Topic: Exported iTunes Playlists Will Not Import to MC v19 (Read 4984 times)

coffeethecat · « **on:** November 05, 2013, 01:59:13 pm »

Exported iTunes Playlists Will Not Import to MC v19

See attached iTunes playlist file. This is just one of several that I would like not to have to re-create!

What can I do to get this playlist imported into my MC v19?

Thanx ... Dan

Matt · « **Reply #1 on:** November 05, 2013, 04:46:45 pm »

I see mostly Asian characters in that text file. Is that expected?

coffeethecat · « **Reply #2 on:** November 05, 2013, 04:51:33 pm »

Here's the content of that file pasted below: Abbreviated to 12000 character limit.   Thanx .....

Name   Artist   Composer   Album   Grouping   Genre   Size   Time   Disc Number   Disc Count   Track Number   Track Count   Year   Date Modified   Date Added   Bit Rate   Sample Rate   Volume Adjustment   Kind   Equalizer   Comments   Plays   Last Played   Skips   Last Skipped   My Rating   Location
Affection   Lost Boyz   Steven Van Zandt   The Sopranos: Peppers And Eggs - Music From The HBO Series [Disc 1]      Soundtrack   8491533   261   1   2   6   12   2001   4/5/2011 12:55 PM   11/19/2012 8:00 PM   256   44100      AAC audio file         4   8/7/2013 10:38 AM   1   8/7/2013 10:21 AM      P:\Music\Compilations\The Sopranos_ Peppers And Eggs - Music F\1-06 Affection.m4a
Ain't No Sunshine   Bill Withers      Singers & Songwriters 1970-1971 disc 1         2031271   125         6   12      6/26/2011 12:26 PM   11/19/2012 7:58 PM   128   44100      AAC audio file         3   6/9/2013 9:18 AM            P:\Music\Bill Withers\Singers & Songwriters 1970-1971 disc 1\06 Ain't No Sunshine.m4a
All Right Now   Free      Its Only Rock N Roll Cd1      Rock   4167766   257         5      1998   6/16/2011 2:26 PM   11/19/2012 8:12 PM   128   44100      MPEG audio file         4   6/9/2013 9:23 AM   1   8/11/2013 10:40 AM      P:\Music\Free\Its Only Rock N Roll Cd1\05 All Right Now.mp3
All The Way From Memphis   Mott The Hoople   Ian Hunter   Breaking The Waves      Soundtrack   5910384   295   1   1   6   12   1996   5/3/2010 6:33 PM   11/19/2012 8:35 PM   160   44100      MPEG audio file         3   6/9/2013 9:28 AM            P:\Music\Mott The Hoople\Breaking The Waves\06 All The Way From Memphis.mp3
Already Gone   The Eagles   J. Tempchin, R. Stradlund   Their Greatest Hits      Rock   4173019   254   1   1   4   10   1974   6/26/2011 12:35 PM   11/19/2012 8:03 PM   128   44100      AAC audio file         4   6/9/2013 9:32 AM            P:\Music\The Eagles\Their Greatest Hits\04 Already Gone.m4a
At Last   CloverBlue      Rachel McBride      Blues   8444450   258         8      2009   2/14/2010 10:42 PM   11/19/2012 7:34 PM   256   44100      AAC audio file                        P:\Music Copied from C Drive\Music\CloverBlue\Rachel McBride\08 At Last.m4a
Bad Case Of Lovin' You   PAUL ROGERS      Dr. Giggles      soundtrack   8736896   218         1         5/3/2010 9:39 PM   11/19/2012 7:45 PM   320   44100      MPEG audio file         4   6/9/2013 9:35 AM            P:\Music\Soundtrack\Dr. Giggles\01 Bad Case Of Lovin' You.mp3
Beds Are Burning   Midnight Oil      Diesel and Dust      Other   4108288   256         1      1987   5/4/2010 12:40 PM   11/19/2012 8:28 PM   128   44100      MPEG audio file           5   6/9/2013 9:40 AM            P:\Music\Midnight Oil\Diesel and Dust\01 Beds Are Burning.mp3
Best Of My Love   Eagles      Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975      Rock   5672733   271         10      1976   6/26/2011 1:53 PM   11/19/2012 7:36 PM   160   44100      MPEG audio file         2   6/9/2013 9:44 AM            P:\Music\Eagles\Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975\10 Best Of My Love.mp3
Billy Jean   Michael Jackson      Thriller      Pop   5937889   294         6   9      6/26/2011 1:09 PM   11/19/2012 7:48 PM   160   44100      MPEG audio file         3   6/9/2013 9:49 AM            P:\Music\Michael Jackson\Thriller\06 Billy Jean.mp3
Black Betty   RamJam      Leather & lace      Rock   3801132   236         7      1998   6/16/2011 2:26 PM   11/19/2012 8:41 PM   128   44100      MPEG audio file         3   6/9/2013 9:53 AM            P:\Music\RamJam\Leather & lace\07 Black Betty.mp3
Black Magic Woman   Santana      Billboard Top Rock 'N' Roll Hits: 1971      Rock   3273826   200   1   1   9   10   1971   6/16/2011 2:27 PM   11/19/2012 7:59 PM   128   44100      AAC audio file         4   6/9/2013 9:56 AM   3   2/21/2013 10:39 AM      P:\Music\Compilations\Billboard Top Rock 'N' Roll Hits_ 1971\09 Black Magic Woman.m4a
Blue On Black   Kenny Wayne Shepherd      Trouble Is...      Blues   11785423   330   1   1   3   12   1997   6/26/2011 12:37 PM   11/19/2012 8:04 PM   256   44100      AAC audio file         4   6/9/2013 10:10 AM            P:\Music\Kenny Wayne Shepherd\Trouble Is.._\03 Blue On Black.m4a
Born On The Bayou   John Fogerty   John Fogerty   Premonition (Live)      Rock   4839335   294   1   1   1   18   1998   6/26/2011 12:32 PM   11/19/2012 7:38 PM   128   44100      AAC audio file         3   6/9/2013 10:15 AM            P:\Music\John Fogerty\Premonition (Live)\01 Born On The Bayou.m4a
Born on the Bayou               Pop   6276308   314                  5/3/2010 2:36 PM   11/19/2012 7:51 PM   160   44100      MPEG audio file         4   6/9/2013 10:20 AM            P:\Music\Unknown Artist\Unknown Album\Born on the Bayou.mp3
Born To Be Wild   Steppenwolf      16 Greatest Hits      Rock   3400389   210         1      1973   6/26/2011 6:40 PM   11/19/2012 8:11 PM   128   44100      MPEG audio file         3   6/9/2013 10:24 AM            P:\Music\Steppenwolf\16 Greatest Hits\01 Born To Be Wild.mp3
The Breakup Song (They Don't Write Them Like That Anymore)   Greg Kihn Band      Billboard Hot 100 Singles 1981      Pop   3535811   176         47      1981   5/23/2012 10:09 PM   11/19/2012 8:16 PM   160   44100      MPEG audio file      81_47   2   6/9/2013 10:27 AM            P:\Music\Greg Kihn Band\Billboard Hot 100 Singles 1981\47 The Breakup Song (They Don't Writ.mp3
Bridge to Better Days   Joe Bonamassa   Joe Bonamassa   You & Me      Rock   12276700   307         2      2006   5/7/2010 6:18 PM   4/8/2013 10:53 AM   320   44100      MPEG audio file         1   6/9/2013 10:32 AM   1   4/8/2013 11:09 AM      P:\iTunes Music\Joe Bonamassa\04 Bridge to Better Days.mp3
Broken Wings   Mr Mister      Burning Heart Cd1      Rock   4396599   274         9      1998   5/4/2010 11:42 AM   11/19/2012 8:18 PM   128   44100      MPEG audio file          2   6/6/2013 7:15 PM   1   4/22/2013 8:36 AM      P:\Music\Mr Mister\Burning Heart Cd1\09 Broken Wings.mp3
Brown Eyed Girl   Jimmy Buffett      Beaches      Pop/Rock   7409919   230         17      1992   6/16/2011 5:14 PM   11/19/2012 7:38 PM   256   44100

MrC · « **Reply #3 on:** November 05, 2013, 05:18:26 pm »

Quote from: Matt on November 05, 2013, 04:46:45 pm

I see mostly Asian characters in that text file. Is that expected?

How curious. When I opened the file (on the Mac), I saw a standard TSV file that looked like the above.

@coffeethecat - I don't think MC imports from CSV, so its not surprising that MC won't import this file. I do have a CSV2MPL converter that might allow the file to be converted and then imported.

coffeethecat · « **Reply #4 on:** November 05, 2013, 05:26:48 pm »

I'd like to try it if you don't mind sharing it.

Matt · « **Reply #5 on:** November 05, 2013, 05:30:47 pm »

MC can support iTunes TXT playlists (or at least it could in the past).

I think they are CSV based, but I'm not sure.

To be sure, are the paths in the CSV pointing to files that MC should be able to get to?

coffeethecat · « **Reply #6 on:** November 05, 2013, 05:32:20 pm »

Yes absolutely because when I installed MC, I pointed it to the same external hard drive where I house all of my music - same pointer that iTunes used.

MrC · « **Reply #7 on:** November 05, 2013, 05:33:13 pm »

You're welcome to. Some of your fields don't map directly to MC's fields or have no equivalents (i.e. Disc Number, Track Number, Track Count). You can either create those fields yourself, and then copy the values in the fields to MCs fields where necessary.

Or I could modify the script to do field mappings (you'd still need to create custom user fields for those that don't exist in MC at all).

But before we go down that path, if your files contain the same data in the tags, you could try export as a M3U playlist, which MC should be able to import and create the playlist entry as well.

MrC · « **Reply #8 on:** November 05, 2013, 05:36:05 pm »

Quote from: Matt on November 05, 2013, 05:30:47 pm

MC can support iTunes TXT playlists (or at least it could in the past).

Ah, I wasn't aware of this. Good to know. Hopefully it can be made to work then. The file posted was TSV.

coffeethecat · « **Reply #9 on:** November 05, 2013, 05:39:49 pm »

OK - let me try the "export as a M3U playlist" and see if that works. Unfortunately I have no idea how to proceed on this task. Can you offer up some detailed instructions as to how I go about doing this? Keep in mind that I no longer have iTunes on this PC. It had a catastrophic failure and I decided to purchase MC as it's replacement. Thanx ... Dan

MrC · « **Reply #10 on:** November 05, 2013, 05:43:49 pm »

Oh, well, you can't. But in iTunes, you would use Library > Export Playlist and set the Format.

But it is easy to create a playlist from the text file you have. Are you familiar with Terminal/the command line at all?

Matt · « **Reply #11 on:** November 05, 2013, 05:45:15 pm »

Quote from: MrC on November 05, 2013, 05:36:05 pm

The file posted was TSV.

I'm confused by the encoding, so I'll have to figure that out first. Notepad and Notepad++ show Asian characters on Windows.

I think it's delimited with 0x0A bytes, and uses UTF-16 in between those bytes. That's really weird, because it means you can't push the whole thing through a regular UTF-16 decoder.

MrC · « **Reply #12 on:** November 05, 2013, 05:45:59 pm »

Code Blue.txt: Little-endian UTF-16 Unicode English text, with very long lines, with CR line terminators.

0000000 ff fe 4e 00 61 00 6d 00 65 00 09 00 41 00 72 00 |377376 N\0 a\0 m\0 e\0\t\0 A\0 r\0|
0000010 74 00 69 00 73 00 74 00 09 00 43 00 6f 00 6d 00 | t\0 i\0 s\0 t\0\t\0 C\0 o\0 m\0|
0000020 70 00 6f 00 73 00 65 00 72 00 09 00 41 00 6c 00 | p\0 o\0 s\0 e\0 r\0\t\0 A\0 l\0|

Matt · « **Reply #13 on:** November 05, 2013, 05:51:40 pm »

Quote from: MrC on November 05, 2013, 05:45:59 pm

with CR line terminators.

Normally a CR would be two bytes in UTF-16. From what I can tell, they're one byte in the file.

In other words, viewed as hex the position of the 0x00 bytes flips from even to odd as you read.

coffeethecat · « **Reply #14 on:** November 05, 2013, 05:53:16 pm »

Yikes! I think you're beyond my capacity as a techie! Here's what I think I'll do. Since what I need are my existing old playlists to be resurrected, I'm going to use a spare PC to house just iTunes and source its database from the same drive that MC uses now. Then, once I get iTunes installed on that spare PC, and the music library rebuilt, I should be able to restore the old iTunes playlists and further, be able to export/sync those playlists to my iPhone 4S which MC just cannot handle. This should work. Fingers & toes crossed. Thanx for your input today. Nice to know you guys are out there for real!

Dan

MrC · « **Reply #15 on:** November 05, 2013, 05:57:58 pm »

Hang in there.

Matt and I are approaching this from two angles: Matt wants to modify MC to read that file, and is trying to figure out why it isn't being read; I'm trying to get you a solution in the meantime so that you don't have to reinstall iTunes and recreate your playlists.

I can convert your playlists that you have now into M3U files, or can guide you to doing it.

@Matt - we might not trust the output of file(1) in this case.

coffeethecat · « **Reply #16 on:** November 05, 2013, 06:01:09 pm »

I will send my playlist to you using reply email. Thanx so much for doing this. This is great!

MrC · « **Reply #17 on:** November 05, 2013, 06:27:00 pm »

See if this Code Blue.m3u file works. Unzip it first.

coffeethecat · « **Reply #18 on:** November 05, 2013, 06:36:10 pm »

Dang! Didn't work - here's the log:

Library now has 130442 files. Search and update took 0:03.

Imported 1 new file.

In-depth details:
Imported:
C:\Users\Dan\Desktop\Code Blue.m3u

MrC · « **Reply #19 on:** November 05, 2013, 06:37:01 pm »

This seems like it did work. The file will be under Playlists\Imported Playlists.

coffeethecat · « **Reply #20 on:** November 05, 2013, 06:39:00 pm »

Yep - exactly what I thought too, but the playlist is empty - see attachment.

MrC · « **Reply #21 on:** November 05, 2013, 06:42:55 pm »

The playlist being empty indicates the file paths do not match those in MC or on disk. Can you verify one or more?

coffeethecat · « **Reply #22 on:** November 05, 2013, 08:37:23 pm »

I've looked at the paths and they are exactly alike. They have to be as the drive letter never changed and MC's path and iTunes' path is the same. Not sure what else I can tell you. Not to worry. I think my solution of setting up iTunes on another PC, then importing the Playlists, then exporting them in a format that MC can handle may be the solution. I just need to know what format to use on the export withing iTunes that MC can handle. Any suggestions?

MrC · « **Reply #23 on:** November 06, 2013, 02:06:29 pm »

Can you export a playlist of your entire library MC? I might be able to spot something. Use:

Use File > Export Playlist. Select:

Format: Text File (CSV delimited)
Included Fields: All Fields
Output Range: All

Save it to the Desktop, zip it, and attach it in a reply here.

coffeethecat · « **Reply #24 on:** November 06, 2013, 02:31:03 pm »

Playlist Issues Resolved!

Like I mentioned earlier, I created a iTunes installation on a spare PC, sourced it to my one and only external music library hard drive - then - I easily recreated all my iTunes playlists by importing them - then, AND GET THIS - I Exported those same playlists in .m3u format (thanx for that tip!) - AND - placed them in a Folder on my one and only external music library hard drive and when I launch MC, IT FOUND THEM - automatically - WOW - and I sat there smiling, just watching all my old iTunes playlists come to life right before my eyes in MC! NICE!

Problem solved!

Now to get this Port Forwarding thingy done I'll be cruising to my 70,000 tunes where ever I go!

What fun!

Thanx .... Dan

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Author Topic: Exported iTunes Playlists Will Not Import to MC v19 (Read 4984 times)