Playcount and Smart Playlist problem

Can someone explain what I consider strange behavior on the part of iTunes syncing? I have noticed it with my old 3rd gen iPod, my iPhone, and now my new new Nano.
Here's what happens:
1) I have smart playlists set up for each my podcasts, so that they contain only episodes with a playcount of 0, and with live updating checked.
2) Let's say I have a particular podcast with 4 unplayed episodes, and I go for a walk at the beach. I play a podcast episode all the way through, it goes to the next episode, and then the next. All 3 are played all the way through.
3) I turn off my iPod/iPhone/Nano at the end of my walk. There are now 3 episodes that have been played and one that has not.
4) Later in the day I turn the IPod/iPhone/Nano back on, and lo and behold all 4 of the episodes are still there, cued up to the beginning of the episode, not the one unplayed one I am expecting.
But the weird part is, it works just the way it's supposed to if, at any point before I turn off the devices, I back out of the playlist and click into a different playlist. Then, when I go back to the original one, the played episodes are gone just as they should be.
I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, or not understanding how this works, so can somebody please explain what's going on?

ok, that actually makes a lot of sense, and you're probably right.
But one of the reasons it's so annoying is that if I forget to back out of the playlist before I sync to iTunes the next time, it treats all the played episodes as unplayed.
And sometimes I need to do more than just back out of the playlist, I actually have to go into a different playlist and then back out of that one and go back into the original one before the rules stick.
Obviously not a huge problem in the overall scheme of things, but really, really annoying.
Anyway, thanks for the input.

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Podcasts Playlist and Smart Playlists Problems

Whenever I connect my iPod to my PC and start iTunes, I see that both my Podcasts and Smart Playlists have all reverted to regular playlists. Even when I fix the problem by deleting it all and recreating the playlists, the next time I plug my iPod in and start iTunes the same thing happens. I've reinstalled iTunes and I have the most system update for my iPod. I also manually manage my Podcasts. Does anyone have a clue what's going on?

I've solved this problem by working through an unrelated problem. Try the solutions in these two articles:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61711
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93716
In particular, do all of the solutions involving uninstalling and reinstalling iPod software and iTunes. Also, clean up your temp files and iTunes installer files. Finally, try reinstalling the COM interface for the iPod service.
I suspect that following all of the various uninstall/reinstall directions fixed it, but the rest is worth trying. I'm not sure what did it, since I couldn't get iTunes to recognize my iPod but none of those solutions fixed that particular problem(I just had to remap the drive letter.) Any one of those things could have did it, really, since it worked great once I got it working again.
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3.1.3 update and smart playlist problem

All the songs in the smart playlist are updated to the iphone, the playlist is shown where the iphone is listed under devices, but it is not listed under playlists on the phone. I've done a restore and sync (not from backup), edited the playlist and resync, deleted/recreated the smart playlist and resync. I've unchecked all playlists except just the one smart playlist and it just won't get the playlist name.

I have just run into same issue after installing the 3.1.3 update. Multiple smart playlists no longer sync to the iphone 3G, with the exception of one. Beyond that, my issue is exactly as bredmond's original post.

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:
SLEEP MUSIC - a playlist of random songs not played in the last 5 days limited to 90 minutes. I listen to this when I go to bed.
WORK MUSIC - a playlist of 100 random songs not played in the last 5 days. I play this through my inMotion dock at work.
Previously, all the smart playlists worked fine. When the songs were played, the playlist would update on the iPod and the next time I would enter that playlist on the iPod, the tracks would be different.
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.
I know that if the tag info is changed, or I add album art to a track, it will be copied over to the iPod again, but I am not making any changes to these tracks, just playing them in iTunes. I don't know if this is related to the smart playlist problem or not.
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.
So, my next thought is to use the "Only update selected playlists" option in the preferences to exclude those playlists that have this problem. If I do this, will new music I add still be copied over to my iPod?
Has anyone else encountered these problems?
FYI - I have not updated to the latest iPod update because of smart playlist problems people were having. I have version 1.1 on my 60GB photo. Would updating perhaps fix this problem?
My bottom-line thought on this is that iTunes updates the iPod, but the iPod no longer updates the iTunes library as it previously did. My reasons for thinking this are 1) The playlist problems I am having as stated above, and 2) I notice when I change the ratings on the iPod, they are not changed in iTunes. I am going to do a test and change the rating on a track on the iPod, then I will synch my iPod to see if the track is updated in iTunes, or the file is copied back to the iPod with the old rating.

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.
Anyway, I KNOW I have played these tracks on the iPod, and yet they show unplayed on iTunes. This is probably another symptom of the re-copying tracks problem.

IOS8 and Smart Playlist Handling

Smart Playlist syncing with iPhone IOS8 hasn't solved the problem.
The trick I have used on the previous IOS versions was to uncheck the "live update"
on the ITunes on my Mac. Doing that all my playlists showed up on the iPhone regardless
the ratings for the songs.
I was hoping IOS 8 would have solved the problem but I have tried it yesterday, again
smart playlists checked with "live update" will not sync the playlist to iPhone, you only
see the playlist title with empty songs, as soon as I have unchecked the "live update"
everything works.
Any comments pls

I don't know if this helps, but I had a similar problem where certain playlists would not sync. I tried restarting and updating. I also tried un-syncing ALL the music and re-syncing. That didn't work either. The only thing that worked was deleting the playlist in question (it was a smart playlist), syncing, and then re-creating the smart playlist and re-syncing. Then that playlist magically appeared again. Hope that helps.

MUSIC SMART PLAYLISTS PROBLEM/ERROR/BUG

It seems that Apple continues to ignore the problem with the music smart playlists... IT'S A SHAME!!! What's the point in getting an iPod/iPhone that doesen't work as it should???
WAKE UP APPLE!!!
Regards.

For the n thousandth time (not to you obviously) , Apple do not read posts like yours, and almost never read anything unless they are pointed to it by a high level member. Then only for deletion ....
They have jobs to do trying to get problems solved which are reported in the proper way, and random venting by people who have caps lock stuck on just gets ignored.
http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Smart playlists problem!!!

So, I've adressed this problem partly in another thread but since that one seems dead I'll start a new one. Got a new ipod touch to replace my ipod classic, and to be honest I'm very disappointed. Not only is synching MUCH slower, when I change the rating of a song on the ipod, it's immediately reset when I connect the ipod to the computer!
This means that my system of rating songs, creating playlists for certain numbers of stars is totally worthless now.
Edit:
I'm getting really angry that Apple is selling these, I can't use live update on any playlists and I can't even change the rating on my own songs, what am I paying for?!
Message was edited by: mikael.kallin

Has your ipod been set up to manually manage music?
That would stop the ratings and play counts from syncing back to itunes, if it's not set up to sync.
A bigger problem is if you can't even change a rating in itunes itself. That would most likely be due to windows permissions not letting itunes edit the iTunes Library.itl file. And could also be the reason your smart playlists aren't working properly.
In Windows Explorer, right-click > Properties on your top-level itunes media folder. Go to the security tab and give your windows userID full control and ownership of that folder, and all its child/subfolders. Restart itunes so it will see the new permission settings, and see if it starts behaving as you expect.

Has anyone found a solution to the smart playlist problem.

Hello,
After many calls to Apple regarding my smart playlists not syncing correctly I figured I'd try the forums. Since iTunes 9 (back in November) my playlists have not been syncing correctly, at all and it's not just a case of the songs being out of order, the entire playlist/s is incorrect, with songs I didn't even add to the list.
I only have 16gb to play with on my phone, my entire library is over 40gb, so I depend on smart playlists so that only selected songs (4 star rated or better) make it to my iPhone.
Other then unchecking live update, is there any other solutions that actually work? I'm way beyond frustrated with this issue and the fact that they STILL haven't fixed it.
iTunes 9.0.3
iPhone 3.1.3
Both were just updated this week, the iPhone this afternoon.
Thank you for any help!
Regards,
Eric

Don't know if my problem is same as yours..after Lion install, frozen cursor in password field when logging in after starting up, beach ball. Couple of trips to Apple store, a number of phone calls to troubleshoot with Applecare. The last fellow who helped me found a workaround, just can't log in. He said engineers have reports of others with this problem so it's not just my machine but fix would probably come in software update. Been dealing with this since first week of Lion download. Hopefully they'll fix it eventually. I can use macbook now, but don't like not being able to have a screen login via password. No plans to ever again download a new op system on a mac...had no trouble installing win7 on older dell from vista.

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I don't know if it matters that I have an iPhone 3g or if this is a universal problem with iOS 4.2...
I have several smart playlists I use to manage podcasts. One for news and talk podcasts and one for fiction podcasts, but I suppose they could be anything. I have them set to grab specific podcasts where the play count is 0.
What I'm noticing since the last update is that they will play the first podcast fine, then get about 2 seconds into the next track and stop playing. Interestingly, while watching the screen today when a podcast ended, the next one started, then stopped, and when I clicked the button on the headphones, the screen said it was playing podcast 3 of 2. There were 3 originally, and when it finishes one, since the play count is no longer 0, it's deleted from the playlist.
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Am I the only one seeing this?

There is no legit way to downgrade.
Have you tried basics from the manual?
Restart.
reset.
Restore.
Troubleshooting MMS:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2755

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Hi, I updated my version of iTunes to 10.6.1.7 and since then my smart playlists are not syncing to my iPhone properly. The selection of songs is scrambled, and so I have a variety of my top rated, audiobooks and other random songs. I have tried removing and resyncing the smart playlists to my iphone, but this has the same outcome. Also, the sync doesn't complete all stages so I end up with roughly half of my music from my smart playlist on my iPhone.
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Yepper.. got the same issue.. it is not sync'ing my Itunes play lists to my I pod touch.

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In iOS 7, smart playlist handling isn't working as "smartly" as before. Here are two examples dealing with song ratings...
If you try to sync a smart playlist containing only songs assigned ZERO-STARS, the songs will transfer over to the iPhone, but the playlist will show up empty.
If you sync a (live-updating) smart playlist containing songs assigned FIVE-STARS, the playlist will appear as expected, but it won't "live update" as it did in iOS 6. For example, if you change a song's rating to FOUR-STARS, it won't move out of the FIVE-STAR smart playlist until you sync with your Mac.
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Yes, it appears iOS 7 itunes match isn't so smart and handling iTunes Smart Playlists. It apparently doesn't like qualifiers like "Last Skipped" "Last Played", "Time". When I remove these parameters from my smart playlists the playlist shows populated on my iPhone.
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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?

Fix Smart Playlist problem - different solution

I'm having the same problem with all those other iPod Touch user as well and it was the first day i bought them. After i search so many times this is what i came up with.
My problem:
Playlist such as recently added or most played show random song instead of in order as it should be
Solution:
When you create new smart playlist, DO NOT CHECK live updating.
Then after you sync back to your iPod, it should work!
thanks to another user from the iPhone discussion, i guess you just have to work around with it...

Nice find! I never used Podcasts, but have fallen victim to "I didn't scroll down enough" myself
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Regards, Phil

Phil,
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M

Smart Playlist Problem

Dear All,
I created a Smart Playlist with the name: Never Played. So it contains all music with count = 0.
In my iPod touch when I listen a music, it continues in my Playlist. Should it get out from the list?
So I update to 2.1. In first instance I could see that musics played was not there anymore. PERFECT... but after reboot I got the same behavior again.
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Thank you

My problem is similar, I think - here's my issue.....
In my iTunes, all the tracks in my main "Music" library which I like to play over & over are rated 5 stars, and I have created a smart playlist which is quite simple, and based on one of the ready made playlists.....
50 tracks - random checked
<<Playlist is "Top Rated">>
<<Last Played is not in the last 2 months>>
<<Last Skipped is not in the last 2 months>>
Live Updating is checked.
Now when I play this in iTunes, this playlist is brilliant - it effectively cycles through the tunes but *always* has 50 tunes in it. IE, as soon as one track finishes, another new track enters at number 50. This is because of the "Live Updating" tick. Perfect.
However, when I play this on my iPod, it just plays the 50 tunes and then stops, returning to the menu. Yes, I can go back in and start the playlist again, and the tunes will be 50 other random songs, but why doesn't it cycle round so that a new tunes comes in at the end, so that there's always 50 new tunes?

Playcount and Smart Playlist problem

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