Empty Playlists

My PC recently was "ghosted"/had a virus, and then I updated iTunes. Right now, my songs are listed but all my playlists are empty.
Previously, my songs could not be found but I added to my library my iTunes Music folder, so now my songs are all listed under Music but all playlists are empty.
Instead of placing the right songs in the right playlists, any shortcut?

The playlists are stored as data in the .ITL library file. If you have a backup of your iTunes folder, that file will be in it.

Similar Messages

How to create an Empty Playlist File on Mac?

Hello everyone, I'm working on a Music Player script, I was able to play a file via the default player as when we doubleclick on a file. The problem is I have no control over the Player, so to "stop" a file I could play a "silent" mp3, one with 1 second of silence in it for example. I discarded the idea since I had to distribute this silent.mp3 file along with the script. A better option is to play a "playlist", since playlist files are text only, I could create them an empty playlist file on the fly...
so, the question is, what's the default playlist extension on a mac? and how to create one on the Mac?
in windows the default player is Windows Media Player, the default playlist file extension is *.wpl.
here's the contents of an empty playlist
<?wpl version="1.0"?>
<smil>
    <head>
        <meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Windows Media Player -- 12.0.7601.18150"/>
        <meta name="ItemCount" content="0"/>
        <title>empyPlaylist</title>
    </head>
</smil>
here's the script, so far Windows only, at least to stop the file being played.
// script.name = musicPlayer_Windows.jsx;
// script.needs = I need to create an Empty Playlist File for the Mac, that will play on the default music player when executed
// carlos canto, 10/12/2014
var w = new Window('dialog', 'Music Player');
var btnFile = w.add('button', undefined, 'Select an *.mp3 file to play...');
var lblSong = w.add('edittext', undefined, '');
lblSong.characters = 30;
var btnPlay = w.add('button', undefined, 'Play');
var btnStop = w.add('button', undefined, 'Stop');
var btnClose = w.add('button', undefined, 'Close');
btnPlay.enabled = btnStop.enabled = false;
var emptyPlaylist = getEmptyPlaylist ();
btnFile.onClick = function () {
    var file = File.openDialog ("Select File to Play...", '*.mp3', false);
    lblSong.text = file.displayName;
    lblSong.file = file;
    btnPlay.enabled = btnStop.enabled = true;
btnPlay.onClick = function () {
    lblSong.file.execute();
    $.sleep (300);
    BridgeTalk.bringToFront('estoolkit');
btnStop.onClick = function () {
    emptyPlaylist.execute();
    $.sleep (300);
    BridgeTalk.bringToFront('estoolkit');
btnClose.onClick = function () {
    w.close();
w.show();
// this function creates an Empty Playlist file (Windows) on the fly, this file will be used to "stop" a playing file
// I need a similar function for Mac
function getEmptyPlaylist () {
    var desk = Folder.desktop;
    var f = new File(desk+'/emptyPlaylist.wpl');
    if (!f.exists) {
        var s_emptyPlaylist = (new String("<?wpl version=\"1.0\"?>\n<smil>\n    <head>\n        <meta name=\"Generator\" content=\"Microsoft Windows Media Player -- 12.0.7601.18150\"/>\n        <meta name=\"ItemCount\" content=\"0\"/>\n        <title>empyPlaylist</title>\n    </head>\n</smil>\n"));
        f.encoding = 'utf-8';
        f.open('w');
        f.write(eval(s_emptyPlaylist));
        f.close();
    return f;
thanks in advance
Carlos

hmm...I think it's going to be more complicated than I thought.
correct, this script targets the ESTK, it is part of a larger Illustrator script, which doesn't have doScript either...I would go with applescript as last resort. I think going with the playlist file is easier.
based on your comment I realized users might change their default players, so on Windows I'm going to change the playlist file from *.wpl to the more universal *.m3u, I guess whatever decent player made the default, supports this file.
so, will an *.m3u playlist file play on the default mac player (itunes) when executed?
File("~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/emptyPlaylist.m3u").execute(); // will this play on itunes?
I noticed that the *.m3u file can be blank, it will still "play" when executed() and effectively "stops" any music file currently being played...if this happens on Mac also, that's what I'm after.
thanks for helping Dirk.

Three libraries, three iPods, lost music, empty playlists

My wife, daughter, and I have three iPods and three libraries (we use the option key when starting up iTunes). We store all the music files on an external HD. Today, while cleaning up a bunch of duplicate files/folders from a system reinstall, I deleted all the music files Ouch! Not to worry, I have the iPods and Senuti. If I simply reimport the music, I get ! signs on every track, and empty playlists. With Senuti, I can drag playlists one at a time and they seem to repopulate the existing playlists nicely. But at over 150 playlists per iPod, it's a lengthy process. Can't select more than one playlist at a time in either Senuti or iTunes, and haven't been able to find a helpful Doug's script. Is there a way to speed up this process? After being unable to reassociate the songs in the library with the playlists, I simply deleted my whole library, and am now redragging one playlist at a time. I will do the same with my wife's iPod and then my daughter's, being careful not to sync and overwrite them. My daughter's nano is set to auto-update so I will have to move her library to a different location, I think, so it won't auto-update and delete all her music. Help!
marmer

I haven't used it for awhile but can't you simply
download the playlist without downloading the music?
I wish, but it doesn't seem to work that way. Senuti will let you download the music IN the playlist, but not just the playlist info. Same, AFAICT, with iPodRip.
What I may do is the following:
1. Delete everything (scary).
2. Restore from my iPod first (I'm Dad, mine is biggest!).
3. Duplicate the resulting Library and playlists to a new library for my wife, and rename it.
4. Delete a few playlists she doesn't want and restore the playlists that (she wants but I don't want) from her iPod using Senuti.
5. Repeat for my daughter. She has a nano and not much music, so this will be much faster. Her tastes run to standard pop fare, no classical.
I think, when all is said and done, I will have one Music folder with all the actual MP3s, AACs, and the occasionall AIFF in it, and three libraries corresponding to the three iPods with Library subsets of the total Music folder.
Does that sound about right?
marmer

Thousands of empty playlists

I recently moved from a PC to a Mac and I had thousands of empty playlists in my iTunes library, which I know is a problem from iTunes Match. I thought I could fix the problem on a Mac using the Automator or a script, but now every time I try to do that, iTunes freezes, becomes non-responsive, and nothing happens. As it was, iTunes was taking about 10 minutes to open and become responsive, and then it would only work for a little while before becoming non-responsive again. Now, after running the Automator "Remove Empty Playlists" and a script, the playlists didn't go anywhere, and I can't get iTunes to open at all.
All day, I've been trying to fix this by turning off iTunes Match on all my iOS devices and getting the script to run, but nothing is working and somehow iTunes is running even worse. I don't know what else to try, but iTunes is completely unusable. Frankly, I don't even know if getting rid of all the playlists would fix the problem. I know I could check by just turning off iTunes Match on my Mac, but it would need to open first for me to do that.
Does anybody have any suggestions?

Hello MrStuntman,
You may need to recreate your iTunes Library. The following article details this process.
iTunes: How to re-create your iTunes library and playlists
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451
Note: After re-creating your library, any devices that you sync with iTunes (Apple TV, iPod, iPhone, iPad) will see your iTunes library as a new library and will completely resync. The next sync with such a device will take longer and may reset some options since your rebuilt library isn't familiar to the device.
Cheers,
Allen

Problem with a thousend empty playlist in iTunes Match.

I need a help to reset my itunes match because have a problem with a thousend empty playlist.

Funny thing: I just reset the iPad 2 again and was careful to shut off iTunes Match. Almost immediately my iPhone 4s updated and showed no more duplicate "recent" playlists. A check of my Laptop also shows none. So now it's isolated to the iPad. Guess I'll leave Match shut off for a day or two.

Deleting multiple empty playlists

I have recently purchased an iPhone and have transferred my itunes music library from my home computer to my laptop which is running Windows Vista. In doing so, I have successfully transferred my entire library. However, I have noted that all of the playlists in my library have been multiplied many times. When I attempt to open any of these multiple playlists, I find that they are empty. In other words, I have an enormous number of duplicated playlists on my newly authorized computer, nearly all of which are empty. Deleting them one by one would take a huge amount of time.
Is there any way that I can delete the lot of them and reinstall the playlists that I would like to keep without making an enormous amount of copies?

The VBscript below will delete all empty playlists. You can either copy and paste from below into a .vbs file, or download it here
Option Explicit
Dim iTunes
Dim playlists
Dim i
Set iTunes = CreateObject("iTunes.Application")
Set playlists = iTunes.LibrarySource.Playlists
For i = playlists.Count to 1 Step -1
If playlists.Item(i).Size = 0 Then
wscript.echo "playlist " & playlists.Item(i).Name & " is 0 size, deleting "
playlists.Item(i).Delete
End If
Next

Multiple empty playlists, iTunes freezes, incomplete syncs

I have a PC...don't hold it against. My iTunes freezes, I have incomplete syncs and a ridiculous number of empty playlists. I have some computer sense ( in other words if you are patient I have no problem trying to make changes to my computer). Was excited for iMatch...now not so much. Suggestions?

Assuming you've posted in the Windows forum because you have a Windows PC...
Click the link for KillEmptyPlaylists to visit the page where it is hosted. Click the link of the same name on that page to download the script to your computer. Double-click the script to run it. (You'll probably get some kind of security warning but your A-V scanner should have been happy with it - it is safe, but then I suppose if I had bad intent I would say that. You'll have to decide whether you think I can be trusted.). The script will ask you to make sure that you want it to go ahead, and then delete all the empty playlists for you if you want.
If you actually have a Mac I can point you in the right direction for an equivalent script.
tt2

I created a playlist on my iphone and it created multiple empty playlist

Does anyboydy have the same problem?
I created a playlist on my Iphone and suddently thousands of empty playlist with identifcal name appeared everywhere.
Since then, my music on my iphone freezes.
I tried to remove with automator on my computer, but when I refresh the Itune match, they reappear..

If your Mac is signed into your account with Documents & Data syncing checked in System Preferences>iCloud, it should have received a copy on your Mac.
Open Finder and navigate to "~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~Pages/Documents" (without the quotes) from the Go>Go to Folder Menu. If this folder exists on your hard drive, launch Time Machine and go back to an earlier point in time to see if your missing document appears. If it does, restore the most recent version available.

How do you remove duplicate tracks and re-instate tracks to empty playlists?

Hi,
Having had several problems with my iTunes over the past week I seem to possibly be on the verge of finally sorting everything (help from member tt2 is credited with this!)
However, after spending most of today trying to find my most recently backed up files in order to restore my iTunes (having installed the new iTunes 11 yesterday...think its a bit Marmite - you'll either love it or hate it!!) I created a new Library and I have somehow managed to find all of my playlists I thought I had lost only to add them to iTunes and find....THEY ARE EMPTY! SACRÉ BLEU!
Bizarrely, all of my albums etc. are showing when I click Music under the Library tab and to top it off when I scrolled through the albums some have the tracks duplicated between 2 > 5 times over on the same album. I un-ckecked the box incidentally under EDIT > PREFERENCES > ADVANCED to ensure that nothing was duplicated so not quite sure what I've done / what has happened.
My files were in a real mess and I want to get everything dorted so i can back up and delete all my old libraries etc as I need to clear space on my C/Drive and external hard drive.
Don't want to do anything else without asking someone out there who has iTunes down to a fine art and can point me in the right direction to put my iTunes back together for once and for all. I've lost some of my playlists that were my own compilations as I appear to have not backed up properly, but I have pretty much all my other music including that that I have purchased - except NONE of my purchases are showing either under Store > Purchased which also seems strange cosidering they are showing under Albums.
Any help to resolve this once and for all so I can do something else with my life would be much appreciated
Thanks in advance!

The easiest way is to use the event list for each track. The first few events listed for each track should be Control events. Look for control event number 7 (volume) and 10 (pan) and either delete them or set them how you want them by entering new values. If you delete them they will revert to the default values of 127 (max) volume and 64 (centre) pan and you will need to adjust them using the mixer.

Empty Playlists & Duplicate Songs!

1) All of my laboriously created Playlists in iTunes are suddenly empty! Is there a way to get the contents back? This seems to have happened since I upgraded to Lion.
2) I have a lot of duplicated songs in iTunes. Is there a quick way to delete the duplicates?

I am having this problem also. I have searched and found many posts on the subject, but no solutions found.
Thanks,
Debbie at
Qtrmoon Pond

Empty playlists when using iTunes match

Most of my playlists are showing up empty when I use iTunes Match on my second Mac. The playlists all work fine on my devices (ipod and ipad), it's just on my work Mac that this is happening. All smart playlists work. Randomly, two of my other created playlists are working but all of the rest show up empty with zero items in them. I've tried reseting Itunes match. Nothing is working to fix the problem. Any suggestions? This is driving me crazy.

Hi,
Try holding shift key whilst turning off match. Close itunes and relaunch, turn on match and select add this computer.Does this help?
Jim

Songs appear in formerly empty playlist

I made a new playlist and selected it. Of course, it is empty. I searched for a song to add to this playlist and when I exited the search, over 3000 songs (not my entire library) appeared in this playlist. How do I get rid of them without having to move them all?
Thanks.

Just select them and press Delete.
It will remove them only from this playlist, not from iTunes.

Empty playlists in ITunes 12

After upgrading to Yosemite and iTunes12, iTunes opens with most of the playlists entirely empty, a few partially filled. My library is on a NAS drive, and this was not a problem previously. Searching on anything specific, e.g. "Beatles" will bring up all Beatles songs, which will then be in their playlists. Bringing up the songs window and doing a Select All will also populate the playlists, but after computer Sleep, they will all be empty again. In addition, some playlists are now permanently empty, as their songs have disappeared from the library entirely.
This is really bad programming.
All thoughts appreciated.

i wanted to add a song to a play list, and entered the name as a search in the library.
the song popped up, so i dragged it over and dropped it into the play list.
then i noticed that the play list only contained that song.
i clicked on other playlists, and they were all empty, even though the song count listed for the playlist was correct.
i tried pressing play for various playlists, and nothing happened.
this is what was happening:
the text for the title of the song was still in the search field.
this limited what itunes would show me to that particular song.
since that song was just in the one play list,
all the playlists showed empty,
except for the one play list, which showed only that one song.
i erased the text in the search box, and itunes again showed all the playlists in full.
i hope this helps.

Empty playlists in Walkman version 8.5.A.0.6!

Hi
I recieved the walkaman update about a month or more from now..but i have been facing some serious problems like the 'most played' playlist, 'recently played' playlist, the 'walkman favorites' are always empty no matr how many songs i add or play!
Although i can create a customized playlist if i want to. And also the sense me is empty too.
This is very annoying..please fix the issue as soon as possible or tell me a way to deal with it.
I would also like to bring to notice that i tried uninstalling..reinstalling..clearing cache and the like a million times..still that glitch is persistent even in the factory version i.e. 8.4.A.4.4 which came with kitkat version 4.4.4. Please settle this issue.

Sorry to hear that you're having issues with playlists.
I've forwarded this for further investigation. I'm however not able to replicate this issue here. Which phone model and software version do you have Sonu_dash? You can check this under Settings -> About phone.
- Official Sony Xperia Support Staff
If you're new to our forums make sure that you have read our Discussion guidelines.
If you want to get in touch with the local support team for your country please visit our contact page.

IPhone has thousands of empty Playlists

First my iTunes had this problem and a simple script resolved this but now since a few weeks my iPhone and iPad have these empty platlists...
This us very annoying because when I want to listen to music most of the times it just crashes..,
I know this is from iTunes Match because when I put it off they are gone...
I hope someone can help me with this...
Thanks already

Hello MrStuntman,
You may need to recreate your iTunes Library. The following article details this process.
iTunes: How to re-create your iTunes library and playlists
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451
Note: After re-creating your library, any devices that you sync with iTunes (Apple TV, iPod, iPhone, iPad) will see your iTunes library as a new library and will completely resync. The next sync with such a device will take longer and may reset some options since your rebuilt library isn't familiar to the device.
Cheers,
Allen

Empty Playlists

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