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Playlist Issues (Android 10)


Si6776

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The Android 10 update seems to have created some playlist issues, not just with Poweramp, which is actually one of the few music apps that still works acceptably, but with other players that use the Android system playlists.  It seems that these apps cannot read or import playlists from the Phone storage (Samsung Galaxy S9+), but playlist will work, to a fashion, if moved to the SD card.

The problem then is that Poweramp doesn't seem to be able to 'see' or import system library playlists.  It does import some playlists, but these come up as empty in Poweramp.  This causes issues when trying to sync playlists across more than one music app, as Poweramp won't 'see' playlists created in, say, Player Pro, Jet Audio or the Samsung Music app.  Further, it seems that other music apps can't import playlists exported by Poweramp, even if the export location is changed to the SD card.

To be frank, the whole thing is a bloody mess, and I still haven't quite worked out what's gone wrong, but perhaps it's something to do with the new Scoped Storage in Android 10?

I suppose my basic question is, is there any way for Poweramp to import playlists from an SD card, and if not, can anyone suggest a way around this issue?

Also, just another couple of gripes - one is that when an album is changed, renamed or deleted, if this is not done in the Poweramp app, the playlist entries remain, but are 'blank'.  This causes some confusion when trying to sync playlists as the number of tracks shown on the Poweramp playlist can contain a number of 'blank' entries, which then have to be searched for, and this is no mean feat in a 3000 track playlist.  I have ticked the box in the settings to tell Poweramp not to 'save' deleted Playlist entries, but this doesn't seem to have any effect.

Secondly, is there any way to make playlists sort by Artist > Album > Track?  The alphabetical sorting of full albums within playlists is a bit of an annoyance, and there seems to be every other sorting option. but the one I want!

Many thanks in advance for any help.  🙂

Simon.

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Most likely issues are related to Scoped Storage (darn you Google, you are not meant to behave like Apple!).

PA can read playlists from any storage, assuming it has access permission for it. So if your music is stored on your SD Card and is scanned correctly, then any .M3U etc files that are located in the same directory locations will also be read (this can be changed in Settings > Library > Music Folders if you want to add new locations). There is no need to import, they will be scanned automatically.

If you move files/folders around, then any playlist which points to the old directory location will most likely fail to find the music after you have moved it. Think of it like a physical library of books - there may be an index card that says a particular book is stored in room 3, on rack 12, shelf 5; if someone later moves that book into another room (without updating the index card too) then it won't be possible for anyone to find the book any more. 

You can use the Rescan / Resolve Playlists option in the three-dots menu for the Playlists category to remove any entries for which files no longer exist.

The Artist/Album re-sort option for playlists does not sort songs  by Track# order, it sorts them alphabetically like it did for the artist and album names. You may be able to use external apps such as New Playlist Manager if you want more flexibility though.

Andre

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Thanks for the reply.

I haven't moved any music files.  They have always, and still are, on the SD card. 

Before the Android 10 update, I could, say, edit a playlist in Player Pro, then use the Import System Library Playlists feature in Poweramp to import the Playlist.  That resolved the sorting issues, as PP sorts playlists in album track order.   Now I can't do that as Player Pro (and seemingly any app that uses the Android system for playlists) can't seem to create new playlists.  The only app that seems to be able to create new playlists is the Samsung Music app, but that's limited to 1000 tracks per playlist.  

I have tried enabling access to the SD card and to the main Android folder in the Phone storage, but still when PA imports system playlists, they appear in PA, but are empty.  Nothing has been moved, with regards your book library analogy.  It just doesn't work any more!

On the Rescan / Resolve Playlists function, I have tried that but it still doesn't remove the playlist 'markers' where tracks are 'missing', thus, they still show as content in the playlists.  The only way that these 'placeholders' are automatically removed is when tracks are deleted from PA itself.  

With regards the Artist > Album > Track# sorting option, is there any chance that this could be introduced in a future build?  I can't see that it could be that tricky, as most other music apps can do this, and indeed, do so by default.  

Going back to the playlists issue, it's really annoying when new operating system updates come along and bugger things up.  Like you said, I'm sure this is to do with Scoped Storage, but even with every permission I can find granted, system playlists appear to be impenetrable.  I have found this discussed elsewhere, but I'm amazed that it's not a more widely criticised issue.  

Simon.

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