iTunes Playlists

[GnipGnop]

Another question regarding playlists. (For those out of the loop I asked a question involving this here.

Anyways, I organize all of my music by album cover in Playlist form (E.g. Brian Eno - Ambient Works 1, would be a playlist on the left of my iTunes.)

I recently loaded about 30 albums onto my Macbook and made the appropriate album playlists. I transferred the music onto my iMac, coped the appropriate ~com.apple iTunes preference files, but my play lists do not appear on my iMac as they do on my macbook. They do not appear at all. Both libraries are the same, and I keep all of my music in my iTunes Music folder, but it is not creating the playlists automatically like it did for me when I did a format and install half a year ago (see link). Do I need to copy the Music Library also, even though they are identical? Thanks!

[Ginamos]

Playlists are held in the "iTunes Music Library.xml" file.

Maybe this link will help iTunes: How to backup and restore playlists, although I've never tried across different libraries.

[GnipGnop]

thanks again.

Somehow my queries weren't bringing up any articles like the one you've found. Your time was much appreciated.

I'll let you know if this works tonight.

[GnipGnop]

So there is a way that works. You were right, G. However, there has to be a faster way than doing each playlist one by one...hopefully.

[weldon]

Just curious, but why do you create playlists for albums? Why not just use the browse feature in iTunes (and the iPod) to find the album if you want to play the whole thing?

[houltmac]

This seems to be something many people do in iTunes, likely because they never found the much easier, more useful, built-in and faster browse feature.

[philbowell]

This kind of thing baffles me as well. Why clutter the sidebar with tons of playlists when you can either browse to them, or just type in the name in the search field!

[Ginamos]

Originally Posted by GnipGnop

So there is a way that works. You were right, G. However, there has to be a faster way than doing each playlist one by one...hopefully.

You need an Applescript to automate the task, write one yourself (if you have that skill) or here's some I've found;

Export Smart Playlist Criteria from Doug's AppleScripts. You can select multiple playlists by using the shift or command key in the file selection window. There may be other scripts in Doug's site, I just did a quick search.

There's this suggestion from the Apple Support Forum - Easy way to backup multiple playlists

Or, if both libraries are intended to be the same, designate one library as your master library and copy all the files from that iTunes folder to the other on a regular basis.

Originally Posted by weldon

Just curious, but why do you create playlists for albums? Why not just use the browse feature in iTunes (and the iPod) to find the album if you want to play the whole thing?

.

Personally I keep as few playlists as possible in iTunes, but people have their own preferences. The guy in the Apple Support thread quoted above was a fitness instructor and kept multiple playlists for classes. To each their own.

[GnipGnop]

Originally Posted by houltmac

This seems to be something many people do in iTunes, likely because they never found the much easier, more useful, built-in and faster browse feature.

I am aware of that in fact. The reason being is that I still use a 2gb iPod nano and find it easier to sync via playlist the music I want when I can select album via playlists.