multiple symphonies on it.

So, listening to just one piece (e.g., Rite of Spring) would mean listening to a group of tracks in a particular order, but not necessarily the whole Album.

It sounds like this is a case where a playlist is necessary.

Thanks.

JRR141,

I am assuming then that when you imported the CD it imported all xx tracks of the CD, e.g. 1-19. If Rite of Spring consists of tracks 1-10 and Petrushka consists of tracks 11-19, then after track 10, iTunes will continue on to track 11. If you are desiring iTunes to stop cold after track 10, then, yes, creating a Playlist consisting of just tracks 1-10 and labeling it Rite of Spring would not be a bad solution at all.

Could one of you Fanboys please just answer the question?

Like the previous poster, I already have thousands of playlists of classical music broken down by classical piece (which will have several tracks per playlist). I do not want to go through and make several thousand "groupings", I simply want to import my m3u playlists into my ipod. Why should this be so insanely difficult?

Fortunately, without the help of this forum, I have found that you're only partially correct. Apparently ITunes cannot do this at all.

However, Winamp with the mp-ipod plugin (http://mlipod.sourceforge.net/) can do what I needed and much, much more. Typical Fanboy response - the apple products, oh so simple, except they can't do what you want them to. Tooters Fanboys, I'm going to use the software that actually works and meets the customer's needs.

Hi Buck, it was my impression that recent builds of iTunes do import m3u files when you use the "add folder to library" command, however there has also been an issue recently with iTunes not understanding Winamp's playlists for one or more builds. I can't recall exactly where things stand now, but I wrote a script as a workaround called ImportM3U which I could perhaps extend to process folders.

tt2

I have a different, but related challenge: I want to import into iTunes a collection of around 1300 video clips I've made with my camera, using QuickTime-compatible video formats. Currently I'm using an outdated program running under Windows XP that exports all the contained information to an Excel spreadsheet. The individual video clips are carefully named files that incorporate the recording date and sequence of recording on that date. Additionally, there are folders corresponding to the people who were the subjects of the video clips, and so each folder may contain a number of individual videos of that subject from different dates. The spreadsheet includes columns for subject individual (i.e., the folder), the individual clip name, several more columns for brief category descriptions of the individual clips, and then a column where I have free descriptive text of essentially unlimited length. I think that the latest versions of iTunes have more than enough categories of information handling to accommodate what I have in the Excel spreadsheet. But HOW DO I DO THE IMPORT? I see this breaking down into two challenges:

1) What steps need to be taken to transfer information for 1300 rows in Excel into 1300 "videos" in iTunes--i.e., how do I systematically move information for a given row's entry, essentially from a given column in Excel into a data field in iTunes?

2) How do I arrange that iTunes finds the clip in its correct folder? If absolutely necessary, I'm willing to destroy the folder organization and just put all the clips into a single folder--since they all have unique file names, this shouldn't create a problem, and if this allows iTunes to work more efficiently, it's fine by me.

Thanks!