Winamp Playlists (unfixable?)

[parkaboy]

I've found that my Fuze wont read winamp-generated playlists as the file references include a leading slash.

is it possible to set an option in Winamp to remove this?

[CrowdAds]

[FreeZ5]

Originally Posted by parkaboy

I've found that my Fuze wont read winamp-generated playlists as the file references include a leading slash.

is it possible to set an option in Winamp to remove this?

My Fuze uses Winamp playlists just fine. What directory are you placing the playlists in? Mine are in the root directory of the player. Also I am using MSC not MTP.

Steve

[parkaboy]

My player is set to MSC, the playlists are being written to the root directory. When I manually edit out the leading \ the tracks appear in the playlist on the Fuze. If I leave them in (as written by Winamp), they are invisible.

Any thoughts?

[zickZackMann]

You might be able to fix this, if you move the album folders to the root directory. An approach to a better solution: maybe you can try, if you did it otherwise, to open the music folder with Winamp and not the individual album folders.

[parkaboy]

I've tried both approaches and no matter, so long as there is a leading "\", my playlists are empty. Back to WMP I guess...

I've read elsewhere that this is a bug in Winamp which has not been fixed.

[FreeZ5]

parkaboy:

I really find it hard to believe that I have had NO problems with creating playlists with Winamp, and yet you have had problems.

This computer (which is the one I usually use) is running XP and it is Winamp 5.52 from Jan 15 2008. The other computer runs Vista, and I'll have to find out which Winamp release later. The first playlist that I created for the Fuze was with the Vista machine. By coincidence, I used that playlist successfully yesterday.

Steve

[parkaboy]

Well FreeZ5, I find it amazing that quite a few people *can* do it.

I've tried everything. My machine is a vanilla XP unit, the Fuze is a new 8Gb one, I've d/l'ed the current version of winamp and reinstalled a couple of times. Utterly nothing I do will make the Fuze read the winamp generated playlist without hand tweaking to get rid of the leading slash. Nothing. Whatsoever.

I've tried it with the audio files in different locations and the playlist file in the corresponding correct location. No dice. I've tried following every recipe I can find on any forum.

It simply doesn't work.

I have seen some posts describing exactly the same thing with no suggestions from anyone on how to fix it.

There it is.

[FreeZ5]

Parkaboy:

How about Fuze firmware. I updated mine pretty quickly when I got it on Boxing Day. Which firmware are you running?

Steve

[parkaboy]

I'm running V01.01.22F which is understand is the latest.

I updated the firmware just after buying the unit a couple of weeks ago.

I've checked and that is the current ver 1 fuze firmware.

[skip252]

Originally Posted by parkaboy

I've found that my Fuze wont read winamp-generated playlists as the file references include a leading slash.

is it possible to set an option in Winamp to remove this?

I had the same problem with making playlists until I came across a thread where Skinjob gave a set of directions that finally made it clear for me.

Originally Posted by Skinjob

Glad it worked. The issue is that Sansa currently requires the paths in an m3u playlist to be relative to the location of the playlist. Which means that the files in the playlist either need to be in the same folder as the playlist or in some subfolder below the folder containing the playlist.

This is why puting the playlists in a separate Playlist folder doesn't work. The player expects to find the music files somewhere under the Playlist folder, and of course they aren't there.

Sansafix indicated that they are working on supporting full paths in m3u playlists in an upcoming firmware, which would solve the problem and let you put the playlists anywhere. In the meantime, putting them in the Music folder works.

The important part for me to remember whether I'm using XMPlay, Winamp 5.52 or Mediamonkey is to save the .m3u playlist in the same folder where the music resides.

This has the effect of removing the leading slash and all of my playlists work in my Sansas regardless of make. Hope this helps.

(Gotta get Winamp uninstalled now. What a predatory resource hog!!)

[Skinjob]

Note, manually creating and saving playlists in Winamp works correctly as long as you save the playlists to the root or music folder. In this case the correct relative paths are used in the playlist file.

However, Winamp's portable sync feature always uses full paths in the synced playlist, requiring the paths to be fixed after syncing.

I think this difference between manual and synced palylists is why some people say it works and other say it doesn't.

Unforunately, there's no option to use relative paths when syncing. I posted about it in the Winamp forum months ago and got no reply.

Hopefully, this won't be a problem anymore in the near future once support for full paths is added to the FW.

[sandisksansalover22]

Help! I have saved the Playlist from Winamp to the Music folder where all my music and it says it's empty in the player?! But if I play it when it's plugged in I can play it from there. What am I doing wrong? I used the right hand corner playlist editor and I dragged from the player while it was plugged in. I also use MSC mode. I also updated the latest firmware.

[sandisksansalover22]

Update: It seems there is a limit to the amount of songs you can put in one playlist. Does anyone know what that limit is? I'm trying to figure it out now.

[sandisksansalover22]

Update: The limit is about 325 songs, if anyone's having problems, it may be because you have more than 325 songs on your playlist.

[Skinjob]

No, there's no limit to M3U playlists. I have four in the 600 song range and they all work correctly.

The "empty" playlist problem indicates an issue with the paths in the playlist. It sounds like you followed the correct steps, but maybe try it again. If all your music is under the MUSIC folder and you save the playlist into the MUSIC folder, it should work. Note that you can't save it somewhere else then move it into the MUSIC folder. You have to save it from Winamp directly to the MUSIC folder.

The only other issue could be with international/unicode characters in the file names. If you think that might be the case, try saving the playlist as m3u8 instead of plain m3u.

[sosidge]

Question for people making Winamp playlists work - are you on v1 or v2 firmware?

I'm in the same boat as the OP - the leading slash renders Winamp generated lists unplayable. Can see no way of making a Winamp playlist work without manual editing of the m3u file. I have an 8gb Fuze.

[skip252]

After following Skinjobs' directions in this thread I was finally able to make working playlists. I kept tripping myself by saving the playlists in the wrong place.

Originally Posted by Skinjob

FreeZ5 is right, but I'll expand a little bit:

1. Drag files from the Clip into Winamp's playlist editor
2. Arrange the playlist as desired
3. Save the playlist to the Clip's MUSIC folder.
4. If you later want to edit the playlist, drag the m3u file from the Clip into Winamp's playlist editor and repeat steps 1-3, overwriting the original m3u

This assumes you are using MSC mode and added all your files under MSC mode. If not, you'll want to format the Clip, switch to MSC mode and reload all your files.

FYI, there is no Playlist folder in MSC mode (and it won't work if you create one). Make sure you save the playlist to the MUSIC folder.

I would also make the mistake of saving a list to another place then moving it to my player. If you save the list anywhere else but the folder that holds the music Winamp (ugh!) writes the leading slashes that breaks it.