Author Topic: Musicbee isn't making relative paths  (Read 3006 times)

Beechedwhale8

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I am having a bit of a problem. For some reason, even when I have "use relative file paths" selected in library preferences, MusicBee is still exporting my playlists with absolute paths. Any ideas?


Beechedwhale8

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Yes I've already read that, it doesn't help. The problem I'm having is that even when I select relative path in preferences, Musicbee still saves it as absolute. If I use a text editor to manually change the exported playlists to relative path, for some reason Musicbee can't find the files. Relative path playlists made with other music players which contain literally exactly the same text can be read for some reason. I'm at a loss. I was under the impression that you could use a text editor to modify playlists and make them relative path, but apparently Musicbee can't find the files if you do this. Unless I'm missing something.

Mauser69

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Interesting find - looks like a bug top me.  

I have been testing a lot of playlist exports recently, but I never looked closely at the relative path file names in them until just now.  What format of playlist are you exporting?  I do see the problem with XSPF playlists, but when I export as M3U or PLS, it does use relative paths.

Test exporting as XSPF playlist:
I edited the Library preferences to use relative path, then created a new test playlist, which I then saved with a text editor so it could not change.  Then I re-edited the preferences to NOT use relative paths, and modified the play list.  After it was automatically exported, I also saved it with a text editor so it could not change.  Now when I compare the two files, they are completely identical except for the one new track I added in the second one.

(That one new track proves I am comparing a playlist exported while preferences were set to use relative file paths to the other one exported while that option was not checked.)

Of course, the bigger issue for me is that an exported XSPF playlist should not have any file path in it at all - although that field is valid, it is also optional in the XSPF standard, and including it in an exported file totally defeats the entire purpose of using XSPF.  But still, if Music Bee is going to insist on including the file, then it should honor its own preference settings by using relative file paths when called for.
Last Edit: June 27, 2018, 03:58:39 PM by Mauser69

Beechedwhale8

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I'm exporting M3U. Even with the relative path box checked, it still exports playlists with absolute paths. What is even weirder is that when I edit the exported M3U with notepad to be relative path (ie ..\), Musicbee can't find the files when I re-import it. But I have the same exact playlist in M3U with relative paths that I made with another player, which has literally the exact same text, character for character, that opens fine. Since M3U is just a plaintext file, I have no idea how Musicbee is able to read the one that was created with relative paths but not the one that was edited to have relative paths in a text editor.

Beechedwhale8

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I just found this thread. It appears to be the same issue. Although for me it does change to forward slashes when I select unix. Looks like it is an unresolved bug.
https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=23940.0

Beechedwhale8

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Okay, now Musicbee won't even open relative path playlists that were made with other players. I have the portable version of Musicbee, not sure if that matters, but a few weeks ago I was able to export relative path playlists from musicbee, now I can't, and yesterday I could import relative path playlists made with other players, and now I can't. This player seems remarkably unstable. Also, for some reason the first song I play always stutters like crazy, but the problem is fixed when I either re-start the song or pick another. I'm using WASAPI. Is the portable version just really buggy, or is the regular version just as bad? I like the player a lot, but this seems really strange.

Mauser69

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I'm exporting M3U. Even with the relative path box checked, it still exports playlists with absolute paths. What is even weirder is that when I edit the exported M3U with notepad to be relative path (ie ..\), Musicbee can't find the files when I re-import it. But I have the same exact playlist in M3U with relative paths that I made with another player, which has literally the exact same text, character for character, that opens fine. Since M3U is just a plaintext file, I have no idea how Musicbee is able to read the one that was created with relative paths but not the one that was edited to have relative paths in a text editor.
I cannot explain the import issue, but something is definitely odd on the M3U export - I tested that this morning, and I absolutely got relative file names in the exported playlist.  There are 4 different M3U export options, and I only tested the first one. 

I'd suggest restarting MB, and then testing an export in a couple of different formats, such as PLS, just to see what happens.

Steven

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@Beechedwhale8, update to v3.2 from this topic if you havent already done so as i vaguely recall fixing something with relative paths

https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=24754.msg147429#new

also the paths wont be relative if the source music files reside on a different drive to the source playlists
Last Edit: June 27, 2018, 07:50:14 PM by Steven

Mauser69

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I just tested export of all 8 playlist options using relative paths, and ALL EXCEPT XSPF did have relative path names in the output file.

Strangely enough, the exported XSPF playlist not only used full path names, but it used the unix forward slash even though I did not have that option selected.  As a matter of fact, selecting either relative file paths or unix convention in the preferences does absolutely nothing when exporting an XSPF play list.

Here is what a file name looks like in the exported XSPF playlist:
  <location>file:///U:/Music/Main%20Music/Gordon%20Lightfoot/A%20Painter%20Passing%20Through%20MP3
/08%20-%20On%20Yonge%20Street.mp3</location>


also the paths wont be relative if the source music files reside on a different drive to the source playlists

I am not sure exactly what that means, regarding the "source playlists", but my music files all reside on a NAS drive, and the export destination in preferences uses a folder on the same drive.  I am running v3.2.  And as I stated above, all of my exported playlists will use relative file paths EXCEPT an export in XSPF format.

Mauser69

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New idea cropped up tonight after enough drinks - are you actually EXPORTING a play list, or are you syncing an external device?

When you export, the options in library preferences control the output, but there are different settings for syncing a playlist to an external device.

sveakul

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Steven

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I just tested export of all 8 playlist options using relative paths, and ALL EXCEPT XSPF did have relative path names in the output file.
there is a bug specifically for XSPF paths. Keep in mind the path values are specially formatted and will ignore the unix convention setting

http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V3_2/MusicBee32_Patched.zip
unzip and replace the existing musicbee application files

Mauser69

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Thanx Steven.  I applied those patched files, and now I do see relative path file names in the exported XSPF playlist.

mofodesign

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Hi,

it's an old thread, but I've the same problem with creating m3u8-Playlists an relativ path. A few days ago it worked, but now I don't get relativ paths. Don't know what to do!

Any suggestions?

Greetings from Germany.