MP3 Music Playlist creator needed

[VeeBee]

Does anyone know of any windows 10 software that will work with the Zumo XT2 when plugged into USB which will create playlists from the MP3 music files I have put on SD card. I’ve downloaded latest Garmin Express but that’s no help.

I’ve got thousands of MP3 files organised into folders and I want to create playlists with the same name as each folder.

I have tried Windows Media Player but it doesn’t work. Out of a directory folder containing over 200 songs it only loads 25 of them, then says it can’t load the rest. I’ve checked and none of the files are corrupted.

I need to create about 25 to 30 playlists.

I have also downloaded and tried freeware M3U playlist creators but they don’t even see or recognise the Garmin drive at all.

I’ve tried doing it from the XT2 device itself but gave up after around 4 hours. It was taking forever scrolling through 5000 songs, checking little boxes which don’t appear to be in any order relating to the folders I created.

The Tread app is quite useless, it doesn’t do anything like what I want.

The older Zumo I had, think it was a 660 was much easier and simpler to work with compared to my new XT2 which is unnecessarily over complicated.

It would be far simpler if the XT2 just recognised the folders and played the MP3’s from them, like my car does.

Just in case anyone asks, I don’t have music coming from my phone because the majority of the tracks are not on my iphone. I’ve backed up my music CD’s to Mp3 files and can’t get them onto my new iphone 15. I also think it’s simpler (or should be) to have the music on SD card.

[turbo19]

I use windows media player for making the .m3u files. Don´t change anything in the folders, just open it with windows media player, and save the .m3u of this folder (there is an option at the top right of the media player to save the list as .m3u). Add this .m3u to the folder and the XT2 recognizes it. I do not know if I explained well.

[VeeBee]

I use windows media player for making the .m3u files. Don´t change anything in the folders, just open it with windows media player, and save the .m3u of this folder (there is an option at the top right of the media player to save the list as .m3u). Add this .m3u to the folder and the XT2 recognizes it. I do not know if I explained well.

Thank you for the quick reply. As I mentioned I’ve already tried windows media player and persevered with it until around 2am this morning. I tried that many different things, I eventually gave up.

The main problem I had was after connecting the XT and Garmin Express, I started windows media player then opened one of the folders containing music, but it would only open 25 of the files then just kept throwing up error after error for each file it couldn’t open after that. As I said, I’ve gone through every file confirming none of them are corrupt.

If it works for you then I must be doing something wrong, so I’ll give it another go following your instructions

Once again, thank you for taking the time to help, very much appreciated.

[jfheath]

The above methods should work after a fashion.

But if you create a small playlist on the Zumo
and then create a small playlist on Media player (or whatever)

and compare the results

You will see that there is a difference in how the files are referenced.

So you know what it is that you have to modify in the Media player palylist to give it a chance of working on the Zumo.

Sorry - I can't be more specific - I looked at this a very long time ago and decided that if I deleted the tracks that I wasn't bothered about, then any random order of songs would work just fine for me.

The XT always seems to play the first track of Adeles first album - no matter how many time I randomise it ! After that the tracks are random.

[VeeBee]

The above methods should work after a fashion.

But if you create a small playlist on the Zumo
and then create a small playlist on Media player (or whatever)

and compare the results

You will see that there is a difference in how the files are referenced.

So you know what it is that you have to modify in the Media player palylist to give it a chance of working on the Zumo.

Sorry - I can't be more specific - I looked at this a very long time ago and decided that if I deleted the tracks that I wasn't bothered about, then any random order of songs would work just fine for me.

The XT always seems to play the first track of Adeles first album - no matter how many time I randomise it ! After that the tracks are random.

It would be ok if I could actually get media player to even open anything from the XT2 to actually do anything with. It seem to not like the garmin device at all.

[VeeBee]

Just tried again, but it doesn’t work. It won’t open the MP3 files into windows media player.

I click on Open files at top right next to the drop down arrow.

Select the zumo XT2 drive.

Select Memory Card.

Select MP3 folder.

Select the music folder I want.

Select the MP3 files I want in playlist.

Click on open at the bottom.

Then it tries to open files but gives errors…. All it keeps saying is We couldnt open “file name” wait a bit then try again 0x800700a

I’ve tried adding the files to a play queue but it just the same errors.

Btw, my windows media player version is 11.2402.6.0

Another issue is media player shows as everything as unknown artist, unknown album, unknown genre, unknown year.

I’ve even tried using VLC player and others but that doesn’t work either. It seems as though the XT2 is just not compatible or something. The music plays on the XT2 (and other devices) no problem but it’s not in playlists. If only the XT2 recognised folders.

Another method I tried, If I go first to My PC, then find and select the MP3 files I want, then right click and select Open.. Media Player opens and tries to open the files, but it fails again with the above error.

This is really doing my head in! It should just work. It makes me feel like getting rid of this and buying one of those cheap chinese carpuride devices that just seem to work. If only I hadn’t just spent over £500 on this. I shall persevere!

[lkraus]

Unlike the 660 and 59x Garmins, the XT and XT2 cannot act as "mappable" drives. Windows file managers see them as a media device, but they are never assigned a drive letter (C:\, D:\, etc.). That is a problem for most programs. I think you will have many more options if you remove the microSD card and use the card reader in the computer to create the playlists and then return it to the GPS.

With the card in the reader, I was able to create playlists from individual folders on the card using VLC and MediaMonkey, so I assume other programs would also work.

[lkraus]

(continuing, hit Submit instead of Preview...)

I created the playlists one folder at a time, entering a title for each manually. It might be possible to automate the process in MediaMonkey with a script but after fifteen years with MM, it is beyond my ability. (I can crop a picture in Photoshop, but I can't remove my mother-in-law from the Christmas picture.)

I do suggest you look at MediaMonkey to organize such a large collection of songs. It is faster and much more customizable and capable than Windows Media Player. Extensive file tagging options make it easy to create playlists based on many criteria, regardless of storage location.

[VeeBee]

Unlike the 660 and 59x Garmins, the XT and XT2 cannot act as "mappable" drives. Windows file managers see them as a media device, but they are never assigned a drive letter (C:\, D:\, etc.). That is a problem for most programs. I think you will have many more options if you remove the microSD card and use the card reader in the computer to create the playlists and then return it to the GPS.

With the card in the reader, I was able to create playlists from individual folders on the card using VLC and MediaMonkey, so I assume other programs would also work.

This is exactly what I’ve just been thinking. But I wasn’t sure if this sort of thing could be done outside of the XT2 device. I assumed it wouldn’t be able to find the mp3 files referenced in the playlist.

I’ve noticed that playlists created on the actual XT2 device itself are stored in the internal storage MP3/Playlists folder even though the actual mp3 files are on SD card.

It creates them as m3u8 files and not m3u files. Never heard of m3u8 files!

I was wondering what would happen if I took the SD card out of the XT2, put in into a card reader in the PC. Then created a playlist on the PC. Then change the file extension from m3u to m3u8.

Then see if it will allow me to transfer this m3u8 file to the internal storage of the XT2 playlist folder where I assume they must need to be.

This is not half a lot of messing about. We shouldn’t need to be doing all this, it should just work. It should be something easily handled by Garmin Express. There must be a reason why they changed from the old way of mappable drives, but they used to be far easier to work with.

[VeeBee]

okay, I’m back and it didn’t go well at all..

Using SD card in reader

start Windows media player and open the desired folder on the card

select the required MP3 files

Click on create playlist at top left and choose a name

this gives ERROR
Windows Media Player encountered a problem while creating or saving the playlist

Trying to create a playlist with windows media player is like banging my head against a wall !