My daughters have access to only a few of my many Playlists, despite SHARE PLAYLISTS setting set to ON.

[RLanger7228 73]

I have made quite a number of music playlists.  Most I imported from Apple Music using only music I have the actual files for in my library (I discussed the details of this process in the post at the bottom).  In short, I exported a playlist.m3u file from Apple Music, edited it so the file path for each song would match the proper file path on my Emby server (a single "search & replace ALL"), Imported it into Emby & used the m3u file playlist to create a "native" Emby playlist by adding the entire m3u playlist to a new, native Emby Playlist, then deleted the m3u file & it's original Playlist.  The Playlists created this way work fine on my Emby Media app, and I can add new songs to them within Emby (which I couldn't with only the original imported m3u file Playlists)

I also have a group of Playlists that I created from scratch within Emby.  They are primarily audio books, comedy albums & radio dramas, which were easily amenable to this because they are each in their own unique single folder, and are properly ordered to play sequentially.  Adding the entire folder to a new Playlist allows them to be played in proper order, and it is a single action to add each group.  Easy Peasy.  Unlike the music Playlists, which would have required hand picking up to 1000 songs (or more) of different artists one by one, it is much more amenable to the group importing described below.

When I went to visit my daughter this weekend, and I went to the Emby Media on her phone, I saw only the playlists in the second group: the ones I created "by hand".  I also had another daughter check, and she also was showing only the same limited # of playlists in her Emby Media.  The playlists I created in the first group are not sharing with other users the same way, even though I checked the settings on my account & allow sharing of Playlists.  All my Collections of movies are sharing just fine.  Another thought is that many of the playlists in the first group have had songs added to them within Emby after creation, but were not created from scratch, like the second group.  I don't know if this makes a difference.

I was hoping someone with more technical expertise than I have might intuit why there is a difference in the sharing behavior of these 2 groups of Playlists, despite the first group "behaving normally" in my Emby Media & my sharing set to ON.  

 

 

 

 

 

[visproduction 315]

Just a guess.  Your daughter's account may have limited access to parental guide ratings.  Maybe their user account limits R movies.  There are a lot of ratings and if you are not specifically allow them access, then some odd rating for a music with strong lyrics and maybe cause the entire playlist to be off limits and not appear.

[RLanger7228 73]

1 hour ago, visproduction said:

Just a guess.  Your daughter's account may have limited access to parental guide ratings.

Thank you for your prompt reply.  However, I do not set parental rating limitations for my adult daughters.  It would seem odd that an entire playlist would be excluded because of one song.  Additionally, there are Classical & New Age music playlists with no lyrics at all that aren't showing up either.  I have very few songs with profanity (probably less than 5 songs out of about 1 TB of MP3's) that might be affected by this.  I suspect that it is more likely related to the way the playlists were created (since which ones DO show up is consistent on that score).  I just don't understand why the way they were created would affect whether they can be shared, when they work "normally" for me.

[Luke 42077]

Quote

Imported it into Emby & used the m3u file playlist to create a "native" Emby playlist by adding the entire m3u playlist to a new, native Emby Playlist, then deleted the m3u file & it's original Playlist.

Hi, what exactly was your process for this?

[RLanger7228 73]

On 6/8/2025 at 11:43 PM, Luke said:

Hi, what exactly was your process for this?

In the first post in this thread, there is a link to another post I made that details the process I used.

[RLanger7228 73]

I am still waiting for some suggestions as to why my daughters can only see some of my playlists.  The process I used for creating the playlists they can't see is detailed in another post I made.  The link to that post is in the first post in this thread.

In the meantime, I have been experimenting.  I tried using different methods to get the songs from the "missing" playlists into new playlists.  1) Open playlist, then add each song to a new, different playlist one by one (quite tedious for a playlist with over 900 songs);  2) Open Playlist, from the entire playlist options, select add to playlist, create a new playlist (which adds all the items from the original playlist to a new one);  3) use the Selection option to select all the songs & create a new playlist from that.

In the last method, I was able to select songs in a playlist individually (with a little green check circle in the left-hand column).  There is an option to add the selected songs to a new playlist, which I followed.  However, after executing I got an error message that said to try again later (screenshot 1).  I left the screen with the selected songs open overnight & tried again the next morning (try again later), with the same error message.  Why am I getting this error?

 

Screenshot 2 shows the playlist screen from my daughter's phone, which doesn't show ANY of the new playlists I made today, not even by method one.  I thought that method # one would have the best success, because the playlists she DOES see (audio books) were created within emby by selecting folders & making the new playlists that way.  That is the only quality I can think of that may be different between the ones she can see & the ones she can't.

This is QUITE frustrating, as I would dearly love to share my music playlists with my family!

[Luke 42077]

Quote

In the last method, I was able to select songs in a playlist individually (with a little green check circle in the left-hand column).  There is an option to add the selected songs to a new playlist, which I followed.  However, after executing I got an error message that said to try again later (screenshot 1).  I left the screen with the selected songs open overnight & tried again the next morning (try again later), with the same error message.  Why am I getting this error?

Hi there, please attach the Emby server log from when the problem occurred:

How to Report a Problem

Thanks!

 

[RLanger7228 73]

I had left the songs selected screen open & tried again this morning (with the same error) to ensure that issue would be included.  Just to be extra sure I would include other instances of this issue, I included the last 3 days of log, which are attached.  Yesterday's issue would have been at a time close to the time of my last posting.

 

embyserver-63886665600 - 3D - 2025-06-29.txt

[Luke 42077]

On 6/29/2025 at 7:24 AM, RLanger7228 said:

I had left the songs selected screen open & tried again this morning (with the same error) to ensure that issue would be included.  Just to be extra sure I would include other instances of this issue, I included the last 3 days of log, which are attached.  Yesterday's issue would have been at a time close to the time of my last posting.

 

embyserver-63886665600 - 3D - 2025-06-29.txt 36.51 kB · 0 downloads

Hi, are you sure this is the right log? There's really nothing here other than just starting up the server.

[RLanger7228 73]

On 7/1/2025 at 4:52 PM, Luke said:

Hi, are you sure this is the right log? There's really nothing here other than just starting up the server.

Really?  I went to the log section of Emby Settings, clicked on the last 3 days in order to be sure I had included an instance of the problem, then clicked Create Log, which downloaded to my laptop, then renamed it by adding a date, then uploaded it to you.  I even repeated trying to create the playlist just before doing all that to ensure it would be included.  It SHOULD be correct.

However, regardless of what I thought I did, if you can't find any useful information it will not be helpful to either of us.  Anyway, that particular issue was just one method of playlist creation, which I was trying to use to get around the primary problem: why my daughters can only see some of my playlists and not others.  That issue is quite frustrating to me & one I would most sincerely appreciate help resolving.

 

I created most of my playlists by importing them from Apple Music (see the link in my first post in this thread for the exact multi-steps).  These playlists are not able to be seen by my daughters, though they show up for me & function normally (I can add new songs, shuffle, etc).  I also created a group of playlists directly in Emby (mostly audio books, as shown in the 2nd screen shot from my post on Sat 6/28/25, in this thread) by going to MUSIC>BY FOLDER and adding entire folders to newly created playlists.  These CAN be seen by my daughters (the SS is from them, when they look under Playlists in their version of Emby Media).  I mention this because this is the only substantial difference I can find between the ones they can see & the ones they can't.

As an experiment, I created new playlists (with similar names): 1) by adding an entire playlist to a newly created playlist;  and 2) By adding individual songs to a newly created playlist;  and 3) trying to "check" the songs & add them as a group, which led to the error I previously described, so wasn't successful.

Regardless of the method of creation, the newly created playlists are still not visible by my daughters, even the one created with individual songs, leaving me at a further loss to explain why they can't see the bulk of my playlists.

 

I don't mind work-arounds (if they are not too tedious), but I can't seem to find any, nor any settings I can change to resolve the problem.  Playlists are able to be collaborative, and that setting is on.  I don't use content filtering at all.  What other setting could be at issue, or what other work-around(s) might be possible?  If I had more hair, I would be pulling it out in frustration right now.  PLEASE offer some suggestions!

[Luke 42077]

If they weren’t created in Emby then it’s based on normal library access. What library are the playlists located in? Do they have visibility to that library?

[RLanger7228 73]

The screen shot shows some of the playlists visible when I go MUSIC library > PLAYLISTS.  (I assume that is what you mean when you ask what Library they are in & what is their visibility.

The bulk of the playlists in question WERE created in Emby, but by 1) uploading a playlist.m3u files, which Emby turned into playlists, then 2) Importing THOSE playlists into new Native Emby playlists - so the final playlists WERE created in Emby.

The playlists that my daughters CAN see are also under Music, though they were created by adding entire folders to new Emby playlists.

As an experiment, I created an entirely new playlist by adding 5 songs individually to a new Emby playlist (AA - Allegro mixed).  My daughters are not able to see this new playlist either, despite how it was created. (I displayed a current playlist they couldn't see, clicked the ellipsis by each song individually, selected Add To Playlist, selected "+ New Playlist", created AA - Allegro mixed, then added each additional song to this newly created playlist, which is conveniently located at the top of the list.

[Luke 42077]

How did you create it? If you created it in Emby then that’s normal. You’ll need to grant them access to it.

[RLanger7228 73]

I went to one of the playlists they couldn't see, clicked the ellipsis & saw "Manage Collaboration" among the choices (SS 1).  When I clicked that, I saw a new screen that allows me to select who can see the playlist (SS 2).  The individual playlist can be set to "Private" (defaults to no access, but individual users can be assigned view or edit access), or to "Collaborative", where all users default to view access, but individuals can be authorized to edit (SS 3).

This would certainly account for the issue I was having.

I labeled this post as the answer to my original question because I went into detail & provided screen shots, but it was @Luke who pointed me in the right direction, so he deserves credit.

[GloverEggs 9]

It would be extremely beneficial to be able to set the default for the collaboration.  I want the default to be 'collaborative' but I have to go in and change it for every new playlist.  Then I need to go in and change each person from 'view' to 'edit'.  I understand the use of this function, but having a default setting that is so far from what we need is frustrating.