User profile for user: Gareth Morris1
Gareth Morris1 Author
User level: Level 1
90 points

Copying playlists from Music App to iTunes on Windows

I am trying to mirror my Apple Music Collection with my Windows laptop. Copying the music tracks is no issue and I have done that successfully. The problem lies in copying the Library Playlists from one to the other. To avoid confusion and to be precise, when I refer to the Apple Library in this instance I am just referring to the playlists that I have created.


I have lots of playlists arranged under folders such as Artist, Compilations etc. It does not seem possible to copy Playlist Folders and copying each individual playlist within those folders would just not be worth the time and effort. I have tried to make a copy of the Music App Library by File>Library>Export Library. This method works fine when I copy from one Mac to another Mac, but when I open my iTunes for Windows and apply File>Library>Import Playlist although it finds the xml file and seems to be working on the import process nothing is imported at the end.


Am I missing a step here or is it just not possible to do this? I am convinced I was able to do this when it was iTunes on the Mac and the Windows laptop, but maybe the Music App does not allow that functionality.


For information the Mac is running under Big Sur and the laptop runs under Windows 10 and the iTunes for Windows version is 12.13.6.1


Would welcome any advice, even if it is mission impossible! Thanks




Posted on Mar 10, 2025 6:47 AM

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User profile for user: turingtest2
turingtest2
User level: Level 10
276,571 points

Mar 20, 2025 7:43 AM in response to Gareth Morris1

Hi,


When importing an XML file into iTunes or Apple Music each track imported needs to physically reside at the location referenced in the XML. Mac and Windows use different naming conventions so even if the tracks are on a single physical drive you move from one system to the other you will still need to edit the XML. In addition Mac and Windows use different end of line (EOL) markers (CR vs CRLF) so those need updating too. Notepad++ https://notepad-plus-plus.org/ is a good free tool for this sort of file editing.


Note that if you have already imported the files into iTunes for Windows, and the default Keep... and Copy... options are in force then some of the longer file and folders names that might have been present when the files were copied across may already have been changed, due to iTunes for Windows imposing a 40 character limit on file and folder names. If so a simple edit of XML won't allow those tracks to be added to their respective playlists. To fix this you may need to revisit the transfer of the library and import the XML into an empty iTunes library with Keep... and Copy... turned off temporarily so that nothing is moved/copied/renamed during the import.


tt2

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Copying playlists from Music App to iTunes on Windows

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