NW A45 cannot create playlist from the device

[noplanes]

I have successfully transfered songs but am unable to create a playlist on the device. The instructions say there are two ways to add a song to playlist - neither work for me and I get an error message saying no playlists are available, please connect to compliant software and transfer playlist. 

I am not looking to transfer an existing playlist, just to create one.

[distyl]

Hello ianoakley,

I have successfully added over 500 songs in a playlist. I got an error at song number 12. I edited the playlist and changed the order of one song and after the playlist was saved, everything was fine up to over 500 songs.

I hope this helps with your error too.

[Ian2019]

Hi Distyl

I tried your suggested fix. Created an empty plain text file, saved it with a .m3u extension on the Mac using Word. Before saving I get a window opens asking me to select the text encoding to use - "Mac OS (default)", "MS-DOS", "Other Encoding". The last option has a list of encoding options including Unicode, ASCII and different regions. I went for the default. 

If I copy it across to the System Music folder, when I try to add to playlist I get "Cannot add songs from both system storage and SD card to the same playlist" when I try to do just that.   If I select a music folder on the System then it will add to the playlist in the system Music playlist. Hope that makes sense. Have not added lots of tracks to the playlist as that its not how I use the player - more or less all of the music is on the 512GB microSD card.

I then added a playlist to the Music folder on the SD card and tried to add music from the same folder (i.e. the SD card Music Folder) and then get "Could not update the playlist". 

So, some progress, but not an answer yet. Thanks for the reply though, very much appreciated. 

best

ian

[Ian2019]

Hi igiwigi

My music library is on a 4TB NAS drive connected to the computer and whole system using ethernet. around 5,000 albums,  60,000 tracks. I use Roon to manage both the library and the overall network that has several music systems attached to it. I am not going to use Music Centre to manage the library as I am almost exclusively Mac based and Roon is much more powerful than Music Centre. 

I have tried doing as you say by running Music Centre on a PC on the network, copying a set of files from the NAS drive and giving Music Centre access to the files and then making a playlist. Its does not work for me - I get the same error that the playlist is not editable. 

All I want to do is to copy files to the Walkman, create a playlist and create a playlist from files on the Walkman. With other music players, I create an M3u playlist, the player reads it and plays the files. Quite why the A45 won't do this is a mystery to me. 

best

ian

[Ian2019]

Hi ianoakley

Please let us know how you get on. 

best

ian

[distyl]

Hello ian,

I only tested my fix with internal storage since I don't use an microSD card. I will buy one today, so I can investigate the issue further. I will let you know of my findings, tonight.

[Ian2019]

Hi Distyl

Almost all of my music is at CD quality or higher - up to 24/192 FLAC/WAV and some DSD. 16GB of internal storage does not hold too much of that. With the 512GB card I can get around 10,500 tracks, which is great - I do a lot of travelling and with the WF and WH-1000 XM3 it makes a great little system. With the exception of the playlist issue I am happy with the player. 

If you can figure out how to build a playlist on the fly from the microSD card I will be really happy. 

best

ian

[igiwigi]

Hi M8

I have just successfully taken the Orwellian big brother volume cap off the NW 45 and WOW ,what a difference all round the volume has gone up to great levels and also the quality . The stereo separation is also much better as the normalizer etc. Takes five minutes to go from a weedy thin sound to big sound with quality not imagined.

Now good as any £500 player.

I only play wave files  and large sd card Lovly jubbly!!!

Get a good VPN like Express, worth the money and download HD files f**e

[distyl]

Hello Ian2019,

I have checked with SD Card and here is my conclusion:

All songs that reside in System Storage can be added to all playlists that reside in System Storage\MUSIC.
All songs that reside in SD CARD can be added to all playlists that reside in SD CARD\MUSIC.
You cannot add songs that reside in System Storage to a playlist in SD CARD\MUSIC and vice versa.

I can only think of two points to check:

1. Make absolutely sure that the playlist is in the \MUSIC folder and not inside a subfolder,
because then you will get the error that “the playlist is not editable”.

2. Here is how I create the blank playlist m3u file:
Run TextEdit. You can find it in Applications. It will startup with a new file.
Check under the Format menu. If the "Make Rich Text" menu item is shown, that means that your file is already in Plain Text mode. If the "Make Plain Text" menu item is shown, click on that to make the file Plain Text. Just save the file with default settings and rename it changing the extension to m3u.
You can also save it right on the SD CARD\MUSIC and rename-duplicate-rename on the SD CARD.

Actually I tried creating the playlists directly on the SD CARD with a card reader and works flawlessly.

It tried that method repeatedly, creating many playlists both in System Storage\MUSIC and SD CARD\MUSIC and never failed.

I don’t think there is a way to create a playlist on the fly (if you mean on the player), but there is no need to do that, if you use my method. Once you create an empty playlist on the Mac, just duplicate it as many times as you want, rename each duplicate with a meaningful name and copy them all to the player. That way you can have as many extra playlists as you want ready to be used. If you want to change the name of a playlist, you can do it directly on the SD CARD whenever you connect your player to the Mac.

Hope it works for you too. It worked in my player every time without an error, even on the SD CARD\MUSIC.

Good Luck!

[Ian2019]

Hi distyl

Thanks for your efforts on this, very much appreciated. I followed your instructions very carefully, when it came to save the file textedit reported that it would be in Unicode (UTF-8). I created a playlist, saved it to the local hard disk and then copied it to the Music folder on the microSD card. Then did another and saved that directly the the microSD card. On both occasions the card was in the player.

Both give the same result "Could not update the playlist". GRRRR....  When I created a playlist and saved it to the system Music folder and then added files to it from the system memory that worked OK. It takes a long time to do it, but that works. If I try to add a track from the system memory to the playlist on the microSD card I get the "Could not update the playlist" message. 

The microSD card has around 8GB free on it, internal /system memory has around 2GB free. Firmware is 1.10. System is an iMac on Mojave 10.14.6. Am waiting a while before going to Catalina as it seems somewhat unstable with some apps. 

So am stuck. 

Thanks again for trying - why it should work OK at your end and not here is beyond me. Only possible variable that I can see is using Unicode as the plain text format. 

best

ian

[distyl]

Ian2019, do you by any chance have another SD CARD sitting around just to try from scratch?

1. PLAYER: Format the SD CARD. THAT's IMPORTANT (to format it in the player first).

2. MAC: Copy a couple of music folders in SD CARD\MUSIC.

3. MAC: Copy a blank playlist in SD CARD\MUSIC

4. PLAYER: Try to add a song to the playlist that you have just copied onto the SD CARD.

Mac @ work El Capitan, mac @ home Catalina, both work fine. It should work from any OS anyway. It is just a plain text file. NW-A45 firmware v1.1