Can unchecked songs in the library remain checked in a playlist?

Question

I am creating a playlist for my son but I don't want his songs to be checked in my library. I just want them checked in his playlist. I play my library on shuffle and I don't want his songs to sync into my library. Can someone please help me manage his songs separately without creating a whole new account for him?

Answer 1

Unfortunately you won't be able to uncheck a song in one location and have it remained checked in another. That's just not how iTunes operates.
However, I don't see your issue: are you making sure his songs don't sync to your iPod/other device? or do you simply just not want those songs to play when you are shuffling your entire library?
If a song is unchecked, by default it won't get played when you're shuffling or in a playlist. So you don't need to worry about that.
The only issue that would arise (and maybe this is what you are referring to?) is if you have a playlist of unchecked songs, whenever you play one on that playlist, it won't automatically go to the next one.
If you want to work around this, try checking all of the songs on that playlist, but select "Get Info" for all of them and select "Skip When Shuffling" on the options tab. If I'm not mistaken, this would therefore allow you to play all of his songs continuously in the playlist, but whenever you do a full library shuffle, they will not get played. If you want to manage with an iPod though, like any checked items they will also go to your device, unless you designate your iPod to not take from that playlist.
Hope this helps
If you connect an iPod/other device, if the setting "Sync only checked items" is marked, any unchecked items will not go to that device.