Create a Playlist

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Each user on a Plex server can create their own playlists. A playlist can contain either videos, music, or photos, and can't be shared with other users. There are smart and non-smart playlists. This API command will create a non-smart playlist for a user.

URL

POST http://{ip_address}:32400/playlists?type={type}&title={title}&smart={smart}&uri=server://{machine_id}/com.plexapp.plugins.library/{library_id}?X-Plex-Token={plex_token}

Parameters

Name	Description
ip_address	The IP address of the Plex Media server.
plex_token	The Plex user token.
type	The type of playlist to be created. Valid values: audio, video, photo.
title	The name of the playlist.
smart	Indicates the playlist is smart or not. Valid values: 0 (non-smart), 1 (smart).
machine_id	The ID associated with the Plex server. Can be found by calling the Server Identity command and getting the `machineIdentifier` attribute value.
library_id	The key associated with the library item to be added to the playlist. See below for information on this value.

Return Status

HTTP Code	Description
200	Success - The request was successful.
400	Bad request - A parameter is missing.
401	Unauthorized - The Plex token provided is not valid.
500	Internal server error - A parameter value is not valid.

Response

XML string value that provides details of the playlist that was just created. An example of the XML return value is shown below:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <MediaContainer size="1">
        <Playlist ratingKey="289130" key="/playlists/289130/items" guid="com.plexapp.agents.none://aa1ce6fe-b6f3-48c5-bd4f-23df120ee1f8" type="playlist" title="My Playlist" summary="" smart="0" playlistType="video" composite="/playlists/279131/composite/1786162547" icon="playlist://image.smart" duration="4246000" leafCount="1" addedAt="1684162647" updatedAt="1684162647"></Playlist>
    </MediaContainer>
</MediaContainer>

The XML return provides information on the new playlist. The root is the MediaContainer element. This element contains a single attribute indicating that one playlist has been returned from the server.

MediaContainer Attributes
Attribute	Description
size	The number of playlists returned.

Within the MediaContainer there is one Playlist child element. The Playlist element contains information on the new playlist on the Plex server.

Playlist Attributes
Attribute	Description
ratingKey	A key associated with the playlist.
key	The relative URL of the items in the playlist. This URL returns information about the items in the playlist.
guid	The unique identifier comprised of the Plex agent and playlist identifier for the agent.
type	The type of media.
title	The title of the playlist.
summary	A description of the playlist. This can be changed by editing the playlist from within Plex after it has been created.
smart	1 - playlist is a smart playlist. 0 - playlist is not a smart playlist.
playlistType	video - playlist contains videos/movies. audio - playlist contains audio/music. photo - playlist contains photos.
composite	The URL of the image used to represent the playlist.
icon	Icon used for smart playlists. Not used for non-smart playlists.
duration	The total duration, in milliseconds, of the number of items in the playlist. This value doesn't exist for photo playlists.
leafCount	Number of items in the playlist.
addedAt	The date and time, in Unix time, the playlist was added to the library.
updatedAt	The date and time in epoch time, the playlist was updated in the library.

Remarks

Library key parameter

The Library Key parameter value can be found if you access the Plex server from the Web app.

When you hover over any item - movie, TV show, music, photo, etc. there will be a key parameter in the URL. That key value is the value you will use for the Library Key parameter.

The value is easy to find in the URL of the item. It has the structure /library/metadata/{id}. You will use the entire value of the key parameter from the media item URL.

Playlist type

The type parameter should indicate the type of media that will be in the playlist. A playlist cannot have different media types. This means that a playlist can only contain either videos, music or photos, but not more than one type.

If the value of the type parameter does not match the media item specified in the uri parameter, the playlist type will be the same as the media item.

For example, if the type parameter value is video but the media item type in the uri parameter is a photo, the playlist will be a photo playlist and not a video playlist. The response XML will indicate the proper playlist type.

If a video was added to that same playlist, a new video playlist with the same name will be created for videos.

The type parameter must be provided or a 400 - Bad Request will be returned and the playlist won't be created.

Smart playlist

The command and parameters explained on this page are used for creating non-smart playlists in Plex. If you use the same command but set the smart parameter to 1 you will create an empty playlist.

The API request for submitting a smart playlist is similar, but is different with regards to parameters.

Examples

curl -X POST http://{ip_address}:32400/playlists?type={type}&title={title}&smart={smart}&uri=server://{machine_id}/com.plexapp.plugins.library/{library_id}?X-Plex-Token={plex_token}

import requests
plex_url = http://{ip_address}:32400/playlists?type={type}&title={title}&smart={smart}&uri=server://{machine_id}/com.plexapp.plugins.library/{library_id}?X-Plex-Token={plex_token}
response = requests.post(plex_url)
print(response.text)

$response = Invoke-RestMethod 'http://{ip_address}:32400/playlists?type={type}&title={title}&smart={smart}&uri=server://{machine_id}/com.plexapp.plugins.library/{library_id}?X-Plex-Token={plex_token}' -Method 'POST'
Write-Output $response

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