How do you import playlists from iTunes to PLEX server

General Discussions
1

How do you import playlists from iTunes to PLEX server

2

This guide shows how to create a library. In the “Advanced (Music)” section near the bottom, it talks about iTunes.

3

Thanks for responding. I have opened the window for my library “Music and Playlists” using the “Libraries” option under “Manage” on the sidebar. The popup window provides for customizing, but (and I’ve scrolled this window a dozen times) I cannot see the option “Import from iTunes” to enable this option. My library directory points to: “/Users/hansvaline/Music/iTunes”. Am I looking in the wrong spot?

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4

The option is only there when creating a new library, not editing an existing one.

5

Thanks, and I found the problem. I went down one more directory to: /Users/hansvaline/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media and created a library from there. I then gave me the option to enable iTunes with the radio button for “Import from iTunes”. This produced the track titles from iTunes, but not the playlists. I see the “iTunes Music Library.XML” was one directory above in: “/Users/hansvaline/Music/iTunes”, so I have made a copy in the “iTunes Media” directory and will create a new library. Hopefully it will see the playlists now. Is it fairly obvious on the server panels that playlists have been created?

6

I have opened a new topic in General Discussion called " Failed to create playlists from iTunes"

I am sending it to you below hoping you can help me solve this:

While I was successful once, I deleted the “Library” that imported my “Playlists” from iTunes on my Mac because of other issues. Now, after a dozen configurations, I can’t get my playlists imported to my PLEX server. I’ve deleted my “Libraries” and my latest import attempt is as follows:

  1. Under “SETTING” clicked “Plugins” enabled “Enable iTunes Plugin”. Also under “MANAGE” clicked “Plugins” and verified that iTunes plugin was present.

  2. Set the “iTunes library XML path: to: “/Users/hansvaline/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music Library.xml”. This is where iTunes has stored the XML for my music.

  3. Clicked the “Libraries” option under “Manage” from the sidebar.

  4. Clicked the “ADD LIBRARY”.

  5. In the popup, clicked the music icon for the “Select type” on the popup sidebar.

  6. In the popup, clicked “Add folders” then clicked “BROWSE FOR MEDIA FOLDER”.

  7. Selected “/Users/hansvaline/Music/iTunes” from the dropdown directory structure. This the same folder where the “iTunes library XML” is located. Also, attempted to create a library using : “/Users/hansvaline/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media” as the music library path. In either option directory, it found the music and art just fine.

  8. Clicked the “Advanced” link on the sidebar popup.

  9. Enabled the “Import from iTunes” option.

  10. Enabled the “Prefer local metadata” option. No other changes to the defaults for adding libraries were made.

  11. Clicked “ADD LIBRARY”.

All my music appears to have been added to my PLAX library along with my “local metadata”. But my playlists are NEVER transferred into PLEX playlists in over a dozen different attempts. I really would like to buy PLEX, but if I can’t get these playlists to transfer over again, I can’t use it. One playlist alone is 2,710 tracks. I have 10 playlists. No way am I going to rebuild manually the playlists in PLEX’.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

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I’ve never used iTunes, so I’m not going to be much help. Hopefully someone will step in.

8

Have you checked the XML file to make sure it actually has the information in there. iTunes by default does not use the xml file anymore. You have to make sure it’s enabled in the iTunes settings, otherwise it’s a blank file.

9

Yes, it is in “/{username}/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music Library.xml”.

Track are in “/{username}/Music/iTunes/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music”.

I deleted the XML, turned of create XML in iTunes preferences. Made changes to a track and iTunes did not try to create an XML.

I then went back to iTunes preferences and switched creation of an XML file. iTunes immediately created a new XML file(11MB) in “/{username}/Music/iTunes/” directory.

Here is a copy abbreviate portion of a playlist in the XML file with the playlist name of “1990’s”:

	<dict>
		<key>Playlist ID</key><integer>39796</integer>
		<key>Playlist Persistent ID</key><string>D359258743786E8F</string>
		<key>All Items</key><true/>
		<key>Name</key><string>1990's</string>
		<key>Playlist Items</key>
		<array>
			<dict>
				<key>Track ID</key><integer>10663</integer>
			</dict>
			<dict>
				<key>Track ID</key><integer>10443</integer>
			</dict>
			<dict>
				<key>Track ID</key><integer>10441</integer>
			</dict>
			<dict>
				<key>Track ID</key><integer>10439</integer>
			</dict>
			<dict>
				<key>Track ID</key><integer>10437</integer>
			</dict>

I’ve pointed to: /{username}/Music/iTunes/ in one library creation and to: “/{username}/Music/iTunes/iTunes/iTunes Media/” in another library creation.

10

Was that a Smart playlist or something you created manually? If it is s Smart one, can you show me the rule from within iTunes?

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None of the 10 playlists are Smart playlists. Each one was created by selecting the first song from the Album view and the song popup dropdown showed “Add to playlist” and I moved the cursor over “Add to playlist” and another dropdown showed as the first item “New playlist” which I then selected and it created a playlist using the “Album” name as a playlist and added the song to it. I renamed the playlists to what I actually wanted and then just added songs to it to the playlist. All ten playlists were created this way.

What really puzzles me, is that last Friday when I created a library one of the many I have tried to create since then, PLEX actually created all 10 playlists with no problem. I deleted that library and started over because PLEX was using its own song names and my song names have all be modified to show the release year. Ever since I started my new libraries after selecting “Import from iTunes” and “Prefer local metadata”, it hasn’t been importing the playlists.

12

I am running a new library import without the “Prefer local metadata” to see if that makes any difference.

13

I am seeing the same issues that you are finding, John. Also on a Mac, and find that after I’ve updated a playlist in Apple Music (no longer called iTunes, right?) that when I try to update the playlist in Plex, it appears to spin the wheel but do nothing. I’ve rebooted, and restarted the server a number of times, and have no luck.

As far as finding a setting in Apple Music that lets me address the XML file, I see nothing. Perhaps this is related to the change in how Apple Music is handling things.

Regarding Smart Playlists, I noticed that even when I used to import all of my playlists successfully, the smart playlists never came across.

Steve

14

If you upgraded to Catalina, as I did, it seems the XML functionality is no longer supported in Apple Music.

Check out this linke: Warning: iTunes playlists xml no longer supported in Catalina

Looking for a response from PLEX developers on what the plans are going forward…

15

According to that thread, it’s still possible to generate the XML, just has to be done manually.

16

You can use Soundiiz to do the job.

Using share URL iTunes

Open your iTunes software

Go to playlist you want to export, click on … > Share Playlist > Copy Link

On Soundiiz, select iTunes in platforms list

Paste the shared link iTunes and confirm

Follow steps to import your playlist on Plex

Using export playlist as file iTunes

Open your iTunes software

Go to playlist you want to export and File > Library > Export Playlist

Choose the .txt format

Save the playlist file on your device

On Soundiiz, select iTunes , upload the file and confirm

Follow steps to import your playlist on Plex

17

Thanks! Appears to meet my needs and actually gives me more control of which of the bajillion playlists I import to Plex. The old option was “all or nothing”.

Note that the limit of 200 tracks per playlist for the free option. I upgraded because the bang is worth the buck. :sunglasses:

18

Thanks very much sophia2017, I used Soundiiz to load my playlists into PLEX. After loading my first playlist via Soundiiz, all of a sudden, the PLEX server allowed me to import the other 9 playlists directly via PLEX. Go figure. It’s tragic that PLEX doesn’t have any tech support. I doubt their claim to be “monitoring” the forums. I have spent over a week trying to get PLEX to import my playlists from iTunes. We have to depend on kindness of strangers after you paid them money.

Thanks to all who contributed assistance with this issue.

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19

No, I did not update to Catalina for that very reason. I didn’t want to throw another monkey wrench into the issues I was having with PLEX./iTunes. XML is only generated if the radio button in “Preferences” is on in iTunes. I guess I’ll look if the new Apple Music has that option, but I think that outside apps must have access to the “itl” file if they got rid of XML.

20

Apple Music has removed the XML option from the Preferences menu. But it appears you have got things working.