How can reset my playlist? was there before now can only find all songs under songs. playlists still there but only 2/3 of total songs.

Question

I have 6th gen ipod.  Trying to reset the ipod or something so i can recreate my playlist as i dont want all my comp songs on my ipod.  playlist screen shows some under 90s, some under classical, and some under recentl played, but none show all the songs on the ipod.  i have to go to songs to be able to play the whole list at all.  i have tried to change play list in itunes and resyncing but this hasnt changed my songs list or recreated a playlist.  any ideas?

Answer 1

lil9lovely3 wrote:
For Recently Added, all of my songs were in there. I imported my playlists and most were back to normal. However, the first 13 songs in my Recently Added were the same as before I reset my computer, which I found really odd, so I figured that they were sorted somehow for that to happen--they had to be. The rest of the songs were all of my other songs.
A smart playlist like "Recently Added" is based on the date that a track is added to your library.  Since you erased your computer and re-built your library from scratch, all your tracks are considered "recently added" because iTunes assigned a new date to each song as it was re-added to your library.
Instead of re-building your library from scratch, and re-importing certain playlists you had saved, it might've been better to have simply recovered your "iTunes Library.itl" file.  That is the index that points to where all your song files are, and contains all your playlists, and has properties such as ratings, last played date, and date added.  As long as the native files for your songs are in the same place, you could re-use your "iTunes Library.itl" file if you saved a copy before you erased your computer (always back that file up along with your native files, the .itl file IS your library).
As far as why the Recently Added playlist starts with 13 particular songs, then proceeds with the rest of all your songs in alphabetic order, it is possible that either you (or iTunes) started adding the songs back with the 13 most recent songs you had previously added to your library before it was erased, and once those were added then things proceeded by artist in alphabetical order.  Not sure, but there's really nothing you can do about that other than replace your .itl file with the original version if you still have it somewhere.