Can I adjust where my playlists are stored? + Question on sharing list

[podonnell 47]

I made a personal Playlist, and it seems to have its metadata saved in my programdata on my C:\
I typically keep my Emby data on a separate drive. Is there a way to move/repoint this to another spot?

Also, when I create a new user, it shows the playlist as something I can grant access to. Is this my personal playlist, or all playlists?
For example, what if I wanted all users to have their own 'Watch me' playlist. How do I differentiate when granting access which Playlist is which? Or is it all or nothing?

Thanks!

[Luke 42078]

Hi, when you create a new user, they should not see any personal playlists until they are granted access to them. Does that answer your question?

[Luke 42078]

Quote

For example, what if I wanted all users to have their own 'Watch me' playlist. How do I differentiate when granting access which Playlist is which? Or is it all or nothing?

You can have mulitple playlists with the same name.

[podonnell 47]

11 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, when you create a new user, they should not see any personal playlists until they are granted access to them. Does that answer your question?

Partly, thanks.

So when I created someone it showed this:

What is considered the 'Playlists' library? It had one pre-filled, but I presumed that would include access to my personal playlist.

Also was there any way to change where this data is stored?

[Happy2Play 9780]

2 hours ago, podonnell said:

What is considered the 'Playlists' library? It had one pre-filled, but I presumed that would include access to my personal playlist.

Also was there any way to change where this data is stored?

That is the Old/Original Playlists folder that can show playlists to anyone not sure if it is used for anything anymore.  But no it cannot be moved.

All playlists now reside in programdata\data\userplaylists and permissions are controlled in the database for Collaboration/sharing.

I guess the ACCESS folder could probably be removed as it is no longer used except for I believe old install with previous playlists that are still global playlists not userplaylists.

I think the most you can do is make a symbolic/hard link to that location if you really want to relocate it. 

[podonnell 47]

Hmm, so does it actually store anything? Any way to remove it from when I create a new user? I don't think I saw this when I made my users a few months back, so something must have created it recently.

[Happy2Play 9780]

Just now, podonnell said:

Hmm, so does it actually store anything? Any way to remove it from when I create a new user? I don't think I saw this when I made my users a few months back, so something must have created it recently.

Luke will have to comment but believe it is just legacy code that may eventually go away as it really doesn't do anything unless you still have playlists in that folder.

[podonnell 47]

Only place it really came up was when I was creating a new user, under 'Access'. Just was not sure what was contained there, or if that means they could see anyone else's playlists.

I did not grant it to them and it does seem like they can still create their own.

[Luke 42078]

On 10/9/2024 at 2:57 PM, Happy2Play said:

Luke will have to comment but believe it is just legacy code that may eventually go away as it really doesn't do anything unless you still have playlists in that folder.

Correct. If you wanted, you could delete those playlists and recreate them as personal ones. 

[podonnell 47]

On 10/12/2024 at 2:09 AM, Luke said:

Correct. If you wanted, you could delete those playlists and recreate them as personal ones. 

It looks like that folder is empty. It just threw me off because when I am making a new user, it asks me if I want to grant them access to playlists.

How can I make it so this doesn't show up as a library? Can I delete the folder shown above?

When I went to check the Library itself, it shows as if there are 2 folders in the library. I'm guessing one is my personal library, and the other is this location? I can't seem to get it to show what those two folders are.

[Luke 42078]

If you remove the library, then how will you get to your playlists?

[Happy2Play 9780]

2 hours ago, podonnell said:

How can I make it so this doesn't show up as a library? Can I delete the folder shown above?

Looks like it is hard coded as it is readded with every playlist created right now.  As they are global and per user.  But in the end only the admin or someone with access can drop a playlist into \programdata\data\playlists.

But either way it is transparent when viewing playlist as no one but the admin knows of this.

And will have to wait on a future update when it is completely removed.

45 minutes ago, Luke said:

If you remove the library, then how will you get to your playlists?

Just want to remove \programdata\data\playlists but is really meaningless right now.

[Luke 42078]

8 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

Looks like it is hard coded as it is readded with every playlist created right now.  As they are global and per user.  But in the end only the admin or someone with access can drop a playlist into \programdata\data\playlists.

But either way it is transparent when viewing playlist as no one but the admin knows of this.

And will have to wait on a future update when it is completely removed.

Just want to remove \programdata\data\playlists but is really meaningless right now.

I'm not entirely sure it will go away. There may still be a place for playlists that are not associated with any specific user. Plugins can still create playlists without a user assigned, and they end up going there.

[podonnell 47]

Thanks, I think I will just learn to ignore it. I think just understanding what it means when I see it when creating a new user was important.

So basically if I ever have any plugin-related playlists or non-user specific, those would be shared with users if they have that library access.
Is there a way to create a global playlist myself, that all users that have that library can access?

[Luke 42078]

2 hours ago, podonnell said:

 

So basically if I ever have any plugin-related playlists or non-user specific, those would be shared with users if they have that library access.

Correct.

Quote

Is there a way to create a global playlist myself, that all users that have that library can access?

That's what the Playlists library is, but there is currently no way in the user interface to create a playlist like this. In the UI, all new playlists now are user-specific and you have to use the sharing features.

You could create an m3u playlist file though and drop it in there.

[MichielGideon 3]

I think this is the place to add my topic, because this is about the new handling of playlists since Emby Server 4.8

I love the way I can now share playlists for viewing and editing in Emby.

With that new feature Emby Server seems to have "lost" the ability to modify what is called "global playlists" here on the forum. I would call it local playlists.  

I have one folder with only M3U playlists in my Emby Library, like this: 

..../EmbyMusic/Dance/....

..../EmbyMusic/Classical/....

..../EmbyMusic/Pop/....

..../EmbyMusic/LocalPlaylists/...

These 4 folders are music libraries. The LocalPlaylists folder contains only .M3U of .M3U8 files pointing to music in those other folders. Only users with acces to that library could see and modify the playlists.

For the LocalPlaylists library I checked  [√] Import playlist files in Emby.

I could paste a new file in LocalPlaylists as an empty playlist, for example NewRomantics.M3U (only content was #EXTM3U) (by making a .txt file and changing the extention in .m3u)

Miraculously and to my great delight, Emby would read those .M3U files, add songs, change song order, delete songs, and delete the playlist if I wanted that. 

These .M3U playlists can also be imported by my DJ software. I will not go into greater detail about that, but basically with this library in this EmbyMusic folder I could "exchange" playlists between Emby and DJ software. 

The situation since Emby Server 4.8: 

- Still only users with accces to the LocalPlaylists library can see the playlists there (still no user has deletion rights for songs, but that was never the case)

- Emby reads the playlist and adds it to available playlists (if one checks [√] Import playlist files)

- Emby can change the order of songs in the playlist

- Emby can delete songs from the playlist

- But this is temporary, because Emby does not change the .M3U file anymore. When I return to the playlist the changes are gone. When I look at the .M3U in between it never changes. 

- Emby can however still delete the playlist and with that the .M3U file.

It could be new policy. I would be sad, but I understand. If there's a way to keep this "global playlist" handling alive I would much appreciate it.

I added an example of a playlist and a log file. I have a QNAP TS 228a NAS and MacBook/Android/AppleTV.

  

embyserver-2.txt Dance Tools.m3u

[Luke 42078]

On 11/1/2024 at 11:53 AM, MichielGideon said:

I think this is the place to add my topic, because this is about the new handling of playlists since Emby Server 4.8

I love the way I can now share playlists for viewing and editing in Emby.

With that new feature Emby Server seems to have "lost" the ability to modify what is called "global playlists" here on the forum. I would call it local playlists.  

I have one folder with only M3U playlists in my Emby Library, like this: 

..../EmbyMusic/Dance/....

..../EmbyMusic/Classical/....

..../EmbyMusic/Pop/....

..../EmbyMusic/LocalPlaylists/...

These 4 folders are music libraries. The LocalPlaylists folder contains only .M3U of .M3U8 files pointing to music in those other folders. Only users with acces to that library could see and modify the playlists.

For the LocalPlaylists library I checked  [√] Import playlist files in Emby.

I could paste a new file in LocalPlaylists as an empty playlist, for example NewRomantics.M3U (only content was #EXTM3U) (by making a .txt file and changing the extention in .m3u)

Miraculously and to my great delight, Emby would read those .M3U files, add songs, change song order, delete songs, and delete the playlist if I wanted that. 

These .M3U playlists can also be imported by my DJ software. I will not go into greater detail about that, but basically with this library in this EmbyMusic folder I could "exchange" playlists between Emby and DJ software. 

The situation since Emby Server 4.8: 

- Still only users with accces to the LocalPlaylists library can see the playlists there (still no user has deletion rights for songs, but that was never the case)

- Emby reads the playlist and adds it to available playlists (if one checks [√] Import playlist files)

- Emby can change the order of songs in the playlist

- Emby can delete songs from the playlist

- But this is temporary, because Emby does not change the .M3U file anymore. When I return to the playlist the changes are gone. When I look at the .M3U in between it never changes. 

- Emby can however still delete the playlist and with that the .M3U file.

It could be new policy. I would be sad, but I understand. If there's a way to keep this "global playlist" handling alive I would much appreciate it.

I added an example of a playlist and a log file. I have a QNAP TS 228a NAS and MacBook/Android/AppleTV.

  

embyserver-2.txt 1.26 MB · 1 download Dance Tools.m3u 12.69 kB · 0 downloads

 

@MichielGideonwe did recently identify this issue. you might be able to resolve it by opening the user permissions screen for the user you are testing with and just clicking save.

Please let us know if this helps. Thanks !

[MichielGideon 3]

I was away for a while. Just installed server 4.8.11.0. You guys actually solved this problem!

You are wizards. I don't even want to know how you did this. Just a big thank you! 

I did not expect this 'semi hack' I thought I was using to exchange playlists with my DJ software to be restored.

Emby are the best!