I like to extract playlist information (i.e. path and filenames) I've created on Android's builtin MP3-player, to copy it with the MP3 files to a bigger SDHC card. Playlist information is lost when doing this:

• Removing the SDHC memory card (after turning off the device), and re-insert it later, causes the MP3-player to forget all files in the playlists which I have created. This is especially annoying if you want to replace the SDHC card by a bigger one and want to backup all files including playlists from the old one

The reason for this issue is that Android mounts SD cards as /storage/UniqueId where UniqueId is a hex number (the serial number or CID of your SD card), e.g. A15F-1234. So your original SD card has a root path like /storage/A15F-1234/ and when you buy a new SD card, its CID is different, so the root path changes, e.g. /storage/F987-5432/, hence the player is looking for the old path as stored in the playlist and don't find the files anymore!

Note that this is a virtual folder and it cannot be renamed.

This becomes important because the music player stores the files of your playlist as absolute path, e.g.

/storage/A15F-1234/MyMusic/RickSpringField-LoveSomebody.mp3.

On your PC you will just see a path like

E:/MyMusic/RickSpringField-LoveSomebody.mp3

Once you copy the file to the new SD card, it will be on

F:/MyMusic/RickSpringField-LoveSomebody.mp3

(where E: is your old, F: your new card in this example)

But when you put the new card into your mobile after copying, your file will be at

/storage/F987-5432/MyMusic/RickSpringField-LoveSomebody.mp3

and your playlists are all empty because every single entry still starts with the old path /storage/A15F-1234/..., and the player (e.g. Samsung Music) can't find them, because it doesn't look into the new path (/storage/F987-5432/...).

Now I am looking for a way to backup the playlists or at least their content (i.e. path filename etc) to be able to edit the path to make them usable again.

More information:

The phone has a playlist folder, containing the Playlists, when I use a USB cable to connect it to the PC, I can see them (*.pla files) but they have 0 bytes and cannot be copied. Also, if I connect the SDHC card via cardreader, the files aren't useful.

Samsung Kies also did not work for me, it does not seem to support the playlists created on the phone.

I found this interesting question, which explains that Android stores playlists in SqlLite databases, but unfortunately, on my Samsung phone I could not find the database file (although there is a folder Computer\GT-I8190\Phone\Android\data\com.google.android.music which should contain it, but no databases subdirectory and no database files).

N.B.: The smartphone is able to read and import *.m3u playlists (via the player's "Music Square" menu - context menu "Library update"), but cannot modify them (if you add titles, they will only be available in the smartphone, the *.m3u file isn't changed).

To summarize my question (one of the options below would help me):

• Do you know how I can backup the playlists on the phone and then extract the file/path info contained in them in Windows?
  Phone Playlist -> Windows PC -> Extract Path/Filename to text file

• Or do you know if there is a tool available (for Android, or for Windows reading it from the mobile phone) converting the playlists into a compatible text format (like .m3u playlists)?
  Phone Playlist -> M3U file
  
  (Note: The other way round it is possible, as this forum post explains). Here's an example of a M3U file, note that relative paths (like Sounds/Sample.mp3) are allowed as well (if the player supports them):

  #EXTM3U
#EXTINF:123, Sample artist - Sample title
/storage/extSdCard/Sounds/Sample.mp3

(where extSdCard stands for a CID like F987-5432 and #EXTINF:123, Sample artist - Sample title is metadata, see M3U playlist format)

Your help is much appreciated!