# Playlist %\_counter% **URL:** \ **Category:** Support\ **Created:** [March 27, 2023, 7:58pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/playlist-counter/60519 "2023-03-27T19:58:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Noteworthy](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/bc79bd/32.png) [@Noteworthy](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Noteworthy)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2023, 7:58pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/playlist-counter/60519/1 "2023-03-27T19:58:17Z")
Venturing for the first time to construct playlists using mp3tag. From various helpful posts in this forum, have gathered the following steps to follow to construct a playlist based on music files residing in different folders within my music colection - a "various artists" if you like. Drag and drop (d&d) files from various folders into MP3tag (press the Ctrl key during d&d) Or load the folders then drag the files into the correct position while pressing the Alt-key. Drag a file into position while pressing the Alt key. To save the position in that playlist then Select the files from that playlist Create an action of the type "Format value" for (the user-defined) field "my\_playlistorder" Format string: %\_counter% I did all of the above and created a column to reflect the contents of my\_playlistorder. After running the action however the field is blank. Shouldn't there be a numerical value denoting the order? Any help, gratefully received... ---
**Author:** ![ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/ohrenkino/32/4843_2.png) [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2023, 8:02pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/playlist-counter/60519/2 "2023-03-27T20:02:17Z")
Please show us the column definition for my\_playlistorder ---
**Author:** ![Noteworthy](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/bc79bd/32.png) [@Noteworthy](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Noteworthy)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2023, 5:25am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/playlist-counter/60519/3 "2023-03-28T05:25:27Z")
![Col def](https://community.mp3tag.de/uploads/default/original/2X/c/c18539373776113c02bedfcfe118371be6a2d6aa.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/ohrenkino/32/4843_2.png) [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2023, 5:28am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/playlist-counter/60519/4 "2023-03-28T05:28:53Z")
To see something in a column, you have to fill Value. "Field" determines, into which field the data gets written. So just add %my\_playlistorder% to "Value" and it should work. ---
**Author:** ![Noteworthy](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/bc79bd/32.png) [@Noteworthy](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Noteworthy)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2023, 6:54am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/playlist-counter/60519/5 "2023-03-28T06:54:36Z")
Worked like a charm! Silly me. Many, many thanks ---
**Author:** ![Noteworthy](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/bc79bd/32.png) [@Noteworthy](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Noteworthy)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2023, 7:31am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/playlist-counter/60519/6 "2023-03-28T07:31:55Z")
Supplementary question please: I created the playlist without a problem. However the sequence of the playlist order gets saved in the track tags. I then have to open source album tracks and delete the playlist numbers in each of the tracks that made up the "various artists" playlist. Is there a way to avoid this step? ---
**Author:** ![ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/ohrenkino/32/4843_2.png) [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2023, 7:48am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/playlist-counter/60519/7 "2023-03-28T07:48:10Z")
Not quite sure what you mean ... If you load a playlist into MP3tag, MP3tag respects the order from the playlist. You can select all files, open the extended tags dialogue Alt+T, select the playlistorder field, mark it for deletion (click red X) and then save the modification with OK. This removes the field from all the selected files. ---
**Author:** ![Noteworthy](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/bc79bd/32.png) [@Noteworthy](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Noteworthy)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2023, 8:13am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/playlist-counter/60519/8 "2023-03-28T08:13:01Z")
Very clear. Many thanks ---
**Author:** ![Noteworthy](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/bc79bd/32.png) [@Noteworthy](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Noteworthy)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2023, 10:07am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/playlist-counter/60519/9 "2023-03-28T10:07:29Z")
Probably my last on the subject: The name of the folder containing the tracks included in the playlist had two Unicode symbols: α τ In generating the playlist MP3tag changed these into a and t respectively. I had to manually edit the playlist in Notepad to do a find/replace and then the playlist worked. Is there any way to get around this problem? ---
**Author:** ![ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/ohrenkino/32/4843_2.png) [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2023, 10:31am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/playlist-counter/60519/10 "2023-03-28T10:31:11Z")
To save a playlist with utf-8 characters, use m3u8 as extension instead of the simple m3u. Not all players can cope with m3u8 playlists. Edit the playlist name accordingly. ---
**Author:** ![Noteworthy](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/bc79bd/32.png) [@Noteworthy](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Noteworthy)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2023, 10:48am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/playlist-counter/60519/11 "2023-03-28T10:48:21Z")
OK. Many thanks. Should have occurred to me in the first place 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![system](https://community.mp3tag.de/uploads/default/original/2X/c/ce7035d426cb755a7916793326d23b465222a407.png) [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2023, 10:49am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/playlist-counter/60519/12 "2023-04-27T10:49:06Z")
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