[Ctrl]+[F] option does not work in an imported .m3u playlist with radio station URLs

[od4knb]

Problem

After importing a .m3u playlist with 1066 radio station URLs, the [Ctrl]+[F] function does not work. A (seemingly) random radio station is played

Expected behavior

• press [Ctrl]+[F]
• type "kink"
• the first record with a radio station that has the string "kink" in the "Title" field is selected (marked blue)

Reproduction

• create an .m3u playlist 2026-01-29-radio-browser.info-playlist-NL-The-Netherlands-(1066-records).m3u (attachment), using this method

• go to [application menu\Sound & Video\Audacious]
• go to [menu Playlist\Import ...]
• browse to the "/home/$USER/Dowloads" folder
• select the .m3u file containing the radio station URLs
• click the [Import] button in the right-below corner
• check: the "Title" and/or "Artist" column contains the radio station name
• check: the "Album" field contains the hostname (server URL) part of the radio station URL

---

• click the [Artist] button, on top of the "Artist" column
• check: the column "Artist" (with the radio station name) is now sorted alphabetically
• double-click the radio station to listen; OR:
• left-click the radio station, and click the [▶] (play) button
• check: the sound is audible

---

• check: radio station "KINK_DISTORTIONAAC" is present in the "Title" column
• left-click any place in the right panel
• press [Ctrl]+[F]
• check: a search panel is shown in the right-below corner, near the spectrum analyzer
• type "kink"
• press [Enter]
• check: only the first character "k" of the typed string "kink" is shown in the search panel
• check: nothing seems to happen, after some time:
• check: the (seemingly random) radio station Title=flac, Album=internetradio.kim is selected
• check: the radio station is not played (expected behaviour)
• double-click the "Title=flac, Album=internetradio.kim" record
• check: the radio station is played correctly (indicating that the URL is OK)

---

• double-click the "Title=KINK_DISTORTIONAAC, Album=playerservices.streamtheworld.com" record
• check: the radio station is not played
• check: an "Error" message panel is shown:

Error playing https://playerservices.streamtheworld.com/pls/KINK_DISTORTIONAAC.pls
The file format could not be determined.
The format may be unsupported, or a necessary plugin may not be installed/enabled

🛈 This error is not about the "[Ctrl]+[F]" problem. Please consult issue An .m3u playlist record, containing a correct .pls playlist URL, cannot be played by Audacious #1734

• see attachment: 2026-01-29-16.47-Error-message-panel.png
• go to [menu Services\Plugins\Playlist]
• check: the "PLS Playlists" plugin is installed
• see attachment: 2026-01-29-16.58-PLS-Plugin-is-installed.png

This is the .m3u entry for Title=flac, Album=internetradio.kim:

#RADIOBROWSERUUID:797d2a19-b994-45f0-bcd6-1831335e30ed
#EXTINF:1,Internet Radio KIM
http://internetradio.kim:8080/flac

This is the .m3u entry for Title=KINK_DISTORTIONAAC, Album=playerservices.streamtheworld.com:

#RADIOBROWSERUUID:c3318b97-7db5-11ea-8a3b-52543be04c81
#EXTINF:1,KINK DISTORTION
https://playerservices.streamtheworld.com/pls/KINK_DISTORTIONAAC.pls

🛈 Even if the radio station URL "KINK_DISTORTIONAAC" cannot be played, I expect that the record is found and selected (marked blue).

🛈 The [Ctrl]+[F] option works perfectly in a list with say 300 FLAC/MP3 files, that are imported using the [menu File\Open files ...] option, but not in a imported .m3u playlist with say 1066 radio stations.

Information

System

 Host: mint Kernel: 6.14.0-37-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc
    v: 13.3.0 clocksource: tsc avail: hpet,acpi_pm
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper
    initrd=/casper/initrd.lz uuid=6e72f523-dc09-4880-8910-93ffa64401c5
    username=mint hostname=mint quiet splash --
  Desktop: Cinnamon v: 6.6.4 tk: GTK v: 3.24.41 wm: Muffin v: 6.6.1 tools:
    avail: cinnamon-screensaver vt: 7 dm: LightDM v: 1.30.0
    Distro: Linux Mint 22.3 Zena base: Ubuntu 24.04 noble

Audacious packages

audacious-plugins-data/noble,noble,now 4.3.1-3build5 all [installed,automatic]
audacious-plugins/noble,now 4.3.1-3build5 amd64 [installed,automatic]
audacious/noble,now 4.3.1-2.1build2 amd64 [installed]

Inxi -v8

2026-01-29-15.43-inxi.txt

Full Package list

2026-01-29-15.44-apt-list-installed.txt

Imported .m3u radio station playlist

2026-01-29-radio-browser.info-playlist-NL-The-Netherlands.m3u.txt

Screendumps

Thanks in advance!
Odie

[mschwendt]

IMHO, that is way too many steps, and it's about multiple symptoms.

Also, you don't need to "import" playlist files. You can simply pass the file to Audacious, regardless of whether it is .m3u or .pls.

The bottom of your post with the errors about .pls playlists, can you fetch a single of those .pls files with wget (or curl or your favourite tool or browser), reproduce that error with that file and check what file contents you got?

[mschwendt]

1.) Download
2026-01-29-radio-browser.info-playlist-NL-The-Netherlands.m3u.txt
2.) Rename it to "test.m3u"
3.) Run "audacious test.m3u"
4.) Press Ctrl+F and type a single key.
5.) Get freeze warning: "Audacious Is Not Responding"

[mschwendt]

That as a start, but as expected, running "audacious -V test.m3u" confirms it spends literally ages on probing all URIs of that playlist. And it runs into many errors of all sorts related to expired certs, unknown content, which is troublesome when trying to search the playlist entries.

[od4knb]

Hi @mschwendt,

Thanks for your time and efforts!

"IMHO, that is way too many steps"

Sorry for the sloppiness, this is a quickly stripped down version of my Play a .m3u radio station playlist from radio-browser.info in Audacious audio player howto. I agree: "less is more", in this case.

"it's about multiple symptoms"

There's just one problem in this issue: "[Ctrl]+[F] does not work properly". I stumbled upon the other "symptoms", when I was creating the above howto. I posted the images, because I thought that questions would arise about the PLS plugin: whether or not it is installed & enabled.

"You can simply pass the file to Audacious, regardless of whether it is .m3u or .pls."

I guess you mean the audacious %U "Open with\Audacious" context menu launcher? That import method gives the same results as [menu Playlist\Import...] option.

"can you fetch a single of those .pls files with wget (or curl or your favourite tool or browser), reproduce that error with that file and check what file contents you got?"

I downloaded the .pls of "KINK_DISTORTIONAAC": "https://playerservices.streamtheworld.com/pls/KINK_DISTORTIONAAC.pls".

• see attachment:2026-02-01-10.40-KINK_DISTORTIONAAC.pls.txt

I tested all URLs ("File1" up to "File29") in the .pls, using my own method:

• results: see attachment: 2026-02-01-11.12.55-mpv-url-test.log
• all URLs produce sound: OK

I tested all URLs ("File1" up to "File29") in the .pls, using your audacious -v ${StreamUrl} method:

• results: see attachment 2026-02-01-12.09.14-audacious-url-test.log
• all URLs produce sound: OK

Is there an audacious equivalent for the MPV "--length=15" (wait for 15 sec., then disconnect) switch?
Perhaps the -H, --headless (start without a graphical interface) switch would be handy, in case of testing files/URLs?

You have no GEO location in your profile, but I guess your IP is in The Netherlands? Perhaps superfluously: you cannot test stream URLs in another GEO location, not even over a VPN connection. When I was testing stream URLs of servers in Ukogbania, from The Netherlands, over a VPN connection, I stumbled upon streaming servers, that must have a list with VPN servers IPs aboard, because I got some "HTTP 403 Forbidden" errors, that the tester in the UK didn't get.

"it spends literally ages on probing all URIs of that playlist"

Yes, testing 1066 stream URLs takes about 4.5 hours, if you use a 15 seconds interval, like I do in my test scripts. concalc "(((1066*15)/60)/60)" (I know: time is not decimal ;-)

"And it runs into many errors of all sorts related to expired certs..."

I know, the .m3u file is the "raw" export from radio-browser.info, it has not been tested, and it's not tydied up.

"...which is troublesome when trying to search the playlist entries"

Shouldn't [Ctrl]+[F] be just a string search in the "Title", "Artist" and "Album" fields? I think it should only point to the record, not start playing the URL behind it.

Well, nice chatting with you,
Kind regards, Odie

Attachments

2026-02-01-10.40-KINK_DISTORTIONAAC.pls.txt

2026-02-01-11.12.55-mpv-url-test.log

2026-02-01-12.09.14-audacious-url-test.log

[mschwendt]

Yes, testing 1066 stream URLs takes about 4.5 hours,

Shouldn't [Ctrl]+[F] be just a string search in the "Title", "Artist" and "Album" fields?

What it does here, with the initial .m3u or .pls playlist files, it first probes the streams and retrieves Artist & Title. And since it's probing a huge number of streams, Ctrl+F waits.

[od4knb]

Hi @mschwendt,

"it's about multiple symptoms"

You were right: I created a new issue for the .m3u problem: An .m3u playlist record, containing a correct .pls playlist URL, cannot be played by Audacious # 1734

You were right again: the [Ctrl]+[F] search does work, when the .m3u file is imported using the [Open with\Audacious] context menu launcher, instead of the [menu Playlist\Import] option!

"What it does here, with the initial .m3u or .pls playlist files, it first probes the streams and retrieves Artist & Title. And since it's probing a huge number of streams, Ctrl+F waits."

That doesn't seem right. The Artist, Title and Album values are retrieved from the .m3u file. An example:

#RADIOBROWSERUUID:c3318b97-7db5-11ea-8a3b-52543be04c81
#EXTINF:1,KINK DISTORTION
https://playerservices.streamtheworld.com/pls/KINK_DISTORTIONAAC.pls

This is what you see in the Audacious GUI:

Title column:  KINK_DISTORTIONAAC (extracted from string "/KINK_DISTORTIONAAC.pls")
Artist column: {blank}
Album column:  https://playerservices.streamtheworld.com (extracted from the full URL)

Note: the parser cannot grab the "KINK DISTORTION" value from the "#EXTINF" record, for the "Artist" field. Minor bug... This need more investigation.

An example of a record that has a value in the "Artist" field:

#RADIOBROWSERUUID:a6122a43-f005-443a-9d4c-a08d471043ad
#EXTINF:1,Happy Rock Radio Caroline 259
https://happy.rcgoldserver.nl/listen/classic_rock/radio320.mp3

This is what you see in the Audacious GUI:

Title column:  radio320 (extracted from string "/radio320.mp3")
Artist column: Happy Rock Radio Caroline 259
Album column:  happy.rcgoldserver.nl (extracted from the full URL)

Parsing the .m3u file takes some time. When the .m3u is being loaded, you'll notice, that the colums Title, Artist and Album are gradually filled. You cannot use the [Ctrl]+[F] function, when the .m3u file isn't completely parsed yet.

Only after double-clicking a record, audacious will connect to the streaming server (the server is probed, as you say). When the connection fails, it tries to play the next record (URL). If that record (URL) fails, it tries to play the record (URL) after that, and so on. See test2, beneath, point "check: a few records beneath the "KINK_DISTORTIONAAC" record are skipped"

[FAILED] Test1: Use the [Magnifying glass] (Search Library) option, to find a radio station

• start the Audacious GUI app
• go to [menu Playlist\Import...]
• load the "2026-01-29-radio-browser.info-playlist-NL-The-Netherlands.m3u" (1066 records)
• check: the playlist is opened in an "2026-01-29-radio-browser.info-playlist-NL-The-Netherlands" tab
• click the [Magnifying glass] (Search Library) icon in the second bar from the top
• type: "kink"
• check: a "Now Playing" tab is opened
• check: a blank "Title - Artist - Album" pane is shown in the tab
• check: silence (no audio)
• result: the "KINK_DISTORTIONAAC" station is not found
• remove the "Now playing" tab
• remove the "2026-01-29 ... m3u" tab
• close the Audacious GUI
• [CONCLUSION] The [Magnifying glass] (Search Library) option cannot be used in a .m3u playlist

[OK] Test2: Use the [Open with\Audacious] context menu launcher, to import the .m3u file

• start your File Manager
• right-click the "2026-01-29-radio-browser.info-playlist-NL-The-Netherlands.m3u" (1066 records)
• click [Open with\Audacious]
• check: a "Now Playing" tab is opened
• check: the "Title - Artist - Album" panel does contain the radio station info (Name, URL)
• check: the first radio station (first record) in the .m3u file, "JOE, https://stream.joe.nl/joe/aachigh" is played
• check: sound is audible
• click the [Magnifying glass] (Search Library) icon in the second bar from the top
• type: "kink"
• check: nothing happens, the "JOE" radio station is still played
• note: the "Search Tool" cannot be used in a .m3u playlist, that's opened using the context menu launcher
• click the header of the "Title" bar, to sort it alphabetically
• press [Ctrl]+[F]
• check: a text entry panel (without designation) is shown near the spectrum analyzer in the right-below corner
• type: "kink"
• check: the first record containing the string "kink" is selected (blue), but not played
• note: this is desirable behaviour
• type: "KINK_DISTORTION"
• check: the "KINK_DISTORTIONAAC" record is selected (blue), but not played
• note: this is desirable behaviour
• double-click the "KINK_DISTORTIONAAC" record
• [ERROR]: a message panel is shown:

Error playing https://playerservices.streamtheworld.com/pls/KINK_DISTORTIONAAC.pls
The file format could not be determined.
The format may be unsupported, or a necessary plugin may not be installed/enabled

🛈 This error is not about the "[Ctrl]+[F]" problem. Please consult issue An .m3u playlist record, containing a correct .pls playlist URL, cannot be played by Audacious #1734

• check: a few records beneath the "KINK_DISTORTIONAAC" record are skipped
• check: the "KINK_SC" record is played (sound is audible)
• note: probably, the skipped records are faulty, and cannot be played by Audacious
• click the [Close] button (close panel)
• remove the "Now playing" tab
• close the Audacious GUI
• [CONCLUSION] The [Ctrl]+[F] option can be used in an .m3u playlist, when using the [Open with\Audacious] context menu launcher, to import the .m3u file

General conclusion about the [Ctrl]+[F] function

• the [Ctrl]+[F] search option does work correctly, when the .m3u file is imported using the [Open with\Audacious] context menu launcher
• the [Ctrl]+[F] search option does not work correctly, when the .m3u file is imported using the [menu Playlist\Import] option

---

I hope this helps the Audacious DEV Team,
With kind regards, Odie