How to import .m3u8 playlist into iTunes

[bloodw3rx]

Anyone know how to import a .m3u8 playlist from Poweramp into iTunes?  I want to use an old iPod that I found, and I made a playlist on Poweramp.  I re-downloaded iTunes and imported the exported Poweramp playlist, but the playlist is empty.  I cant find much info on Google, seems like most of it revolves around .m3u format instead of .m3u8.

Has anyone been able to get this to work? 

[bloodw3rx]

I think the issue is that the .m3u8 file locations need to be updated to point towards my C drive that has my music files.  I don't care enough about iTunes and this iPod enough to maintain 2 libraries of the same music. I guess this project is scrapped.

[andrewilley]

The problem will be the absolute paths, which are for your Android phone. You first need to copy the same folder structure of music files to your iPod, and then search&replace the Android paths in the M3U to change them to paths suitable for the Apple filesystem.

Andre 

[bloodw3rx]

Yup you're definitely right. I think I'm going to go a different route and load RockBox on the iPod so I can manage it without itunes.

[6b6561]

It's not that bad as long as you don't plan on update your playlists daily... I see my playlists in Poweramp as the masters and I copy those across to my iPhone through iTunes on Windows a couple of times a year.

The key is that you have to configure iTunes so that it uses your file hierarchy and doesn't try to do it's own magic... so basically you have the same hierarchy for the files in the same place in iTunes, Windows and Android. (my iTunes is only allowed to see files on a read-only disc share, as I don't trust that it wouldn't get creative and make it's own updates. Same goes for windows media player which can also be creative).

There are two settings in iTunes to tweak:

Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced

Uncheck "Keep iTunes Media folder organized" and "Copy files to iTunes Media folder".

This should prevent iTunes from making a copy of the music files on your PC into it's own structure and it should also prevent it from "organizing" it for you.

After this, remove all music from iTunes and add back your music. This should give you an iTunes that uses your file structure.

What you must do on importing your playlists to iTunes is to open them in  a text editor and do a "search&replace" where you replace the beginning  of the Android file path with the PC path and replace forward- with back-slash. ( "/" -> "\").

[bloodw3rx]

I also believe if I expect to get my playlists RockBox, I'd still need to use the "search&replace" for that too.  I might just load all my songs into the thing and just use it as a big "Recently Added" playlst.

I'll check out those options on iTunes as well.  I appreciate the help.

EDIT: Tested it in iTunes out with a small playlist and definitely worked using the "search&replace". 

If I get new songs via my phone then add it over to the music folder on my PC that contains all my songs, will that auto update my iTunes library or will I need to manually add it to my iTunes library?

EDIT 2: Just tested it out. Yes, they are auto added... nice... that does make things a bit easier.

Edited January 26, 2022 by bloodw3rx