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[Mr Swordfish]

I'm trying to synch  some of my library to my android device.  I'm running into an issue that I can't seem to resolve, despite many many many hours of searching the wiki and the forum.

When I synch a playlist, the files are transferred, but there is no option that I can find to tell the mobile device to play a playlist.  There's a folder called "playlists" but it only contains a few what seem to be default playlists; the ones I synched are not found there (or anywhere else I've looked.)

I've checked "Write custom playlist" and am using the default playlist format (M3u relative paths) Is there something else that needs to be configured to make this work?

[Mr Swordfish]

UPDATE:

If I use Windows Explorer to navigate to the device from my PC, I see the .3mu playlist files.

But when I look on the device I see a totally different directory structure.

So, it appears that Media Center is creating the playlist files, but JRiver for Android does not understand where to look for those files.

Via Windows Explorer on the PC, the root of the SD card has the following folders:

Alarms
Audiobooks
Documents
Music
Playlists
Recordings
plus a few others and JRInfo.xml and JRState.xml

On the device I see
Audio
Images
Video
Playlists
Streaming
Cloudplay

Under tools -> options -> handheld -> Files, paths, and more there are options to set various file paths for the device.  I'm using the defaults - do I  need to change some of these settings to make JRiver for Android understand where to find the playlist files?

[Mr Swordfish]

Looks like this issue was discussed in 2020 on the fourm, but without resolution as far as I can tell.

See https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,118438.250.html and search for playlist.

But I appear to be getting somwhere - I've navigated to the playlist folder in JRiver for Android and clicked on "Run Auto Import". I now see the two playlist folders that I've transferred. But when I click on them,  I get a message that "The Category is empty."

Meanwhile, if I open the ,m3u file in notepad I see what looks like a valid playlist:

Code: [Select]

\MUSIC\(Multiple Artists)\20 Bluegrass Originals Collector's Edition\01 Footprints In The Snow - Conversion Cache.flac
\MUSIC\(Multiple Artists)\20 Bluegrass Originals Collector's Edition\02 Honey, You Don't Know My Mind - Conversion Cache.flac
\MUSIC\(Multiple Artists)\20 Bluegrass Originals Collector's Edition\03 Dreaming - Conversion Cache.flac
\MUSIC\(Multiple Artists)\20 Bluegrass Originals Collector's Edition\04 Willow Garden - Conversion Cache.flac
\MUSIC\(Multiple Artists)\20 Bluegrass Originals Collector's Edition\05 The Girl In The Blue Velvet Band - Conversion Cache.flac
\MUSIC\(Multiple Artists)\20 Bluegrass Originals Collector's Edition\06 I Know You're Married, But I Love - Conversion Cache.flac
\MUSIC\(Multiple Artists)\20 Bluegrass Originals Collector's Edition\07 She's Just A Cute Thing - Conversion Cache.flac
\MUSIC\(Multiple Artists)\20 Bluegrass Originals Collector's Edition\08 I Still Write Your Name In The Sa - Conversion Cache.flac


So, it appears that I've gotten JRiver for Android to find the playlists, but for whatever reason it thinks they are empty.

Any ideas?

[BryanC]

I think Android prefers relative paths with leading dots, see attachment for example playlist entries that work for me on Android.

[Mr Swordfish]

Thanks.

Do you know which of the 15 options for the playlist format offered by Media Center will produce a format that JRiver for Android can understand?

I assumed that the default value would work, but I suppose that was an incorrect assumption.

[Mr Swordfish]

I think Android prefers relative paths with leading dots, see attachment for example playlist entries that work for me on Android.

When you say "android prefers" are you talking about other players for android? i.e. are you aware of any that support importing playlists via a .m3u file (or similar format).

[BryanC]

Most applications use the built-in android indexing database (MediaProvider), in my experience it works best with m3u relative paths.

[Mr Swordfish]

Most applications use the built-in android indexing database (MediaProvider), in my experience it works best with m3u relative paths.

When you say "most applications" does that include JRiver for Android?

And if so, which of the 15 offered output settings will produce the relative paths that work best?

[Mr Swordfish]

If I edit the .m3u file to use the ./../ relative path and manage to get JRiver to recognize the new file (some combination of restarting the device, running auto import, navigating around to import the playlist folder, restarting again, crossing my fingers, etc.), JRiver for android can see and display the tracks in the playlist.

But when I try to play them, nothing happens.

Is this because the files are .m4a files?  I've done a bunch of googling and still haven't gotten a straight answer to "Does JRiver for Android play .m4a files?"


And will I need to write a perl script to massage the .m3u files everytime I synch the device, or can Media Center be coaxed into writing .m3u files that JRiver for Android can parse and use?

[JimH]

JRiver Media Center plays m4a files, but Android probably doesn't.  You can convert them as you load the device.

You could test what you've done already by substituting an mp3 file.

[Mr Swordfish]

"Android" plays .m4a files. Or at least my android device plays them with no problem with the included Sony app or with the Rocket player.

I can't get the Sony player to use the playlists generated by Media Center, even if I make the above modifications to the paths.  I've tried Sony support, but they were not helpful.  I suppose I could try the other 14 playlist file formats to see if I could get one to work. But...

The Rocket player happily uses either format for .m3u files.  It took about two minutes to get it to work.  They offer a tutorial, and I'll take a look at it, but it was easy to find my playlists, hit "shuffle", and the playlist played the .m4a files.

So, I'm moving on.  Media Center is a great product and so far it seems to pair nicely with the Rocket player.   

[BradATIMA]

I have not had any issues playing m4a files with JRiver for Android. This seems like a separate issue, and you might want to post more details on the Android board.

We added an option when syncing custom playlist files: M3U (Android). It will be available in a later build. The M3U (relative paths) wasn't formatting the file paths properly when syncing to Android.

[Mr Swordfish]

Thanks.  I'll give JRiver for Android another try once the update is available.

[Mr Swordfish]

Ok, it's been almost a year but I just got a new android phone and thought I'd give JRiver for android another try.

Plugged the Android device into my Windows 10 computer,  selected the options for the android device, tried syncing a small playlist, and it errored out.  Logfile attached.

The good news is that I've been able to sync my Sony android device reliably over the past year.  Not sure what's going wrong here...

[JimH]

On my Android phone, I had to adjust the settings for USB on the phone itself.

Windows also has to cooperate. 

[Mr Swordfish]

Looks like I have a bad usb port on my windows machine - I could view files and folders but any attempt to transfer files (using MC or not) failed; switching to another one cured that problem, but the syncing from windows to android using MC is still not working the way I would expect.  At some point I may look into this farther, but I'll start a new thread in a better place. It will be a few weeks before I'm back home at the windows machine, so that's it for now.

[JimH]

Check the settings on the phone for USB.