[jjd-uk]

This has got way off topic for the original thread and this kind of support should not be in Feature Requests forum, so I have moved to Music forum.

I provided what I thought was a relevant thread title, ds_tx you modify this if you wish by editing the first post.

[ds_tx]

STOP, LOOK, LISTEN, READ! - You are confusing my 2 different setups, which are
1) Kodi app running on Mac OSX 10.13.6 on MacBook Pro 2011, and
2) Kodi running on CoreELEC on Odroid N2. 

Playlists work just fine on Mac Kodi app after adding smb, etc code to advancedsettings.xml
Playlists are m3u files exported from iTunes with NO MODIFICATIONS.
Before adding path substitution to advancedsettings.xml, playlists would play first track or two on playlist, then revert to playing tracks from entire music library not on playlist.
After adding path substitution to advancedsettings.xml, iTunes exported m3u playlists play just fine ON MAC KODI. REPEAT, ON MAC KODI.

Because that worked on Mac Kodi, I tried same approach with CoreELEC Kodi, but with negative instead of positive results.
Now you're telling me there's no need for path substitution in advanced settings with local connected external HDD.

So I went to Kodi wiki How to Create a Normal Playlist (not a Smart Playlist), to see what a normal playlist created with CoreELEC Kodi interface looked like compared to what iTunes exports, to modify iTunes export for Whatever the Heck Kodi Wants on CoreELEC.
Even though I'm using default skin (Estuary), I do NOT have the context menus described in the Kodi wiki and cannot create a normal playlist as instructed there.
When a track is playing and I right click for Contextual Menu, all I get is the following ...
Information, Play using..., Add to favs, Move up, Move down, Move item, Remove
It would be EXTREMELY HELPFUL if the Kodi wiki did NOT cause even more confusion.
I should be able to create playlist intuitively from Kodi GUI the following way but it does NOT work (a huge problem with Kodi) -
Music Home Screen > Playlists > New Playlist > Files > Albums > Album X (e.g. Beatles Abbey Road, etc.) > Save (Qwerty keyboard pulls up, enter name TEST, click OK)
That's the most straightforward method, but it doesn't save anything to Kodi > userdatea > playlists > music
When I looked at files in playlists > music - there was no TEST.m3u file.

So I tried this -
Music Home Screen > Recently Played Albums > Album X > Album track (track plays) > Context menu (right click) yields ....
More of Kodi labyrinth, lost in the maze of completely unituitive GUI ....

So I tried this -
Music Home Screen > Recently Played Albums > Album X > Options screen (lower left) > Go to Playlist (Qwerty keyboard pulls up, enter name TEST, click OK)
WOW!!!! Now, FINALLY, theres a TEST.m3u file in playlists > music
Open and compare to iTunes m3u exports.
Kodi -
#EXTCPlayListM3U::M3U
#EXTINF:0,01. Album Name - Track Name  (I suppose this order is because Kodi created playlist from Album)
iTunes -
#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:920,Track Name - Album Name (I suppose this order is because iTunes created playlist from Library list of all tracks)

Change #EXTM3U in iTunes export playlist to #EXTCPlayListM3U::M3U like Kodi CoreELEC playlist.
Kodi frowns and still will NOT play playlist

Replace comma after track number in iTunes export playlist with a period and a space like Kodi CoreELEC playlist.
Kodi makes a face and still will NOT play playlist

Add 0, in front of track number like Kodi CoreELEC playlist.
Kodi sticks out tongue and still will NOT play playlist

SO WHAT THE HECK DOES KODI WANT ANYWAY
If it were as intuitively straight forward and easy to create a playlist on Kodi as iTunes, I would.
But there is no track list with check boxes to turn tracks on/off, or drag and drop tracks and whole albums to create playlist.
So I need to import playlists from iTunes, but this got ridiculous days ago!

[DaveBlake]

You have something that works in Kodi on OSX but does not work on CoreELEC, dare I suggest that that makes it sound like a CoreELEC issue (noth a core Kodi one) and that therefore you raise it with them.

[ds_tx]

See how iTunes apparantly numbers tracks for entire library, as tracks in playlist all have a number, not an album comma track number.
See sample playlist .m3u file, just as exported from iTunes (no modifications).
Playlists works on Mac Kodi, but only with path substitution added to advancedsettings.xml file
http://dstall.com/1940s.txt

So how do I modify it to play on Kodi CoreELEC?
What does Kodi want? Tell me? I'm tired of guessing! Kodi has to say what Kodi wants and I'll give it to Kodi.
I want Kodi playlist creation interface as intuitive and easy to use as iTunes, but I know I'm not gonna get what I want.

[ds_tx]

This has got way off topic for the original thread and this kind of support should not be in Feature Requests forum, so I have moved to Music forum.

I provided what I thought was a relevant thread title, ds_tx you modify this if you wish by editing the first post.

Understandable, and thanks. Just wish you'd let me know that before I clicked on link in email from black_eagle's latest reply only to find thread evaporated.
This is all terribly confusing and frustrating enough without more added confusion.
Please have Kodi team review this thread.
What's going on here may not technically be a 'Feature Request', but it sure is a cry for fixing functionality and making Kodi GUI user friendly.
Currently, Kodi's seems to be only for Codies (programmers), and I bet even a lot of them have problems.
There should not be so much difference between how things work with Mac app vs. CoreELEC app
The instructions in Kodi wiki for creating normal playlist are for default skin Confluence!!!! not Estuary, and I cannot find context menus for Confluence in Estuary
Estuary, not Confluence, is the default skin for Kodi v 18. 
If context menus and default skins change from one version to next, then wiki need to be updated.
Those kinds of changes just add confusion.
Keep context menus same from one skin to another, or update wiki appropriately.
I find the whole interface for creating music playlists to be convoluted,
and greatly wish Kodi team would review that for user friendliness with users who are NOT DIY Codies who get their kicks troubleshooting and tinkering with code.
If a kid can't figure out how to create music playlist in Kodi by playing around with interface, then it's not very friendly.

[ds_tx]

You have something that works in Kodi on OSX but does not work on CoreELEC, dare I suggest that that makes it sound like a CoreELEC issue (noth a core Kodi one) and that therefore you raise it with them.

The issue is with Kodi app on CoreELEC, not with CoreELEC operating system, so CE says it's Kodi issue.

[jjd-uk]

There is confusion because it's not clear how each of your installs accesses the files. However despite this black_eagle has told you how to figure it out for yourself, that is on your CoreELEC Odroid N2 create new simply playlist using the music file locations the Odroid N2 has access to, then compare with the m3u playlist generated by the CoreELEC Odroid N2 install with your Mac OSX itunes m3u files. That will tell how the path subs need to be configured.

xm:
 <pathsubstitution>

  <substitute>

    <from>itunes m3u folder path</from>

    <to>Odroid N2 m3u folder path</to>

  </substitute>

 </pathsubstitution>

[jjd-uk]

WOW!!!! Now, FINALLY, theres a TEST.m3u file in playlists > music
Open and compare to iTunes m3u exports.
Kodi -
#EXTCPlayListM3U::M3U
#EXTINF:0,01. Album Name - Track Name  (I suppose this order is because Kodi created playlist from Album)
iTunes -
#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:920,Track Name - Album Name (I suppose this order is because iTunes created playlist from Library list of all tracks)

Change #EXTM3U in iTunes export playlist to #EXTCPlayListM3U::M3U like Kodi CoreELEC playlist.
Kodi frowns and still will NOT play playlist

Replace comma after track number in iTunes export playlist with a period and a space like Kodi CoreELEC playlist.
Kodi makes a face and still will NOT play playlist

Add 0, in front of track number like Kodi CoreELEC playlist.
Kodi sticks out tongue and still will NOT play playlist

SO WHAT THE HECK DOES KODI WANT ANYWAY

You have not provided the file paths contained in the test.m3u you created in CoreELEC which is the only thing that matters.

[jjd-uk]

The instructions in Kodi wiki for creating normal playlist are for default skin Confluence!!!! not Estuary, and I cannot find context menus for Confluence in Estuary

The items on the context menu are exactly the same no matter what skin you are using, only the look will differ, so the instructions should still be valid.

If context menus and default skins change from one version to next, then wiki need to be updated.

The Team are limited in numbers and are volunteers who do this in our spare time, we don't always have time to update everything on the wiki ourselves. However as it is a wiki any user can signup to do updates to the documentation, and it would be nice if more users did this instead of just taking all the time without ever giving anything back.

[black_eagle]

You do not need the context menu as such.

Navigate down the left menu (movies, tv-shows etc) to music.  In the right window (that shows you recently played albums, recently added albums etc), go to the right on the categories at the top until you get to playlists. Click it.  If you have any playlists that Kodi can see they will be listed.  If not it will just say New playlist and New smart playlist.  Click on New playlist. You are now in the playlist editor.  Click on Library in the middle. You will get a list of Genres, artists, albums etc etc.  Just click on Artists for now.  You will see a list of artists.  Click on the first one. Now you will see a list of albums by that artist.  Click on the first one.  Now there is a list of tracks on that album.  The first one will be highlighted.  Open the context menu on it (press c on a keyboard or whatever button you have mapped on a remote for it). Now you will see three options (Information, Add to favourites and Add).  Click Add.  The track will appear in the right hand pane. Click on Save in the left pane and type in a name when prompted.

You have now created and saved a playlist with one song in it.  SSH or connect to your Odroid and navigate to .kodi/userdata/playlists/music and open the playlist in a text editor (probably nano but I have never used CoreElec so just guessing there).  Post whatever is in that file here.  All of it, not just a bit of it.

It will look similar (but not the same as) this.

xml:
#EXTCPlayListM3U::M3U

#EXTINF:0,01. ABBA - Ring Ring

/<some>/<path>/<to>/<the>/Music/ABBA/Ring Ring/01 Ring Ring.flac

[ds_tx]

Yesterday after posting, I did discover that paths were different.
iTunes uses Volumes whereas CoreELEC uses media, so I changed all paths in multiple playlists to -
/media/1.MacDOCS/Music/_iTunes/iTunes Media/
and all of those playlists still will NOT play.
The progress wheel spins round and round, and the names of the tracks flash in upper right of screen until entire playlist has been scanned (or whatever) and then quits without playing track that I clicked.
When playlists play on Mac, I get a horizontal progress bar that says loading before track begins to play.
Horizontal progress "loading" bar never appears on CoreELEC
FYI - There is NO pathsubstitution currently in advancedsettings.xml file; as it was previously deleted from the file.
All music playlists are stored on Odroid N2 in Kodi/userdata/playlists/music/

[ds_tx]

iTunes playlists all list songs as a huge track number (not simply 1,2,3,etc. from album) followed by comma. 
I suspect that iTunes numbers songs from a complete list of all tracks in music library.
I can also export music library from iTunes.
Is there a way to import music library to Kodi on CoreELEC?
Would that help make things apples to apples so song tracks are numbered the same as they are in iTunes playlists?

When I create playlist on CoreELEC from album, CE playlist assigns 0 to album, then follows 0 with comma and album track no.,
but I have no idea how it determines what number to give the album.
Perhaps in the order I add them to playlist?
I will have to leave TEST.m3u in place, then create another TEST2 playlist from another album.
I will also have to try to create a TESTsong playlist from a song list to see how that differs.

[jjd-uk]

Please share the contents of TEST.m3u by opening in a text editor then copy and pasting to https://pastebin.com/

[ds_tx]

Playlist created like this - 
Music/Playlists/New Playlist/Songs
Select, play a track - Options save, title playlist with Qwerty keyboard, click OK 
Saves entire Songs list in playlist, not just the  track playing.
Tracks w/o number are listed as - 0,Track name... (for most part, some exceptions - sometimes artist, album name, etc.)
Lists all tracks w/o number first - all 0,Track name....
Then lists all tracks numbered 1 together from each and every album, then 2, 3, etc. - 
All 0,01. Track name...
All 0,02. Track name...
All 0,03. Track name...
This is so incredibly different from iTunes, I can see it hasn't been worth all the time and energy sorting it out, and isn't worth wasting any more time on.
If iTunes playlists won't play because track numbering/listing can't be read, then there's no point.
If there's a way to import iTunes library so Kodi can read playlist track numbering/listing, then I'm interested.
Othewise too bad. Would have been nice to use Odroid N2 for all media - Movies, TV Shows, Music, and Pictures.
But looks like I may be stuck using N2 for Movies and TV Shows, Apple TV for iTunes music (only imports mp4 movies at low quality which is why I bought N2 to play VOB files).
Not sure what to do with pictures; will have to wait to troubleshoot Kodi for that, too worn out right now.
Need to find out if there are add ons for dissolve effects, sort titles, etc. instead of mere display of files in a-z order.

[jjd-uk]

Those lines starting # are just comment lines and don't do anything as far as I'm aware, the only lines which matter are the paths.