How do I move my MB Playlists onto my Samsung S5

[borninkansas]

How do I move my playlists from MB on my PC, to my Galaxy S5 phone. All of my music has been cleanly added to my phone's Music library (original source files from iTunes, ripped from CD's, so all music is m4a files). Both the Samsung "onboard" player and PowerAmp recognize and play all 2,550 songs and also list them in the properly tagged categories (song titles, albums, and artists...since I have not modified any tags from the original CD info, when ripped in iTunes). I have spent many hours experimenting with forum advice but evidently it is all over my head, since I am a total novice to all of the "foreign to me" terminology explained. I have used the right click option of "save as external playlist", but can't get any transfer to take place (been using the Windows Explorer navigation panels, and using both an external hard drive and then a micro SD card to try to get them transferred to my phone, with absolutely no luck. Also please explain the difference between save as library playlist versus exported playlist. I am afraid to click on library playlist, for fear I may do something that I don't know how to repair, if the result is unexpected. I can't seem to find any "dictionary" in MB that defines many of the terms, such as "Library Playlist". Should I save every playlist as a Library Playlist, as the most sensible thing to do. I guess I don't understand the nuance of differences, as a novice user, since the playlists are already there in the MB explorer window.

I need an easy to understand tutorial, explaining what specific steps should be taken to move my static playlists onto the phone so the two player programs can utilize them?  Very frustrating to get this far and not be able to take the last step to put MB into action, since I spent over 100 hours cleaning up a totally disorganized music library which somehow ended up with over 6,000 music files (duplicates of the base library which should have been around 2500 songs). After removing all duplicates and getting the song tags back to their original file names, I then added all 2,550 songs back into specific playlists (a second time....Whew, what a pain). So now, my core library on the PC and in MB, along with the new clean playlists, are ready for the last step.....getting the playlists onto my S5 phone. Your help is much appreciated. A step by step action list, starting with where the Playlists reside in the MB left hand explorer window, and then transferring them to a flash drive or my Samsung S5 phone, connected to my PC through a USB port, would be most helpful. Using Windows 8.1. Music files on the phone are in a file under SD Card..."Music".  Thanks for your unselfish assistance.

[phred]

I don't know about the Samsung player, but I use PowerAmp on my Android device all the time.  I have found that having the playlists in M3U8 format works well.  Assuming you're not already saving the playlists as M3U8 before doing a sync, here's what to do:
1 - determine where the playlists are to be saved on your Samsung.  I created a directory called "Playlists" and then pointed Poweramp to it.
2 - connect the device to your computer and make sure it's showing under "Devices" in the left-side panel.  It should appear after the computer node.
3 - click once on the device and it will appear in the main panel.
4 - in the Music section select the playlists you want to sync.
5 - in the Settings section under "playlist storage" enter the device path to where you want the playlists to live.  You can browse to it by clicking on the 3 dots to the right of the field.
6 - in the "save as format:" use the drop-down to select M3U8
7 - Make sure the the music files path under the "Media Storage" section is where you want the music files to go on the device.
8 - select any of the other options in "settings" that you wish.
9 - look at the upper right area of the main panel and you'll see two buttons:  Synchronise and Preview.  Select Preview and let it run and see if the result is what you expect.  Once it is, then select Synchronise.  I suggest doing one or two playlists on your first Sync just to make sure it's doing what you wish.

NOTE:  It's better to let MB copy the music files over to the Samsung rather than you manually putting them on the device (via Windows Explorer or whatever.)  Otherwise you may wind up with duplicates.

Let us know how you make out or if there are any other questions.

[borninkansas]

Thank you kindly Phred. Couple of follow up questions within your numbered instructions...
Is there a difference between M3U files versus what you indicated (M3U8)? Because MB automatically assigns the M3U format to created playlists.

1. On the phone, do I create the "Playlists" directory that you suggested, under the directory "Music" (as a sub folder under Music) or do I create it one level up on the Samsung device?
4. Within the newly created Samsung directory "Playlists" do I create individual folders such as 70's Rock, 80's Rock etc (creating them on the Samsung, and naming them exactly as they are named within MB on my PC, where they currently reside)? Or do you mean (in the Music section select the playlists you want to sync) the Music section within MB on my PC.
5. Again in this step, am I looking at "Settings" on the Samsung, or am I in the MB panels on the PC? And the device path mentioned, probably should be Samsung/Music/Playlists?
6. In "save as" Drop down to select M3U8....within MB or on the phone?
9. Am I looking for this instruction within MB (main panel and you will see two buttons: Synchronize and Preview) or am I looking within the Samsung?

In the interest of clarity and wanting to be sure I understand your instructions accurately, I want to be sure I don't create the same mess I had before with a lot of duplicate files, in the wrong places and with different file names which were created (by drag and drop from one playlist to another versus what I should have done by dragging and dropping individual songs from the main Music library only). Also, while I am doing all of this, I am not entering PowerAmp to do anything, since PowerAmp will simply find and read whatever I create within MB on my PC, and transferred to the Samsung....correct?

I have not yet experimented with your instructions because I want to be sure I follow your advice accurately, so thank you for the follow up and I will let you know if I have further questions, after I attempt these steps. Blessings to you for your help.

[phred]

Thank you kindly Phred. Couple of follow up questions within your numbered instructions...
Is there a difference between M3U files versus what you indicated (M3U8)? Because MB automatically assigns the M3U format to created playlists.

I honestly do not know what the difference is between the two.  All I know is that M3U8 worked with Poweramp and M3U didn't.

1. On the phone, do I create the "Playlists" directory that you suggested, under the directory "Music" (as a sub folder under Music) or do I create it one level up on the Samsung device?

I have it on the same level as Music and not as a subfolder.

4. Within the newly created Samsung directory "Playlists" do I create individual folders such as 70's Rock, 80's Rock etc (creating them on the Samsung, and naming them exactly as they are named within MB on my PC, where they currently reside)? Or do you mean (in the Music section select the playlists you want to sync) the Music section within MB on my PC.

A playlist does not contain any music.  It is simply a text file containing the path to the tracks, along with the sequence in which they are to be played. 

5. Again in this step, am I looking at "Settings" on the Samsung, or am I in the MB panels on the PC? And the device path mentioned, probably should be Samsung/Music/Playlists?

All settings I refer to in #2 through 9 are from within MB, with your device connected.

6. In "save as" Drop down to select M3U8....within MB or on the phone?

MB

9. Am I looking for this instruction within MB (main panel and you will see two buttons: Synchronize and Preview) or am I looking within the Samsung?

MB

In the interest of clarity and wanting to be sure I understand your instructions accurately, I want to be sure I don't create the same mess I had before with a lot of duplicate files, in the wrong places and with different file names which were created (by drag and drop from one playlist to another versus what I should have done by dragging and dropping individual songs from the main Music library only).

[Standard disclaimer]  I certainly understand the angst you're experiencing, but I want to stress that I can not 100% guarantee the process will work on your Samsung.  I'm telling you exactly how I did it with -my- device, on which I have Poweramp working nicely.  Again, I suggest you let MB send the music tracks to the Samsung along with the playlists.  As long as you have MB set up correctly to place the music files on the Samsung where you want them, you should be fine. (Here's an afterthought:  If you have space to spare on the Samsung, have MB put the music tracks somewhere other than where you have them now.  That way if all goes to hell, you still have the original tracks in their original location.  If things work well, then you can delete the original tracks and just re-point Poweramp to where the music files are.

 

Also, while I am doing all of this, I am not entering PowerAmp to do anything, since PowerAmp will simply find and read whatever I create within MB on my PC, and transferred to the Samsung....correct?

Correct.  Although you will need to point Poweramp to where your playlists now live on the Samsung. 

I have not yet experimented with your instructions because I want to be sure I follow your advice accurately, so thank you for the follow up and I will let you know if I have further questions, after I attempt these steps.

I can't stress enough that you should not just go ahead and sync everything in one shot.  Start with a small playlist and make sure it's working as you expect.

Here are a couple of extra credit reading assignments dealing with how M3U8 worked better with Poweramp:
http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=14399.0
http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=15700.0
http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=15514.0

[borninkansas]

I can't believe how generous with your time, that people like you and psychoadept are, at helping novices and newbies like us with this phenomenal music management program. Kudos to you. I will work on this over the weekend to see how it goes.

Oh, by the way, I think I saw some comments in the forum threads, about going into each playlist on MB and saving them as a "Library Playlist", in order for MB to automatically update and sync new songs to each playlist. Is that correct, or should I simply not mess with them, beyond the simple drag and drop from the main MB Music library, when I created all of my new "clean" playlists.
Thanks

[phred]

I can't believe how generous with your time, that people like you and psychoadept are, at helping novices and newbies like us with this phenomenal music management program. Kudos to you. I will work on this over the weekend to see how it goes.

Let's see if it works first before we start with the accolades.  

Oh, by the way, I think I saw some comments in the forum threads, about going into each playlist on MB and saving them as a "Library Playlist", in order for MB to automatically update and sync new songs to each playlist. Is that correct, or should I simply not mess with them, beyond the simple drag and drop from the main MB Music library, when I created all of my new "clean" playlists.
Thanks

I think what you're referring to is Auto-Playlists.  
For example, I have an auto-playlist I call "The Four Seasons."  No, that's not the musical group.  Any song that has the word (or words) "summer" "autumn" "winter" "spring" "season" in the title automatically gets added to the playlist.

There is so much flexibility to setting up auto-playlists that it's mind-blowing. 

See this Wiki page for descriptions and how to use the various playlists in MB:
http://musicbee.wikia.com/wiki/Playlists