https://github.com/skiphansen/volumio-plugins/tree/master/plugins/miscellanea/m3u_importer
This plugin imports m3u or m3u8 playlists into the Volumio.
Both simple and extended m3u files are supported.
This plugin must be installed manually using the following procedure.
-
Enable SSH following the instructions found here.
-
Connect via ssh using putty or the command line
ssh volumio@volumio.local, the password is volumio.
If you are unable to connect refer to Finding Volumio for more information. -
Download and install the plugin by running the following commands:
wget https://github.com/skiphansen/volumio-plugins/raw/master/plugins/miscellanea/m3u_importer/m3u_importer.zip
mkdir m3u_importer
cd m3u_importer
miniunzip ../m3u_importer.zip
volumio plugin install
To import a playlist navigate to Plugins / Installed Plugins on the Volumio webpage and then click the "Settings" button for the "Import M3U Playlists" plugin.
Fill in the full path to the folder containing the playlists you wish to import. Note: playlists must have an extension of .m3u or .m3u8, files with other extensions are siliently ignored.
Alternately enter the full path to a specific playlist.
The path is as seen from the view point of the music library hence it MUST start with INTERNAL, NAS, or USB.
As a convenience the path is initialized to the root of the first USB drive, or NAS server found.
Next select how existing playlists are handled.
| Option | |
|---|---|
| New playlists | Playlists which have been imported previously are silently ignored. |
| All playlist | All playlists are imported replacing existing Volumio playlists with the same nam |
| Ask before overwriting | You will be asked if existing an playlist should be replaced or not. |
If you choose the Ask option a dialog will pop up for each playlist which has been imported previously.
Your options are:
| Response | Action |
|---|---|
| Yes | The M3u playlist is imported replacing existing Volumio playlist. |
| No | This M3u playlist is skipped. |
| Go | This M3u playlist and all further playlists are imported replacing existing Volumio playlists. |
| Cancel | No further playlists are imported. |
Portable m3u playlists (those that use relative file paths) should import without any problems.
The plugin also attempts to import playlists that use absolute paths by making some assumptions based on the location of the playlist being imported. If these assumptions are incorrect the files referenced by the playlist will not be found and an error message will be displayed.
| Response | Action |
|---|---|
| Continue | Ignore the track and continue processing playlist |
| Ignore Errors | Ignore the track and continue processing playlist, ignore further errors |
| Cancel | Stop importing playlists |
I have only tested this plugin on a Rpi4, but since it's 100% Javascript and has no hardware dependencies I would expect it to run on other platforms without a problem.
Please feel free to create a new issue if you run into problems. The paint is very wet on this plugin and feedback is welcome.
The plug creates a verbose log file in /tmp/m3u_importer.log, please download the log and attach to new issues.
This plugin was originally written in November 2021 just prior to the release of Volumio V3. At that time the plugin was successfully tested on the V3 beta.
The plugin was submitted to the Volumio team to on Nov 26, 2021 for inclusion as an "official" plugin. Unfortunately it was too late for V3. The PR was rejected on Feb 12 2022 with a request to resubmit the plugin for V3.
At that point I was very busy with work and didn't have much (any) time for hobby projects so I didn't investigate further.
This plugin was a result of my whole house sound system project for my wife and I. When I finished the "master" node (Volumio instance running on an Rpi4) for the living rooms (old Yamaha amp and M&K speakers) I showed to my wife. While she said nice things about Volumio and the sound quality she almost immediately went back to listening to Pandora on her iPad using the internal speakers.
What can I say, as is often the case my poor marketing efforts doomed good technology!
Fast forward to April 2023. A Volumio user ran into issues with the importer on V3 and asked for help. We were able to get the importer to work on V3.435. None of the problems had anything to do with Volumio V3 (see #1 for the gory details) and no changes were made to the importer.
I had some free time so I thought I'd take a whack at resubmitting the importer for the V3 store. After some investigation I decided not to spend the effort for the following reasons:
- My Volumio based music player works well, but in reality I've hardly used it over the last two years.
- The number of people using the importer appears to be fairly low.
- Volumio now requires an account (paid or free) to access many features and ANY plugins.
- The submission process has changed significantly and it now requires significant testing. While this level of testing is an excellent idea, it's more work that I care to do for a hobby project.
So ... the m3u importer will probably continue to work for V3, but it will never be an official plugin that can be installed directly from the Volumio store.