iTunes to Zune Playlist Converter
Please Note:
This application and all support for it has officially been moved to my new website. Please visit that location to download the latest version or to submit a comment.
In my the first part of my Microsoft Zune review, I mentioned that frustration with the autoplaylist feature of the Zune jukebox software had driven me to write a VB app that converts iTunes playlists to Zune compatible *.zpl playlists. On Jake’s suggestion, that app is now available for download here.
The program is pretty simple to use. Just follow these handy steps:
- Download the zip file and unzip it to a directory of your choice
- Open iTunes and close the Zune jukebox software
- Right click on the playlist that you wish to export and select ‘Export Song List…’ from the context menu
- Choose where you’d like to save the playlist, and ensure that ‘Save as Type’ is set to *.xml
- Launch the ‘iTunes to Zune Playlist Converter.exe’ application from the unzip directory
- Use the browse button to load the saved *.xml file into the ‘iTunes Playlist File (XML)’ field
- Use the browse button to choose where you’d like to save the converted Zune Playlist file. Note that for the Zune player to recognize the new playlist, it must be saved to C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\My Music\Zune\Playlists\ on Windows XP, or C:\Users\UserName\Music\Zune\Playlists on Windows Vista.
- Click the ‘Convert’ button, and wait for the success message box to pop up.
- Launch the Zune jukebox software and go into the ‘Playlists’ view. You should see your newly created playlist in the pane to the left. Note that it might take a second to recognize the playlist, and another minute or two after that until the list is playable, depending on the size of the list. This is because the Zune software has to sift through the playlist and link each referenced file to one in its current library before the list can be used.
There, that wasn’t too hard, was it? Lastly, it’s important to remember that this only works if the iTunes library and the Zune library in question are drawing from the same media files! That means that you should have the Zune jukebox software set to monitor the iTunes music folder that you are drawing from, so that the same files are referenced in both programs’ libraries.
This little hack worked well for me, and allowed me to load my Zune with playlists created in iTunes, without having to try and use the gimped Zune rating system and autoplaylists to do so.
Enjoy, and if you have any questions or comments, post here, or email me at jonfritz at gmail dot com.
Cheers,
Jon
Edit: Thanks to David F for pointing out a flaw in the program that made converting multiple playlists in one session a pain. The application is now fixed. If anybody notices any more bugs, please let me know so that they can be fixed immediately.
Dave Lahn:
Pretty simple to use??? Your process has NINE (9) steps!
July 23, 2008, 9:02 pmjon:
Yeah, but only steps 3,4,5,8 -really- matter. The rest are for idiot-proofing.
July 23, 2008, 9:05 pmDave Lahn:
That’s still FOUR (yes, 4) steps. What ever happened to one step processes?
July 24, 2008, 1:42 amjon:
I think you can thank the overwhelming stupidity of the average human being for that one. Now do you have a point about the software itself, or are you just going to keep bitching about the number of steps involved in its use? Guaranteed if you downloaded it without reading the steps, you’d probably figure it out in short order.
July 24, 2008, 10:07 amDave Lahn:
You should really just make one big button that, when you click it, it automatically takes all of your iTunes playlists, converts them, and imports them into Zune.
There you go. One step.
Take the Steve Jobs route, and don’t give people options.
July 24, 2008, 7:51 pmjon:
But why would you ever want to do such a thing? Man I am not pulling a steve like that
July 24, 2008, 8:11 pmConvert iTunes Playlists for Zune |:
[...] but I know that plenty of people out there don’t like the playlists that Microsoft has given us. Jake Billo’s Weblog has a convenient little program that will allow you to copy your iTunes playlists into your Zune [...]
July 25, 2008, 5:09 pmJons Zune Review Part 2 | Bus error: Jake Billo's weblog:
[...] iTunes to Zune Playlist Converter [...]
August 7, 2008, 1:14 amnamalik:
Cool Tool! Thanks
August 9, 2008, 4:23 pmAndrea:
Thank you so much for creating this application. I found it very easy to use thanks to your step-by-step directions, and I am not very technologically savvy!
August 16, 2008, 11:41 amI considered not purchasing the Zune because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to convert from iTunes. Microsoft should be paying you to advertise this application!
jon:
Thanks for your appreciation Andrea, although I don’t think that Microsoft will start paying me any time soon! If you have any suggestions of improvements that you’d like to see, by all means, let me know.
August 16, 2008, 3:27 pmDavid:
Jon,
Your Itunes-to-Zunes converter is great! I have found it quite usefull. However, I think I have found a small bug. It does not clear the previous job or something so that when you want to convert more than one playlist the 2nd and 3rd etc etc playlists are not converted correctly. They seem to inherit some songs from the first list you converted. The work-around I am using is to restart the app for every playlist I convert. I hope I made sense. e-mail me if you wuold like to talk about this further.
Regards,
David F.
August 16, 2008, 3:56 pmjon:
Thanks for the tip David, I went and fixed the code tonight. If you re-download the application, your problem should be fixed.
August 17, 2008, 1:24 amDavid:
Thanks, Jon, I have just downloaded it and tried it out. It seems to be working perfect now. Thanks again for making a useful little app even better!
August 17, 2008, 11:25 pmIndex Out of Bounds » Blog Archive » iTunes to Zune Playlist Converter:
[...] Originally posted at jakebillo.com [...]
August 20, 2008, 1:24 pm