Using M3U playlists in Kodi

Kodi is a free, open-source media centre for TVs, computers and set-top boxes. It has built-in support for playlists, including M3U. This guide covers Kodi 21 “Omega” and later, using Kodi’s own music and video sections.

Playlist formats Kodi reads

According to the Kodi wiki, Kodi reads these playlist formats:

M3U (.m3u), the format Kodi uses when it saves a playlist itself;
M3U8 (.m3u8), supported since Kodi 21 Omega;
PLS, WPL, B4S and CUE sheets;
Kodi’s own smart playlists (.xsp) and single-address .strm files.

If you use an older Kodi version, save your playlist as .m3u.

Play an M3U file

Copy the playlist to a folder that Kodi can open, for example a folder you added as a media source, a USB stick or a network share.
In Kodi, go to Videos → Files (or to Music and switch to file mode) and browse to the folder.
Select the playlist. Kodi opens it and lists its entries.

Make it appear under Playlists

To have Kodi list your playlist in its Playlists section, save it in Kodi’s playlist folders:

Type	Folder (Kodi’s own notation)
Music	`special://profile/playlists/music`
Video	`special://profile/playlists/video`

special://profile is Kodi’s user-data folder. Where it is on disk depends on the device; the Kodi wiki has a table for each system. Kodi saves the music playlists it creates in the music folder, even if they contain music videos.

Paths: be specific

Every entry must use a path that Kodi can open:

Absolute paths are recommended. The Kodi wiki notes that relative paths are possible but break when a playlist is moved to other hardware.
Write paths the way Kodi sees your files. For files on a network share, use the same form that Kodi’s file browser shows for that source.
Web addresses (https://…) work as entries when Kodi can play the format at that address.

A playlist made for a computer often contains paths like C:\Users\Sam\Music\… that don’t exist on the TV box running Kodi. Change the start of those paths to the place Kodi sees the same files. See relative and absolute paths.

Fix common problems

The playlist is empty or entries are skipped: a path is wrong for the device running Kodi. Open the file in M3U.Click or a text editor and compare the paths with what Kodi’s file browser shows.
Names are garbled: save the playlist as UTF-8. Use .m3u8 on Kodi 21 or later.
Kodi doesn’t list the playlist under Playlists: it must be in the right playlist folder for its type.