Exporting and adapting Playlists (M3U)

Question

Level 1

4 points

Exporting and adapting Playlists (M3U)

My iTunes library is on my Mac and thus files are located there. I now did copies of the files on my NAS for listining via a Denon Receiver or Pioneer network play and on an USB-Stick for listening in my car.

I learned, by exporting M3U´s the path of the file location of the on my Mac is still in the file. I used text editor (TextEdit) and tried to adapt the file location to the location of the copy on the NAS / USB Stick. Tried it in several way´s. I replaced the path of the original file on the mac with the path of the copy of the same file on the NAS/USB by using the complete path as well as just using the file name. I stored the m3u-File in the same folder as the music files.

According to several chats in different forums described this should work but in my case all players (Denon, Pioneer and player in my car) did either not find the playlist or found the playlist but stated that it is empty.

Here is the original m3u content:

#EXTM3U

#EXTINF:232,Happy (From "Despicable Me 2") - Pharrell Williams

/Users/Rene/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/My favorite Chartsongs 2014/G I R L/05 Happy (From _Despicable Me 2_).m4a

#EXTINF:215,Cool Kids (Radio Edit) - Echosmith

/Users/Rene/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/My favorite Chartsongs 2014/Cool Kids (Radio Edit) - Single/01 Cool Kids (Radio Edit).m4a

Here is what I did out of it:

#EXTM3U

#EXTINF:232,Happy (From "Despicable Me 2") - Pharrell Williams

\\SERVERSUR\music\My favorite Chartsongs 2014\05 Happy (From _Despicable Me 2_).m4a

#EXTINF:215,Cool Kids (Radio Edit) - Echosmith

\\SERVERSUR\music\My favorite Chartsongs 2014\01 Cool Kids (Radio Edit).m4a

(same path I tried only with the file name as m3u is in same folder as m4a-files.

What is wrong here? It seems that I did everything correct but it does not work.

Thank you very much for your help in advance.

René

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch,Early 2015), Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Jul 10, 2016 12:12 PM

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Answer 1

ed2345

Level 9

63,482 points

Jul 14, 2016 1:36 PM in response to RenéfromPB

According to several chats in different forums described this should work but in my case all players (Denon, Pioneer and player in my car) did either not find the playlist or found the playlist but stated that it is empty.

René,

Yes it "should" work, but nobody actually does it that way.

Don't bother with the M3U.

Copy the audio files into a folder. Then edit the filenames, by prepending 01, 02, 03, etc.

Doing it this way, a normal lexical sort on filename will give you the desired play order on any device. And it is considerably less editing than what you describe.

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Answer 2

Limnos

Level 10

424,547 points

Jul 14, 2016 1:26 PM in response to RenéfromPB

A playlist is just a text file of track locations. Even when you get the paths corrected you will still need the files in the correct place.

Dougscript convert and export script - http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=convertandexport and an app with more features http://dougscripts.com/apps/m3unifyapp.php

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Answer 3

RenéfromPB Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 14, 2016 1:35 PM in response to Limnos

Hello,

thank you for your comment. Actually I corrected the path on the file where it is stored on the NAS, thus the path is actually to the file which means, the file is at the correct place.

But you link might help. I will look for a too to generate a playlist together with copying the files (even if I do not like it as I have the files already stored in folders based on albums).

Regards

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Answer 4

RenéfromPB Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 23, 2016 12:44 AM in response to ed2345

Hello,

thank you for the actually pragmatic tip. I tried it but unfortunately neither my Network Player from Pioneer nor my Denon app recognize the orders based on the prependings I typed in. I sorted by folders but the order of songs is not according to the prepended numbering. Seems something is wrong here.

Regards, René

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Answer 5

Limnos

Level 10

424,547 points

Jul 23, 2016 10:25 AM in response to RenéfromPB

You may need to get help from Denon/Pioneer/etc. support for specific requirements for those players. We know about iTunes but unless somebody here has one of those players (we don't even know what car you have) and those issues we can only make general suggestions. Reading the manuals for the players may help. Do they even use m3u? Your car may need something different from the stereo players. Also realize that using a NAS increases the complexity of file addressing and is probably why using a NAS with iTunes is not a good idea. Problems often seem to due to file path addressing and some kind of black-box scrambling effect that takes place in the middle and which in years of seeing NAS problem posts on this forum nobody has figured out.

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Answer 6

RenéfromPB Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 25, 2016 12:20 PM in response to Limnos

Thank you for taking care of my issue. I found meanwhile a different way, I downloaded an app from the Apple Store called Export for iTunes, where I can just choose my generated playlist and it will copy the files and generate a m3u-playlist which is working very well on my player in the car as well as on my Synology server. All network players can read the playlist (Pioneer and Denon). So, issue solved. The syntax of the m3u file is nearly the same, only difference is that the directly exported m3u file by iTunes has in the first line "#EXTM3U" which is not the case if I use the above mentioned export app.

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