Can I retrieve a lost Playlist? How?

[rstew]

I am using Winamp V5.666
Today I went to delete an entry from a playlist. Highlighted it, clicked on Crop Selected Item, and POOF; the entire playlist was magically gonzo, except for the entry I wanted to delete. This playlist was some 375 items, so I am pretty bummed out.

Is there some way to retrieve it, and if so from where?
Where does V5.666 actually store playlists? I can't find anything in my main music library folder, where older versions used to store playlists.
Any help appreciated, thanks.
rstew

[Aminifu]

Sorry, that playlist is gone. Crop does what you described (i.e. removes everything that is not selected). Use the Remove command to remove selected items from a playlist.

Get and install this plug-in (https://winampplugins.co.uk/plu.html) so that you can recover an accidentally lost or changed playlist in the future.

WACUP (a replacement for Winamp) being developed by the developer of this plug-in does make a backup of the playlist that was active when a WACUP session was shutdown and started again.

[rstew]

OK thanks for that info Aminfu, sad though it is. That's a giant PITA for a once-in-a-while user, that you can fall into a landmine trap such as that, with no way back. At the very least there should be an Undo feature!

Now I am faced with the joyous multi-hour task of recreating the entire playlist from scratch. Lovely. I certainly do hope the new WACUP app is more user friendly.
rstew

[Aminifu]

Unfortunately you did this to yourself by using the Crop command. It is painful learning things the hard way. I know since I did the same thing myself, although the playlist I lost was no where near as long as yours.

Many users have fallen into the same situation and have asked that the Crop command be removed. But other users want it to remain since it helps them edit their playlists. There is no way to please everyone.

The plug-in I provided the link to adds an Undo feature to Winamp for playlist changes. WACUP provides this plug-in by default. Winamp and WACUP do let you save copies of your playlists to external files. I assume the Winamp developers thought this was enough protection.

[rstew]

Instead of "Crop Selected Items"; what would have been wrong with something like "Crop all Non-Selected", or "Crop All Others"??? I think something like that would save a lot of drama and grief for the unwary user. (Obviously the developers of Winamp learned English at a different school than I did!)

rstew

[Aminifu]

... (Obviously the developers of Winamp learned English at a different school than I did!)

rstew

You probably don't realize just how true that statement is. Some of the Winamp developers were not born or raised in the United States. Most not born to, or raised with, American English say that it is the most difficult language to learn. Mostly because it has so many contradictory elements and usage patterns across the country.

I agree that the "Crop selected" command could (should?) have been worded differently. However, the "Remove selected" command is right next to it and both are in their own section of the context menu. This should imply that they do not do the same thing. This makes sense to me now, but only in hindsight because I got caught by the same misunderstanding of what "Crop selected" does. Truth be told, at the time I clicked on it I had no idea what it would do and clicked on it to find out.

One last thing, I have been mostly using WACUP for the last 3 years. In Winamp v5.666.3516 the commands are called "Remove item(s)" and "Crop files", in WACUP they are called "Remove selected" and "Crop selected". Sorry for my naming error, the Winamp wording is better.

[rstew]

OK thanks for that input; all good. I rebuilt the lost playlist today so all is well again. Lesson learned. And don't get me wrong; I am not trying to slam anyone here, North American or otherwise. English is a god awful language to learn, even for those who grew up with it. It's just a different understanding for the same word, in this case "Crop".

Another question, if a person switches over to WACUP, is there an easy way to import the existing Winamp playlists?

rstew

[Aminifu]

...

Another question, if a person switches over to WACUP, is there an easy way to import the existing Winamp playlists?

rstew

Well, of course, "easy" is a relative term.

There are currently 2 versions of WACUP. One is for those who join the beta test group and a public preview version for those who don't want to join the beta test group. The beta version contains an 'easy' way to import Winamp managed playlists.

Winamp and WACUP provide 2 ways to handle playlists, app managed or user managed. User managed playlists have names that the user gives them and are stored in a folder or folders that the user selects. App managed playlists are copies of the original user created playlists that are placed in a folder that the app selects and are given names selected by the app that are internally associated with the original names selected by the user when they were created and saved in folders selected by the user.

Both apps provide options that allows them to work with the original user created playlists or their copies. This allows for the original playlists to remain (or not) if there are copies, tracked in the media library database, that are deleted. WACUP also allows for the original playlists to remain (or not) if there aren't copies, and their names tracked in the media library database are deleted. If the user chooses to work with app managed copies, then additional work is needed to sync the originals and copies when either is edited.

In the beginning, Winamp only worked with copies of the original playlists. App managed playlists is the default for both Winamp and WACUP. The change that allowed Winamp to work directly with the original playlists removed the need for the additional work that is needed to keep the originals and copies in sync.

[rstew]

Aminifu, thanks for that very detailed explanation. I guess I need to play with those options and figure out how they work. Ultimately I want to have a saved copy of each playlist so as to avert disaster with that silly crop command.
Also I want to copy all playlists with all music files to a usb drive to use in the car.

When I click on Export Playlist in the non-patched version of Winamp V5.666; where exactly does it export it to? I would have expected a window to open where you can specify a drive and file path. But nothing like that happens.

Thanks, rstew

[Aminifu]

...

When I click on Export Playlist in the non-patched version of Winamp V5.666; where exactly does it export it to? I would have expected a window to open where you can specify a drive and file path. But nothing like that happens.

Thanks, rstew

I don't see an Export Playlist command in the fully-patched v5.666.3516 that I'm using. Where exactly is it? Maybe it is provided by a plug-in I don't have.

[rstew]

I don't see an Export Playlist command in the fully-patched v5.666.3516 that I'm using. Where exactly is it? Maybe it is provided by a plug-in I don't have.

It's the very topmost item when you open Manage Playlist; at least in my version. It just doesn't seem to do anything meaningful when you select and click on it. Weird?

rstew

[Aminifu]

That is weird. I don't believe what you see is an official part of Winamp. What skin are you using? Any 3rd party plug-ins?

I'm using the modern skin listed in my signature below. When I left or right click on the Manage Playlist button in the Playlist Editor window, I get a context menu with 6 commands. The topmost is "Open playlist..." and the last is "Manage Playlists...". If I select the "Manage Playlists..." command, the Media Library window opens.

I do use a 3rd party plug-in to copy the files listed in the Playlist Editor to a folder of my choosing (with or without creating a playlist of the copied files). I do this when I want to group files in 1 place in order to make CDs to play in my car. The following is a link to this plug-in (https://winampplugins.co.uk/gen_yar/index.html).

[ryerman]

Maybe you guys are talking about 2 different views.
Aminifu is giving help about the Playlist Editor, but rstew seems to be asking about a Media Library playlist.
Both views allow saving/exporting playlists.
And with my Winamp, a "file saving" Window opens when saving or exporting from either.

[rstew]

Maybe you guys are talking about 2 different views.
Aminifu is giving help about the Playlist Editor, but rstew seems to be asking about a Media Library playlist.
Both views allow saving/exporting playlists.
And with my Winamp, a "file saving" Window opens when saving or exporting from either.

I think you have a good point. The window I am talking about is the middle panel of 3 that Winamp shows when it opens. When I click on a playlist in the left panel, the center panel opens up with all selections in that playlist, and all the main editing options (8 keys) are displayed along the bottom of this panel, including Manage Playlist. I always assumed this was the kind of standard Winamp screen.

No "file saving" window opens when I click on Export Playlist. If it is exporting it, there is no indication of where it is going. I will search around in a few of windows default save folders and see if I can find where they are going.
I don't think I have any skins or plugins installed, that I know of. Not sure I would have any idea how to do that.

Meanwhile I have taken to saving a backup copy of the larger playlists every time I make any major changes. I just save it to the same name with "BU" added to the end. This way I at least have something to resurrect if I screw up that stupid crop command again. It's not pretty but it should work.

rstew

[ryerman]

Meanwhile I have taken to saving a backup copy of the larger playlists every time I make any major changes. I just save it to the same name with "BU" added to the end...

How, exactly?

And what happens when you click "Save playlist..." in the Playlist Editor?
A window should open that allows you to choose a location in the Windows file system.
If it doesn't, then I suspect you have a damaged installation: try a clean re-install