Export all Playlists as M3u

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Level 3

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Export all Playlists as M3u

Guys,

really need your help.

I got for my work an Android Phone (yes I know) and I want to export all my songs and playlists to that phone.

I can do it manually yes, but I need something automatic. Reason being that I am adding songs to my ITunes, adding the songs to playlists (could be 1 but also could be a couple (or more)).

So if I can export all the playlists automatically (as M3U as that is what Android supports) then I can see which playlists have changed and copy them over.

Ps: Steve (from the iTunes scripts) please please??

Edit: I am talking about approx 150 playlists :(

iPhone XR

Posted on Nov 19, 2023 01:55 AM

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Answer 1

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turingtest2

Level 10

277,729 points

Nov 26, 2023 11:45 AM in response to mjcm_nl

Hi

Hopefully this is now ready for use. The script is available at ExportM3ULists. I've preset it to export smart playlists, not export folders, and use relative addresses (omitting the drive letter). It can ignore cloud content, digital booklets or iTunes LPs that might be in a playlist but shouldn't be in an M3U playlist file. If you find anything else that can trip things up I can look into that. It will only generate a playlist file when there is at least one valid entry in the list.

tt2

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Answer 2

mjcm_nl Author

Level 3

717 points

Nov 20, 2023 01:14 AM in response to mjcm_nl

Ps: Another thing. I followed (a long long long time ago) this topic (one of yours) to make my Split Library Portable and it still works a treat! And that library I use on the SD card (minus the Video files / Audio Books etc etc etc etc but only the Audio Files)

Edit: This one to be precise.

Make a split library portable - Apple Community

Works Perfect. Thx and Kudo's for that as well

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

277,729 points

Nov 26, 2023 04:12 PM in response to mjcm_nl

You're welcome. 🙂

tt2

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Answer 4

turingtest2

Level 10

277,729 points

Nov 19, 2023 03:49 AM in response to mjcm_nl

Hi there,

Yes, this is certainly something that could be done. I have an existing script called ExportM3U which could be modified to export all lists without too much work. iTunes generates playlists with absolute paths but I imagine Android is going to work better with either local paths (all tracks in the same folder as the M3U) or relative paths (e.g. artist and album subfolders compared to the location of the MU3). Do you know which it is? Could you post a small sample playlist, say three or four tracks, that works on your Android, so I can check the layout.

tt2

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Answer 5

mjcm_nl Author

Level 3

717 points

Nov 19, 2023 05:06 PM in response to turingtest2

Thank you thank you thank you.

I have already experimented with this (manually) and this works on the Android.

#EXTM3U

#EXTINF:202,Title 1 - Artist1

\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music\Artist1\Album1\Title1.m4a

#EXTINF:171,Title2 - Artist2

\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music\Artist2\Album2\Title2.mp3

So I have the iTunes\iTunes Media\Music structure on the SD card (same as on my PC) and I just removed the drive letter. (D:\ in my case where my iTunes Lib is located on my PC).

You don't need to do that in your script it's easy enough to do in an text editor just replace (example) "D:\" with "\"

And I just place the M3U in the top folder and the songs are found.

So the structure looks like this on the SD card

+---Music

| Playlist1.m3u

\---iTunes

\---iTunes Media

\---Music

+---Artist1

| +---Album1

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Answer 6

mjcm_nl Author

Level 3

717 points

Nov 19, 2023 05:45 PM in response to mjcm_nl

Sorry forgot something to add to my previous post.

Please also export of the Smart Playlists, oke they will not get updated by playing songs or adding music (on the Android) but they hold lots of good songs (for example Most Played Songs Ever or Love and Liked Plus Plus (hahahahaha)

TiA

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Answer 7

turingtest2

Level 10

277,729 points

Nov 23, 2023 09:56 AM in response to mjcm_nl

Hi,

Apologies for the delay. Been having trouble finding a block of time to work on this. Nearly there now. I need to finesse the output report for when it is all finished and add a flag to automatically omit the drive letters in the paths. I've set things up so that it is potentially possible to export the current playlist, all the playlists within a selected folder, or the whole library. At present smart playlists are exported, but playlist folders are not. Both of those could be optional. There is nothing clever that stops two different playlists with the same name from overwriting each other. Empty playlists, or those that only feature cloud content, are not exported. The following special playlists are ignored:

\Library\Music\Music Videos\Movies\TV Shows\Home Videos\Podcasts\Audiobooks\Genius\Downloaded\

and that list could be extended as required.

tt2

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Answer 8

mjcm_nl Author

Level 3

717 points

Nov 24, 2023 01:05 AM in response to turingtest2

Thank you, Thank you.

Do not worry about the Playlist folders, because as I have noticed that Android doesn't care about them at all (and I have tried with my player on Android) and it just uses flat Playlists.

Of course I would like to use them but that is the least of my worries and that said "I only have a couple of Playlist Folders" and thus can of course create them manually.

So please don't worry about it, again thanks a lot for doing this, really appreciated!

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Answer 9

mjcm_nl Author

Level 3

717 points

Nov 26, 2023 04:02 PM in response to turingtest2

WOW, this works perfectly Thank You Thank You so much.

I am exporting playlist folder per playlist folder because if you do it on all playlists (I put it on Songs) then it will take a loooonnnnnng time (162 playlists in total)

Thanks again, very much appreciated.

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Export all Playlists as M3u

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