Copying Smart Playlist

Is there any way to copy a smart playlist? Not the music it contains, but it's parameters.
I want to make smart playlists with similar parameters without having to make each one separately?
Like a basic "duplicate smart playlist" would suffice.
Any tips?
Thanks.

For those who've said that this works, please can you check whether it works for you if the playlist being exported/imported is based on another playlist?
For example, I have numerous playlists that build upon one another, with criteria such as "playlist is xxx" and/or "playlist is not yyy" (along with other conditions).
If I export and re-import all of these (i.e. ensuring that I've included all of the dependencies) either into the same library or into a new blank library, then I get the little exclamation mark by each one - and upon editing the criteria find that every one has changed to refer to the default "Music" playlist... which obviously then breaks all of the processing.
I have an XML file of all smart playlist criteria (extracted using Doug's ever-useful script - http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=exportsmartcriteria) if it would help anyone to test/debug what's going on.
(Hope this isn't hijacking the thread too much - I have the same question as the OP, but the answers provided don't seem to work for me...)
Cheers,
Mark P.

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Copying Smart Playlists to another Music Library??

Can I copy smart playlists from one library to another. I have split off my classical music into a completely separate iTunes Music Library. Do I now need to recreate all the smart forlder or can I somehow transfer or copy them?
Thanks!

van D wrote:
can I somehow transfer or copy them?
you can transfer playlists either by using home sharing or by exporting/importing them.
JGG

Copying smart playlists

I have something like 60 GO of songs on my Imac g5
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I changed the order, then burned a cd but the cd copied the songs in the order of the smart playlist, which was alphabetical. What am i doing wrong in this scenario, and is there a way to change the song order in a smart playlist? I am a new MAC user. Is this unique to the MAC format?

I'm trying to figure out a way to make a playlist of songs I generally like from a very large library to fit on my iPod. The songs aren't rated, and I don't want to have a totally random selection chosen by a smart playlist.
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Thanks for the response. I had thought of that and "no" I do not (and did not).
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Smart playlist "copy to play order" not working?

I have a smart list that selects classical music pieces based on two separate criteria ("choose with words "###" or "***" in the comments into the playlist), and puts them in the playlist.
But even if the play order is displayed correctly in iTunes, once it loads onto my iPods (4th Gen Touch, and iPod Photo), the play order is randomized.
This may be tolerable with rock music, but in classical music when several movements must be played in order, it poses a major problem.
I have re-ordered it using "Album by Title", verfied the play order in iTunes and then have chosen "Copy to Play Order". then I sync to my iPods, but in iPod the playlist is out of order (whatever order Smart Playlist chose.. which seems rather random).
The only way to work around so far, is to create a standard playlist with a different name, and copy the contents of the Smart Playlist, order it correctly, and then chose "copy to Play Order". But this sort of defeats the Smart Playlist...
Is there a bug? or am I not understanding how "Copy to Play Order" works?
I'm using 10.6.8 and iTunes 10.6.1.

What is going on here. I don't have this problem with my 3rd generation Nano (the square one with the clickwheel), but I do with the 6th gen (the square one with the touchscreen).

My smart playlists are not showing up on my iPhone after turning on Music Match

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For example, I have a playlist that selects out all the songs with three stars or more that have not been played in the last 2 weeks (so I only hear songs I like, but have not heard lately).
So what's up??

Isn't iTunes 10.5 r 9 a beta release for developers? If that's the case then isn't there a special web site for developers to discuss issues (and they are not supposed to discuss them on the public forum)? If you're not a developer and have this through unofficial channels then I'm not sure you can expect full functionality.

Smart Playlist Problems (Since Ver 5)

I have come across a problem, which I believe started when I installed Version 5.
I have many SMART playlists set up that are really for my iPod usage. They are set to pick certain tracks that have not been heard in xxx amount of days, and usually set to a certain number of songs, or a particular amount of time.
The ones I use most often:
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WORK MUSIC - a playlist of 100 random songs not played in the last 5 days. I play this through my inMotion dock at work.
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It still works this way as long as I don't connect my iPod to my PC and sync with iTunes. If I do, it always resets the iPod playlists to the songs that appear in the iTunes library. I rarely use these playlists on the PC, so they almost always stay the same.
It seems like in previous versions, iPod would update the iTunes library and the smart playlists would also be updated in iTunes, so that the iPod versions of the playlists would continue to be random. But now, if the playlist is different on the iPod, it will not transfer over to iTunes. Instead, the iTunes playlist is copied back over to my iPod, and I keep getting the same playlists over and over.
This is a major annoyance, as I usually sync my iPod every day since I am constantly updating my library.
I've also noticed that when I synch my iPod, it is copying over songs that are already there, and it always seems to be copying songs I recently played in the iTunes library.
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I thought about unchecking LIVE UPDATE on those playlists that cause a problem, but that doesn't work, as now I'd ALWAYS have the same playlist.
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Has anyone else encountered these problems?
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Reagrding tracks being copied over again, I've seen another post in iPod Lounge where that person indicated the same thing. He stated that the play count was not being updated between the iPod and iTunes, but that the tracks were being copied over again. This sounds like a good explanation of this problem.
I have now noticed many of the tracks which I know I have played in the past show a "0" play count. Are the play counts kept in the iTunes library files (iTunes.xml and iTunes.itl)?
I always save the library files, so that when I reinstall iTunes I can just copy these 2 files back to their proper locations and I have my entire library intact - playlists and all. My music library is on a different drive.
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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.

How do I add a folder to the library into the smart playlist called "recently added"?

Hello Apple users! I really miss the old version of I-tunes that allowed you to manually add files and folders from your hard drive directly into individually created I-tunes playlists with nothing more than copy and paste. I don't mind that the new version requires some additional steps, like having to go through "add file/folder to library" onto a temporary "recently added" sub-master list, from which I could then transfer them to the sub-folder playlist categories afterwards...except that I can't! The I-Tunes Playlist window does not have a "recently added" category already there, so I have to manually create one ("new smart playlist"), and then create a set of "rules" to then have a writeable clean slate onto which each new "add file to library" could go...This works only for the first folder I add, but then after I copy them to their sub-folder destinations, I can't delete them to make room for the next batch, nor does the next batch even go in...I've then tried deleting the current "recently added" smart list and creating another, (with a new set of rules) , and then tried adding the next group using "add files to library", only to have the original batch come back up again and the new batch not...Apparently, I can add all the files and folders I want, but they only go to one place, which is the main master list under "library" and they all get mixed in together and are virtually impossible to find!
I have about 20 playlist folders on my C drive under "My Music"...How do I get them onto I-tunes anywhere except scrambled in random order?

I have about 20 playlist folders on my C drive under "My Music"...How do I get them onto I-tunes anywhere except scrambled in random order?
Boca Babe,
Just add them to your iTunes library, and then sort as you wish.
Don't try to add things directly to Recently Added. Recently Added will pick songs up automatically, e.g., all songs whose "Date Added" is in the last X weeks.
If you would like to add files or folders of songs directly to a playlist, create a regular playlist, not a smart playlist. Then open it and drag the files/folders into it. They will be added immediately to that playlist, and to your library if they are not already in it.

ITunes 11.1.2 and iOS 7.0.3 Smart Playlists not working

I am unable to get a smart playlist of mine to update on my iPhone 4s. The smart playlist is updated on my iMac and the items in it are copied across to my 4s but the playlist on my 4s is not getting updated. This just started 2 days ago. When I sync the same smart playlist to an old iPod Touch 3g running iOS 4.3.3 it is copied across fine and all works. The items in the playlist are all podcasts and up to a couple of days ago were copying across fine (and the older items are still there in the playlist on my 4s).

Hello gortdromagh,
Thank you for the details of the issue you are experiencing when syncing your playlist to your iPhone. For an issue like this, I recommend resyncing the music to your iPhone.
If you are syncing automatically, resync content to the iPhone by unchecking "Sync Music" and click "Apply," then check "Sync Music" and click "Apply" again.
You can find the syncing steps in the following article:
iTunes 11 for Mac: Set up syncing for iPod, iPhone, or iPad
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12113
Thank you for posting in the Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Sheila M.

I have smart playlists combined in a folder that I use to make playlists to fit on devices. Lately the folder isn't updating with the playlists inside it, so the folder shows songs that aren't in any of its playlists. Can anyone help?

I'm using the latest iTunes on Windows 8. Since upgrading to iTunes 12 my old system of smart playlists within folders have not worked properly. I used to have a folder containing three folders with smart playlists in them, but I had to abandon this and copy all the smart playlists into one folder, as the nested structure didn't seem to update anymore. This worked for a couple of months (even though it was less convenient and didn't exactly accomplish what I had been able to do on iTunes 11 and earlier).
More recently, however, I've found that the folder in the simplified structure also doesn't work properly. The smart playlists are set up to remove songs after they were played, but now the folder seems to retain some songs even after they've disappeared from the playlist that included them. It seems to be building up 'ghosts' of songs that were played and were then supposed to disappear as per the smart playlist setup. I tried copying all the playlists out of the folder, but ended up with the folder 'properties' showing that it contained a number of songs, even when it was empty.
I also noticed that I'm unable to reference the folder in the conditions of any new playlists I set up - I get the error message that the folder relies on smart playlists that cannot be updated. In response to this I reviewed all the playlists, but saw no errors.
Anybody else have this problem?

It may be best to recreate the folder and the smart playlists from scratch.
tt2

Copying Smart Playlist

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