Move playlists from iPhone to iTunes

I also couldn't find 'import playlist' under Library, but I discovered that if you click on the little rectangles in the top left corner of iTunes and select 'show menu bar', then a full menu appears, and under THAT menu, you can find import playlist if you go to File > Library > Import Playlist. Hope that helps!

turingtest2 wrote:

.m3u playlists are essentially a text file containing an ordered list of file paths. Given that paths to the internal storage of an iPhone are not exposed to Windows Explorer I would imagine that nothing was added to the playlist because none of the imported entries appeared valid.

I could explore the script idea a little further...

Each object, such as a track or playlist, inside iTunes can be accessed via its LibraryPersistentID. Playlists are lists of such IDs. As long as you're syncing/managing the device with one library each ID on the device ought to match up with one in the library so replicating information from the device to the library, such as play counts and ratings is relatively simple. If you have a "new" library, even built from the same original source files, then the IDs in the device created with an earlier library won't match. I wrote a script called SyncStats a while back to import ratings and play counts in such circumstances which I should be able to adapt for this purpose.

tt2

I'd forgotten about this thread: I eventually got around to writing the proposed script as ImportDevicePlaylists.

tt2

Thank you Turingtest2.

Yes Option+Command+S opens a sort of browser on the left hand side of iTunes, where I can see my iPad , and things on it.

However, there is a playlift on my iPad which is not on my MacBook. I wanted to copy that playlist from the iPad to my MacBook. (Actually that playlist was on all my devices, it was deleted from my iPhone, than during the update of the iPhone it was deleted from the MacBook...)

Do you know a way to find that playlist and copy it on my MacBook so I can synce it again on all devides ?

thanks in advance

iTunes > Preferences > Prevent iPods, iPhones, and iPads from syncing automatically.

Connect iPad

Select in the sidebar

Expand playlists

Right/option-click the playlist of interest

Export to XML

File > Library > Import Playlist...

tt2

TT2,

I'm using iTunes 11.1.3. Phone connected via USB cable.

The device does not show up on the sidebar anymore. The device appears on a button near top right corner, next to the iTunes Store/Library button.

When I select it, the left sidebar now shows me Music, etc and my playlists. But my new playlist I created on my phone does not show up in the sidebar list.

Ideas?

Hi Guys,

Yes, I have the same issue as Digitaldawg, some playlists only appear on the phone / iPad itself but not in the image of te iPhone/iPad in iTunes. Even when pressing Option+Command+S...

I think it is in the newest version of iTunes. In previous versions i copied several times playlist from a device back to a computer.

thanks

Excellent! Great advice Chris thank you, I'm sorted now!

I think the Melissa may have mis-read the instructions, leading to her misunderstanding. On the 3rd line of instructions, to make it even clearer, you could write:

Select the playlist you want from the iPhone then right click - Export...

I think it's because the instructions say "on" the iphone that might have thrown her. Anyway, after so long (18 months now!) I'm sure she's sorted!!!! Thankfully, because of your good directions, so am I!!!

R

xoxdette wrote:

I tried doing this, and it said, "Some of the songs in (playlistname) where not imported because they could not be found." Help.

That's where my script ImportDevicePlaylists may come in handy.

tt2

I got that too, but it's because I set up my new iTunes folder wrongly. I'm just in the midst of sorting that out now!

I compared a short playlist on my iphone with that on iTunes to see which albums are messed up and in fact there are loads - due to the way I installed iTunes on my new PC. But at least when it's sorted I know how to re-install the playlists from my iphone!

🙂

Thank you, I'll look at that, but initially it's much more complicated! I still have my old "My Music" from when I used to manage my music with Creative software. For some reason not all of that coverted over into the iTunes folder I had on my old PC and I've just reaslised that I hadn't checked the box in the Preferences to create a copy in the iTunes Media Folder, which I think has added to my current problems!

So at the moment I have two windows open, the new iTunes folder on one side and the old My Music on the other and trawling through each artist and each album trying to delete the multiple copies many tracks that I seem to accrued for some other reason and THEN drag/dropping over the missing tracks/albums/artists into the NEW iTunes folder.

When I've done all that, I think I'll have another go at importing the playlists I copied to my Desktop from my iphone and hopefully it wont say there are missing tracks still and then I can sit back and listen to my music as I used to!

🙂

Thank you for the tip, I'm familiar with coping with duplicates once in iTunes, but these are multiple duplicates in the files that could be dropped into copy into iTunes. Annoyingly they've been given amended track names ie Original track: This is a Song. Duplicate track: This is a Song 1.

So when dropped into iTunes, they copy as different tracks of the same artist!

Anyway, I'm getting into a rhythm now, so about 1/3 through my music folder! Sometimes there are whole albums missing, sometimes it's just alternate tracks and then sometimes it's just 3-4 tracks out of 12 on an album! Creative created a new folder for duets/featuring... but iTunes doesn't always do it the same way, so those ones are a bit more time consuming! But I'm getting there!

🙂

If you chuck everything into the library DeDuper should be able to sort things out, leaving just one copy of each unique track based on metadata, rather than filenames.

Generally setting a common album artist sorts out issues with duets/featured artists. See Grouping tracks into albums for general tips.

tt2

Thank you! I feel like that should have been obvious to me, but for some reason I could not find that option to save my life!

Chris CA wrote:

Connect the iPhone and select it in iTunes.

Click the gray disclosure triangle the left of the iPhone name in iTunes.

Select the playlist you want on the iPhone then right click - Export...

Save it as .xml file on the desktop.

Then iTunes menu File > Library > Import playlist and select the .xml file you saved on the desktop.

You can delete the .xml file on the desktop.

Does this work in Yosemite version of iTunes? I don't see the GRAY TRIANGLE left of iPhone name.

Connect the iPhone and select it in iTunes.

Click the gray disclosure triangle the left of the iPhone name in iTunes.

Select the playlist you want on the iPhone then right click - Export...

Save it as .xml file on the desktop.

Then iTunes menu File > Library > Import playlist and select the .xml file you saved on the desktop.

Your steps were very helpful. I just wanted to mention that the reason the person who started the thread didn't think you had answered her question is just language interpretation. You said, "Select the playlist you want on the iPhone then right click - Export..."

What you meant was "Select the playlist you want [that is] on the iPhone..." but that sentence can also mean and therefore be interpreted as, "Select the playlist you want [to have] on the iPhone..." I'm pretty sure that's where the confusion came in.