Album ratings and smart playlists

Hello all,
I was wondering if anyone can help me with the new iTunes functionality. I am trying to create a smart playlist with album ratings between 0 stars and 5 stars (basically all albums) and limit the playlist to 4 gb. I am trying to just create a random list of albums to sync to my iphone. Everytime I create a random list it always truncates the final album to exactly match 4gb so there is always an album that is incomplete.
Can anyone think of a different way to accomplish this so you can get ALL complete albums? There must be a way. Sorry if I sound picky about this but I am an album guy, not a random song guy.

Hi there. Try the following:
iTunes -> Preferences... -> Playback -> Shuffle: Albums
Now take your smart playlist you created, and set the 4GB limiter selected by "random" instead of "album". Because we forced shuffling to be by album only, this "random" will select entire albums, randomly. I just figured this out a few minutes ago and it seems to work great.
If you want all albums, you can probably omit the album rating rule (you might need to set Kind to "MPEG audio file" or something to skip podcasts, etc.)
To refresh your list, select and delete all tracks in the playlist, or use the Reshuffle Smart Playlists script available at dougscripts.com/itunes. Or you could add a criterion saying that Last Played must be greater than a month, or so.

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Auto album ratings breaks smart playlists - hollow stars

I've seen this discussed a few times but the given answers don't seem to work, maybe it has changed again in the new release of itunes (I'm on 9.1.1.12 on XP). I have a smart playlist of all the songs which have not been rated. Once I'd rated 19/29 of them they all disappeared as itunes had calculated an album rating (which is fine) but then applied that rating to all the unrated songs. In some views the songs are listed as unrated but the key thing is that the smart playlist thinks they're rated when they're not. Previous postings say to unrate the album but whenever I do that it just automatically rerates again. How can I create a playlist of songs that I have not yet rated?

Hi, welcome to Apple Discussions.
I've just had a look at this under V9.1.1.11 current Windows build (is yours 64-bit perhaps?) and, as far as I can tell, rating tracks (filled stars) will produce an automatic rating (hollow stars) for an album. Likewise rating albums will produce an automatic rating for each of their tracks. If you only rate some of the tracks of an album without explicitly setting an album rating then the remaining tracks should stay unrated. I can set ratings for all but one track of the album and the last will stay happily unrated. What rules are you using to determine what should be in your unrated playlist?
tt2

There is an album on a smart playlist on my ipod that is not on the music section of my ipod. I am not synced to any computer. How do I delete this album from the playlist and presumably my computer?

There is an album on a smart playlist on my ipod that is not on the music section of my ipod. I am not synced to any computer. How do I delete this album from the playlist and presumably my computer?
Thanks!

You will need to restore your phone as a new one using the itunes on your computer. This WILL erase everything on the phone but it will let you change the name of the phone and then you can add content to it.

Problem with ratings-based smart playlists in iOS5.

I use ratings-based smart playlists to organize my music. For example, a typical smart playlist will include all songs from a given genre rated 3 stars or better. Playlists work perfectly on PC/iTunes and iPad (and used to work perfectly on iPhone/iPod before iOS5), but on iPhone 4S (iOS5) and iPod touch (iOS5), only the lowest-rated songs show up; higher rated songs omitted from the smart playlist. However, I also always have a playlist that has the higher ratings. So the songs are on the iPhone/iPod, but just not in all the correct playlists. Anyone have help for me? Thanks.

I'm having the same problem-- my "Smart Playlists" don't seem to update. I created a new smart playlist with a single artist, and nothing comes into it-- so if I make one just for artist=devo, for example, no tracks come through despite their being hundreds.
I also employ smart playlists on my podcasts-- so when plays=1, it disappears from the list. These are not updating, despite my making no changes to them other than upgrading to iTunes 10.
My "recently played" list DOES seem to be updating, and I don't understand why I'm seeing this despite making no changes.

How to import albums into a Smart playlist

How to import albums into a Smart playlist?

Change the criteria of the smart playlist to select the album.

Podcasts Playlist and Smart Playlists Problems

Whenever I connect my iPod to my PC and start iTunes, I see that both my Podcasts and Smart Playlists have all reverted to regular playlists. Even when I fix the problem by deleting it all and recreating the playlists, the next time I plug my iPod in and start iTunes the same thing happens. I've reinstalled iTunes and I have the most system update for my iPod. I also manually manage my Podcasts. Does anyone have a clue what's going on?

I've solved this problem by working through an unrelated problem. Try the solutions in these two articles:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61711
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93716
In particular, do all of the solutions involving uninstalling and reinstalling iPod software and iTunes. Also, clean up your temp files and iTunes installer files. Finally, try reinstalling the COM interface for the iPod service.
I suspect that following all of the various uninstall/reinstall directions fixed it, but the rest is worth trying. I'm not sure what did it, since I couldn't get iTunes to recognize my iPod but none of those solutions fixed that particular problem(I just had to remap the drive letter.) Any one of those things could have did it, really, since it worked great once I got it working again.
Good luck!
PC Windows XP Pro Custom, AMD Processor, ATI Video

Album ratings and clear stars are ruining my playlists. Help turn them off.

I understand that if you give an album an album rating, it will give all unrated songs on that album clear stars based on the album rating. Because of this, I have not rated any of my albums, since all of my playlists are based off of the song ratings.
All of a sudden, now when I rate a single song, it puts clear stars in the album rating column, and ALSO assigns clear stars for all of the unrated tracks on that album. It is ruining all of my playlists.
Is there any way to turn off the album ratings, or turn off the clear stars, or do something to get rid of this, rather than going through manually and adjusting each song individually?

Is there anyway to make itunes recognize the difference between clear stars and filled stars when making smart playlists? This may work to make things work for me.
If you use "album rating" field in your playlist, it will use the clear stars that appear in that column. If you use "rating" field in your playlist, it should ignore the clear stars that appear in the "album rating" column.
As for an example of how things are not working right now, I have a playlist that is just unrated music, so that if I feel like rating some of the newer songs I added in, I can just load that playlist, and everything in there has no ratings. Now, some of the albums that are mostly unrated are not showing up in that playlist, because instead of all of the unrated songs being blank, they all have clear stars next to them.
When you say "unrated music", what precisely is the rule you use? When I set up a playlist with the rule "Rating is less than '1 star'", even albums with clear stars in the "album rating" field show up (as long as the individual track doesn't bear a rating, obviously). But when I change that rule to say "Album rating is less than '1 star'", then as soon as I rate one song, the entire album is removed from the playlist.
And just to make sure I am being very clear on this, I have NOT used the album rating at all, those stars are clear as well.
Ok, I think this may answer some of the questions in my previous post. I infer that you are seeing clear stars in the "rating" column, not just the "album rating" column. Can you confirm this? If that's the case, then this is truly a mystery. I was hoping the problem was an innocent confusion between the "album rating" and the "rating" columns.

Suggestion for Album Rating in Smart Playlist - let me choose

First just want to say I love the Album Rating feature, especially the ability to make a "Smart Playlist" that includes all my top rated albums.
However, I have a suggestion to make this feature better. Right now, it lets you choose albums that have integer ratings such as 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 stars BUT due to rounding this really means 0.5-1.49, 1.5-2.49, 2.5-3.49, 3.5-4.49, and 4.5-5.0 stars. Apple should let you specify any number of stars, including decimal points. In other words, if I want all albums that are 3.8 stars and up, let me do that.
This may not seem important, but the way I sync my ipod with my playlists relies on these smart playlists (and not on rating every single song in my library) because my ipod is too small in hard drive size for my library.
Any one else out there agree?

http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

IOS8 and Smart Playlist Handling

Smart Playlist syncing with iPhone IOS8 hasn't solved the problem.
The trick I have used on the previous IOS versions was to uncheck the "live update"
on the ITunes on my Mac. Doing that all my playlists showed up on the iPhone regardless
the ratings for the songs.
I was hoping IOS 8 would have solved the problem but I have tried it yesterday, again
smart playlists checked with "live update" will not sync the playlist to iPhone, you only
see the playlist title with empty songs, as soon as I have unchecked the "live update"
everything works.
Any comments pls

I don't know if this helps, but I had a similar problem where certain playlists would not sync. I tried restarting and updating. I also tried un-syncing ALL the music and re-syncing. That didn't work either. The only thing that worked was deleting the playlist in question (it was a smart playlist), syncing, and then re-creating the smart playlist and re-syncing. Then that playlist magically appeared again. Hope that helps.

Podcasts and Smart Playlists

My first post so bear with me. I have recently discovered the joys of podcasts etc. and as I do a lot of distance driving I would like to be able to create smart playlists that would work with a specific podcast group. I could then catch up on those podcasts without trying to operate my ipod while driving. Hope that makes sense. Any help would be very welcome.

Match all of the following rules:
Podcast is true
Album contains 'xxx'
Live updating
Should work - but I'm on a Mac so the Windows version
may be slightly different.
Regards,
Colin R.
Hi Colin,
Many thanks,
Your solution works perfectly. I didn't even consider using the album option.
Regards
Adam Wolfe
Advent 3512 Windows XP
Advent 3512 Windows XP

IOS 7 and Smart Playlist Handling

In iOS 7, smart playlist handling isn't working as "smartly" as before. Here are two examples dealing with song ratings...
If you try to sync a smart playlist containing only songs assigned ZERO-STARS, the songs will transfer over to the iPhone, but the playlist will show up empty.
If you sync a (live-updating) smart playlist containing songs assigned FIVE-STARS, the playlist will appear as expected, but it won't "live update" as it did in iOS 6. For example, if you change a song's rating to FOUR-STARS, it won't move out of the FIVE-STAR smart playlist until you sync with your Mac.
If you guys know of any tricks to make this work again, let me know! :-)

Yes, it appears iOS 7 itunes match isn't so smart and handling iTunes Smart Playlists. It apparently doesn't like qualifiers like "Last Skipped" "Last Played", "Time". When I remove these parameters from my smart playlists the playlist shows populated on my iPhone.
Interestingly, you can add these parameters back in and they music stays on your iPhone. The only problem is it doesn't follow the smart playlist rules. For example, I can add back in "Last Skipped - not in the last - 7 days". When I play the playlist in iTunes (on my iMac) and skip a song it shows the # of songs in the playlist decreases. However, the playlist on my iPhone does not recognize the update. In fact, I notice a interesting symptom.
The playlist on the phone has a "Download all (# of songs)" at the top of the playlist. When you add back in the offending parameters this option goes away and the only way to tell the number of songs is to scroll to the bottom of the page and it shows the number of songs but no option to download all. This is clearly a programatic issue--hopefully Apple will fix this soon.

ITunes Match, iPad, and smart playlist issues.

I have one particular smart playlist, that iTunes Match correctly syncs to my Macs and my iPhone, but no matter what I try, it shows as "no songs" on my iPad. Both iDevices are running iOS 7.0.3.

Hi zentralorgan,
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
From your post I understand that you are trying to AirPlay from an iPad to multiple AirPlay outputs. This feature requires iTunes on a computer, and cannot be done on an iOS device. Since you have iTunes Match, your music should still be the same on your computer as your iPad.
Listen through multiple speakers
With AirPlay and iTunes 10 or later, you can listen to music through your computer speakers and multiple AirPlay outputs.
The maximum number of outputs is three to six. The number that works for you depends on your environment (such as building composition and local radio interference), distance to the outputs, and available network capacity relative to your other usage.
iTunes: About playing music with AirPlay - Apple Support
Take care,
Alex H.

Restoring All Playlist Files and Smart Playlist Files

I have to reformat my computer. I've saved my iTunes folder to my external hard drive, but what I'm concerned about is all the Smart Playlists and Playlists that I've created. On my other laptop I hooked up my external hard drive and copied the iTunes files, but when I open iTunes, there are no playlists there. I have about 50 smart playlists that I've created. Do I have to recreate all of them after reformating my computer? Is there a file that can be copied that has all that information?

+Is there a file that can be copied that has all that information?+
Yes, it's default name is iTunes Library.itl
Alternatively, you can export each playlist to an XML file and then import it after your PC gets set up again.
Don't forget to deauthrozie itunes before you reformat!

Playcount and Smart Playlist problem

Can someone explain what I consider strange behavior on the part of iTunes syncing? I have noticed it with my old 3rd gen iPod, my iPhone, and now my new new Nano.
Here's what happens:
1) I have smart playlists set up for each my podcasts, so that they contain only episodes with a playcount of 0, and with live updating checked.
2) Let's say I have a particular podcast with 4 unplayed episodes, and I go for a walk at the beach. I play a podcast episode all the way through, it goes to the next episode, and then the next. All 3 are played all the way through.
3) I turn off my iPod/iPhone/Nano at the end of my walk. There are now 3 episodes that have been played and one that has not.
4) Later in the day I turn the IPod/iPhone/Nano back on, and lo and behold all 4 of the episodes are still there, cued up to the beginning of the episode, not the one unplayed one I am expecting.
But the weird part is, it works just the way it's supposed to if, at any point before I turn off the devices, I back out of the playlist and click into a different playlist. Then, when I go back to the original one, the played episodes are gone just as they should be.
I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, or not understanding how this works, so can somebody please explain what's going on?

ok, that actually makes a lot of sense, and you're probably right.
But one of the reasons it's so annoying is that if I forget to back out of the playlist before I sync to iTunes the next time, it treats all the played episodes as unplayed.
And sometimes I need to do more than just back out of the playlist, I actually have to go into a different playlist and then back out of that one and go back into the original one before the rules stick.
Obviously not a huge problem in the overall scheme of things, but really, really annoying.
Anyway, thanks for the input.

3.1.3 Software Update and Smart Playlists with Podcasts

I did the 3.1.3 update last night and now my smart playlist containing podcasts is gone.
Has anyone else seen this behavior?
Any idea on a fix?
Thanks

For whatever it's worth, 3.1.3 appears to have fixed my problems with Smart Playlists...
In 3.1 and 3.1.2 I'd get the same contents of a Smart Playlist between iTunes and the iPhone, but a very different order.
e.g. I have my Podcasts smart playlist set to order by ascending publish date. A bit annoying because I wouldn't get them played back in chronological order on the iPhone, but only an annoyance.
Now since applying 3.1.3 - with no mods to filters or Live Updating I might add - they've back to showing the right order on the iPhone as well as on iTunes. Which is a relief. Long may it continue!
PS: I did also update iTunes to 9.0.3... I don't suppose this would help those on the list having troubles would it?

Album ratings and smart playlists

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