# An M3U player that sorts your playlist for you

Paste the link to your M3U or M3U8 playlist and Aina does the rest: it downloads the list, sorts it into live TV, films and series, finds its guide, and keeps it on your device so it opens straight away next time.

Updated 2026-10-02. By the Aina IPTV team. https://ainaiptv.com/m3u-player/

![Aina’s live TV list on an iPhone: channels with logos, numbers, and now and next](https://ainaiptv.com/assets/phone-live-en-1320-Dst9zNMf.webp)

## What Aina does with your playlist

- **Sorts it.** Each entry becomes a live channel, a film or an episode of a series, worked out from its address, its group and episode numbers such as S01E02. Groups become the categories you browse by.
- **Keeps its logos and names.** Channel logos (`tvg-logo`), names and groups come straight from the list.
- **Finds its guide.** When the playlist names a guide in its header (`url-tvg` or `x-tvg-url`), Aina loads it. You can add a guide link of your own as well, `.xml` or `.xml.gz`.
- **Plays catch-up.** Channels that carry catch-up attributes (`catchup`, `catchup-days`, `catchup-source`) replay what has already aired.
- **Drops duplicates.** The same stream listed twice is kept once.

## Made for big playlists

An M3U file from a large provider runs to hundreds of thousands of lines and tens of megabytes. Aina reads it a piece at a time and stores each batch before the next, so the app’s memory stays flat and your library appears while the rest is still arriving. It is tested with a playlist of 300,000 entries. A slow server is given time, too: the download gives up only after three minutes without a byte, so a big list from a busy server arrives whole instead of cut off half way.

## M3U, M3U8 and what plays

M3U and M3U8 playlists are the same kind of list: a plain text file of entries, each with a name, some attributes and a stream address. The 8 says the text is UTF-8, which matters for channel names in other alphabets. Confusingly, HLS streams are also described by `.m3u8` files. Aina reads both kinds of playlist, and its player, built on libVLC, plays the streams inside them, whether they are HLS, MPEG-TS, MP4 or MKV. The [glossary](https://ainaiptv.com/guides/iptv-glossary/) has the rest of the words.

## Add a playlist in a minute

1. **Choose M3U playlist**: On the first screen, Add your subscription, pick the M3U playlist tab. Already signed in? Settings, then Subscriptions, then Add a subscription.
2. **Paste the link**: Paste the playlist URL your provider sent into Playlist URL, and a guide link into Guide URL if you have one.
3. **Connect**: Name it if you like, and tap Connect. Your channels appear as they load.

The full walk-through, with what to do when a playlist will not load, is in [How to add an M3U playlist](https://ainaiptv.com/guides/how-to-add-m3u-playlist/).

> **Links, not files**: Aina opens a playlist by its web address. A playlist saved as a file on your device cannot be opened yet: ask your provider for the link, or put the file somewhere a URL can reach it.

## On every screen

The same playlist works on [iPhone and iPad](https://ainaiptv.com/iphone-ipad/), [Android](https://ainaiptv.com/android/), [Apple TV](https://ainaiptv.com/apple-tv/) and [Android TV](https://ainaiptv.com/android-tv/). Each device keeps its own copy of the list, so add it on each one you watch on.

## Questions and answers

### Is there a free M3U player?

Aina’s first seven days are free with every feature open, and browsing is always free. After that a plan starts at $3.99 a month, or $49.99 once for life.

### Can I add more than one M3U playlist?

Yes, as many as you like, alongside Xtream Codes logins, and move between them in a tap.

### Why does my M3U playlist show no TV guide?

Either the playlist names no guide, or the guide’s channels do not match the playlist’s. Add a guide URL from your provider, and see [How to add a TV guide](https://ainaiptv.com/guides/how-to-add-epg/).

### Does Aina give me an M3U playlist?

No. Aina is a player: the playlist comes from your IPTV provider. To look around first, Try it without a subscription loads free, public channels.

## Read next

- [How to add an M3U playlist](https://ainaiptv.com/guides/how-to-add-m3u-playlist/)
- [M3U or Xtream Codes?](https://ainaiptv.com/guides/m3u-vs-xtream-codes/)
- [Xtream Codes player](https://ainaiptv.com/xtream-codes-player/)
- [TV guide (EPG)](https://ainaiptv.com/epg-tv-guide/)