Rockerdan's Plug-in thread

Here is how to create "playlists" on a thumb drive....I use iTunes and this is how i did it, I posted this before but could not find the thread so Im posting it here for anyone who wants to try it. Works awesome! ~Dan

---------------------------
HOW TO CREATE PLAYLISTS ON A THUMB DRIVE, step by step:

Ok I spent some time getting familiar with these Playlists.....

This will help alot of people that use iTunes as their default music player on their PC. I know I have never used Windows media Player but I was able to make it all work, just took some time.

The whole Purpose of a playlist is to be able to have your fave tunes in a specific order, so song after song its playing what you like in order. The car typically alphabetizes songs so having a playlist is awesome, and remember you can still always search by artist, album or genre at anytime alphabetically.

I will try to give an in depth view of how I created my playlists from iTunes, using windows media player.

OVERVIEW

We need to put each song on the USB stick. And also the .wpl file......

Basically we need to get each song onto the USB stick and then we also need the ".wpl file" on the USB stick for each playlist we have(Each playlist will have its own named .wpl file).

If you use windows media player you probably already have created playlists before. If so, go to your music and go to the artists, then go to folder letter "P" and you should see a folder named 'playlists'(the playlists made in WMP reside in your music folders alphabetically) on my PC they would reside between Artists "Platinum Blond" and "Poison". If all your music on your PC is in WMP already, you have it much easier to install playlists onto your USB stick.

For those of you like myself who use iTunes for all your music, you need to do a few extra steps as you cannot drag songs directly from iTunes into WMP (I tried!) Too bad cause it would be alot faster.

The basic procedure is to drag songs, and the .wpl file onto the USB stick. If all your songs are already on WMP then you have alot less to do. With iTunes you need to do it in two steps.

Detailed instructions below.....






Making Playlists In a Specific order from iTunes

**First you will need a file reader program to allow files(songs) to be in a 'UNSORTED' order, Windows 7 does not allow for this, so if you have windows 7 go download a free file reader called "xplorer lite'' here:Xplorer2 Lite - CNET Download.com


We will open 3 windows at one time on our PC screen, minimized to see them all at once
Left side of screen -Open Windows Media player
Right side of screen -Open iTunes
Center of screen -Open Xplorer lite (file reader)

1- First Open windows media player....We will be dealing with the right portion of WMP only, the area that says 'unsaved list' drag items here.



2- You want to be sure the 'PLAY' tab is open where i have circled in red top left.



3- Now slide Windows Media Player to the extreme left of your screen as shown below(dont worry about anything else in this pic yet)



4- Now Open iTunes to the extreme right side of your screen..... and then open the file reader(xplorer lite) in center of your screen, so all 3 screens are open looking like this below(dont worry about the Copying window in middle yet)


4a- In the center, open your USB stick with your file reader program xplorer2. First be certain to VIEW,ARRANGE BY, UNSORTED(checkmarked) before you do anything. This allows the songs to stay in the PLAYLIST order.

4b- Open your USB stick within the file reader program in center window of your PC. Next we will make FOLDERS on the USB stick, this helps alot when you have 5000 songs to work on trust me!

4c- Right click, New folder....I recommend you name the new folder the same name as your playlist..... Lets just make 1 new folder on the USB stick at this time(Once you get the hang of it you can make as many as you want later) Make the new folder and name it to coincide with the name of your playlist you want to make. See my USB stick below, has folders named after my playlists and also has some photo folders, which is cool for slide shows on the car.






5- Now we will start dragging in our songs....we will drag from itunes, onto USB in center window..Be sure to first OPEN the FOLDER you just created on the USB stick. IE: open "classic rock" folder you created on USB stick, so we have an open window on USB stick to drag the playlist "classic rock" into.

5a- Now we have all 3 windows open and are ready, In iTunes open your playlist you want to start with first. Be sure the iTunes playlist is exactly how you want it. Now simply click EDIT at very top and select all, this will highlite all your songs in your playlist see pic below. red arrow ect.


5b- Now we simply drag the entire list left over onto the USB stick. This picture show my dragging a "hairmetal" playlist onto my USB stick, into a folder i made named "hairmetal"


and another pic of me dragging classic rock playlist onto USB stick into a folder named the same...(just do 1 list at this time til you get hang of it)



6- Now that all the songs for your first playlist are in center window USB stick, within a folder named exactly the same as your playlist...we are ready to take next step. We need to highlite all songs in center window USB stick in the folder we are working on, choose 'Mark' on top,then select all.... Once highlited, drag all songs leftward into the windows media player window where it says drag item here.


7- This will create an exact replica in perfect order of your songs...

7a- Now click the pulldown arrow on top right, and choose SAVE LIST AS....


7b- VERY IMPORTANT STEP!!! Now be sure to find your USB stick after save as!!...We need to save the new playlist from media player ONTO the USB stick AND ALSO INTO the SAME FOLDER WE JUST DRAGGED THEM OUT OF(basically each playlist name should match the folder it will get saved into on USB stick folder)


7d- Once you have file location found, and that same folder open and ready, you MUST title(SAVE AS) the new playlist the SAME NAME AS THAT LIST YOU ARE CURRENTLY WORKING ON. In this pic you can see the songs, and at the very last song you will see the .WPL playlist file. This is exactly how your USB stick playlist folder should look when done. it should have each song, and also the playlist .wpl file at end, this is what puts the songs into order.


Once done your USB stick should have all your folders look something like this, but with your named lists, and within those folders the songs MP3 themselves along with the .wpl file at end of songs.



**I recommend starting with a small playlist of 5 songs in a specific order, to try....go thru the process and try it in car to be sure you get hang of it. Once you do a couple its super easy. The only thing that takes some time is waiting for the songs to drag from iTunes window onto USB stick folder.....Can take 20 minutes if you have a huge amount of songs.




when done you will have this on your car audio system!!!

​

Dan​

 

I agree....not big into BT streaming for music, i really love having it all on flash drive always in he car.

One thing to remember, the songs from iTunes need to have all the artwork tags correct on each m4a or mp3 file. This ensures the artwork will show up properly in the prius system when playing back.

the .wpl file(windows media player "playlist" file) that is created when you drag the list from the file reader(in specific order) into windows media "create a playlist" pane is simply a file that puts the songs into this specific order, so be sure to save that "order" .wpl file into that same "playlist" onto the usb drive, if you do not have this .wpl file your prius system will not show any playlists at all and the songs will simply just show up under artists,songs ect ect.....but wont be under playlist.

Highly suggest you take 3 or 4 songs in a specific order and do some trials, and follow my steps til you get hang of it. Once you get it figured out you can do hundreds of songs at once.

If anyone gets hung up just PM me, I have done this alot and got it down pat!!

Dan

 

Just get a good quality set and they are fine, widely used by many car guys for many yrs. Mine have been flawless and not one vibration or imbalance when driving, just perfect.

Dan