Author Topic: Playlists with relative paths  (Read 9872 times)

Subjektiv

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A wish for the future:

A playlist generated by MusicBee lookes like:
   F:\MP3\Elvis Presley\All Shook Up.mp3
   F:\MP3\Elvis Presley\Love Me Tender.mp3
   F:\MP3\Elvis Presley\One Night.mp3

But the best way to make playlists is with relative paths, like:
   ..\Elvis Presley\All Shook Up.mp3
   ..\Elvis Presley\Love Me Tender.mp3
   ..\Elvis Presley\That's All Right.mp3
This relative form ist much better and versatile, for different Computers, USB-Sticks and devices! It will always run and MusicBee can play it.

DaveOzric

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Update: After looking in the forum I see no info on this.  I wonder if there is a solution.  I have old playlists that work with relative paths from old libraries.

I would also like to see this an option if possible.  Wish list perhaps?

Thanks

---

I just started looking for this topic, but am having problems with absolute paths too.
Last Edit: January 28, 2012, 04:32:16 PM by DaveOzric

Zak

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I'd also love to see MusicBee maintain playlists without automatically changing the paths to be absolute. As mentioned, it would make syncing music collections between machines much easier.

I have my music on two machines, and although the structure of each is the same, the drive letters are different. This means after syncing playlists they need to be reimported into MusicBee each time on the second machine. It's not that big a deal, but it does mean playlists can't be sorted into folders easily.

If playlists could be left with relative paths I could create my playlists on the first machine, include the "playlists" folder in the library folder in the syncing operation, and automatically have the changes picked up on the second machine (including playlist subfolders).

Er.. I hope that makes sense.
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richardap1

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A wish for the future:

A playlist generated by MusicBee lookes like:
   F:\MP3\Elvis Presley\All Shook Up.mp3
   F:\MP3\Elvis Presley\Love Me Tender.mp3
   F:\MP3\Elvis Presley\One Night.mp3

But the best way to make playlists is with relative paths, like:
   ..\Elvis Presley\All Shook Up.mp3
   ..\Elvis Presley\Love Me Tender.mp3
   ..\Elvis Presley\That's All Right.mp3
This relative form ist much better and versatile, for different Computers, USB-Sticks and devices! It will always run and MusicBee can play it.


Not all application support relative playlists,Subsonic is one I can think of off my head

Steven

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exported playlists can now support relative paths (set in the library preferences)
in case you dont already know, any of your musicbee playlists can be automatically exported - if you right click/ edit them, you can configure them to be automatically exported (MB v1.4)

its in the next update

Zak

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exported playlists can now support relative paths (set in the library preferences)
Thanks for looking at this, and this seems like a good start. However, it doesn't solve the problem of syncing playlists between machines with different drive letters, short of exporting/reimporting each playlist individually after each sync operation.

This could previously be achieved by mapping exported base file paths to the required parent directory (eg "M:\music\" to "..\..\" assuming your playlists are within the same hierarchy as your music files).

in case you dont already know, any of your musicbee playlists can be automatically exported - if you right click/ edit them, you can configure them to be automatically exported (MB v1.4)
I just played with this and noticed that changing any individual playlist settings replaces the original playlist file with a proprietary MBP file. While this is fine for MusicBee it breaks playlist compatibility with any other programs people might be using them in (including a text editor if people maintain them by hand).
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Steven

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the file path is relative to the playlist and i'm not planning to change that.
for the 2nd point, other apps should use the exported playlists

Skesh

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Hello :) and sorry for reanimating this zombie thread,

I basically have the same problem as the original poster: My existing playlists all have relative file path format (M3U). MusicBee imports them automatically and everything is fine until I change something in a list, then all the paths are changed to absolute paths. Therefore I would be very happy if we could get the "use relative file paths" and "use unix path convention options also for "library playlists".
Currently it's very error-prone to always have to remember to export the playlist again after changing it.


Thank you & best regards

Zak

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Are your playlists on the same drive as the music files they use? MusicBee should use relative paths if they are.
The other thing that might help you is changing your Library Playlists to MBP format and editing their settings to automatically export the static copy with the relative file paths. Then you can use the exported versions for your other purposes.
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Skesh

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Yes my music files are on the same drive as the playlists, actually even in the same folder but unfortunately they are not saved with relative file paths. Your suggestion to switch to a different format is not really feasible for me. The reason why it's M3U is because it usually is a very portable format which can be read by most music related software. For example making my playlists and music files available over DLNA I use Twonky - if I change to another format I would have to export every playlist change to M3U anyway which defeats the purpose. Therefore it would be easiest for me if the library-m3u versions would also be saved with relative paths.

Zak

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You can use different formats for the Library playlists and Exported playlists. I was suggesting you set Library playlists to MBP. These have additional settings available, including the ability to set each one to automatically export a M3U copy each time you update it. You can then use the M3U copy in your other programs.

But what you are requesting is how it should already work. If it isn't, that might be a bug, though given the age of this thread it is unlikely.
I tested this before I replied and MusicBee used relative paths in the playlists I created and updated.

So we'll need some more information to work with.

Did you create the playlists in MusicBee or import them from another program?
If the former, how are you creating your playlists? How are you updating them?
Provide some examples of where adding tracks to a playlist didn't use relative paths.
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Skesh

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I'm very sorry I obviously misread your response.
First back to the original problem. I added 3 screenshots and an export of my settings to show the process of editing and the result.
To answer your questions: All my music files are in one folder on a separate drive and all the playlists (M3U) are in the same folder. They existed there before I installed MusicBee in relative file format. When editing them I currently use the previously describeld process:
1. Edit the playlist in MusicBee
2. Export the playlist in musicbee to correct the file paths

Your suggestion with the MBP format actually works. When switching to that format all my playlists get deleted and replaced with the new format. I then can edit every single one to be automatically exported to M3U. The exported M3U actually has relative file paths. So basically that would work but it is a little cumbersome to have to do this to every single of my playlists and always have to remember to change that setting when creating a new one. If that potential bug with the absolute file paths and the M3U default format could be resolved it would prefer that approach.
Btw I afterwards changed back to M3U library playlists and the created M3U files then have the relative file syntax but as soon as I edit one in MusicBee again the absolute file paths are back.

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