Empty iTunes playlists - solution found

[wurz]

There are a number of posts up here describing the irritating issue I
was having where exported iTunes playlists showed up empty after
importing them into Squeezebox Server.

Whatever I did, I could not get them to work. After importing I could
see the playlist name in the list, but clicking it revealed it was
empty.

I have SBS running on a Mac and both SBS and iTunes point to the same
music folder. I haven't configured SBS to work with iTunes - all I was
trying to do was export m3u playlists manually from iTunes and then
import them into SBS.

Because iTunes and SBS are running on the same machine, I didn't have
to worry about the file paths being different, so I guessed that
couldn't be the reason. Then read some posts saying it could be rogue
characters in the filenames, but it wasn't that. Another one said
export the playlist as m3uEXT type, but I couldn't find that as an
option in iTunes.

The fix is to open up your exported iTunes playlists in TextEdit and
then go to Format > Make Rich Text and save the changes. Yes, really!
You see the font change, after which SBS reads the files perfectly. I
had a play with this on a Windows machine too - I opened the file in
Wordpad, and saved the file as rich text. However it didn't do the
trick so I'll be sticking to TextEdit.

I still can't figure out what the underlying issue is, but it sounds
like something to do with encoding.

Btw I was testing this on 7.6, but I don't think it's specific to the
new version as I remember having this issue some time ago, and giving
up!

Wurz

[frozzers]

This was driving me nuts.

Your solution works fine for me.

Thanks


Chris

[AlmaataKZ]

I have a similar problem - but my playlists are not 'exported' to SB.
Does it matter?

I use 'use itunes' and all the itunes playlists (without any exporting
as I understand it) were visible on SB Touch and played OK until I
restored my librery (after HD replacement). So I restored the library
but that did not restore the playlists. I then imported xml file from
previous library and that restored my playlists in itunes. they all
show up and play in itunes OK. But not on SB touch... they all show as
empty (not even playlist titles).

I tried pointing the SB Server settings to various itunes folders - no
luck. Rescanning, clearing, resetting SB Touch. no luck.

Do you know what the problem may be and how to resolve it?

I have latest itunes, latest SB server, latest firmware on SB Touch,
macmini with latest snow leopard.

[mandersen]

Wow, thanks! That was driving me nuts.

I recently moved all my music from my macbook to an osx server.
Everything was fine except the playlists stopped working. I had about
five of the forty I expected, and even those five would just come up
empty like an earlier poster mentioned.

I tried exporting one of the playlists an as m3u. It came up empty too.
I saw this post, so half-heartedly tried saving as rich text. Figured I
might have to go through and export/save-rtf for each, one by one. But
nope. Blam! ALL FORTY of my missing playlists showed up and worked
fine.

[hshrader]

I am having the same problem.

After moving to Win7 from XP, all was set up and working between SBS
7.62 and itunes but i soon discovered that there was no conversation
between SBS and itunes when it came to Playlists. I would make a
change in an Itunes playlist but no reflection of this in SBS. I
changed the name of a Playlist, i deleted a play list and created a new
playlist. None of these are picked up in Itunes. However, if i rescan
the entire library, then they are. There is no good reason to rescan
every time i make a change in an itunes playlist and that defeats the
itunes smart playlists entirely.

Can anyone offer a solution? I might try to reload SBS 7.62 but dread
that option since i fear all my preferences for by 4 SQ units will be
lost.

Help please.

[curlybill57]

For those of us who have iTunes enabled, this will work and has the
advantage that any changes or new playlists should sync and keep
updated.

Logitech Media Server->Basic Settings->Playlist Folder

Change the <incorrect> default folder to
/Users/yourusername/Music/Playlists

Click Rescan below this.

That worked for my Mac.

[TGG1804]

Post by wurz
There are a number of posts up here describing the irritating issue I
was having where exported iTunes playlists showed up empty after
importing them into Squeezebox Server.
Whatever I did, I could not get them to work. After importing I could
see the playlist name in the list, but clicking it revealed it was
empty.
I have SBS running on a Mac and both SBS and iTunes point to the same
music folder. I haven't configured SBS to work with iTunes - all I was
trying to do was export m3u playlists manually from iTunes and then
import them into SBS.
Because iTunes and SBS are running on the same machine, I didn't have to
worry about the file paths being different, so I guessed that couldn't
be the reason. Then read some posts saying it could be rogue characters
in the filenames, but it wasn't that. Another one said export the
playlist as m3uEXT type, but I couldn't find that as an option in
iTunes.
The fix is to open up your exported iTunes playlists in TextEdit and
then go to Format > Make Rich Text and save the changes. Yes, really!
You see the font change, after which SBS reads the files perfectly. I
had a play with this on a Windows machine too - I opened the file in
Wordpad, and saved the file as rich text. However it didn't do the trick
so I'll be sticking to TextEdit.
I still can't figure out what the underlying issue is, but it sounds
like something to do with encoding.
Btw I was testing this on 7.6, but I don't think it's specific to the
new version as I remember having this issue some time ago, and giving
up!
Wurz

Hi I have been trying to use your method to fix the none showing itunes
playlists but following your instructions I cant manage to get it to
work :( I am using Mountain Lion, latest logitech server 7.7.2 I can
export the playlists but I'm not sure if i should be leaving them as
.rtx or changing it to .m3u???

Thanks


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[slayaz]

Post by TGG1804
Hi I have been trying to use your method to fix the none showing itunes
playlists but following your instructions I cant manage to get it to
work :( I am using Mountain Lion, latest logitech server 7.7.2 I can
export the playlists but I'm not sure if i should be leaving them as
.rtx or changing it to .m3u???
Thanks

I have the same problem as well.

I have tried m3u, rtf, m3u8 and xml and they are all blank.

I am not sure what else to try.

Thanks


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[StretchPhoto]

I can finally see my playlists, but new playlists don't appear.

I *THINK* what allowed me to at least see the playlists was to leave the
"Playlist Folder" filed empty and check "Use iTunes" in the Logitech
Media Server Preference panel. This is with a Mac.


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