Do Auto-Updating Smart Playlists really work?

I followed the old thread about auto-updating smart playlists not updating automatically on the iPod. Apparently the 2006-1-10 update fixes it, but some smart playlists still aren't updating for me. The simple rating-based playlists work (they update), but more complex smart playlists such as this don't work:
Match All Following Rules:
Podcast is true
Playcount is 0
Time is less than 11:00
Kind contains audio
According to this support document: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301910 smart playlists should update based on any criteria, but I'm not seeing that. Am I doing something wrong? What types of smart playlists have people gotten to work?
Thanks.

I've posted a better version of this thread in the "Using the iPod with color display" forum.
APPLE DISCUSSION ADMINS: Please delete this thread. Thanks!

Similar Messages

  • Tip for creating auto-updating Smart Playlists for iPod

    Short Answer:
    Don't use Smart Playlists that use rules with nested playlists which aren't completely on iPod.
    Long Answer:
    If you're like me and use nested Smart Playlists, make sure that any Smart Playlist you want to have auto-update on the iPod doesn't use a rule which uses as a criteria a playlist that isn't fully present on iPod (exclamation point next to the Smart Playlist in iTunes when connecting iPod to your Mac).
    For example, I have Smart Playlists to exclude certain tracks in other Smart Playlists (Streams, Spoken Word,tracks under 1 minute, etc.). These are tracks that I usually want to exclude in other Smart Playlists but don't want to add those rules each and every time.
    The problem is that iPod looks to see if that 'excludes' playlist is present, which obviously it isn't because by it's nature it's designed to exclude tracks. If a nested playlist isn't present it seems the auto-update will not work.
    My solution was to create a new Smart Playlist specifically for the iPod, which contained all the rules of my "master exclude" Smart Playlist and any other I wanted specifically for the iPod.
    My beef with Apple here is that I can't duplicate a Smart Playlist, which is possible in iPhoto. Being able to do that would make things much easier.
    I have since gone about creating 'excludes' playlists so that the playlist itself excludes tracks; previously I was creating a Smart PLaylist that contained (included) all the tracks I wanted to exclude, then using that as a rule (Playlist is not 'Excludes') in other playlists. The second method worked fine on iTunes, since all the tracks are present, but it creates problems on iPod.

    I've posted a better version of this thread in the "Using the iPod with color display" forum.
    APPLE DISCUSSION ADMINS: Please delete this thread. Thanks!

  • Please help! Ipod not dynamically updating smart playlists!

    I have quite a complex system of smart playlists on my 4G color ipod but I can't get any of them to update dynamically away from the computer. I have a total of 6 and here are their preferences:
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    SPL 3:
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    2) Last played is not in the last 1 day
    3) Last skipped is not in the last 1 day
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    Unwanted:
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    2) Genre is Comedy
    The active playlist that I use to listen to:
    match ANY
    1-4) Playlist is SPL 1, SPL 2, SPL 3, or SPL 4
    5) Playlist is not Unwanted
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    I was searching this forum and found someone who says that 4th gen ipods have problems live updating smart playlists if the criteria "last skipped" is on the playlist. I took this off of all of my playlists but they still don't work. Then I tried making a playlist that is just "rating is equal to 5 stars" and it WORKS!!! But that doesn't help me out much for my other playlists so maybe it's some other criteria that's causing the problem. Any ideas?

  • Live Updating Smart Playlist... but not live updating iPod?

    I have several video files that I want to convert to iPod-compatible MP4. I have a program to do the conversion in a batch mode and then add the files to my iTunes library.
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    Welcome to the Discussions Steavis,
    As far as I know, a sync to the iPod only occurs upon the first attachment, as long as your settings are set for such action.
    The iPod will only sync after the initial attachment if you initiate the sync yourself. I believe it is in a pull-down menu, and/or CTRL-Click the iPod in the source list and select "Sync".
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    Beavis2084

  • 3G ipod with non-updating "smart" playlists

    It appears that apple managed to disable one of the most widely used features of the ipod with an update last year. Lots of folks have reported that the January firmware update fixed it... but it doesn't contain any new software for 3G (touchwheel) ipods.
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    I was searching this forum and found someone who says that 4th gen ipods have problems live updating smart playlists if the criteria "last skipped" is on the playlist. I took this off of all of my playlists but they still don't work. Then I tried making a playlist that is just "rating is equal to 5 stars" and it WORKS!!! But that doesn't help me out much for my other playlists so maybe it's some other criteria that's causing the problem. Any ideas?

  • ITunes11 smart playlists not working

    I can't get a smart playlist to work on the new iTunes11.
    I created one with the search criteria to show all files added after 11/20/2012. Although there are 231 files that fit that criteria, none are listed in the smart playlist.
    So I created a smart playlist with the search criteria to show all files with the word "vinyl" in comments. [I record old vinyl albums onto my computer, so I add the "vinyl" comment so that I can isolate them.] This playlist resulted in zero items even though my old smart playlist -the one that was constructed in iTunes10 but transferred into iTunes11- does work. However, my iTunes10 vinyl smart playlist does not list any "vinyl" files added after upgrading to iTunes11.
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    Smart playlists are nothing new to me. I have successfully created dozens of them over the years. Has something changed that I am overlooking?

    I seem to have the same problem.
    If this is confirmed (or if this is just a plain bug, which would be no better) than this is a disaster.
    I use smart playlist for sorting albums. For example:
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    - normal playlist for "nice to have"
    - normal playlist for "can live without"
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    Well today with iTunes 11, whatever I do with the album, it stays there.
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  • Smart Playlists not working on iPhone after iOS5 update..

    Okay, so I normally have a custom made smart playlist which I name "Recently Modified" so I can see the list of songs which I have recently updated in quality or changed the artwork etc., but since updating to iOS5, this playlist still works fine on iTunes but appears blank on my iPhone 4 while all other playlists work fine. Any reason why this might be?

    Right, well my settings for it look like this:
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  • After updating all softwere I am unable to update smart playlist?

    I have updated both my itunes and ipod touch to the newest versions. After doing this i am unable to sync my smart playlist and one application that I played for will not work.
    ex: my recently played playlist will not update,the songs are added but they go on a random order somewhere were in the middle of the playlist. The beginning of the playlist has not changed regardless of what songs i play or how many times i have updated the ipod, it seems as if it is locked.
    What i have tried doing: restarting computer, restarting ipod, restoring ipod, creating new smart playlist, when ipod is attached clicking music in the ipods tab menu and selected only the smart playlist.
    Please help!

    For getting podcasts to sync correctly:
    http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=10237036#10237036
    For getting smart playlists arranged by album or artist to sync correctly:
    http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=10234242#10234242
    And for smart playlists that are top 25 type playlists (although I'm not sure why there's a difference, this stuff is all really messed up) try turning off live updating in your smart playlist settings. And post here if that prevents your playlist from updating when play counts change, I don't use that list and I'm curious.
    And also complain here:
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  • After todays update smart playlists still doesn't sync......

    After I installed todays update Itunes doesn't snyc the smart playlists correctlyfrom Iphone 3Gs while on the other hand syncing with my Ipüod nano works without problems.
    Please Apple fix that bug while it's very frustrating

    I had the same issue and spent god knows how long on the phone with apple.  They had me reinstall iTunes and then format my iPhone yet I was still having issues.  One apple employee told me that they are having issues with their server being overwhelmed and did not know when it will allow me to sync.  I did not want to use the iCloud but when I turned the feature on (and turned off all the auto sync) it allowed me to sync through my computer.  I am still crossing my fingers everytime I sync though.
    Good Luck

  • IPod no longer updates smart playlists after upgrade to 1.3

    After upgrading my 5th Gen 30GB iPod to 1.3 I noticed immediately that the smart playlists on my iPod aren't updating any longer. Until 3 days ago my iPod had firmware version 1.2.1 and all smart playlists worked as expected.
    I have many smart playlists that I have been happily using everyday for the past 2 years to play only new podcasts, shuffle my favorite tunes based on when they have been played last, and move songs in and out of My Top rated tunes based on their ratings. These no longer work on my iPod, but when I sync with iTunes they update fine. I didn't make any changes to my smart playlists before or immediately after upgrading, at least until I noticed the problem.
    For the last couple of days since upgrading I have tried deleting all my smart playlists and recreating them, that didn't help. I have also tried restoring my iPod, which also didn't help. I have also tried creating a very basic smart playlist i.e.
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    Rating is ***
    Live updating - checked
    Sync'd that to my iPod and started playing a tune and changed it's rating to 5 stars. I then entered a static playlist, played a song from that and when it was done entered the new 5 star rating smart playlist and it wasn't updated.
    I'm don't know what else to try, I've repeated the same test as above on my wife's 2nd Gen nano and it worked as expected. Has anyone else noticed smart playlists failing to update since the upgrade? I have searched here and on google, but only found reference to much older firmwares.

    I'm having the same problem, once I've listened to a song in my 0 plays list, go out to a new menu, then back in, all the songs that have been played are still there, when a few weeks ago they were taken off and only unplayed songs were still there. Now if I switch to another playlist and back, I have to scroll all the way back to the point I was when I changed which didn't happen earlier.

  • Live Updating smart playlists not updating properly

    I have been using some live-updating playlists since I first got my iPod. They had been working fine until just last month. I have a Smart Playlist set to be Live Updating, that follows the rule of playcount is 0. It used to work properly; after playing any song on that list, leaving to the menu screen, and going back to the playlist, the song will disappear from the list.
    For whatever reason, this playlist will now only update when I sync my iPod with iTunes. It used to update on the fly in the iPod itself, but no longer.
    I have not downloaded the updates for iTunes or the iPod, so I don't see what could have caused this change.
    And just now, I synced the iPod with iTunes and while the "Yet to be Played" playlist in iTunes shows only four songs, when I go to that same list on the actual iPod, I get 15 songs. I just don't get that at all.

    Annoyed,
    You might find our little Discussion of this whole Smart Playlist issue:
    http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=1514307#1514307
    interesting.
    In particular, Smart Playlists containing Podcasts have yet to have their functionality restored as I have been discussing with Level 2 Support:
    http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=1683550
    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1536677#1536677
    Kind regards,
    Gopha.

  • 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.

  • Live updating smart playlists not actually updating

    Apparently, this was a common complaint back in 2007. Well, I am still having this problem.
    iPhone 4, iOS 4.3.3
    I have a static playlist filled with music called "MUSIC". I have a smart playlist "DYNAMIC" that references "MUSIC", which filters only songs rated 3-5, and not played in the past week. These playlists are just used as a source.
    I then have a smart playlist for each genre (e.g. "RAP", "ROCK"), which reference "DYNAMIC", and simply filter the appropriate genre.
    All of these smart playlists have "live updating" enabled. They all work as expected in iTunes. They all work as expected on an 5.5G iPod.
    However, on the iPhone, when I completely play a song in "RAP", the song is not immediately removed. I expected this, since this is the same behavior on my 5.5G iPod. However, on the iPod, I would simply exit the playlist, then re-enter, and the playlist would be regenerated, removing the played song. This does not work on the iPhone. No matter what I do, the played song is still shown, despite the fact that the DYNAMIC smart playlist should remove the song.
    I also tested by playing the song directly from DYNAMIC, and it still does not update. I created a new, basic smart playlist which does nothing but reference the static playlist "MUSIC" and filter out songs played in the past day. It still does not update.
    I will note that none of my smart playlists reference a playlist that is not synced on the iPhone. I know that a smart playlist referencing a non-synced playlist can turn the smart playlists static. I doubled checked that this is not the case here.
    I will also note that I verified the songs are being marked as played via iTunes.
    Hjalp!

    Annoyed,
    You might find our little Discussion of this whole Smart Playlist issue:
    http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=1514307#1514307
    interesting.
    In particular, Smart Playlists containing Podcasts have yet to have their functionality restored as I have been discussing with Level 2 Support:
    http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=1683550
    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1536677#1536677
    Kind regards,
    Gopha.

  • Smart playlist not working

    My smart playlists aren't doing jack squat for updating. The live-update checkbox is checked. I tried unchecking it, then going back and checking it again. No luck. I have lots of new songs on my computer that simply are not showing up. And the music isn't random at all. It's not changing. Very frustrating.
    I have a smart playlist limiting size (so it fits on my ipod), checked random, and live-updating. Nothing else. But it won't update.
    I'd just recreate it every time I want to sync (which I did once hoping to fix the problem), but it's used in a bunch of other playlists too, so that's a huge pain to recreate all those too.
    Anyone know how to troubleshoot this? I am lost, and a bit mad at the software (trying hard not to dislike apple right now).

    HappyPants wrote:
    Why can't my criteria simply be limit size to 14800MB ...
    So I guess checking random just selects random songs, it's not actually a criteria. So really that Should be a criteria....Random. Just that.
    I Just want a certain number/size of random songs.
    You have to have at least one criteria, which can be something as simple as "Bitrate Is Greater Than 1 kbps" which all your music would meet, then set it to select 14800MB selected at random. iTunes will grab 14800MB worth of songs, selected at random, but the contents won't change unless you include criteria that forces songs out of the playlist to be replaced. Otherwise, the playlist contents will never change. Make sense?
    HappyPants wrote:
    In my case I really don't want to use the criteria as you suggest, "last played is not in the last 'x' days" because sometimes I like to hear the same songs over and over again ... I just can't fit all my music on my ipod and wanted the nano for it's size. So the best solution for me is to just have it randomize my songs a bit every time I sync.
    Then how is iTunes supposed to differentiate between the songs you like to hear over and over and other songs that it needs to select "at random"?
    HappyPants wrote:
    After some thought, I chose to do: last skipped is not in the last 1 day.
    That should change quite frequently before putting a song back into the playlist, and it should keep the songs that I like listening to over and over.
    Now you're thinking
    I still would like there to just be some way of just limiting the size and having it random though.
    You can do this (see my first suggestion in this post). However, what you're asking is for iTunes to somehow know what songs you want to keep on your iPod vs. the songs it is supposed to pick at random.
    I would recommend you make a regular playlist (not smart) that holds the songs that you always want on your iPod, then a smart playlist that randomly selects from the rest of your music. In the smart playlist, include the criteria "playlist is not (other playlist name)" so that you don't double up on the same songs.
    If you want to manage an iPod that is smaller than your library, I would recommend you spend some time reading an excellent paper on how to do this:
    http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/view.php?id=1154607&da=y

  • 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 =)

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