FAQ
Emthree — FAQ
Written to kill the exact questions a careful, library-owning user asks before they trust a tool with their files.
Does my music get uploaded anywhere?
No. Emthree reads your audio files on your own device to pull tags and album art, and that's all the files are used for. The audio never leaves your machine and is never sent to a server.
Do I need an account?
No — not to scan, build playlists, or export. You only need a free account if you want Pro: syncing your playlists across devices, unlimited saved playlists, and smart playlists. Without an account, your playlists are saved locally in your own browser.
Where are my playlists stored?
If you're not signed in, playlists are stored only in your browser's local storage (IndexedDB) on that device — nothing reaches us. If you sign in for Pro, your playlists are synced to our hosting so they're available on your other devices and backed up. Even then, we store playlist names, file paths and track tags — never the audio.
Which browsers work?
- Chrome and Edge (desktop): the full experience. Emthree uses the native folder picker and can remember your folder so you re-open with one click.
- Safari and Firefox (desktop): you drag a folder onto the page to scan. These browsers can't remember the folder permission between visits, so you re-drag each session — but your saved playlists persist.
- Mobile: limited. Emthree is built for the desktop, where your library and your streamer usually live.
What audio formats are supported?
MP3, FLAC, M4A, AAC, OGG, Opus, WAV, WMA, AIFF/AIF and APE. Emthree reads embedded tags (title, artist, album, year, genre, track number, duration) and album art where present.
What is an M3U file, and will it work with my player?
An M3U (Emthree exports the UTF-8 variant, .m3u8) is a simple text playlist: a list of track paths your player reads in order. It's about as universal as playlists get — VLC, Plex, Jellyfin, foobar2000, Rockbox, most DAPs and many car stereos all read it.
How do I get my playlist into Plex?
Plex has no simple "import M3U" button for music, so this takes a little setup — it's a Plex limitation, not an Emthree one. Two things must be true: your music is already in your Plex library, and the playlist's track paths match how the Plex server sees those files (not how your own computer sees them). Emthree's relative paths help, because they avoid hard-coding your local drive. The reliable routes are a community Plex playlist-importer tool, or placing the exported file where the server can read it and importing via Plex's API. More involved than a plain player like VLC — but a one-time bit of setup.
How do I get my playlist into Jellyfin?
Jellyfin reads .m3u / .m3u8 files and matches the tracks against your library. Drop the exported playlist into your music library (or your Jellyfin playlists folder) and let Jellyfin scan — it'll link up the tracks it recognises. As with Plex, the paths need to line up with how your Jellyfin server sees the files, so keeping the playlist alongside your music (Emthree's default) gives the best results. Treat the exported file as the source of truth, since editing an imported playlist inside Jellyfin can be finicky.
What are "relative paths" and why do they matter?
Instead of writing the full location of each track (which breaks the moment you move your music), Emthree writes each path relative to the playlist's position in your folder structure. Keep the .m3u8 with your music — or move the whole folder to another drive, NAS or DAP — and the playlist keeps working. This is what "your playlists move with your music" means.
Why UTF-8 (.m3u8) rather than plain .m3u?
So accented and non-Latin characters in artist and track names display correctly in your player instead of turning into garbled text. It's the same playlist format, just with proper international character support.
What are smart playlists?
Rule-based playlists that build themselves from your library — for example, "everything tagged a particular genre" or "releases within a year range" — by artist, album-artist, genre and year. They're a Pro feature, because keeping them in sync is what the account is for.
How much is Pro, and can I cancel?
Pro is about £15/year. It unlocks sync and backup, unlimited saved playlists, and smart playlists. You can cancel any time; you keep access until the end of the period you've paid for. (Billing details appear once you go to upgrade.)
Is Emthree's free version limited on playlist length?
No. The free tier exports full-length playlists with no track cap. The only free-tier limit is on how many playlists you can save (3) — and saving unlimited playlists, plus syncing them, is what Pro adds.
Do you track me?
We use privacy-respecting analytics to understand how the tool is used — counts and timings only (how many tracks were scanned, whether an export succeeded). We never record your file paths, folder names or track titles in analytics. See the Privacy Policy for the full picture.
I found a bug / have a request.
Send it through our contact form — we read everything that comes in.