I have existing M3U playlists that I am trying to import into PLEX (on a Windows 10 system). I have validated the location of files listed in the M3U playlists using an application called ListFix() ver 2.2.0. ListFix validates that the music file exists on the local file system. When importing the playlists that have been properly validated, many items fail to import. It appears to be issues with the name of the files within Plex according to Soundiiz technical support. Apparently, Plex renames the name of the music tracks according to them. I know that inside Plex, the actual file location is saved and accessible via the info of the file. Can this be leveraged by Soundiiz to properly input and reconcile the import process.
I have so many playlists and I would like to keep them intact without having to manually go and re-add the missed imported items to the imported playlists. Handling playlists (import and export) within Plex is the only area where I feel the PLEX product can greatly improve. I have noticed that when I do a search for a song title, the search doesn’t provide all of the results. I validated that the item is inside and properly listed within PLEX but the search results did not provide it. This could be the other reason why some items are not being properly imported as well. I will be glad to help in resolving this issue between the two application environments.
Subject: RE: [Soundiiz] Re: Clean M3U files have failed imports
I have attached a Word file that shows what I did to fix the problem. You were right that since Plex (using Last.FM’s database to resolve names of Artist\albums\songs and user data) changes the name of the songs within their database, it is what is the root cause for the failed imports issues. Finding the song name inside of Plex and then manually changing the name of the song within the M3U file to be the same as the name of the song in Plex, resolved the issue.
But the problem is I have so many playlists and going through and having to resolve the names manually will be painful and tedious and time consuming. So what is the solution? Here is a couple of Options as I see it.
Soundiiz leverages Last.FM database and present options to the user to “fix” the song name or does it automatically using the Last.FM database. I think that this option would be a big burden on Soundiiz and end users. Soundiiz would be creating a work around for Plex’s environment normal configuration and because Plex uses end-user data (and end-users can change song names manually themselves), this isn’t a real option for everyone (Plex\Soundiix\End-users).
Plex team creates an utility like the one I used to clean-up end user’s M3U files. I used “ListFix()” that worked like a champ insuring the music file entry within the M3U file existed and helping to resolve broken links within the M3U file. The Plex team’s new utility would review the M3U file path information by comparing it to their database’s “Info” field (that shows the actual physical file path/file name) and then “cleans up/fixes” the M3U entry with the data for Artist\Album\Song name based on information already listed within their PLEX database and replace the M3U entry information to match their Plex database information. This would guarantee that the M3U could be properly imported without issues using Soundiiz.
Since the Plex environment is changing the name of Artists\Albums\songs by using end user and external databases to resolve Artist\Albums\Song names, it is really in their court to help users successfully resolve their M3U files and make them ready to be properly imported into their Plex environment. The Plex team creating a utility that validates external M3U files would help resolve this issue. Not everyone has a crap load of playlists, so I don’t see Plex adding this functionality within the PLEX application environment. But creating a stand-alone utility would be the easiest way for the Plex team to assist end users with getting their M3U files ready to be imported by a third party like Soundiiz. This is assuming that they don’t want to work with external vendors like Soundiiz. If they do want to work with third party vendors, then Option 3 is the best option for everyone who wants to help end users bring in their existing M3U playlists without issues and keeping the Plex database “clean”.
Plex team provides API’s to their database so your team could query the Plex’s database’s “Info” field (this field shows the actual physical file path/file name, which the M3U file will have (and existing utilities like ListFix() resolves like a champ) and then allow for third parties to extract what the PLEX database has for the artist name, album, song name so the third party import would be seamless to the user. Basically, ignoring what the actual M3U file lists for the Artist\Album\Song names within the original M3U and replacing on the fly with the information that the Plex database has for that physical file. This would be the best way for everyone to get what they want. A low hassle M3U playlist imports.
a. The steps would be to use that the end user would use a third party app like “ListFix()” to fix M3U files to insure that the M3U entry exists in the users library (physical location). ListFix() helped me clean up all of my playlists and got rid of all of the bad entries in the existing M3U files.
b. Then third party vendor like Soundiiz can import the M3U files and be able to extract the correct Artist\Album\Song name from the Plex environment’s database and successfully import the M3U file entries as long as the M3U file path information matches the “Info” field within Plex. Note Plex nor Soundiiz would have to worry about fixing M3U files that contain bad entries but have a means of helping the end user resolve the problem entries themselves. The end user would be responsible for fix them (using another third party utility like ListFix() ), but there would be a way to successfully insure that the Playlists imported will work properly once imported into Plex and the Plex database stays “Clean” and no manual intervention for end users to have to manually fix Artist\Album\Song names.
Thanks for your help with this matter and feel free to use the attached document to publish a document on “why a song isn’t being properly imported into Plex from a valid M3U file”. I hope that you can reach out to the Plex team and work out a solution. Clearly, they enabled the playlist function within their application environment to have playlists but they most likely understand the many issue with importing M3U playlists and don’t want to deal with the issues with existing M3U files, which is probably why they haven’t created an import feature for M3U files. If they create M3U fix utility (Option 2), I can rerun my many M3u playlists through it before trying to import them using Soundiiz at the very least. Personally, Option 3 is the better option for Plex, for Soundiiz and end users for all kinds of reasons.
Again, thanks for your help… I created a forum item on the Plex site, I will update with this information.
