I am using emplode beta 13 with windows XP and I have had trouble importing m3u's. I can drag and drop a m3u only when import m3u files is selected under options. The trouble is, a sync up with this scenario results in a second copy of each song getting downloaded to the rio.

If I try to drag and drop a m3u without this option selected, emplode will not copy anything.

Is there any way to import m3u's without redownloading the mp3 file?

When you say "a second copy is generated", do you mean...

A) There is already a copy of the song on the player, and a second copy of the song is added when you add the M3U file, or

B) There is no copy of the song at all on the player, and adding the the M3U file -only- causes the song to be added twice?

Step 1. I added all of my music to the player by dragging and dropping my windows folders organized by Genre/Artist/Album/song title

Step 2. I dragged and dropped my m3u which referred to songs in my windows directory.

When I did the sync, the RIO imported a second copy of each song already present on the RIO from the import done in step 1.

Yeah, that's gonna do that. The M3Us are counted as a separate (second) drag-and-drop. This is known behavior and is expected.

I think what you're trying to do is this (correct me if I'm wrong):

You want to do keep your PC and your player in synch by using artist/album trees as described here.

However, you want to go the extra step of having special playlists that aren't in the artist/album tree format. You want to use M3Us to do that.

That last thing doesn't work. I know, I'd like it to work, too. But it doesn't. Complete text describing the situation is here.

So how about if I were to import a completely flat directory with the m3us in the same directory?

For example if I drag and drop a directory of 500 songs and 10 m3us which refer to the 500 songs, would it double import the songs referred to by the m3us?

I think (not sure) that if the M3Us are part of the same drag-n-drop operation, that the songs within would either be doubled as before, or they would be counted as duplicates.

If you want to maintain separate playlists, apart from the artist/album trees you've already got, then you really have to do it manually in emplode. There's no proper provision in Emplode for using M3U playlists on the PC as "soft" playlists on the player. They are treated like another directory entry from which to import files. (I believe I said this in that FAQ entry I linked.)

Yes, I want this feature, too. I know we've bugged Mike Schrag to add something like this to Jemplode, but I don't know how far he's gotten in that area.

Thanks for the info Tony. I have looked at the latest Jemplode and it seems to have the same limitation.

It is of course a drag for all of us. Playlists are very time consumimg to make and it isn't particulalry easy to create playlists from scratch in emplode.

I may just end up wiping the Rio of the main library and re-importing only my Best of and Mood playlists. I am dealing with 6500 songs and I have got to figure out a way to get to the stuff I want to listen to without so much scrolling.

I have got to figure out a way to get to the stuff I want to listen to without so much scrolling.

You've tried the alphanumeric search features, including search by playlist? And using the knob to scroll the playlists menu (it's faster than L/R buttons) ? I've found that between those two things, I can make short work of even a very flat playlist structure.

I had the same problem too and I just gave up. Now I shuffle everything on the player and use the 'next' button a lot.

later,
ajay