[URGENT FEATURE REQUEST] Playlists from Windows Media Player

[Iceklla]

Why the heck is this still not supported???

 

Google Android's stock music player DOES read said playlists. Why can't Poweramp do that? I paid for the app, and it saddens me that this is still not working as of today.

[andrewilley]

It does, just export your playlist from WMP on your PC as an M3U file and copy that to your Android device. You obviously need to take into account the possible different directory structures - although Poweramp will try to make best guesses if possible, it does help if you make the folder nesting the same as on your PC.

Andre

[haddy]

I agree with the OP

 

Poweramp NEEDS to have support for "other" Playlist files which in the case of Windows is the .wpl Playlist files

[Iceklla]

It does, just export your playlist from WMP on your PC as an M3U file and copy that to your Android device. You obviously need to take into account the possible different directory structures - although Poweramp will try to make best guesses if possible, it does help if you make the folder nesting the same as on your PC.

Andre

 

I tried your solution, and while it was able to detect the playlist, when I opened it, there were no songs in it.

 

Why is it not working? I made the playlist on Windows Media Player, and there it does have all the songs.

[andrewilley]

Why is it not working? I made the playlist on Windows Media Player, and there it does have all the songs.

Are the music files visible within the Poweramp Library, but not in the Playlists? If not, make sure that all the folders which contain your music files and Playlists are ticked within the Settings > Folders and Library > Music Folders list.

If they are all visible in the Library, then it's probably a directory path issue. The same music file will be located within a different folder structure on your PC compared to your Android device.

For example, ABBA's Mamma Mia on your PC might be stored as:

C:\Users\yourusername\Music\ABBA\Mamma Mia.mp3

and on your Android device as something like:

/storage/extSdCard/Music/ABBA/Mamma Mia.mp3

So after you've saved out your WMP playlist.m3u file, have a quick look at it in a simple text editor and change any reference which look like "C:\Users\yourname\Music\..." to "/storage/extSdCard/Music/..." (just use a global search and replace to do it in one go) and then see if Poweramp can then find the songs. You can use relative paths in m3u files by the way, but that makes the resulting playlist dependent on being in the same relative location on both file systems. Oh, and "/" and "\" are accepted interchangeably as folder/file separators in playlists for both file systems, although "/" is officially the correct format for Android.

Andre

[Iceklla]

Nope. Not working.

 

This is what the file looks like when I opened it with Notepad++

 

 

#EXTM3U

#EXTINF:0,Feel the Same.mp3

..\Feel the Same.mp3

 

#EXTINF:0,01 Say This Sooner.mp3

..\01 Say This Sooner.mp3

 

#EXTINF:0,05 Southern Weather.mp3

..\05 Southern Weather.mp3

 

#EXTINF:0,09 Never Say _I Told You So_.mp3

..\09 Never Say _I Told You So_.mp3

 

#EXTINF:0,the arcade fire - [11] my body is a cage168.mp3

..\the arcade fire - [11] my body is a cage168.mp3

 

#EXTINF:0,I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor.mp3

..\I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor.mp3

 

 

Notice that it doesn't contain any info regarding paths.

 

The playlist file is in the same folder as the songs, and they're not in subfolders or anything, They're all in the same folder.

 

To make this worse: Google Play Music DOES recognize the playlist and DOES play it without any problems. It's only Poweramp the one showing the problems. Even Spotify on Android detects them and plays them without problems! (Except for the 1,000 songs limit on Google Play Music. My library has 2,700 songs).

 

Honestly I feel scammed. WTF?

[andrewilley]

Not sure why you should feel scammed, I don't think copying Windows Media Player playlists from your PC was an advertised feature?

If the files and playlist are all in the same directory, try removing the "..\" from the start of each filename as the two dots mean to look in the parent directory, which is not where your music is located on your Android filesystem. Or put the playlist file into a subdirectory, for example called "playlists", which would make the path reference correct.

Andre

[hexradnor]

Looks like WMP is using relative rather than absolute paths.

 

By using the find and replace feature of a notepad type program you should be able to sort this out.

 

How is your music saved on to your phone? What is the folder structure?

 

I recommend "es file explorer" as an android file manager to view your folder structure and find the paths in full.

[Iceklla]

Not sure why you should feel scammed, I don't think copying Windows Media Player playlists from your PC was an advertised feature?

 

It is a feature that a consumer would expect considering that the stock player from android, Rocket Player AND Spotify can do this without a problem (Except for the stupid 1,000 songs limit in Google Play Music, and the fact that Spotify will only play music from the cloud). For advertising as the most advanced music player for Android, it seems like you guys still have a lot of refinement to do.

 

The way my music is organized on the phone is the following: /home/SDcard/Music/(Here are all the MP3 files at the same folder level, none if them in a subfolder). the playlist file is at the same folder level as the MP3 files. Previously, I put the M3U file inside a folder to see if that could work. But it didn't.

 

If you guys need data to debug and find the cause, I can gladly submit it. Just please let me know how. But this is something that should have been working since day one!

[hexradnor]

Copy the m3u playlist onto your PC. Right click and open with a notepad app. Now look in the app for find and replace. Put in the find box ..\ and replace with nothing. Select replace all. m3u relative paths use no leading characters see http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/M3U

[hexradnor]

NB I'd also suspect the fault lies with WMP rather than PA.

[Iceklla]

If that's the case, why are the other players capable of reading the playlist without a problem?

 

I'll try that solution, but this is something that SHOULD be addressed considering that other players can read the playlist no questions asked.

 

Proof

 

[Iceklla]

Ok, the solution worked. Thanks!

 

But please still consider what I reported so you can fix it up later. If you need debugging data from my device, contact me. I'm willing to help.

[andrewilley]

Glad it works for you now.

Debug info would not really help, as the problem is that your playlist specifically indicated that the MP3 files were located in a parent directory, which they were not.

One solution would be for the software to ignore the path info and see if the music happens to be in the same directory as the playlist file (I guess other apps might be trying this?) but there are so many possible permutations (and potential duplicate names) that it would be hard to predict the results. I don't know the logic that Max has applied to trying to match up incorrect playlist entries.

Andre

[hexradnor]

It'll be all guess work by the apps I figure. I've been using doubletwist a bit with airsync and with that organising my directories for me and translating the paths. The doubletwist player is terrible mind so I use Poweramp which can see the doubletwist playlists (as it wonderfully saves them as m3u).

 

The difficulty comes with the fact editing the lists is only one way sync (doubletwist desktop to phone). If you add a track to the list in Poweramp it gets lost the next time you sync - a shame. So I've added my "favourites list" to a Poweramp playlist which i edit and play with and leave Poweramp to sync across my smart lists from iTunes. 

[maxmp]

Poweramp supports m3u, m3u8, pls, and wpl file formats.

 

Where exactly do you place your Playlists on phone? Is that location checked in Poweramp Music Folders?

 

Poweramp doesn't scan locations outside those which are selected in Settings / Folders And Library / Music Folders.

Thanks!

[RichardSky]

Your .wpl playlists should work without any modification when you put them in the right place.

 

For the OP: your music organization is unusual, because you keep all your song files in the same folder, but your playlists are still ok. Create a folder (you can call it Playlists if you like) Put this new folder right in the same folder with your song files. Copy your playlists there; they should work without modification.

 

For the rest of us: It's equally easy if you sync with WMP or copy folders directly as I do. WMP will create on your PC a folder for each artist, within that a folder for each album, and the song files for each album within that. You'll notice that WMP also creates a folder Playlists that sits right in the same folder with the album folders. In this case, WMP sync will reproduce that folder layout on your android SD, but it won't sync/copy the actual playlist.wpl files. You have to copy them manually. Simply create a folder Playlists on your android right in the same folder with the album folders. Then copy your playlist files into that android folder. They will work unmodified.

 

In fact, no matter how you organize your music files on your PC, just preserve the same folder organization on your android SD and the playlists will work fine.

 

..\   simply means up one folder. It means the same thing on Windows and android. So if the folder Playlists is inside the folder MusicFiles , then ..\Songfile means to play Songfile in the folder MusicFiles.  If you (wrongly) put your playlists folder on SD1, next to MusicFiles, the player will look for the song up one folder at the top level of SD1. All it finds there are two folders (Playlists and MusicFiles) but no music files, so it shows none. This is what OP saw.

 

Whatever folder structure you use on windows, WMP playlists expect to find, so you must use the same folder structure on your android. For example, on my windows system, within My Music, I have a folder Playlists, and a folder for every artist, within those a folder for each album, and within those the song files for that album. So my playlists created in WMP look like this: <media src="..\The Dave Brubeck Quartet\Time Out\03 Take Five.wma"/>

 

On my android, I have folder Music. Within it the folder playlists, and a just as on my PC, a folder for each artist (like \The Dave Brubeck Quartet), within a folder for each album (like Time Out), and within that, the songs (like 03 Take Five.wma).

 

I've stopped using WMP sync. Now I simply pull the SD card out of my android, slide it into the card reader on my pc, and copy the files directly. It's fast and you can see exactly what you are doing. I change things frequently so I sometime just delete all the files on the SD card and re-copy everything. It copies as fast the SD card can take the writes. You have to something like this to move the playlist files, and once you've done that, you can just as easily move the music folders/files. Slipping the SD card into the PC eliminates the drag of going through the USB connection and the android OS to write the data, and the result is identical.

 

GoneMad also supports  wpl and I had to sort through the same issue.