Windows Media Player playlists on my phone?

[Mark Yaworski]

I've had a cell phone since 1991 and was finally coerced into getting a smartphone. Mostly because my phone would be unusable after July 1st.

I have no desire to text, email, play games, yada yada. The only smart phone feature that I'd like is to play music.

I have a ton of carefully selected playlists on Windows Media Player. I plug my MP3 player into my computer and it syncs things up. Great.

However, this is not a native ability of my new smart phone.

Is there some simple software that will allow me to do this on my phone with a minimum of fuss? I found something called "doubletwist" but since the phone isn't mounted as a drive, I have to change all sorts of settings and fuss with this, that, and the other. Even after doing all that, it still didn't work right.

Is there an app out there that will do what I want with a minimum of fuss?

I'm a retired C and assembly language programmer but fiddling with arcane settings and jumping through hoops for simple tasks lost its "fun factor" about ten or fifteen years ago.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Does this solution work for you? https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...-android/8e456712-e7b7-47b2-b659-89bdc996f7a3. It's from 2019, so there's no guarantee it will work with current Android versions, but it's worth a try.

 

[Mark Yaworski]

That's the simple solution. I tried it and it copied the songs but not the playlists.

Strange that my simple $30 MP3 player can do it but my nifty pocket computer can't.

 

[fuzzylumpkin]

That's the simple solution. I tried it and it copied the songs but not the playlists.

Strange that my simple $30 MP3 player can do it but my nifty pocket computer can't.

How old is that MP3 player? Because WMP is basically dead... It's not supported anymore because it would be a waste of resources. I can understand it's frustrating,but it is what it is.

Why can't you connect it as mass storage?

 

[B. Diddy]

This thread (https://www.reddit.com/r/androidapps/comments/mdcalx/music_app_that_can_read_windows_media_player/) mentions that GoneMAD Music Player supports .wpl playlists, so give that one a try.

Keep in mind that even though your phone is a state-of-the-art device, that doesn't mean it's automatically compatible with outdated software like Windows Media Player. Engineers can't make a device backwards compatible with everything.:-\

 

[Laura Knotek]

How old is that MP3 player? Because WMP is basically dead... It's not supported anymore because it would be a waste of resources. I can understand it's frustrating,but it is what it is.

Why can't you connect it as mass storage?

I agree. The MP3 player is probably as old as the last version of WMP.

 

[smvim]

.....
I'm a retired C and assembly language programmer but fiddling with arcane settings and jumping through hoops for simple tasks lost its "fun factor" about ten or fifteen years ago.

You might want to change your expectations on using a modern-day smartphone. Yeah, they're basically really easy to use.There's a touchscreen and we tap on various icons to do different things. But when you intentionally don't want to bother initially setting up your phone properly and thoroughly, than it's just going to be a matter where things just don't work out as seamlessly and smoothly as they should. Really, investing the time up front to get comfortable using your phone and understanding its basic functionality will make a big difference between being frustrated with it all the time, or being in control of it to make it do what you want. Smartphones are deceptively dense -- there's a lot of hardware and software all scaled down into those little slabs.
A good example is your playlist issue. Playlists are just minuscule text files so nothing all that notable about them. But if you open one up in a text editor you'll see there are the names of the audio files you're selected, and their respective directory locations. That's the killer aspect. That file tree of directories has to be taken into account, and there is nothing in common with the file system that Android relies upon and the file system in a Windows install. So using a WMP playlist has all that Windows naming and mapping but using that same playlist is going to be an issue on your Android phone. With your library of audio content being on your Windows PC and those playlist files pointing to files/folders that don't exist on your Android phone, that's going to result in an avoidable problem using those playlists on your phone.
However, if you take the time to set up/properly configure/optimize your phone you can avoid those kinds of quirks.

 

[Mark Yaworski]

But if you open one up in a text editor you'll see there are the names of the audio files you're selected, and their respective directory locations.

Yeah, I know.

That file tree of directories has to be taken into account, and there is nothing in common with the file system that Android relies upon and the file system in a Windows install.

However, my simple little Sansa MP3 player can deal with the directory issues. Deconstructing a Windows playlist is a trivial matter so one would think that some software wonk would make a converter of some sort. If I cared enough, I'd do it.

As I said before, very little about a smart phone appeals to me. I may well just return this thing go back to tech that does what I want it to do.

 

[Mark Yaworski]

I agree. The MP3 player is probably as old as the last version of WMP.

Older.

 

[Mark Yaworski]

Why can't you connect it as mass storage?

I can but Windows doesn't assign it a drive letter which is what DoubleTwist needs.

 

[Mark Yaworski]

B Diddy pointed me to a redit thread that suggested PowerAmp. It looks like "PowerAmp" will do what I want. Huzzah.

 

[Laura Knotek]

B Diddy pointed me to a redit thread that suggested PowerAmp. It looks like "PowerAmp" will do what I want. Huzzah.

I've used Poweramp for years. It also supports FLAC and WAV files.