How to save a playlist in VLC player on Windows 10
VLC player lets you create playlists but they’re not the sort of playlists you get with Spotify or with YouTube. For VLC player, a playlist is just a group of files that you want to play one after the other at a given time. You cannot name these playlists and when you create a new one, you lose the old one. The feature works this way because VLC player is a video player. It supports audio formats and can double as an audio player too but this app is what users turn to for videos. That said, here’s how you can save a playlist in VLC player.
Save playlist in VLC
Open VLC player and go to View>Playlist. Add the files that you want to include in the playlist.
Once you’ve created the playlist, go to Media>Save Playlist to File. Save the file and give it a name that you’d normally give your playlist e.g., if you’ve made a playlist for work, you will name it ‘Work’. The file saves as an XSPF file.
To play a playlist, simply double-click the XSPF file that you just saved and it will open in VLC player.
Limitations
The saved playlist has the same limitations that playlists created in any other desktop media player has. The files included in the playlist are saved by their name and location in the XSPF file. If one of the files is moved, or renamed, the playlist will not be able to find it. It will play the files that it can find but for those that it cannot, it will show you an error.
The one advantage of saving a playlist as a file is that it is far easier to recover it after a fresh Windows installation. Assuming you back up your files, and are able to recreate the directory/folder that the files were in when you created the playlist, you will be able to reuse the playlist files that you saved earlier.
VLC player’s playlist isn’t like Spotify i.e., it plays local files or files on a network location. It doesn’t have access to an online database of media which is why its playlists aren’t like those that Spotify or YouTube have. Online content doesn’t generally move so you can sign into an account and access your playlists any time. iTunes does do a better job with playlists but it limits where the files can be saved. Its playlists are smarter than those that VLC player has but it still has the same limitations.
