Why does the Music app keep turning my playlist folders into "smart playlists"?

[ThisBougieLife]

This is something I never used to have a problem with on iTunes, but the Music app it's proving incredibly frustrating.

I recently purchased a new 16" MBP. I'm trying to copy all my playlists from my old 15" but I so far haven't been successful. (I have hundreds of playlists organized in hundreds of folders. It's something I've built up over the course of nearly ten years. Re-doing it all from scratch is not an option). In the past I was able to successfully copy the old playlists to my new devices by exporting the library and importing it on the new device. This method isn't working anymore.

I export the library from the Music app on my old MBP and copy it onto my new MBP but when I import the library (File --> Library --> Import Playlist and choose the exported "Library.xml"), it imports all 70 or so of the highest-level folders as "smart playlists" that include the entire library (9000+ songs) in them rather than as folders. This causes the Music app to behave incredibly slowly, even to the point of causing the fans to rev when scrolling through playlists.

How is it supposed to be done, then?

 

[Yesshows91]

Unfortunetely I don't have an answer for you but I'm hoping to make you feel better because I am having the exact same problem. What I can tell you is that it is a bug within the Catalina Music app and NOT with older iTunes files. I was able to replicate this problem on a clean install of Cataina 10.15.1 using playlists in folders all created within the Catalina Music app. No playlists from iTunes were used. So, the problem is with the Catalina Music app. I am hoping that Catalina 10.15.2 will fix this but that is probably not a good bet. I'm not sure what is the best way to try and get Apple to fix this problem?

 

[ThisBougieLife]

Thanks. I’m just glad to know I’m not the only one and that the problem isn’t my old playlists. I was able to re-add everything and now, while the folders still appear as smart playlists, they now seem to contain nothing (clicking on one just says “0 items”) but at least they don’t contain the entire library.

 

[Yesshows91]

On the computer which I’ve done a clean install of Catalina 10.15.1, I have been able to re-create this bug a few times now. The workaround I’ve found is to take your playlists out of the folders, delete these “Smart Playlist Folders”, and then just not use folders anymore. Pretty frustrating, as I have like 300 playlists.

 

[HDFan]

So has anyone filed a bug report?

https://www.apple.com/feedback/

 

[Yesshows91]

Thank you for the link. I just filed a bug report.

 

[Yesshows91]

Unfortunately, this problem persists in Catalina 10.15.2. I was able to recreate this bug within minutes of a clean install of Catalina 10.15.2. I filed another bug report.