Import and export your M3U playlists

M3U vs M3U8: the format

An M3U playlist is a text file: one line per track, with its path on the disk, and sometimes information lines starting with #. M3U8 is the same thing, written in UTF-8, which keeps accents and non-Latin characters intact.

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:279,Muse - Madness
D:\Music\Muse\The 2nd Law\02 Madness.flac

Importing playlists

1. 1

   Open the Playlists page

   On the “This computer” source: the import finds the tracks in your local libraries.

2. 2

   Click “Import”

   At the top of the page. Choose one or more .m3u or .m3u8 files.

3. 3

   Read the summary

   Each file becomes a playlist with the same name. A message tells you how many tracks were found, and how many are missing from the library.

How tracks are found

• First by the exact path, ignoring upper and lower case.
• Otherwise by folder and file name: a list written on another computer, or before your music was moved, finds its tracks if the folder and file name are the same.
• A duplicate line is only counted once.
• The file is read as UTF-8, or as Latin-1 for old .m3u files.

Exporting a playlist

Right-click a playlist, on the Playlists page or in the sidebar, then “Export as .m3u8”. The file plays in most players. Tracks that come from a Navidrome or Jellyfin server are left out: the message says how many.