Smart Playlists not syncing correctly

All of my iTunes smart playlists are not syncing correctly on my 3rd gen. iPod touch. I have iTunes 9, and the latest iPod touch software (3.1.2) and nothing is correct.
For example on my "Top 25 Most Played" there are songs that I have listened to only once, and some, zero times! In the "Recently Added" playlist, there are songs that I added years ago!
How will this get fixed? I thought maybe 3.1.2 would fix it, but obviously it didn't. I remember this happened to me when I first got my first gen. iPod touch, but that sorted itself out in about a week. I've now had the third gen. iPod touch for a month now.

thanks for posting this link to Apple officially responding to this issue. although these are good workaround solutions, they are still just workaround solutions. it seems there remains a bug when the "live updating" option is selected for a smart playlist. this is one of the most obvious/major bugs I have seen in Apple software (and it's not that big of a deal, so that says a lot about the quality of Apple software).

Similar Messages

Smart Playlists not syncing correctly to iPhone/iPad with iTunes Match

My manual playlists are syncing correctly to both devices, but smart playlists are a mess. They don't seem to match any criteria that they are created with, especially song limits. However, smart playlists are syncing correctly in iTunes on multiple computers. This is really frustrating because 99% of my playlists I listen to are smart ones. Anyone know of how to fix this? Apple, do you have any information on this or when it would be fixed?

Guys, I might have our "life savior" solution!!! (not 100% sure yet...)
I activated iTunes Match this morning.
Everything worked well apart from my smart playlists which cannot be found on my iphone/ipad anymore.
And yes, they relied on other lists...
BUT
A few smart playlists remained!!! (although they also rely on other lists)
So, after a bit of soul searching, here's my conclusion.
Those smart playlists that remained were actually dependant on "folders" which contain lists!
SO
I havn't tested yet (cause I'm at work), but if you put a list you wish to refer to in a folder, you should then be able to refer the smart list to the folder and not the actual list; and hopefully the smart list should then get synced!!!
Let me know if that works for you!

Smart Playlist Not Syncing Correctly

I downloaded Version 8 yesterday. Today I synced my iPod to iTunes. I had a smart playlist called "Newer Stuff" which consisted of my 60 most recently added songs, with automatic updating.
When I hooked up and synced the iPod, I noticed that about 40 of my old songs were being synced. I assumed it was because I had changed the album artwork or something recently or because last month I'd had the iTunes "crash" and had to recreate my library from a backup.
After syncing, my smart playlist had the correct 60 most recent songs on iTunes (my computer). However, my iPod had the aforesaid 40 'old' songs in the playlist in lieu of some of my new music.
I tried re-syncing several times, and even deleting the smart playlist and creating a new one with the same rules. And each time the smart playlist on the computer/iTunes is correct, but the one on the iPod is still listing the 40 old songs as part of the playlist.
Any suggestions? To be honest, iTunes has been bugging the heck out of me all summer, what with the crash and now this.

I tried to make more sense of this. I took note of the songs on the playlist on my Touch. Then I waited until after midnight and looked at the playlist on my iMac. Songs that were added after midnight (see pic in my first post) were songs that were on the Touch that shouldn't have been there.
I'd thought that the playlist on my iMac picked the songs and once I plugged in my Touch, it just transferred them over. However, it seems to me the Touch is picking songs as well, which may have something to do with me changing the "last played" criteria often. It seems the two playlists (the one on the iMac and the one on the Touch) aren't always in sync.
I know that you can make playlists on the Touch, but I've never tried, so I don't know how detailed you can make them. Am I on the right track here? What's the solution?

Smart Playlists Not Syncing Correct CONTENT on iPhone 3G

Hi, I apologize about the length of this description, but I believe all or most of it may be relevant.
I have been having trouble synchronizing ANY of my smart playlists. I first noticed it in the playlists I had created which entailed "Most Recently Added" or "Most Recently Played" options. Now I realize that all of my smart playlists are no longer syncing their play order (some too big to determine if songs aren't making it into some of them). For instance, here is the criteria for a playlist I created just to demonstrate this problem (this is a brand new playlist just I made and synced with my iPhone):
Title: Recently Played 5
Criteria: Rating is in the range 3 stars and 5 starts
Checked Boxes-
(X)Limit to [5] items selected by most recently played
(X)Match Only Checked Songs
(X)Live Updating
Playlist as it appears in iTunes:
"Summer, Man" by Taking Back Sunday
"Sink Into Me" by Taking Back Sunday
"New Again" by Taking Back Sunday
"Error: Operator" by Taking Back Sunday
"Swing" by Taking Back Sunday
Playlist as it appears on my iPhone:
"Them Bones" by Alice In Chains
"Hands in the Sky (Big Shot)" by Straylight Run
"Lead Said (And A Paper Anchor)" by Atreyu
... etc
These playlist CLEARLY do not match and it drives me crazy because these types of playlists are what I generally listen to. I'm running iTunes 9.0.1.8 on Windows 7 OS (Dell Inspiron 6400), and OS 3.1.2 on an iPhone 3G. I just recently consolidated my library. I had a collection of over 7000 songs on my external hard drive backed up, and kept about 4000 of them on my computer stored in iTunes (i.e. only the 4000 songs were present in my iTunes library, originating from my laptop hard drive--NOT EXTERNAL). Upon switching to Windows 7, I wanted to have ALL my music on my laptop hard drive and thus copied and re-added all of the music (all 7000). I lost all my track info (ratings, plays, last played date, date added, etc) in this process until I opened the iTunes library file with iTunes(had backed up from before new OS installation) and, voila, all my playlists and track info was restored. I had to do some cleaning up of duplicate files, but nothing major.
I found this thread from Sept. 2008 which seemed to be in regards to the exact same problem under almost the exact same situation: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8066846#8066846. Unfortunately, it's unanswered and archived. My iTunes did not crash, but I cleanly installed a new OS and had to start fresh.
I cannot for the life of me figure this issue out. I thought about restoring my device and syncing it again (which I will try again tomorrow to see if I can manage any progress), but I want to retain my app info and text messages so I plan on restoring from a backup. If anyone has any solutions or even suggestions, I'm open to try anything.
Thanks!

Sorry, I just realized I'm in the wrong forum... I apologize.

Smart Playlists Not Syncing Correct CONTENT With iPhone 3G

Hi, I apologize about the length of this description, but I believe all or most of it may be relevant.
I have been having trouble synchronizing ANY of my smart playlists. I first noticed it in the playlists I had created which entailed "Most Recently Added" or "Most Recently Played" options. Now I realize that all of my smart playlists are no longer syncing their play order (some too big to determine if songs aren't making it into some of them). For instance, here is the criteria for a playlist I created just to demonstrate this problem (this is a brand new playlist just I made and synced with my iPhone):
Title: Recently Played 5
Criteria: Rating is in the range 3 stars and 5 starts
Checked Boxes-
(X)Limit to [5] items selected by most recently played
(X)Match Only Checked Songs
(X)Live Updating
Playlist as it appears in iTunes:
"Summer, Man" by Taking Back Sunday
"Sink Into Me" by Taking Back Sunday
"New Again" by Taking Back Sunday
"Error: Operator" by Taking Back Sunday
"Swing" by Taking Back Sunday
Playlist as it appears on my iPhone:
"Them Bones" by Alice In Chains
"Hands in the Sky (Big Shot)" by Straylight Run
"Lead Said (And A Paper Anchor)" by Atreyu
... etc
These playlist CLEARLY do not match and it drives me crazy because these types of playlists are what I generally listen to. I'm running iTunes 9.0.1.8 on Windows 7 OS (Dell Inspiron 6400), and OS 3.1.2 on an iPhone 3G. I just recently consolidated my library. I had a collection of over 7000 songs on my external hard drive backed up, and kept about 4000 of them on my computer stored in iTunes (i.e. only the 4000 songs were present in my iTunes library, originating from my laptop hard drive--NOT EXTERNAL). Upon switching to Windows 7, I wanted to have ALL my music on my laptop hard drive and thus copied and re-added all of the music (all 7000). I lost all my track info (ratings, plays, last played date, date added, etc) in this process until I opened the iTunes library file with iTunes(had backed up from before new OS installation) and, voila, all my playlists and track info was restored. I had to do some cleaning up of duplicate files, but nothing major.
I found this thread from Sept. 2008 which seemed to be in regards to the exact same problem under almost the exact same situation: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8066846#8066846. Unfortunately, it's unanswered and archived. My iTunes did not crash, but I cleanly installed a new OS and had to start fresh.
I cannot for the life of me figure this issue out. I thought about restoring my device and syncing it again (which I will try again tomorrow to see if I can manage any progress), but I want to retain my app info and text messages so I plan on restoring from a backup. If anyone has any solutions or even suggestions, I'm open to try anything.
Thanks!

This looks like yet another example of the "smart playlists with live updates are broken" bug, which has been discussed at length in this forum. Two "fixes" are known to work, at least some of the time:
1) turn off live updates (yes, I know that defeats the purpose of a "recently played" list; so does the current situation, where you have apparently random tracks instead of the right content).
2) add a "playlist is Music" rule to the playlist (in addition to the ones you have now).
In my experience the "playlist is Music" fix also has the effect of turning off live updates (regardless of what the checkboxes say), but other people report no such problem. So it might work for you.

Playlists not syncing correctly

I can't get certain playlists to sync correctly. Songs are being dropped even though they are all checked.

more info...i made a playlist on the phone, synced to mac then the playlist was much smaller on itunes, and even smaller on the phone.
Also, right clicking on a song and selecting "show in playlist" is not accurate.

Some smart playlists not working correctly

I have a smart playlist, "100 Most Played" that contains, as you might infer, the 100 most played songs (according to play count). On the iPhone, this seems to come out as 100 random songs because it does not correspond to the playlist as it appears in iTunes.
iPhone 8GB

agreed. i'm having the same problem, and am also surprised by it.
DOESN'T WORK:
"Top 25" - should be easy. all the songs that the iPhone needs for this smart playlist are, yes, synced to the iPhone. but it picks a set of songs that have nothing in common as far as i can see (they have different ratings and add dates and so on).
WORK CORRECTLY:
"80s/Good" - an alphabetical list of songs with the genre "80s". this works and appears in the right order.
"New" - shows new additions to iTunes, sorted by date added. works correctly.
WEIRDEST:
"Forgotten/Best" - is a playlist for showing 5-star songs not played recently. has always worked on iTunes. oddly, on the iPhone, the song list is actually the song list for the "Top 25" ?!?!!? i mean, it -is- the Top 25 playlist, but with the wrong name somehow. it's very confusing.
waiting for a software update =)

Smart playlist not sorted correctly on ipod

I have a smart playlist in my iTunes 10.0, which contains all podcasts (with play count 0), sorted by release date.
Unfortunately, this playlist is NOT sorted correctly on my ipod (nano, 5th generation). After syncing with itunes, the ipod playlist has some apparently random order (not by release date, not even by name, artist or anything, it really seems random).
It's strange that, if I click on my ipod under "DEVICES" in itunes and click the playlist there, the correct order is shown (by release date). But again, on the ipod it is actually not sorted.
Message was edited by: powerbookuser99

I have a smart playlist for my podcast's and I normally sort them by the date added (oldest to newest) or by release date. No mater what I do now they only show up on my iPhone in date added order newest to oldest and I am unable to re-order them. I have a number of other playlists that work fine it is just this one smart playlist that is acting up. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Playlists not syncing correctly from iTunes to iPhone4

iTunes is not syncing my playlists consistently. As it is difficult to describe exactly what is going wrong, I'll also list the things that I did to test the issue. I am currently using itunes v10.6.3.25 on Win7 64-bit and iOS v5.1.1 and iTunes Match is not enabled. When I plug my iPhone into my PC to sync, everything appear to go normally, I am not getting any errors. When I look at the contents of my iPhone in iTunes (under the Devices category), it appears to match my iTunes content. However, when I use the Music app on my phone, the playlists/song have not been synced. Here are my attempts to figure out what's going on:
TEST: deleted playlists on iphone
RESULT: playlist deleted on itunes after syncing
TEST: deleted playlists in itunes
RESULT: playlist deleted from iphone
TEST: changed name of playlist in itunes
RESULT: removed *some* songs from playlist on iphone (but not in itunes)
TEST: added songs back to iphone playlist
RESULT: after syncing, songs added were removed from both itunes and iphone playlist
TEST: added songs back to iTunes playlist
RESULT: did not sync songs to iPhone playlist
TEST: added music to iTunes library
RESULT: music successfully synced to iPhone
TEST: added music to a smart playlist
RESULT: smart playlist synced to iPhone successfully
TEST: uninstalled and reinstalled iTunes
RESULT: issue persists
TEST: rebooted iPhone
RESULT: issue persists

I have just started to have trouble playing my playlists on the iPhone. It started to shuffle them and when I turned shuffle off, it would only play one song over and over again. You have to open the iPod and manually advance to the next song. That is obviously unsatifactory. I downloaded the update on the iTunes software today. That did not correct the problem. I also restored the settings on the phone. It wtill will not play a playlist in the order I have it. There is some problem here. I would also be happy to hear a reply on this issue.

Why do my smart playlists not sync properly?

Hi,
For some reason some of my smart playlists sync properly from my win pc (latest itunes) to my iphone5s and others don't.
The playlist '0 play' syncs fine while the playlist '0 star' doesn't. The only difference between those two is 'play' 'is' '0' and 'rating' 'is' ' '. I also tried other settings, but they all did not work. Googling the issue didn't offer any solutions either.

Hi John,
I don't really want to switch my method of filing simply for sharing purposes.
Perhaps a solution for now could be to revert a document to Numbers '09 before emailing?
When Numbers 3.0 was released in November 2013, many people were stunned that a so-called upgrade had lost so many features. But slowly (through this forum working together) it became clear that Apple had provided several safety-nets.
- Numbers 3 did not replace Numbers '09 on any computer. Numbers '09 was moved to a folder named iWork '09 inside the Applications folder. It still works on OS X Mavericks just as it always did on previous versions of OS X.
Numbers 3 did not replace the icon on the Dock. That icon continues to point to Numbers '09.
Wayne Contello has written a User Tip for working with the old and new versions of iWork:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6991
- Documents and templates created in Numbers '09 will carry many of the "lost" features into Numbers 3.
- A document "stolen" by Numbers 3 can not be opened in Numbers '09. Numbers 3 has Menu > File > Export To > Numbers '09... to revert that document. However, reverting a document created in Numbers 3 will not magically install lost Numbers '09 features. They are gone (for now).
- Numbers '09 and Numbers 3 run happily together at the same time. Just be sure which version you use when opening a document. Use Menu > File > Open or Menu > File > Open Recent.
With each update (Numbers 3.0 to 3.01, 3.1 and now 3.2) many features have been restored. They may now live under a different menu, button, or Inspector (Format Panel).
This forum has helped me and other users to find out where our cheese is now:
Who Moved My Cheese?
http://www.spencerjohnson.com/Book-WhoMovedMyCheese.html
Regards,
Ian.

On-The-Go Playlists not syncing correctly

Hi all,
I have the 4G iPod with b/w screen, and my music library is on a relatively new Windows PC. I have had only very minor syncing problems besides this one. I always update iTunes and my iPod software to the latest versions.
When I create an On-The-Go Playlist on my iPod and sync it to iTunes, the playlist shows up correctly as "On-The-Go 1", "On-The-Go2", etc... but the songs in the playlist do not match what I added by holding the select button on my iPod. The playlist includes some of the right songs, but others are seemingly randomly placed in it, including podcasts.
The amount of songs in the original playlist don't match up with the synced version. I am positive that I'm not accidentally pressing any buttons.
I thought that this was a problem with the iPod's "index" of where the songs are stored in it and that simply restoring the iPod would fix the problem, but that didn't work. I don't really want to rebuild my iTunes library but I guess I'd have to if that was the solution. I am currently running a HDD scan from the iPod's "secret" diagnostic menu and will report back with the results. I am also planning to take the iPod in to my nearest Apple Store for a look.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance for any information you could possibly posess that would even remotely relate to this subject.

IPod Updater Bug Report
Re: On-The-Go Playlists and Podcasts
* Problem:
o When an On-The-Go Playlist is created and the iPod is synced, random podcast episodes are put in the playlist. The episodes occur in both the iTunes and iPod versions, but only after the iPod is synced.
o When the iPod is connected and selected from the iTunes Source list, the podcast episodes are listed along with the grayed out songs, but they arent in the iTunes song list.
* Solution:
o Whenever new podcast episodes are downloaded, delete all information in the ID3 tags except for title and comment, if used. To view ID3 information, right click the podcast header or a specific episode and select Get Info.
* Known iPods/Operating Systems affected:
o Windows: Yes
o Macintosh: ?
o iPod Mini: ?
o iPod with Click Wheel and Black and White Screen: Yes
o iPod Shuffle: No
o iPod with Click Wheel and Color Screen: ?
o Older iPods: ?

Smart Playlists not working correctly

Is anyone else able to reproduce this fault?
I have added a smart playlist simply called music... with the options set as follows:
Match (checked) ANY of the following rules...
Genre is not Podcast
Genre is not Lecture
Live Updating is also checked...
However, podcasts and my audio lectures are both appearing in this playlist... any ideas?

Match (checked) ANY of the following rules...
Genre is not Podcast
Genre is not Lecture
Live Updating is also checked...
This will match all songs. Because a song can be a podcast and still match the "Genre is not Lecture" rule.
Change it to "Match ALL" of those rules instead, and you'll get the results you want.

IPod Playlists not syncing correctly?

I have a 60GB 5th Generation iPod. Up until my last sync, I could choose to randomize my playlists and they would automatically sync that way to my iPod. Now it's not doing it correctly. Everything is exactly the way that I had the last time that I synced my iTunes and iPod.
I've tried restarting it, resetting to factory settings, re-downloading the new iTunes 8 and it's still not working. Is it just a marketing ploy in order for more people to buy the newer iPods or am I just dumb and not doing something right?

I have had the same problem ever since installing iTunes 8. I have several playlists in iTunes that include many artists, some artists with more than 1 song. I have the playlists shuffled in iTunes, but when I sync my iPod, the playlists show up in my iPod with the songs in alphabetical order by artist. The playlists are not shuffled on the iPod, as they are in iTunes.
Message was edited by: MinerFortyNiner

Why are songs from certain iTunes playlists not syncing correctly on my iPhone 4S or iPad?

Songs in my playlists within iTunes do not appear within the playlists on both my iPhone 4S or iPad when I sync these devices to my computer... Anyone have an idea for how to remedy this problem?

I solved with this trick, read in another thread:
1 - Turn off iTunes match in iTunes.
2 - Turn off iTunes match on the iPhone.
3 - Close iTunes and reopen.
4 - Connect your iPhone.
5 - Go into your music folder for the iPhone and delete all the songs.
6 - Turn back on iTunes match in iTunes
7 - Turn back on iTunes match on the iPhone
Now it works properly...

One of my playlists in iTunes is not syncing correctly to my iPhone

When my iPhone updated to iOS 7 a while back, I started having a problem with one of my Playlists. I was willing to ignore it for a while, but it's become enough of a nuisance that I'm seeking a solution.
I have a smart playlist called "Unrated", which I've set to contain any "Media Kind is Music" and "Rating is (none)". Before iOS 7, this correctly filtered to only new, unrated songs I'd recently added to my iTunes library, letting me play them on my iPhone and rate them as I went along. After iOS 7's update, however, the list still filters correctly within iTunes, but not when I sync my phone to it.
First, there seemed to be a random sampling of hundreds of songs showing up in playlist on my phone, even though I'd rated them. Eventually, I figured out that problem: I was syncing only some of my library to my phone because of space limitations, and any song I'd purchased from iTunes (not ripped from CD) was showing up there even if it wasn't really on my phone. I tried adding a condition to my smart playlist to weed out the iCloud (a feature I don't want to use because of cell data rates), and that still didn't work, so finally I just ended up adjusting my sync requirements to make sure that every song I'd purchased from iTunes was always synced to my phone. That took care of the rated songs appearing... but left my Unrated playlist completely empty. Even truly unrated songs I added to the library would show up in iTunes but not on my phone.
So I did some searching of the forums here, and read about the "dummy playlist" solution. Set up your intended playlist (the one I described above), then set up ANOTHER playlist whose only conditions are "Playlist is (the other playlist)", and that should work. But I tried that, and the newly created playlist didn't even appear on my iPhone at all.
Thoughts? Help? Bug that Apple's going to have to fix? Please?

Hi all. I can’t tell you how to solve your iCloud 3.x issues. Heck, I don’t think they’re even solvable.
But if you had a previous version of iCloud that was working correctly then I can definitely tell you how to solve the “iCloud Photo Stream is not syncing correctly to my Windows 7 PC” problem. …without even a re-boot.
Log out of iCloud 3.0 and uninstall it.
Open My Computer and then open your C:\ drive. Go to Tools/Folder Options and click on the View tab. Select the “Show hidden…” radio button and click on OK.
Open the Users folder.
Open your user folder
Open ProgramData (previously hidden folder)
Open the Apple folder – not the Apple Computer folder.
Open the Installer Cache folder
In Details view sort on Name
Open the folder for the newest entry for iCloud Control Panel 2.x – probably 2.1.2.8 dated 4/25/2013
Right click on iCloud64.msi and select Install.
When finished, the synching between iCloud and your PC will be back to working perfectly as before the 3.0 fiasco. The pictures will be synched to the same Photostream folder as before the “upgrade”. Now all you need to do is wait until Apple/Microsoft get this thing fixed and working before you try the 3.x upgrade again.
I think the iCloud 3.0 software was written by the same folks who wrote healthcare.gov with the main difference being that healthcare.gov might eventually be made to work.
For those of you who hate to go backwards, think of it as attacking to the rear. Which would you rather have, the frustration of no synching or everything working on an older version?
Good luck…

Smart Playlists not syncing correctly

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