Importing Playlists

Importing playlists is easy in Roon! In most cases it happens automatically as long as you have your storage set up correctly.

Playlists imported from Tidal, iTunes, or from M3U files are not editable in Roon at this time.

If you want to edit them in Roon, you can save a local copy by clicking the 3 dots icon and selecting Edit then Save a Local Copy at the top of the playlist's detail screen. This will save the copy into the current user's Playlist Browser. The original imported playlist will still be available or can be deleted.

iTunes Playlists

Playlists you created in iTunes should be available to you in Roon, once you’ve included your iTunes Music Library.xml file in your iTunes Watched Folder.

Roon can monitor your iTunes library, importing your music and playlists, and updating your Roon library automatically when you add new music in iTunes.

In most cases, you can enable this functionality by visiting the Storage tab of Settings, and clicking + Add Folder and Browsing to your iTunes music folder. If you select the option to Import iTunes Content, make sure your iTunes Music Library.xml file is in this folder.

Then, just enable iTunes Import and you're good to go! Your iTunes playlists will show up in Roon.

If you're having trouble importing your iTunes library in Roon, or you're not seeing your playlists, give this article a read.

TIDAL Playlists

Playlists you have marked as a favorite in your TIDAL account will appear in your Playlists in Roon.

Playlists imported from TIDAL are not editable in Roon at this time, and Roon does not support syncing playlists back to TIDAL. If you want to edit your TIDAL playlists in Roon, you can Save a Local Copy in Roon by clicking the 3 dots icon and select Edit at the top of the playlist's detail screen.

You can also browse for Tidal playlists in Roon by selecting Tidal from the main navigation sidebar. If you find a playlist that you like, select it, click the 3 dots icon and select Edit and Save A Local Copy.

M3U & Other Playlist Files

M3U playlist files in your watched folder will also be imported as shared playlists. You can enable/disable M3U playlist importing from the Storage tab of Settings, and open the Edit screen for the storage location where the M3U is stored.

Then, turn on or off Playlist Import.

In order for Roon to successfully import an M3U playlist, it must meet the following requirements:

• Include tracks from the same watched folder (tracks from other watched folders will be ignored - tracks can be stored anywhere in the watched folder where the M3U is stored, but the contents of an M3U playlist cannot span multiple watched folders)

• Reference file paths that Roon can understand -- if you have moved your media or your M3U file, or if you think M3U is being ignored by Roon, you should open the M3U in a text editor and confirm that the path for a given song matches the path for that track displayed in Roon. When it comes to absolute paths versus relative paths, we recommend you use relative paths to avoid issues with missing playlists if the M3U is moved to another location.

• The M3U playlist isn’t an exact copy of the tracklist in the directory where the M3U is stored -- example: if you have an M3U playlist stored in a folder with an album, and the playlist simply duplicates the album's tracks, it won’t be imported. 
  

Many early CD ripping programs automatically generated m3u files that were merely carbon copies of the album. When those text files were imported, Roon customers would end up with thousands of unwanted playlists. To prevent that, Roon ignores any M3U sheets that are exact duplicates, in the exact running order, of the folder contents. 

Try changing the numbering of one or more tracks in the folder, so they’re not sequential, then generate a new M3U text file.

 Other supported playlist file types include:

1. pls
   
2. m3u8
   
3. xspf

Note: All of the same rules that apply to m3u playlists apply to these as well

Smart Playlists

If you have iTunes importing enabled, Roon will also import your smart playlists. If you want to create new playlists in Roon and are looking for something similar to smart playlists, there's an easy way to create them using Focus. Check out the article we wrote on this here!

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