Lost playlists with upgrade to 5.2

[gallows]

Hi, I was rather urked when I upgraded to 5.2 and lost my existing playlists. Of course part of this had to do with the delusion I had that I had somehow also lost all of the files (given that lots of them were ripped in Winamp-only format, m3p or whatever).

I had upgraded several times before without losing my playlists as originally configured, so I was really thrown off. I found the files and re-made the playlists, and I'm sure there is a simple explanation.

Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that during installation I opted for different playlists for each computer user -- something I hadn't seen before during upgrades.

What happened? I recently upgraded to 5.2 on another computer and must have whizzed right through the installation -- because I didn't lose my playlists on it.

Thanks in advance!

[DJ Egg]

Yes, it is related to the multi-user option in the installer

All your old settings and playlists etc are still there,
you just need to copy them over.

Close Winamp

Open two Windows Explorer windows.

Point one to:
1) C:\Program Files\Winamp (or wherever Winamp is installed to)

Point the other to:
2) C:\Documents and Settings\(username)\Application Data\Winamp

Note, the Application Data folder is hidden by default, so you may need to checkmark "show hidden files/folders" in: Control Panel > Folder Options > View tab

(or you can just type: %appdata%\winamp in the address bar).


You can restore all original settings by copying these files from Program Files\Winamp (folder 1) to Application Data\Winamp (folder 2)

winamp.ini (stores most settings from winamp preferences)
studio.xnf (stores settings for all modern skin sizes/positions/etc)
winamp.bm (bookmarks)
winamp.q1 (saved eq presets)
winamp.m3u (last loaded playlist)

You can restore the complete Library by copying over the following files:

Winamp\Plugins folder

gen_ml.ini

and the full contents of the Winamp\Plugins\ml folder

Note, the stored playlists are the .m3u files in this folder.



Alternatively, you can scrap all ^that^ and just restore the old behaviour (shared settings for all users) by renaming paths.ini (Program Files\Winamp folder) to eg. paths.ini.off

This will automatically restore everything (settings, ml database, etc) to the way it was before the upgrade, when you next reopen Winamp.



Yup, sorry that the installer doesn't ask you if you want to import the exisiting shared settings/database into the new separate user profile, but this issue will be addressed for the next release.

[captspastic]

I'm sorry, I hate to sound like an ass, but you guys thought that not including an option during set-up to copy those settgins was a good idea... HOW exactly?

Don't get me wrong, I think the multi-user option was a great idea, I really do. I just can't for the life me understand how someone could have thought logicailly "Well, if they change choose the multi-user option, it will wipe out their current settings, bet eh. So what?". I mean seriously, did it really not occur to anyone in the development area that this might be an issue?

The llama is crying right now.

Originally posted by DJ Egg
Yes, it is related to the multi-user option in the installer

All your old settings and playlists etc are still there,
you just need to copy them over.

[copy of entire post above edited]

Alternatively, you can scrap all ^that^ and just restore the old behaviour (shared settings for all users) by renaming paths.ini (Program Files\Winamp folder) to eg. paths.ini.off

This will automatically restore everything (settings, ml database, etc) to the way it was before the upgrade, when you next reopen Winamp.


Yup, sorry that the installer doesn't ask you if you want to import the exisiting shared settings/database into the new separate user profile, but this issue will be addressed for the next release.

[DJ Egg]

Originally posted by DJ Egg
Yup, sorry that the installer doesn't ask you if you want to import the exisiting shared settings/database into the new separate user profile, but this issue will be addressed for the next release.

Fixed for 5.21


(5.2 beta was publically available for 3 weeks prior to release, so put it down to bad beta testing ;-)

[Sadiebuc]

Horrifying

This is completely HORRIFYING!! I am an extremely busy professional who enjoys playing music in the background. I have just wasted 3 hrs trying to recover my playlists and media library. I can't even re-add my library when pointing to the My Music folder. I tried changing the paths.ini filename to paths.ini.off and that just sent me into a vicious loop trying to setup winamp. The app would not even open.

Not sure this is a good alternative to iTunes.

[Sadiebuc]

PS - I am on 5.572

[robdog2004]

maybe time for a complete reinstall and go over to 5.581

there also maybe a deeper issue in your system than is apparent

[Stvmia]

Lost Playlist using Windows 7

I saw post#2 of this thread wherein it describes how to restore/copy the Last-Loaded- Playlist by copying winamp.m3u. How would one copy ALL ones previous playlists? Is there a file that stores all previous playlists?

------- quote below is from post#2----------------
You can restore all original settings by copying these files from Program Files\Winamp (folder 1) to Application Data\Winamp (folder 2)

winamp.ini (stores most settings from winamp preferences)
studio.xnf (stores settings for all modern skin sizes/positions/etc)
winamp.bm (bookmarks)
winamp.q1 (saved eq presets)
winamp.m3u (last loaded playlist)