# Playlists with Unicode fail to load

**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/playlists-with-unicode-fail-to-load/11739
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [March 18, 2011, 2:17am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/playlists-with-unicode-fail-to-load/11739 "2011-03-18T02:17:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![wolfsong](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/bc79bd/32.png) [@wolfsong](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/wolfsong)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2011, 2:17am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/playlists-with-unicode-fail-to-load/11739/1 "2011-03-18T02:17:38Z")

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While it seems that Unicode is supported, loading of files with Unicode characters in a playlists fail to load. Thanks.

```
File C:\Documents and Settings\Cristov\My Documents\multimedia\- ITUNES -\- va -\soundtracks\DÃ©jÃ Vu (Original Soundtrack)\[11] Coming Back to You.mp3 cannot be accessed.
File C:\Documents and Settings\Cristov\My Documents\multimedia\audio\music\library\Janelle MonÃ¡e\The ArchAndroid\[02] Dance Or Die.mp3 cannot be accessed.
File C:\Documents and Settings\Cristov\My Documents\multimedia\audio\music\library\Janelle MonÃ¡e\The ArchAndroid\[06] Cold War.mp3 cannot be accessed.
File C:\Documents and Settings\Cristov\My Documents\multimedia\audio\music\library\Janelle MonÃ¡e\The ArchAndroid\[07] Tightrope.mp3 cannot be accessed.
File C:\Documents and Settings\Cristov\My Documents\multimedia\audio\music\library\Janelle MonÃ¡e\The ArchAndroid\[13] Neon Valley Street.mp3 cannot be accessed.
File C:\Documents and Settings\Cristov\My Documents\multimedia\audio\music\library\Janelle MonÃ¡e\The ArchAndroid\[17] Say You'll Go.mp3 cannot be accessed.
File C:\Documents and Settings\Cristov\My Documents\multimedia\audio\music\library\Janelle MonÃ¡e\Metropolis_ The Chase Suite (Special Edition)\[03] Many Moons.mp3 cannot be accessed.
File C:\Documents and Settings\Cristov\My Documents\multimedia\audio\music\library\Janelle MonÃ¡e\Metropolis_ The Chase Suite (Special Edition)\[04] Cybertronic Purgatory.mp3 cannot be accessed.
File C:\Documents and Settings\Cristov\My Documents\multimedia\audio\music\library\Janelle MonÃ¡e\Metropolis_ The Chase Suite (Special Edition)\[05] Sincerely, Jane.mp3 cannot be accessed.
File C:\Documents and Settings\Cristov\My Documents\multimedia\audio\music\library\Janelle MonÃ¡e\Metropolis_ The Chase Suite (Special Edition)\[06] Mr. President.mp3 cannot be accessed.
File C:\Documents and Settings\Cristov\My Documents\multimedia\audio\music\library\Janelle MonÃ¡e\Metropolis_ The Chase Suite (Special Edition)\[07] Smile.mp3 cannot be accessed.
File C:\Documents and Settings\Cristov\My Documents\multimedia\audio\music\library\Lauren Flax\You've Changed\[01] Youâ€™ve Changed (Original Mix).mp3 cannot be accessed.
File C:\Documents and Settings\Cristov\My Documents\multimedia\audio\music\library\Mathias SchaffhÃ¤user feat. Rob Taylor\Hey Little Girl - Taken from Superstar Recordings\[01] Hey Little Girl (Radio Version) (Radio Version).mp3 cannot be accessed.
File C:\Documents and Settings\Cristov\My Documents\multimedia\audio\music\library\Me'Shell NdegÃ©Ocello\Cookie The Anthropological Mixtape\[01] Dead Nigga Blvd., Part 1.mp3 cannot be accessed.
File C:\Documents and Settings\Cristov\My Documents\multimedia\audio\music\library\Me'Shell NdegÃ©Ocello\Cookie The Anthropological Mixtape\[02] Hot Night.mp3 cannot be accessed.
File C:\Documents and Settings\Cristov\My Documents\multimedia\audio\music\library\Michael BublÃ©\Crazy Love (Amazon MP3 Exclusive Version)\05 - Haven't Met You Yet.mp3 cannot be accessed.
File C:\Documents and Settings\Cristov\My Documents\multimedia\audio\music\library\Michael BublÃ©\It's Time\[01] Feeling Good.mp3 cannot be accessed.
File C:\Documents and Settings\Cristov\My Documents\multimedia\audio\music\library\Michael BublÃ©\It's Time\[11] A Song for You (feat. Chris Botti).mp3 cannot be accessed.
File C:\Documents and Settings\Cristov\My Documents\multimedia\audio\music\library\Michael BublÃ©\Michael BublÃ©\[02] Moondance.mp3 cannot be accessed.
File C:\Documents and Settings\Cristov\My Documents\multimedia\audio\music\library\Michael BublÃ©\Michael BublÃ©\[05] How Can You Mend a Broken Heart.mp3 cannot be accessed.
File C:\Documents and Settings\Cristov\My Documents\multimedia\audio\music\library\RÃ¶yksopp\Melody A.M\[05] Poor Leno.mp3 cannot be accessed.
File C:\Documents and Settings\Cristov\My Documents\multimedia\audio\music\library\RÃ¶yksopp\Melody A.M\[08] Remind Me.mp3 cannot be accessed.
File C:\Documents and Settings\Cristov\My Documents\multimedia\audio\music\library\SinÃ©ad O'Connor\The Lion and the Cobra\[06] Troy.mp3 cannot be accessed.
```

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/detlevd/32/123_2.png) [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2011, 2:58am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/playlists-with-unicode-fail-to-load/11739/2 "2011-03-18T02:58:12Z")

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> [@wolfsong](#):
>
> While it seems that Unicode is supported, loading of files with Unicode characters in a playlists fail to load. Thanks.
> 
> [code]File C:\Documents and Settings\Cristov\My Documents\multimedia- ITUNES -- va -\soundtracks\DÃ©jÃ Vu (Original Soundtrack)[11] Coming Back to You.mp3 cannot be accessed.  
> ...

Well, one example line would have been sufficient ... 😉  
I do remember read here on the board, that there is the need to use the proper BOM Byte Order Mark when working with Unicode files, so that Mp3tag can decide how to handle this file.

 

Unicode Byte Order Mark  
UTF-32, big-endian : 00 00 FE FF  
UTF-32, little-endian : FF FE 00 00  
UTF-16, big-endian : FE FF  
UTF-16, little-endian : FF FE  
UTF-8 : EF BB BF

 

For UTF-8 the three byte BOM looks like: **ï»¿**  
UTF-16, little-endian, Windows Unicode the two byte BOM looks like **ÿþ**  
Must be placed as the very first character sequence in the file.

DD.20110318.0458.CET

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![wolfsong](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/bc79bd/32.png) [@wolfsong](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/wolfsong)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2011, 4:43am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/playlists-with-unicode-fail-to-load/11739/3 "2011-03-18T04:43:41Z")

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> [@DetlevD](#):
>
> Well, one example line would have been sufficient ... 😉  
> I do remember read here on the board, that there is the need to use the proper BOM Byte Order Mark when working with Unicode files, so that Mp3tag can decide how to handle this file.
> 
>  
> 
> Unicode Byte Order Mark  
> UTF-32, big-endian : 00 00 FE FF  
> UTF-32, little-endian : FF FE 00 00  
> UTF-16, big-endian : FE FF  
> UTF-16, little-endian : FF FE  
> UTF-8 : EF BB BF
> 
>  
> 
> For UTF-8 the three byte BOM looks like: **ï»¿**  
> Must be placed as the very first character sequence in the file.
> 
> DD.20110318.0458.CET

Well I'm not sure what that means exactly. but Mp3tag can load the actual files, it just fails to load them from the playlist.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/detlevd/32/123_2.png) [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2011, 5:00am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/playlists-with-unicode-fail-to-load/11739/4 "2011-03-18T05:00:41Z")

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> [@wolfsong](#):
>
> Well I'm not sure what that means exactly. but Mp3tag can load the actual files, it just fails to load them from the playlist.

Well it means like it has been described.  
Let us try ... the Windows Notepad editor  
(Notepad Editor has some automatism built in to detect unicode file and it automatically save it as Unicode textfile)  
Open the original playlist file with Windows Notepad editor.  
All special characters should be read as intentioned with their foreign language characters.  
Then "save it as" Unicode text file.  
Then read this (now) Unicode playlist file with Mp3tag.

DD.20110318.0752.CET

Other attempt.  
If the original Unicode playlist textfile has lost the BOM and all special characters are encoded into their ANSI replacements character sequences, then we can try to repair this file manually.  
For this case I've used an editor, which is not able to auto detect special encoded characters.  
So a text fragment with special character looks like this ... Mathias SchaffhÃ¤user  
... as shown above in the codebox from post #1.

I opened an empty new text window, then copied and pasted the encoded text into the window.  
Then inserted the three byte BOM ï»¿ at the first character position into the first line.  
Then saved this file as normal ANSI text file.  
Then opened this file with Windows Notepad editor.  
The text now could be read with correct displayed special characters.  
The "Save As" dialog automatically provided to save the text as UTF-8 Unicode file.  
This (now) Unicode playlist file could be read with Mp3tag.

DD.20110318.0805.CET

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![wolfsong](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/bc79bd/32.png) [@wolfsong](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/wolfsong)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2011, 6:06am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/playlists-with-unicode-fail-to-load/11739/5 "2011-03-18T06:06:07Z")

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> [@DetlevD](#):
>
> Well it means like it has been described.  
> Let us try ... the Windows Notepad editor  
> (Notepad Editor has some automatism built in to detect unicode file and it automatically save it as Unicode textfile)  
> Open the original playlist file with Windows Notepad editor.  
> All special characters should be read as intentioned with their foreign language characters.  
> Then "save it as" Unicode text file.  
> Then read this (now) Unicode playlist file with Mp3tag.
> 
> DD.20110318.0752.CET
> 
> Other attempt.  
> If the original Unicode playlist textfile has lost the BOM and all special characters are encoded into their ANSI replacements character sequences, then we can try to repair this file manually.  
> For this case I've used an editor, which is not able to auto detect special encoded characters.  
> So a text fragment with special character looks like this ... Mathias SchaffhÃ¤user  
> ... as shown above in the codebox from post #1.
> 
> I opened an empty new text window, then copied and pasted the encoded text into the window.  
> Then inserted the three byte BOM ï»¿ at the first character position into the first line.  
> Then saved this file as normal ANSI text file.  
> Then opened this file with Windows Notepad editor.  
> The text should now be read with correct displayed special characters.  
> The "Save As" dialog should automatically provide to save the text as Unicode file.  
> This (now) Unicode playlist file can be read with Mp3tag.
> 
> DD.20110318.0805.CET

Yes that worked. Thanks!

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Hamstersex](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@Hamstersex](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Hamstersex)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2011, 6:01pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/playlists-with-unicode-fail-to-load/11739/6 "2011-07-20T18:01:47Z")

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I'm loading .cue with unicode, but when I fix some tags and save file, it saves in ANSI 😕

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Hamstersex](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@Hamstersex](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Hamstersex)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2011, 9:24am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/playlists-with-unicode-fail-to-load/11739/7 "2011-08-11T09:24:02Z")

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> [@Hanstersex](#):
>
> I'm loading .cue with unicode works, but when I fix some tags and save file, it saves in ANSI 😕

maybe I am wrong idea expressed (my english is not that good), but here is my trouble:  
I'm saving .cue file in UTF-8, after that I'm loading it in Mp3Tag and using MusicBrainz tags from "Tag Sources" (MusicBrainz tags includes a unicode symbols), but Mp3Tag ignore unicode symbols and saves tags in ANSI...  
can somebody help me with that??? ![:unsure:](https://community.mp3tag.de/uploads/default/original/1X/cfaeba84fe6704387c5b34dfdd8172bd51b6f533.gif ":unsure:")

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![system](https://community.mp3tag.de/uploads/default/original/2X/c/ce7035d426cb755a7916793326d23b465222a407.png) [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:22pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/playlists-with-unicode-fail-to-load/11739/8 "2026-02-09T12:22:59Z")

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