Copying Playlists and Playlist Folders from iTunes to an iPod

Question

I have my music library structured in iTunes with Playlist Folders (for Composers) which contain Playlists (for Works). Now I am having trouble duplicating this structure on my iPod.
Just after Playlist Folders were introduced in iTunes, the iPod (mine is a 160GB Classic) didn't support Folders at all. But in some later version suddenly it did. Great! Everything seemed fine. But now, when I try to copy a Playlist Folder by Drag and Drop to the iPod, on the iPod it ends up just as a Playlist (not a Folder), at least as seen by iTunes (v8.2.1 (6)). Actually on the iPod itself, the folder structure (under Composers) is displayed but iTunes shows the entry just as a Playlist. I've tried disconnecting the iPod and restarting iTunes but that didn't help.
Am I doing something wrong in the copying? Can anyone suggest how I can copy Playlist Folders to the iPod so that iTunes displays them as Plalist Folders there?

Answer 1

Many thanks again for the extensive answer.
rockmyplimsoul wrote:
Once you have the playlist sorted correctly in iTunes, then use the "Copy to play order" command I mentioned and then re-sync the iPod. The sort order on the playlist on the iPod should then match the order in iTunes. If not, then I suspect you're doing something wrong.
I did use the "Copy to play order" command as you described. The problem I have is that, although the play orders all look fine when seen from iTunes (both for the music library and when looking at the iPod), on the iPod itself the order is not correct. Quite likely I'm doing something wrong but I haven't been able to discover what
rockmyplimsoul wrote:
Do you mean "Structure" as in playlist folder/plalist structure, or do you mean "Sort order"? If you are auto-syncing the iPod then the playlist folder/playlist hierarchy should transfer exactly as it is in iTunes.
Understanding "Structure" may be part of the problem. Maybe I'm trying to do something that is impossible. I have built my private structure in iTunes, using Playlist Folders for composers and then Playlists (within the Folder) for each work of that composer, e.g.
-Playlist Folder: Wagner
--Playlist: Wagner - Das Rheingold
----Track 1
----Track 2
--Playlist: Wagner - Götterdämmerung
----Track 1
etc.
That works fine (for me) in iTunes.
On the iPod, though, you get something similar via Composers but I don't really believe that the iPod is using my structure. Rather I think it finds the composers via the Composer tag in the "songs"/tracks and then makes groupings depending on the album. That works out similar to my structure, for I define albums for each work. However, I'm not really convinced that my playlists as such are used at all on the iPod, even after syncing (as evidenced in the example where I had two playlists in iTunes with the same album name and they were merged when seen on the iPod).
That aside, it still doesn't explain why the play order is sometimes (but not always) mucked up when looked at directly on the iPod, when the same work's play order looks fine when the iPod's contents are displayed by iTunes.
At the moment I remain confused and puzzled. I won't now be able to follow the problem further till after the weekend but maybe next week I'll try deleting the playlists which are causing me trouble (with the play order) and redefine them, to see whether the confused play order happens again.