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[Robo983]

Can anyone help me with how the .\..\ is assigned in MC?

My goal is to create a mapped drive to a folder called "Media" with all the sub folders matching in "Media" on all PCs regardless of the drive letter or path preceding "Media". I want to be able to export playlist as relative path M3U that will work across all players/PCs.

I created one test playlist with one song in it to see if I could get playlists exported from MC with relative path working across all of my portables and PCs I use. Below is what I have done I can't seem to figure out how to organize my files to get it to work and output the same relative file path, preferably the one that includes \Music Master\.

1st playlist created under a network shared folder "D:\Music Master\" with full path as "D:\Music Master\Music\F\Fuel\Something Like Human\03-Empty Spaces-Fuel.mp3". Below is what was exported from MC.

      .\..\Music Master\Music\F\Fuel\Something Like Human\03-Empty Spaces-Fuel.mp3

This play list works on the PC that created it and my portables.  The Portables have full path as \Music Master\Music\F\Fuel\Something Like Human\03-Empty Spaces-Fuel.mp3.

Next:
I imported the above playlist at work where the music is stored in a folder with the full path as "W:\Media\Music Master\Music\F\Fuel\Something Like Human\03-Empty Spaces-Fuel.mp3". MC shows nothing in the playlist even thought the M3U has a relative path. So, I created a test playlist on the computer with the full path as "W:\Media\Music Master\Music\F\Fuel\Something Like Human\03-Empty Spaces-Fuel.mp3". MC Exports the play list with the relative M3U checked as below with no relative path .\...\. If it matters the a share folder is starting with the \Media\ root and Drive Letter M: assigned to \\Media\ but the MC Library has the full path.

No Relative path included in the export.
        W:\Media\Music Master\Music\F\Fuel\Something Like Human\03-Empty Spaces-Fuel.mp3


Next:
I created a new library and imported all the media with the mapped drive letter M: to the \Media\ folder and drive W:. Path W:\Media\Music Master\Music\F\Fuel\Something Like Human\03-Empty Spaces-Fuel.mp3, now shows in new library as "M:\Music Master\Music\F\Fuel\Something Like Human\03-Empty Spaces-Fuel.mp3". This in my mind should export relative the same as in my first example. I created a new playlist in the new M library and exported it to relative M3U and I get the following in the M3U but it doesn't play in my player. What happend to the "\Music Master\ part of this relative file path?

         .\..\Music\F\Fuel\Something Like Human\03-Empty Spaces-Fuel.mp3

I was expecting it to look like it was on the computer with the base folder as "Music Master"
     .\..\Music Master\Music\F\Fuel\Something Like Human\03-Empty Spaces-Fuel.mp3


anyone got a pointer for me? I know this is hard to follow but it seems that a relative path for "D:\Music Master\" that isn't a mapped foler should export an M3U with relative path to match one that is a "folder" mapped as "M:\Music Master\". My assumption is that both have the same working directory base with different drive letters "D:\" and "M:\".

Is MC assigning a working directory differently since it is a mapped folder not a physical drive? Seems that MC is assigning the working directory as "M:\Music Master\" instead of "M:\". I also tried moving the Music Master folder to the root with-out the \Media\ and mapped that to M: and got the same exported playlist.

WinXP Pro
MC 12.0.375
Rockbox on IPOD 5G portable

[TimK]

When I tick the relatives paths checkbox when trying to export to m3u I also get the physical paths

[Matt]

I was expecting it to look like it was on the computer with the base folder as "Music Master"
     .\..\Music Master\Music\F\Fuel\Something Like Human\03-Empty Spaces-Fuel.mp3

The paths are relative to where the .m3u file ends up.

So make sure you're targetting the same folder in both case.

In this case, I think the .m3u would need to be created in:
M:\Music Master\

[Robo983]

This was good info and don't know if I would have ever guessed that where I saved the M3U had anything to do with the relative path of the actual file of the media in the playlist. For those that find themselves here for the same reason here are the results of this test. Saving the M3U to my Root M:\ folder did the trick for me by adding the full relative path my players were looking for. The others would not play at all.

Path Saved
Result path in M3U

Path Saved Root M:\
.\Music Master\Music\

Path Saved M:\Music Master\
.\Music\

Path Saved M:\Music Master\Playlists\
.\..\Music\

Playlist saved to a differenent drive than media stored:drive C: not drive M:
M:\Music Master\Music\

[TimK]

Still does not work for me.
My playlist is made up of files from various folder under F:\Music\
So the m3u file always contains physical paths.

[Matt]

Still does not work for me.
My playlist is made up of files from various folder under F:\Music\
So the m3u file always contains physical paths.

Are you exporting the playlist to F:\Music?

[Robo983]

TimK, I found that everytime if you export the M3U to a drive letter other than the drive letter path to the media the M3U contiained the drive letter the path. It wouldn't show as relitive even if you check the box for export relative. I do not know if it is suppose to do that I just plan to always export to the same drive letter as the media.

[Matt]

TimK, I found that everytime if you export the M3U to a drive letter other than the drive letter path to the media the M3U contiained the drive letter the path. It wouldn't show as relitive even if you check the box for export relative. I do not know if it is suppose to do that I just plan to always export to the same drive letter as the media.

You can't use relative paths across drives, so this is expected.  Unless ..\..\G:\Music\1.ape works?

[hit_ny]

The idea of relative paths is to save a playlist in the album folder so no path info above the album folder is included. This way you can place that album folder anywhere and the playlist referencing the tracks in it will play fine on any player by dbl clicking the m3u file in the album folder.

It's not clear to me why one would want to save folders above the album folder as well  as make use of relative paths..in the m3u playlist file ?

unless the goal is to have playlists of random tracks that are playable from any player, in which case if you have the same file tree structure (along with volume) on the various PCs, a non-relative playlist should do the trick. If you move things in the future, then get MC to re-generate your playlists.

[Robo983]

I do not create Playlists for albums but more mixs of mutliple albums of the same artists or varing artists.

If you use a portable, say with Rockbox, the playlists are kept in a folder for the playlist so you can access them quickly. If the path above the album folder is not included the portable (Rockbox) will not play them.