Playlist portability wish

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banquo
Posts: 41
Joined: Mon Dec 01, 2008 4:18 pm

Playlist portability wish

Post by banquo »

I just bought a new PC and transferred my music library to it. I exported my MM playlists, but they're broken on the new PC, because the new file paths aren't exactly the same. I know I could do a manual search-and-replace workaround to fix it, but for the less technically-inclined, I'd like to suggest MM add a "convert playlist" option that automates this process. This should be easily doable if the files exist somewhere in the new library.
Lowlander
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Re: Playlist portability wish

Post by Lowlander »

banquo
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Joined: Mon Dec 01, 2008 4:18 pm

Re: Playlist portability wish

Post by banquo »

Lowlander wrote:Have you looked at: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... hild+Nodes
I haven’t seen this add-in, though I did a search before posting. I don’t even understand much of it, to be honest -- it looks even more complicated than using search & replace in a word processor to replace paths. This is what I mean –- the concept is simple enough that MM should be able to import a playlist, locate the filenames in the current library, and update the paths. I’d really like to see this functionality added to a future version.
markstuartwalker
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Re: Playlist portability wish

Post by markstuartwalker »

I would have thought that this could have been solved by using relative file paths.

Please give a few examples.
Windows 7,8 / Ubuntu 13.10 / Mavericks 10.9 / iOS 7.1 / iTunes 11.1
iTunes plugin (d_itunes & itunes4) http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... =2&t=45713
Running MM under Mac OS X with Wine http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... =4&t=58507
banquo
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Re: Playlist portability wish

Post by banquo »

markstuartwalker wrote:I would have thought that this could have been solved by using relative file paths.
Please give a few examples.
I’m sorry; I don’t understand what you mean, but I’ll give an example. I exported the playlists from MM on my old PC. Here’s an entry from one:

F:\My Music\Transferred\Foo Fighters C\Foo Fighters - Big Me.mp3

This is simply the M3U file that MM generated; I didn’t (nor am I given the option to) specify absolute or relative paths. This playlist doesn’t work on my new MM installation because the path is different. My point is that it seems to me MM should be able to find the track from the filename (Foo Fighters - Big Me.mp3) in my new MM library and rebuild the playlist.
nohitter151
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Re: Playlist portability wish

Post by nohitter151 »

I think the point is that you can just use the addon previously mentioned to export playlists with relative paths, then it should work on several pcs.
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banquo
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Re: Playlist portability wish

Post by banquo »

nohitter151 wrote:I think the point is that you can just use the addon previously mentioned to export playlists with relative paths, then it should work on several pcs.
I’ve already addressed that add-on's inscrutability to non-geeks. I'm at least a bit of a geek, and it's over my head. What is needed is a solution for ordinary MM users who aren't programmers.
lotherius
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Re: Playlist portability wish

Post by lotherius »

Had to dredge up an old thread, but this is the absolute WORST thing about MediaMonkey..... if I'd known my carefully crafted playlists would be TOAST as soon as I had to reinstall to another computer, I would have planned ahead much better....

Unfortunately, my playlist, as stated is now TOAST... I have tried the export child nodes addon, it is incredibly and needlessly complex. I can't get it to do anything.

My files are on the EXACT drive letter and EXACT path they were on before... yet MediaMonkey no longer recognizes them!!! There has to be some way to fix this, and the Child Nodes addon is not usable to 98% of normal users without a step by step guide on how to use it to fix a stupidly broken playlist.
nohitter151
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Re: Playlist portability wish

Post by nohitter151 »

lotherius wrote:Had to dredge up an old thread, but this is the absolute WORST thing about MediaMonkey..... if I'd known my carefully crafted playlists would be TOAST as soon as I had to reinstall to another computer, I would have planned ahead much better....

Unfortunately, my playlist, as stated is now TOAST... I have tried the export child nodes addon, it is incredibly and needlessly complex. I can't get it to do anything.

My files are on the EXACT drive letter and EXACT path they were on before... yet MediaMonkey no longer recognizes them!!! There has to be some way to fix this, and the Child Nodes addon is not usable to 98% of normal users without a step by step guide on how to use it to fix a stupidly broken playlist.
Do you still have your old database file...?
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Lowlander
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Re: Playlist portability wish

Post by Lowlander »

There is the build in Tools > Scripts > Export All Playlists to export all Playlists.

And you can move the DB to a new PC and use: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... =2&t=63823
gShawn
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Re: Playlist portability wish

Post by gShawn »

I love MediaMonkey and am a big fan, but have long been frustrated by the Playlist construction & maintenance. I have now had to rebuild my Playlists several times. MediaMonkey should support ambiguous device names (or relative file path). On a Windows device, if I have a playlist based upon files on drive D:\ I should be to simply redirect (retarget) the entire Playlist to drive L:\ or [FreeAgent Drive]\ or whatever. MediaMonkey supports a find artist function, as an adjunct to this function, you could offer a reconstruct Playlist which would go out and find the file for each Playlist entry and reconstruct the Playlist using located files. The Playlist entries can’t even be edited for the device name within the properties of a Playlist entry. The Title, Genre and other attributes can be edited, but not the File path!

I’m excited to see the new Android version, but fear more Playlists challenges. I fail to understand what good the export Playlist function performs. A very good Playlist manager would help to lock customers into your platform.
nohitter151
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Re: Playlist portability wish

Post by nohitter151 »

gShawn wrote:I love MediaMonkey and am a big fan, but have long been frustrated by the Playlist construction & maintenance. I have now had to rebuild my Playlists several times. MediaMonkey should support ambiguous device names (or relative file path). On a Windows device, if I have a playlist based upon files on drive D:\ I should be to simply redirect (retarget) the entire Playlist to drive L:\ or [FreeAgent Drive]\ or whatever. MediaMonkey supports a find artist function, as an adjunct to this function, you could offer a reconstruct Playlist which would go out and find the file for each Playlist entry and reconstruct the Playlist using located files. The Playlist entries can’t even be edited for the device name within the properties of a Playlist entry. The Title, Genre and other attributes can be edited, but not the File path!
MM basically supports this already. You move your database file to new PC, then use File > Locate moved/missing files. This will update all playlists with new path too.
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Lowlander
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Re: Playlist portability wish

Post by Lowlander »

That's why MediaMonkey keeps the Playlists in the database. It means whenever you move/rename tracks in MediaMonkey your Playlists are updated as well.

If you need to have actual Playlists files for some reason on your hard drive you can use the following Addon to auto-export Playlists from MediaMonkey: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... d+playlist
gShawn
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Re: Playlist portability wish

Post by gShawn »

I've tried the Locate Moved/ Missing Files multiple times and it never finds a single entry from my Playlist. I specify the directory (It's a networked drive mapped as Z:\). It updates an indicator showing it going through the 38,000+ files, does a second scan and comes up with nothing and updates nothing. If I choose the Find More from same artist selection from an entry in my greyed-out Playlist, it has no problem finding the file on the new drive location. :(
Lowlander
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Re: Playlist portability wish

Post by Lowlander »

Make sure you're using the latest version of MediaMonkey as this has been improved recently.

If you want to change drive on files use: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... =2&t=63823
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