For those of you having this issue (like I was), I think I have found a temporary fix that I will share so it maybe helps people out. So far I'm finding that the people affected by this issue aren't pinpointing the problem and it's getting complicated by the fact that not everybody is having the issue and some people are finding it's fixed with a reinstall. Reinstalling isn't fixing it for everybody, but here's what I did to get back up and running.
Please comment with details (if you remember them) about what you noticed (if anything) was different when you either 1) first encountered the problem or 2) were able to rectify the problem. I have a feeling the people who fixed the issue with a reinstall are leaving out important details about what they tried to import for the first time on the fresh install.
What my problem was:
First time I imported songs, I had a mix of filetypes on the drive (mp3, m4a, and even apple music m4p) intentionally to test what would import and what wouldn't. I expected that it would remain stable while testing, but I was sadly incorrect. The game imported what it could but obviously couldn't import the unsupported filetypes. This DID NOT cause the issue however, and that's important to note since that seems to be the consensus amongst people who haven't had the issue.
I restarted the game and pulled my external drive to add more music (mostly replacing m4a files with supported mp3s to get my playlist looking like I originally intended). I added some other songs that were just new to the playlist, being sure that they were mp3 files this time.
When I went back to the game to import the new files, it seemed to import just the new stuff but that's when it started crashing anytime I went to add the new files to playlists. I tried to go in and delete files and it would crash when I attempted that too.
What I did to fix it:
After deleing and reinstalling the game, and taking special care to remove ALL m4a and m4p files from the drive, I was not able to fix the issue. It seems to be common, and I have a few guesses at what happened but nothing I can prove. Either way, it wasn't working with a fresh install. What I ended up doing was doubling back through my files and removing all of the new files I added, even if they were mp3s. I DID leave one new mp3, playing the odds on my hypothesis thinking that the odds of that one file being the issue were slim to none (seeing as how I'd added about 30 new files). I deleted the game AND ALL OF MY SAVE FILES. I don't know that it was necessary to do so, but I did anyway just to scrub my console of all game data. I then reinstalled the game. AFTER THE INSTALL while still in the "during install demo", I restarted my console entirely. Powered off and back on, not just rest mode. Then I went in and imported the files I had (which were the same as the first time I imported, with ONE additional file not present during that first import). Everything worked fine! No issues, worked like it did at first and how it seems to be working for most people.
Some thoughts and hypotheses:
Now, my method was slightly flawed because I performed multiple steps which all may have helped fix the issue, so it's hard to nail down what was causing it. Here are the possible conclusions as I see them.
-Just because a file is an mp3 does not mean it's compatible and won't cause an issue. m4a files not being imported DID NOT crash my game, it seemed more likely it was a bad mp3 file when the game went to build a list of imported files.
-The issue may have been the duplicate files I uploaded. I don't think this is likely, but when I replaced files in my drive and went to reupload them (replaced m4a with mp3, I mean), that may have caused some issues. Less likely, but if this is something you also did, it could have merit.
-The restart may have been the key. Again, not sure why exactly but it's possible since that was something I did.
-Deleting my game files may have forced the ps4 to clear some data that was residually hanging in the harddrive on the console. I don't know to what degree, maybe just that older files were associated with the saves, but that was a step I performed before I got it working. I uploaded my RTTS to the cloud and was able to preserve it - I just removed the file physically from my harddrive.
If you try this, you may find TEMPORARY relief. I stress temporary because it seems like it should still be fixed. This should not be looked at as a sign of user error because if it is bad files causing it, there needs to be a way to bypass said files and remove them, almost through a quarantine-style method. I'm guessing with the variations of mp3 files that exists, it's highly likely that anybody having this issue has some form of mp3 that isn't working properly in their playlist. My personal guess is that it's something to do with the metadata of the mp3s since the game DOES upload album covers and other metadata upon import. This is the most likely culprit.
Unless you're like me and remember which files worked for you at one point, this will obviously involve a lot of trial and error. But it is possible to get it working at a somewhat serviceable level. I sincerely hope this helps others who were stuck like me with this issue.
***FURTHER INFO LEFT OUT OF INITIAL POST (3/31 EDIT)***
For the sake of your own sanity, PLEASE don't just keep trying to import the same batch of songs and expecting this to help. The whole point of this solution is to find which files work through either trial and error or by using better converting methods (which I didn't cover here as there's plenty of better resources on the internet). If you read this and try importing the same batch of files and then think that this method did not work, you're not ever going to fix the problem and you're better off waiting for an official fix via patch in the coming weeks.
Again, I repeat: find which files you can CONFIRM work and slowly build your playlist using files that the don't cause the game to crash. This may involve a ton of trial and error, or you could just use a vetted method to convert ALL of your files to identical (working) formats. I've had success using iTunes to create mp3s EVEN IF THE EXISTING FILE I'M CONVERTING IS ALREADY AN MP3. Don't take it as a foregone conclusion that a file will work just because it's an mp3.
Please comment with details (if you remember them) about what you noticed (if anything) was different when you either 1) first encountered the problem or 2) were able to rectify the problem. I have a feeling the people who fixed the issue with a reinstall are leaving out important details about what they tried to import for the first time on the fresh install.
What my problem was:
First time I imported songs, I had a mix of filetypes on the drive (mp3, m4a, and even apple music m4p) intentionally to test what would import and what wouldn't. I expected that it would remain stable while testing, but I was sadly incorrect. The game imported what it could but obviously couldn't import the unsupported filetypes. This DID NOT cause the issue however, and that's important to note since that seems to be the consensus amongst people who haven't had the issue.
I restarted the game and pulled my external drive to add more music (mostly replacing m4a files with supported mp3s to get my playlist looking like I originally intended). I added some other songs that were just new to the playlist, being sure that they were mp3 files this time.
When I went back to the game to import the new files, it seemed to import just the new stuff but that's when it started crashing anytime I went to add the new files to playlists. I tried to go in and delete files and it would crash when I attempted that too.
What I did to fix it:
After deleing and reinstalling the game, and taking special care to remove ALL m4a and m4p files from the drive, I was not able to fix the issue. It seems to be common, and I have a few guesses at what happened but nothing I can prove. Either way, it wasn't working with a fresh install. What I ended up doing was doubling back through my files and removing all of the new files I added, even if they were mp3s. I DID leave one new mp3, playing the odds on my hypothesis thinking that the odds of that one file being the issue were slim to none (seeing as how I'd added about 30 new files). I deleted the game AND ALL OF MY SAVE FILES. I don't know that it was necessary to do so, but I did anyway just to scrub my console of all game data. I then reinstalled the game. AFTER THE INSTALL while still in the "during install demo", I restarted my console entirely. Powered off and back on, not just rest mode. Then I went in and imported the files I had (which were the same as the first time I imported, with ONE additional file not present during that first import). Everything worked fine! No issues, worked like it did at first and how it seems to be working for most people.
Some thoughts and hypotheses:
Now, my method was slightly flawed because I performed multiple steps which all may have helped fix the issue, so it's hard to nail down what was causing it. Here are the possible conclusions as I see them.
-Just because a file is an mp3 does not mean it's compatible and won't cause an issue. m4a files not being imported DID NOT crash my game, it seemed more likely it was a bad mp3 file when the game went to build a list of imported files.
-The issue may have been the duplicate files I uploaded. I don't think this is likely, but when I replaced files in my drive and went to reupload them (replaced m4a with mp3, I mean), that may have caused some issues. Less likely, but if this is something you also did, it could have merit.
-The restart may have been the key. Again, not sure why exactly but it's possible since that was something I did.
-Deleting my game files may have forced the ps4 to clear some data that was residually hanging in the harddrive on the console. I don't know to what degree, maybe just that older files were associated with the saves, but that was a step I performed before I got it working. I uploaded my RTTS to the cloud and was able to preserve it - I just removed the file physically from my harddrive.
If you try this, you may find TEMPORARY relief. I stress temporary because it seems like it should still be fixed. This should not be looked at as a sign of user error because if it is bad files causing it, there needs to be a way to bypass said files and remove them, almost through a quarantine-style method. I'm guessing with the variations of mp3 files that exists, it's highly likely that anybody having this issue has some form of mp3 that isn't working properly in their playlist. My personal guess is that it's something to do with the metadata of the mp3s since the game DOES upload album covers and other metadata upon import. This is the most likely culprit.
Unless you're like me and remember which files worked for you at one point, this will obviously involve a lot of trial and error. But it is possible to get it working at a somewhat serviceable level. I sincerely hope this helps others who were stuck like me with this issue.
***FURTHER INFO LEFT OUT OF INITIAL POST (3/31 EDIT)***
For the sake of your own sanity, PLEASE don't just keep trying to import the same batch of songs and expecting this to help. The whole point of this solution is to find which files work through either trial and error or by using better converting methods (which I didn't cover here as there's plenty of better resources on the internet). If you read this and try importing the same batch of files and then think that this method did not work, you're not ever going to fix the problem and you're better off waiting for an official fix via patch in the coming weeks.
Again, I repeat: find which files you can CONFIRM work and slowly build your playlist using files that the don't cause the game to crash. This may involve a ton of trial and error, or you could just use a vetted method to convert ALL of your files to identical (working) formats. I've had success using iTunes to create mp3s EVEN IF THE EXISTING FILE I'M CONVERTING IS ALREADY AN MP3. Don't take it as a foregone conclusion that a file will work just because it's an mp3.
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