I’m trying to make a backup of my music playlists, that I've created using the Samsung Music app on my Samsung Galaxy A6 (Andriod 10). So far I’ve not been able to locate where these playlists are stored, and neither a way to extract them. Most forum questions about this problem either hold old outdated answers, or none at all.
Does anyone know a way to extract Music Playlists (preferably as a text file)? Or by using some app for it?
Regards
I still don’t know where the files are stored, but for others with same wish for text file-backups, the app: "Playlist Manager" can do the job.
It basically has a "Share A Playlist" function which allows you to share in text format.
I have been using Playlist Backup on older Androids, and it works well. It creates a text file for any playlist backedup and can be found in the "PlaylistBackup" directory. Please confirm if it works on newer phones.
"Manage Playlists"
in Settings of "Samsung Music" offers the ability to export and import playlists (text files, more details below).
The availability of this feature seems to be dependent on the Android version. My old Samsung phone has Android 10, the new one has Android 12 (Android 13 now).
Both have the same Samsung Music App V 16.2.27.5 installed. Higher versions also have this functionality.
Only on the Android 12+13 phone I could find
Samsung Music: ... 》 Settings 》Manage Playlists 》Export My Playlists
and
Samsung Music: ... 》Settings 》Manage Playlists 》Import Playlists
Hint: Settings can be found in the three dots menu (...) on the upper right corner of the Samsung Music App.
The playlists are stored in *.m3uformat in the internal memory, directory Music. This is an editable text format.
How to backup / restore Playlists:
Use case I: New phone
I was able to transfer the playlists from the old to the new phone by using Samsung Smartswitch. Just ensure the music is on the target phone before running the Smartswitch (use TotalCommander with WiFi plugin etc to copy it). Also important: After copying, run Samsung Music App and give it the time to discover the music on your target phone. Then finally, run SmartSwitch on both phones to transfer apps + settings.
Use case II: Same phone, new SD card
Recently got a bigger micro SD card and transferred the files via PC using a card reader.
I figured out that you can back up all your playlists as described before.
Then, shutdown the smartphone and swap the SD cards (insert the new one with all the files in the same folders on it).
Boot the smartphone, then go to ... 》Settings 》Manage Playlists 》Import Playlists and import all playlists backed up to internal disc earlier.
After that you will see the old playlists with 0 files as well as new ones with the correct file references in it.
Seems the Music App fixes the card ID in the playlists when you import them on the fly.
You may now delete the old playlists with 0 files in them.
Note: In most cases this works fine, but I found that in a few cases the exported playlist cannot be reimported, possibly due to lame programming in the code of the music app. In those cases import ends up with an error (0 files imported).
