Save playlist using relative path

[Dario006]

This is a feature which would be fantastic for me right now.
As people have been saying for *years* on this thread a 'sharable' playlist should be able to be moved around easily and therefore use relative paths - or at least give people the option to.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Err, this was fixed in VLC 3.0.0.

[paul_1149]

Good job. Thanks.

[bikewave55]

No, a playlist saved to the same directory as the songs will still have absolute path names. Windows 10. V3.0.6 VLC media player.
e.g.
#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:192,Moody Blues, The - Go Now
file:///G:/media/music6_1164songs/Moody_Blues__The_-_The_Best_Of_The_Moody_Blues_(1996)_MP3/01%20-%20Go%20Now.mp3

Now, it is true that if you save playlist to the parent directory, then the paths will be relative to that directory. Which is a step in the right direction. But then the paths will have the directory name in them and if you change the directoryname, then the playlist will not work. This was an odd way to attempt to address this request for feature. Sigh.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Saving in the same directory gives me just the file name (VLC 3.0.6).

[BreathTaken]

made an account just to show that my .xspf is indeed not using relative pathing
sample code:

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <playlist xmlns="http://xspf.org/ns/0/" xmlns:vlc="http://www.videolan.org/vlc/playlist/ns/0/" version="1"> <title>Playlist</title> <trackList> <track> <location>file:///D:/Library/Downloads/test.mkv</location> <duration>1423506</duration> <extension application="http://www.videolan.org/vlc/playlist/0"> <vlc:id>0</vlc:id> </extension> </track>

VLC media palyer version 3.0.7.1 Vetinari

Also, I've tried editing the file to use ./ for typical xml relative pathing but that has not worked yet, feels like I'm doing that wrong or VLC doesn't interpret the relative path as expected..

[Renice]

You should change <location>file:///D:/Library/Downloads/test.mkv</location> to <location>file:///./test.mkv</location>. Just change it for all files using text editor. It works fo me (version 3.0.6 and next versions). So it will work if you change the name of directory or change the disk. But your playlist file shoud be with songs it used. I think it's a reason why vlc will use only absolute path in future. It's more comfortable if you are not going to move your songs

[OsakaWebbie]

It's more comfortable if you are not going to move your songs

But what if you ARE going to move your songs? Starting next week (continuing for several weeks or even a few months), I will need to give a playlist and its videos (or at least one of the videos) to a non-techie person every week via Dropbox, and he will put the files on a thumb drive and take them to a location that doesn't have internet and play them there (context: a small church that is semi-in-person/semi-online and will start using pre-recorded videos for both the songs and sermon). Yes, I can edit the .xspf file every time to remove parts of the paths, but if I make a mistake, a church worship service fails with no techie on the premises to fix it (I'll be at home separately running the online version).

It would be nice if there was a setting somewhere that would allow the user to choose whether to save the playlist with absolute or relative paths. Surely the sharing of playlists is not rare - I can think of lots of usage scenarios. Feature request? Of course the wording of the setting wouldn't be "absolute path/relative path" - it would be something more user-friendly, like "Save as portable playlist" or something like that (not sure the best way to say it). Hmm, on second thought, since the media needs to stay with it and that might not be obvious, perhaps it could be a whole new function called something like "Save portable bundled playlist and media" that creates a ZIP file - that would be something everyone would understand. I'm just brainstorming.

Of course, approval and implementation of any such feature would be too late for my immediate purpose, so if someone has any suggestions for the workflow of the situation I'm facing (and for others who might be doing similar things), I'm all ears.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

I guess, generate the playlist on macOS, Linux or really anything other than Windows.

[OsakaWebbie]

Are you saying that the MacOS and Linux versions of VLC use relative paths while the Windows version uses absolute paths? That seems weird.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

What I'm saying is that it works for me, and I can't think of any other variable.

[OsakaWebbie]

What OS do you use and what version of VLC? I have Windows 10 and VLC 3.0.11.
[The question is mostly just curiosity about why your experience is different from the rest of the people who have posted on this thread - I don't have easy access to a different OS, and I assume older versions of VLC are no longer available.]

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Debian, VLC 3.0.11.1

[alexalexalex]

Can confirm that VLC 3.0.16 Vetinari saves absolute paths for me.
Tested on Debian 11 (bullseye)
Tried saving as xspf and m3u
Tried to drag and drop songs then save
Tried to modify the playlist to relative path by hand, then open (double click) playlist in VLC, then remove a song and save as new playlist
In all cases VLC produces absolute paths in playlist file.

[trysting]

Clearly people have different approaches to filing. I've never found VLC-created playlists useful, so I create my own in VBA and/or NoteTabPro scripting.

Please, please don't FORCE playlists into a single location. I have thousands of them. Please don't default to absolute as absolute has a shorter lifespan. Configuration, software and hardware changes break such things, not to mention human interventions.

[trueboss926]

Can confirm it's still saving absolute paths. VLC 3.0.18 Windows 11