PPP

Plex Playlist Pusher (Python Re-write)

Looking for the original Bash version? Find it here

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A simple Python 3 script used to automatically:

• load .m3u playlists from a local directory (maybe your MusicBee library... Can't be the same directory as your PPP installation!)
• load music playlists from Plex
• compare the two, merging any new tracks or entire playlists
• push the updated playlists back to Plex using the Plex Playlist API (https://forums.plex.tv/t/can-plexamp-read-and-use-m3u-playlists/234179/21)
• copy the updated playlists back to your local directory

This will keep Plex playlists and local playlists synchronised. If you want to delete a playlist or song from a playlist, it must be removed from BOTH local and Plex playlists.

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Usage instructions

1. Install Python 3 if you haven't already
2. Download the latest release of PPP from here
3. For first run, see Setup
4. Run PPP with Python 3

usage: PPP.py [-h] [-setup] [-nobackups] [-retention n] [-nocleanup]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help    show this help message and exit
  -setup        Force-run the setup procedure
  -nobackups    Disable backup of local playlists completely!
  -retention n  Number of previous local playlist backups to keep (Default 10)
  -nocleanup    Disable removal of .tmp directory (for debugging only)

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Setup

PPP will guide you through a setup on first run, and attempt to help you find all required variables.

• Variables are saved to variables.json
• If needed this can be edited manually

Alternatively rename example-variables.json to variables.json and edit the file manually.

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Automation

Linux

Use crontab. You may need to apply this fix.

Example crontab:

* * * * * cd /path/to/PPP && /usr/bin/python3 /path/to/PPP/PPP.py >> /path/to/PPP/PPP.log 2>&1

Windows

Use task scheduler? I haven't tested it.

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Variables (Reference)

Running setup should help you find all these variables!

VARIABLE	DESCRIPTION	EXAMPLE
server_url	the url of your Plex server, as seen by whatever you're running PPP on	"http://192.168.1.100:32400"
check_ssl	validate, or ignore SSL certificate ('"False"' for self signed https)	"True"
plex_token	find it here	"A1B3c4bdHA3s8COTaE3l"
local_playlists	path to the local playlists you want to use, relative to PPP	"/mnt/Playlists"
working_directory	path to PPP working directory, a directory accessible by both PPP and Plex	"/mnt/PPP"
working_directory_plex	path to PPP working directory as seen by Plex. Change it if Plex is running in a container and cannot see working_directory	"/data/mnt/PPP"
section_id	the library section which contains all your music (only one section is supported by the Plex API)	"11"
local_prepend	path to be ignored in local playlists	"Z:\\Media\\Music\\"
plex_prepend	path to be ignored in Plex playlists	"/mnt/Media/Music"
local_convert	only if local playlists are in a different directory format to your PPP machine	"w2u"
plex_convert	only if you Plex playlists are in a different directory format to your PPP machine	False

--- EXAMPLE LOCAL_PLAYLIST ---
Z:\Media\Music\Andrew Huang\Love Is Real\Love Is Real.mp3
Z:\Media\Music\Ben Howard\Noonday Dream\A Boat To An Island On The Wall.mp3
Z:\Media\Music\Bibio\PHANTOM BRICKWORKS\PHANTOM BRICKWORKS.mp3

--- EXAMPLE PLEX_PLAYLIST ---
/mnt/media/Music/Andrew Huang/Love Is Real/Love Is Real.mp3
/mnt/media/Music/Ben Howard/Noonday Dream/A Boat To An Island On The Wall.mp3
/mnt/media/Music/Bibio/PHANTOM BRICKWORKS/PHANTOM BRICKWORKS.mp3

In the examples above, local_prepend is "Z:\\Media\\Music\\" and plex_prepend is "/mnt/Media/Music"

In this example, PPP is running on a machine which uses UNIX paths (/ not \), and so local_convert is "w2u" - which means Windows paths are converted to UNIX paths.

If running PPP on Windows and your playlist paths are UNIX, use "u2w", and if both paths are the same format use false.

Why are there so many backslashes? You need to double any backslash, because normally it's a special 'escape character' which would break the code. You need to 'escape' the 'escape character' (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/19095796/how-to-print-backslash-with-python)