"now playing" smart playlist

There's a feature in Windows Media Player that I would like to mimic in itunes.
There is a "now playing" window in WMP that I can simply drag songs into. It's sort of like a temporary playlist. This way if you want to listen to say these two albums, or start listening to something and want to add what you're listening to, you don't have to make a brand new playlist, you can simply add to what is now playing.
Is there anyway to do this in itunes? Set up a smart playlist that just has what you're now playing and then when you're finished listening it automatically deletes it? Or am I stuck making and deleting thousands of playlists all the time?

Yes, but if I use the party shuffle, then the songs are still there the next time I turn on itunes and pretty soon I have every song I've listened to in my party shuffle and have to delete them in order to get the desired effect I'm looking for.......perhaps windows media player just has better options.....

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Recently played Smart Playlist not working

I read here that this was a problem back in 2005, but I'm only encountering it now with the latest iTunes upgrade. I noticed today that my Recently Played smart playlist did not update for all the songs I played today. It shows only 1 song played today, which I think I played through the computer/iTunes. All of the songs played on my ipod today are not being recognized as "recently played". This is affecting the majority of my other smart playlists because they mostly work on a "least recently played" or "least often played" idea.
Is this happening to anyone else and does anyone have a fix?
Thanks -
Vicki
iBook G4 & Dell Inspiron 600m 5G 60GB iPod video, latest version of iTunes

Vicki:
You might like to have a quick gander at our discussion of the Smart Playlist issues...?
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=1514307#1514307
Kind regards,
Gopha.

10.2.1 Recently Played smart playlist (bug)

Like most users, I often skip around from song to song before the song is finished. These songs used to be added automatically to the "Recently Played" smart playlist (set to Last played in the last 30 days, live updating).
I have noticed since 10.2.1 update, that a song must be fully played before being added to said playlist.
It is very time consuming to scrub through the entire song of each song you play to get it added to the recently played smart playlist.
Has anyone else noticed this?

Vicki:
You might like to have a quick gander at our discussion of the Smart Playlist issues...?
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=1514307#1514307
Kind regards,
Gopha.

Most Played Smart playlist problem

i have a smart playlist that has my 500 most played songs. when i have my ipod hooked up to my computer, it has the playlist in the correct order but when i am using my ipod the playlist shows it in the order that i originally started the playlist in. for example, when i made the list my top five songs went: brand new, jojo, forever in fall, brand new, weezer. and it still shows it in that order on my ipod. but it should now read: brand new, jojo, jojo, weezer, mae.
now here is the weird thing, if i play a song enough it will get added to that playlist. so i can play songs enough to get them on the playlist but it cant get it in the correct order it seems.
any help? BTW i manually update my ipod.

ok. trying now.
ok, that kinda worked. this is what i did.
unplugged ipod.
went to most played.
picked a lower song and just played it over and over.
it still stayed in the same place.
i hooked it up to the computer and the most played playlist said that it was the number one most played song.
i then hit copy to play order and sync then unplugged ipod.
looked at playlist and it was right.
BUT, isnt there a way for the playlist to be updated without having to hook it up the my computer and having to do the copy play order and sync?

Playing smart playlist by release date on Shuffle

I cannot get this to work. I'm trying to listen to podcasts by release date but for some reason it's not. I have the smart playlist setup to include "Most recently added". Is there some other way to do this?

Create a playlist and add the podcasts you want to
it. The order you add them to the list will be the
order they play in. If you mix this order up, just
click on the far left bar above the track numbers to
restore it to the original order.
Since the podcasts under the podcast icon are sorted
in order by release date, if you drag a group of
podcasts into your playlist they will stay in that
order.
Hope this answers your question.
Yeap, I've been meaning to reply. This workaround does work for me. It's not perfect, but it's easy enought to create a new playlist called 'podcasts" and dragging and dropping the latest podcasts in it, and then manually syncing it to the ipod.
Of course I have to do the same for videos too.
BTW, most interesting we have the same computer. Except mine is the 500mhz version of the 1st gen tibook.

Smart Playlists no longer working on my 4G iPod

I have a 20GB 4G Mono iPod that is running the latest firmware version (3.1.1) and I have several Smart Playlists I use frequently with it.
Before I upgraded to iTunes 7 last week these playlists would dynamically update on the iPod itself without the need for me to synchronize with iTunes (this was also a bug introduced in firmware 3.1 and corrected in 3.1.1). Now the "smart" playlists on the iPod act just like static playlists: if I play a song that is supposed to be removed from the playlist once the song finishes, it doesn't until I sync with iTunes.
Is anybody else experiencing this issue?
I have tried restoring my iPod just in case.

Well, 7.0.1 doesn't fix this for me, but downgrading to 6.0.5 did. I followed the first four steps here:
http://macslash.org/comments.pl?sid=6335&cid=112858
Then, while keeping the "iTunes Music Library.xml" file in ~/Music/iTunes, I made a new "iTunes Library" file (instructions at the bottom of this link):
http://www.mani.de/en/software/macosx/ivolume/faq.html
Then installed 6.0.5 and dragged the xml file onto the new program file to import. The new groupings (movies, podcasts, etc.) turn into playlists at the bottom, but can be easily deleted.
This will allow downgrade while keeping play count, ratings, etc. intact; I did lose artwork for all the songs for which I had downloaded the art from iTunes store, and iTunes is recopying those songs to the iPod, but I'd rather have the playlists update on the iPod than have the artwork.
iBook G4 1 MHz Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Updater 2006-01-10 does not fix disabled Smart Playlists on my iPod

Despite what the last few posts in this thread state. The most recent 2006-01-10 iPod updater has not enabled the live updating feature on my 60GB iPod photo.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=190331&tstart=0
(BTW, I wish I knew why it was locked!?!?)
I've installed the update, confirmed that my iPod is now running v1.2.1 and I've done a reset, but no Smart Playlist live update lovin'. I played a few tracks on the iPod and none of them showed up in my Recently Played Smart Playlist. )c:
Has anyone gotten this to work? And if so on which model? Or am I just doing something wrong?

From Article 301910 in Apple's Knowledge Base Smart Playlists stop updating dynamically on iPod
If you have an iPod with a Click Wheel, Smart Playlists may stop updating dynamically after you update your iPod with iPod Updater 2005-06-26 or later. For example, if you rate a song on your iPod, the rating appears, but that same song won't appear in a Smart Playlist based on the same rating on your iPod. But this can happen with a Smart Playlist based on any criteria.
Use the iPod Updater 2006-01-10 or later to resolve this.
Note: This issue does not affect iPod nano or Fifth Generation iPod.
Tutackhamen's comments are correct. There is a bug in that smart playlists do not recognize "podcast is true". Instead, you need to use a condition like "genre contains podcast". Apart from this, smart playlists are working. Nested playlists also work correctly, but all playlists must be on the iPod, since you won't match the updated conditions until these playlists complete.
For more detail, see this discussion thread over at iPodLounge.
12 PowerBook G4, 1.33 GHz Mac OS X (10.3.9)
12 PowerBook G4, 1.33 GHz Mac OS X (10.3.9)
12 PowerBook G4, 1.33 GHz Mac OS X (10.3.9)
12 PowerBook G4, 1.33 GHz Mac OS X (10.3.9)
12 PowerBook G4, 1.33 GHz Mac OS X (10.3.9)

How to update Smart Playlists without Live Updating?

I have around 100 Smart Playlists and 25,000 songs in iTunes. Many of the Smart Playlists have interrelations and multiple nested rules.
iTunes pretty much grinds to a hault every time I do anything. It generally freezes for 10-40 seconds every time a "change" happens, including when a song finishes playing. If I drag and drop a 12 song album into iTunes, it will freeze for several minutes.
Assuming this was due to the Live Updating of the Smart Playlists, I unchecked the Live Updating from most of the playlists. This took the general performace of iTunes to an acceptable speed, but now these Smart Playlists NEVER update.
I'd like to find a solution to allow the playlists to update while iTunes runs at an acceptable speed.
Is there a way to have certain Smart Playlists update only when iTunes starts up?
Is there a file menu or button way to tell iTunes to update ALL Smart Playlists that are not Live Updating?
Thanks,
kent

I've also had a look at the available scripting commands but I can't find any that trigger smart playlist updating or that would have been a way to approach the problem.
tt2

Smart playlist update

Can anybody tell me how often you can expect smart playlists to update? is it possible to set so smart playlists update daily or weekly?
Regards Greg

On the computer, at least with version 6 and the Mac version, they update on the fly immediately. For example, in my "Not yet Played" Smart Playlist which has the rule of a play count of zero, as soon as the song finishes and the play count it updated, it gets removed from the playlist immediately.
On the iPod it works a bit differently. As long as you are still in the playlist playing from it, it won't update. So if you pause of put the iPod to sleep, then start it up later where you are still on the last track that was playing, the playlist is unplayed. But if you then stop that playlist, go play something else (say in another playlist), when you go back to that playlist, it will update to reflect any changes since the last time you were playing it.
So in other words, for that same "Not Yet Played" playlist I have, say there are 180 songs in it. I start playing, get to 13 of 180, pause it. Hours later I start up again still at 13 of 180 and keep on playing more tracks. Always says 180. Now say after number 50 finished, I dump out of the playlist and go play a video. When I go back into the "Not Yet Played" playlist, my playcount will start at 1 of 130, so those 50 were removed after exiting and reentering the playlist.
Hope that helps,
Patrick

3.1.3 Software Update and Smart Playlists with Podcasts

I did the 3.1.3 update last night and now my smart playlist containing podcasts is gone.
Has anyone else seen this behavior?
Any idea on a fix?
Thanks

For whatever it's worth, 3.1.3 appears to have fixed my problems with Smart Playlists...
In 3.1 and 3.1.2 I'd get the same contents of a Smart Playlist between iTunes and the iPhone, but a very different order.
e.g. I have my Podcasts smart playlist set to order by ascending publish date. A bit annoying because I wouldn't get them played back in chronological order on the iPhone, but only an annoyance.
Now since applying 3.1.3 - with no mods to filters or Live Updating I might add - they've back to showing the right order on the iPhone as well as on iTunes. Which is a relief. Long may it continue!
PS: I did also update iTunes to 9.0.3... I don't suppose this would help those on the list having troubles would it?

Smart playlists are not updating since the upgrade

4 days ago I upgraded to the new version of iTunes. Now my smart playlists have stopped updating and when I try to add new ones they are completely empty. These are vital to my work and contain information it would take a long time every single day to replicate and check. Please help.

Perhaps it would help if you set out exactly what you have in your "Edit Rules" box and also what you are trying to achieve.

Why are my Smart playlists out of order in iOS 5?

Since upgrading to iOS 5 on an iPad and iPhone 4 (Verizon), many (not all) of my smart playlists made in iTunes are out of order in both my iPad and iPhone (meaning the songs within the lists are our of order not the lists themselves). Somtimes the playlists vary even between my iPad and iPhone, not just with iTunes.
I tried a couple of workarounds I found on the web:
1) I've unchecked Live Updating on my affected Smart playlists, but it only seemed to work on some of them.
2) Resorting the Smart playlists in iTunes by a different order, like Album, Name, or Artists seemed to work for others.
Still, some of the smart playlists on my iPad and iPhone have resisted even these solutions and stubornly will not sort to the order I have them in iTunes.
My iPad has now more smart playlists synced correctly than my iPhone, yet, i have the same sync settings for both of them. I've been trying to find the rhyme or reason behind the mangled sort order but haven't a clue. Anyone else experiencing such strange behavior with smart playlists since upgrading to iOS 5? Is this a bug or just some setting I am missing?

Created a similar post about 1 month ago - with no response...its driving me crazy too! Would love a fix!

Smart playlists have old status after charging ipod

after charging my ipod when the battery had been empty, for example the "least recently played"-smart playlist has songs in it, which were also there before charging and i have already played before.
not until i play one song in it, the playlist updates and the other already-before-charging-played songs disappear.
is it a bug?
Windows XP

?

Podcasts in Smart Playlist not showing up on iPhone in iOS 5

Upon first syncing my iPhone to iTunes after uploading both to iOS 5 and iTunes 10.5, I noticed that my podcasts in Smart Playlists were not there, and coincidentally, the Smart Playlists were gone in iTunes (that's a different issue altogether).
The solution I found is that you have to sync the podcast Smart Playlist from the "Podcasts" tab on iTunes. I did this with my phone plugged in, but suppose that this would also work with a wi-fi sync.
Choosing the Smart Playlists from the "Music" tab will result in empty playlists on your phone.
Hope this helps!

I'm having the exact same issue on Mac OS 10.7.2 and iOS 5. There are some other posts on Podcasts not syncing with smart playlists. I haven't found a solution yet. Super annoying. I used to have a smart playlist of audio podcasts sorted by date. Now the Smart Playlist shows up on my iPhone - but it's empty. I've tried your solution but id didn't work for me. I've unchecked all Playlists in the Music tab and checked them in the Podcast tab and I've still got empty Smart Playlists on my iPhone. Let me know if you get any more info on this. I'd also like to add that this exact problem surfaced a while back with a previous iOS update.
Here are what I see as the variables in this problem...
Music tab:
• Playsts box (my Smart Playlists of Podcasts DO NOT show up here)
• Genres box (I've tried checking and unchecking the Podcast Genre)
Podcast tab:
• Automattically including ___ episodes of ____ podcasts (I've tried checking and unchecking this)
• List of indivudual podcasts with checkboxes (I've tried checking and unchecking them)
• Include Episodes from Playlists (I've tried checking and unchecking them)

Recently Played smart playist won't update

Normally, when I look at my Recently Played smart playlist, it shows songs that were played both on my computer and on my iPod (after I have synced it of course). I got a 5th generation Nano for Christmas, and ever since I have started using this iPod, the songs that I play on it no longer appear on my Recently Played smart playlist. I have searched this forum and tried everything people have suggested for similar problems (resetting the parameters of the smart playlist, etc.) and it's still not working.
I have the latest version of iTunes (since I know a lot of people were having problems when they upgraded) but I never had this problem with my old iPod nano. The reason this is so important to me is that I sync my Recently Played playlist with LastFM, and I also use it as the only playlist I have synced with my iPod (since I have too many songs to fit on it).
If anyone has any suggestions on how to fix this I would really appreciate it because it is driving me crazy! Thank you so much

Are you manually managing the contents of the Nano (i.e. drag and drop) or do you auto-sync? If you manually manage the Nano you can still have a "Sync" button in iTunes, but clicking it won't sync play history from the iPod if it is in manual mode.
+(there is one exception to that -- if you auto-sync and then change to manual sync without removing the iPod contents, then clicking the Sync button in iTunes will continue to transfer play history and song rating changes from the iPod, even if it is in manual mode)+

"now playing" smart playlist

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