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Author Topic: Transferring playlists from Mac to Linux  (Read 1311 times)

roller

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Transferring playlists from Mac to Linux
« on: April 29, 2023, 02:10:21 am »

So far I have been using jriver with a macbook. All the music is stored on an external hard drive. I have hundreds of playlists.
Now I want to move to a Linux computer. I have already copied the music to a new hard disk, jriver runs on the Linux computer and plays the music.
But how do I transfer the playlists?
Can anyone help me?
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mwillems

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Re: Transferring playlists from Mac to Linux
« Reply #1 on: April 29, 2023, 09:10:15 am »

Have you tried backing up the library in both places, and then restoring the mac library on the Linux machine?  That should bring the playlists over.
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roller

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Re: Transferring playlists from Mac to Linux
« Reply #2 on: April 29, 2023, 11:31:40 am »

Yes, I have tried that.  I was able to restore the library on Linux, all the playlists were there but empty!
I forgot to mention that the music on the Mac is on the internal hard drive, but on Linux it is on an external hard drive.

I also tried exporting one or all playlists on the Mac and importing them on Linux. This also worked, but the playlists were empty!
In the export playlist dialogue there is a setting: Store paths relative to exported playlist location.
What does this mean?
If I tick this box, the exported and re-imported playlist is still empty.

I guess I have to edit the paths in all my playlists? But how? Can MC do this for me or should I use a playlist editor?
The rename, move and copy tool doesn't seem to help me, because I can't edit playlists with it? The files in Linux are found. Only the playlists from mac that refer to files on an internal hard drive are not found in Linux, probably because they are on an external hard drive?

I've been using Mc on Mac for many years, but sometimes I don't understand this software.
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roller

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Re: Transferring playlists from Mac to Linux
« Reply #3 on: April 29, 2023, 12:29:14 pm »

I just opened a playlist in m3u format from the Mac in BBedit and also a playlist in m3u from Linux. Then I compared the paths and changed the path of the Mac list to the path in the Linux list.
I thought that now MC Linux would find the files.
But this playlist re-imported into MC Linux is still empty!
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mwillems

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Re: Transferring playlists from Mac to Linux
« Reply #4 on: April 29, 2023, 02:09:35 pm »

I just opened a playlist in m3u format from the Mac in BBedit and also a playlist in m3u from Linux. Then I compared the paths and changed the path of the Mac list to the path in the Linux list.
I thought that now MC Linux would find the files.
But this playlist re-imported into MC Linux is still empty!

When you say that they're "empty" can you be more specific about what you mean?  Maybe post some screen captures?
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Library Eye

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Re: Transferring playlists from Mac to Linux
« Reply #5 on: April 29, 2023, 03:08:56 pm »

A few years ago, I more than once took my library from macOS to Linux, back again, and then again. I managed to get everything working without too much hassle, including playlists and maintaining play counts. You have to take some steps. I opened a thread here explaining, per notes and recollection, just what I'd done, in case anyone else ever needed or wanted to do the same. I haven't tried it again recently, though I may again one day, but I expect same process should work. No promises! but if you want to try… here is my old thread; read through whole thing including comment at bottom (a step I did take, but forgot to mention in my post) before starting. {If I ever do this again with a new version of JRiver, I will post again in a new thread under current version here in forum.}

Moving Mac Library to Linux
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roller

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Re: Transferring playlists from Mac to Linux
« Reply #6 on: April 29, 2023, 03:57:16 pm »

When you say that they're "empty" can you be more specific about what you mean?  Maybe post some screen captures?

Just empty, nothing in. Like creating an new playlist and before adding files.
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Library Eye

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Re: Transferring playlists from Mac to Linux
« Reply #7 on: April 29, 2023, 06:00:45 pm »

Unless something major has changed in recent releases you probably do need to update the paths after importing library, not just copy and paste files over. Then all settings including playlist will work
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roller

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Re: Transferring playlists from Mac to Linux
« Reply #8 on: May 01, 2023, 02:10:57 pm »

I repeated it again according to your instructions and deactivated the Auto Import before - it worked. Thank you very much!
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Library Eye

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Re: Transferring playlists from Mac to Linux
« Reply #9 on: May 03, 2023, 09:53:06 pm »

I repeated it again according to your instructions and deactivated the Auto Import before - it worked. Thank you very much!
Glad it worked!
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