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.
Good luck!
PC Windows XP Pro Custom, AMD Processor, ATI Video

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Podcast Playlist Problems - 1st gen Shuffle

First off, I'm a casual user of iTunes & Shuffle - almost solely for podcasts and couldn't figure out how to make a playlist stick on the iPod; it would revert to file order, not playlist order. Couldn't reorder in the Library>Podcasts folder. Autofill wouldn't work. After much searching, and blundering about including restoring the Shuffle, I've made some progress.
1. I understand that you cannot arbitrarily re-order the Library>Podcasts folder.
2. For Autofill to work, all selected Podcasts must have the option 'Skip when shuffling' unchecked; updated podcasts seem to have this checked automatically so you have to redo the option after an update but you can do so globally for all items in Library>Podcasts or in a Playlist. Doing it in one seems to change that property for all lists.
3. My problem with the playlist order being preserved in iPod seems to have been cured by the radical surgery of rebuilding the Library.
a)For my initial test, I simply relocated iTunes Library.itl to a safe folder; on the next start, iTunes built a new itl file and, of course, the library was empty. I subscribed to a few podcasts and was able to build dumb and 'Smart' playlists with which I could Autofill.
b)For my next test, I replaced the new library file with the original, exported the library to a XML file in a safe place, closed iTunes, relocated the itl file again and started afresh. Then imported the previously exported XML file which brought back all my playlists, etc, but the podcasts had re-subscribe buttons. This seemed to work fine until I subscribed to and downloaded another podcast. I then lost the ability to re-order in the Smart Playlist and the iPod playlist. Somehow I got it back; not sure if it was that 'Skip when shuffling' option again or it was because I did a global change of genre from Podcast to News & Political - maybe that diddled the file favorably.
4. I'm not sure how to preserve my playlist order through podcast updates - my order not being one that matches a sort field. These are periodic podcasts (daily, weekly). If I set the subscription to auto-delete, the item disappears from my dumb playlists and drops to the bottom of the smart playlist when the podcast is updated. I'm not sure what happens if subscriptions are set to 'Do not auto delete' except that there is a growing sublist of prior items in the Library>Podcasts list and the Playlists still point to the one that was most recent when it was added to the Playlist. How do you keep a playlist sync'd to the latest podcast. I think the problem is that each regular podcast is a 'song' entity belonging to a common album, the name of the show. Each 'song' entity or podcast bears a unique id that the playlists use to point to it. What I want is for the playlist to point to the album and have only the latest 'song' playable. Any hints as to what I might do?
Thanks,
Tom

It looks improbable that an arbitrarily ordered playlist of podcasts can be automatically maintained in order through successive podcast updates. I've adopted the following procedure to manually maintain the order with a minimum (I hope) of steps. I'd welcome any suggestions for improvement.
I subscribe to podcasts that are updated hourly, twice daily, daily, and weekly. But I only do an iTunes update infrequently and rarely get to listen to the playlist on the Shuffle - maybe on a long drive or while painting a room.
Build Playlist
1. In Library>Podcasts I delete all of the prior podcast links keeping only the most recent. Select All, right-click and select the 'Do not autodelete' option. Select All, right-click>Get Info and in Multiple Item Information dialog window, Check and set Remember Position - Yes, Skip When Shuffling - No, Equalizer Preset - Loudness, OK.
2. In Library>Podcasts I Select All (Ctrl-A), right-click and select the 'Do not autodelete' option. Select All, right-click>Get Info and in Multiple Item Information dialog window, Check and set Remember Position - Yes, Skip When Shuffling - No, Equalizer Preset - Loudness, OK.
3. Create new Smart Playlist (CtrlAltN) with 'Match the following rule' set to 'Podcast is true' + other rules, e.g., 'Date Modified is in the last x days' and check 'Live Updating'. Now you have a playlist that has all (or whatever your rules allow) your podcast downloads in it and you can re-order the podcasts arbitrarily.
Maintain Playlist in Order
1. After updating Podcasts, repeat step 2 above because the updated podcasts don't inherit iTunes properties from the prior ones.
2. Select your Smart Playlist. The updated podcasts will be automatically added to the bottom of the list. The ones they should replace should have remained in position provided the rules don't remove them and thus provide place markers for where the updated ones are to be dragged and dropped.
3. Return to Library>Podcasts and delete the prior ones. They will also disappear from your Playlist.
4. With iPod inserted and showing under Devices, select it and Autofill from the playlist created above.
I'd welcome any suggestions for improving the procedure.
Tom

SBH52 and Smart Connect problems

Hi everyone, I just found some problems with my new Z2 and SBH52
- Sometimes SBH52 connected, Walkman started, tracks played, but there's no sound.
- After turning off SBH52, the notification "SBH52 disconnected" can't be cleared from Notifications panel (turning Bluetooth off will clear it)
- Smart Connect can not turn off Bluetooth automatically with events End Action: Turn off Bluetooth
- Smart Connect adjust wrong Volume settings (I set Music: 2, Ring: 4, Alarm: 4 but Smart Connect keeps setting it to Music :1, Ring :3, Alarm: 3)

I connected SHB52 with my xperia Z3 tablet compact compact.
I also have the similar problems as RoWe.
In addition, when I touch any button on screen (such as back, home, links in browser including notification bar), the music function of SBH52 will switch between play/pause instantly all the time. If I didn't notice that it is showing ▶ on music function screen, the SBH52 will be disconnected from my Z3TC. The notification bar is still remain connected but it didn't! I have to turn off Bluetooth and off the SBH52 then then on both to be able to use it again every time.
Please help! This is very big issue for me.

Podcasts and Smart Playlists

My first post so bear with me. I have recently discovered the joys of podcasts etc. and as I do a lot of distance driving I would like to be able to create smart playlists that would work with a specific podcast group. I could then catch up on those podcasts without trying to operate my ipod while driving. Hope that makes sense. Any help would be very welcome.

Match all of the following rules:
Podcast is true
Album contains 'xxx'
Live updating
Should work - but I'm on a Mac so the Windows version
may be slightly different.
Regards,
Colin R.
Hi Colin,
Many thanks,
Your solution works perfectly. I didn't even consider using the album option.
Regards
Adam Wolfe
Advent 3512 Windows XP
Advent 3512 Windows XP

Auto-removing played podcasts from a smart playlist

I'm wondering if anyone can help me figure out a way to do this. I have two smart playlists for podcasts. The first contains my favourite podcasts and they are removed from the playlist once they've finished playing. This works and I accomplished it like this (using two smart playlists):
Smart Playlist 1 - Favourite Podcasts Helper
- Album is "Podcast A"
OR
- Album is "Podcast B"
OR
- Album is "Podcast C"
etc
Smart Playlist 2 - Favourite Podcasts
- Playlist is "Favourite Podcasts Helper"
AND
- Playcount is 0
As I say, it works great. It's annoying to have to have an extra playlist in there (necessary because you can't mix AND with OR conditions in a single smart playlist) but I prefix it with a "z" and it drops out of sight to the bottom.
Now, here's the problem. I want a playlist for all the other podcasts that DON'T appear in my favourites list and which ALSO removes played podcasts. I don't want to name them all because I don't want to have to remember to add each new podcast to the list because there are a lot of them and I always forget to add them when I load a new podcast onto the iPod.
I tried to do this:
Playlist 3 - All Other Podcasts
- Podcast is true
AND
- Playlist is not "Favourite Podcasts"
AND
- Playcount is 0
It works in so far as it collects all the right podcasts but it won't update, leaving played podcasts in the list. It WILL update if I remove the "Podcast is true" condition but that makes it useless. I tried splitting it up as in my Favourites playlist, moving the "Podcast is true" condition out into it's own playlist but that doesn't help. It seems that as long as a "Podcast" condition is in the chain somewhere, it stops it from updating.
Maybe this is a bug that will get squashed in the next firmware update. Until then does anyone have an idea of how to make it work without listing every single podcast album?

I had previously tried
Smart Playlist - all podcasts
. podcast is true
Smart Playlist - unheard podcasts
. playcount is 0
AND
. playlist is all podcasts
And that didn't work, I guess because the first playlist won't update. After reading your post I thought that it ought to work the other way around if the playcount is being analysed first:
Smart Playlist - anything unheard
. playcount is 0 (this works fine)
Smart Playlist - unheard podcasts
. playlist is anything unheard
But that won't work either. While the first playlist updates fine, the second one never updates and continues to display content that no longer appears in the playlist it is built on. Frustrating. I'm sure there must be a shortcut that hasn't occurred to me yet.

Problems with unheard podcast playlists in iTunes 10.X

I listen to a lot of podcasts and, as such, I have a smart playlist for them called "unheard of" which selects out everything of:
*Type = podcast* and
*Play count < 1*
This has had issues over the years, but right now the problem is that periodically it stops populating. I get new podcasts, but they don't go into the list. This usually gets resolved if I restart iTunes, but that brings me to the next issue…
1. When I run into problems with iTunes and try to restart it, often it won't restart. The window goes away, but the dock icon indicates Application not responding. I've let this sit overnight sometimes, but the result is always the same — I must +force quit+ it. It feels like these two things are related.
2. When I run into problems with iTunes and try to restart it, often it won't restart. The window goes away, but the dock icon indicates Application not responding. I've let this sit overnight sometimes, but the result is always the same — I must force quit it. It feels like these two things are related.
On a related note, why is the default setting for podcasts to have *Skip when shuffling = yes*? There appears to be no way to change this default behaviour and this means I have to go in and select all my podcasts before I sync my iPhone and change this value. I don't even see to see any way to access this via AppleScript or I'd change it that way. The worst is that this seems an entirely arbitrary setting to begin with. What is the benefit?
Oh, and I'm running the latest of everything, including OS X 10.6.5 and iTunes 10.1.

This is still not resolved and I seem to find that if I put my machine to sleep and then wake it from sleep, the playlist problem appears and iTunes will hang (stops responding) if I try to shut it down. Can anyone help me?

My iPod Classic will no longer allow me to create podcast playlists. I've restored it twice. What is the problem?

My iPod Classic will no longer allow me to create podcast playlists. It create music playlists. I've restored it twice. What is the problem?

Is the problem that you can create them in iTunes, but they are empty on the iPod itself? If so, I had that problem, and the issue appeared to be that playlists that used MediaType=Podcast didn't seem to transfer. If, on the other hand, I gave all podcasts a Genre of Podcast, it worked better. In general, with the older iPod classic, I found that playlists based on MediaType didn't work that well.

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.

Can I create a smart podcast playlist for my iPod?

I'm trying to find a way to create a smart podcast playlist that will work on my iPod. I'm able to do this in iTunes, but when I sync my iPod, the playlists don't transfer. Right now I've got two playlists in a new folder, and I can't even find the folder under my playlists tab in my iPod.
I've seen some pretty lengthy work-arounds that require you to create a separate playlist for each podcast, and then combining all of those playlists together into a new playlist. But it can't be that complicated, can it?

Thank, that took care of it. I guess I just assumed that I'd be able to organize podcasts in the folders under the Playlist tab. It's weird that it won't let us do that.

ITunes 7.7 and iPod Shuffle - What's up with the Podcasts Playlist?

I think that lots of the problems that people are having are a result of whatever changed in iTunes 7.7. After updating to the newest version of iTunes, my Shuffle wouldn't play and would only flash green-orange-orange (indicating that there was nothing on the Shuffle.) I noticed a new playlist called Podcasts, so I moved my podcasts there and the Shuffle played them fine, but I couldn't access any music. It seems that only the Podcast playlist is active.
In troubleshooting, I accidentally deleted the Podcast playlist and this meant I could switch between podcasts and regular music again. However, I lost the ability to manually sort my podcasts. I've had this problem before and resolved it by rebuilding the iTunes library. This time this didn't help - I futzed around for hours trying to get this essential feature (manual sort) working again. I deleted and re-installed iTunes, re-built the library and library.xml files multiple times, reset the Shuffle countless times (both from within iTunes and with the stand-alone utility) and swung the dead chicken three times over my head.
Nothing worked until I moved my music files to my desktop and deleted the iTunes folder from my music folder. I then re-built the library from the folder on the desktop (this caused the music files to be copied to the iTunes folder, rather than just creating the iTunes library) and manually re-subscribed to my podcasts. Once I did this, I could again manually sort my Podcasts into whatever order I wanted.
An interesting thing I noticed.... no matter what I re-installed or how many times I reset the Shuffle, the Podcast playlist never appeared again. Anyone know where to find any documentation on this Podcasts playlist and what it is supposed to do?

I wondered about this playlist too when I first saw it, didn't see the need for it until I discovered my ipod would no longer play my podcasts. So far haven't tried music but adding them to this playlist means I can now listen to them.
i hate the fact that when you start itunes it simply tells you there is a new version and if you don't update it keeps bugging you without any way to see what the update is for! Where are the release notes? Other than turning off auto update there's no way to avoid this annoyance. I wish apple would simply tell us what has changed so we know if we must upgrade or if it's simply a handy feature update. in the case of 7.7 I wouldn't have updated if I read the forums first and from now on, auto update is off and I'll simply check on my own schedule for updates and if one is found will read the forums as these are the source of info since apple gives nothing.
I would think that Apple would have gotten about 15 people with all different ipods (wouldn't be hard to get them) and simply get each one to update to the latest version of itunes without supervision or info and see if anyone reports issues. Surely one of them would have said "Hey what's this new podcasts playlist thing?" and they would have thought, maybe a release notes would be needed here...

Ghost podcasts appearing on smart playlist

When I create a smart playlist that should only have podcasts, a "ghost" podcasts appear then disappears when I am updating my podcasts subscriptions. I've tried downloading the podcast again and then deleting it, but it keeps coming back. I've also searched through my library, and these podcasts do no t exists. Please note that I am not using the Podcasts app.
Here is a screenshot of the issue

I tried that and it worked. I already had the media kind as podcast and match only checked items set for the podcast. Your post helped in regards to unchecking the podcasts. I noticed that in the playlist that the podcasts that are checked that are actually not checked had the iCloud download symbol. I deleted all that had the iCloud download symbol and that took care of it.
Thanks for your help!!!

How do you create a podcast playlist and get all unplayed podcasts copied to it?

How do you create a podcast playlist and get all unplayed podcasts copied to it?

Creat a Smart Playlist in iTunes (File -> New Smart Playlist) that looks like the following:
Once you have successfully done that you can set it up to sync to your iPod Shuffle from under the Shuffle's Podcast configuration tab/pane in iTunes.
B-rock
B-rock

PLAYLIST PROBLEM: I did a playlist and after synchonising with my ipod, the order of the songs changed both in itunes and in the ipod. In itunes the order came alphabetically and in ipod randomly. I wanted that playlist for a party. HELP! THX

PLAYLIST PROBLEM: I did a playlist and after synchonising with my ipod, the order of the songs changed both in itunes and in the ipod. In itunes the order came alphabetically and in ipod randomly. I wanted that playlistto be played in the order I made it for a party.
Now I don't know what to do.
Thank you very much

Plug your iPod in and when it appears in iTunes, click on it from under Devices in the left hand pane. This brings you to the Summary tab. Locate and click on the Music tab. What configurations do you have made from under this tab? Is your iPod configured to sync those playlists?
B-rock

Podcast Playlists

Prior to iTunes 9.0 I had a playlist of Podcasts that worked great and now with iTunes 9.0 the Podcast Playlist would not sync.
The new iTunes 9.0.3.15 hinted at a fix for this but I am still having the same problem.
Anyone else having the same issue and any suggested fixes?

A quick update: Previously the Podcast bug affected only the playlist order, but in the current iTunes 9.0.3 and iPhone 3.1.3 firmware (for example) the bug will remove any Podcast in a playlist from the iPod section of the device. If the Playlist is comprised of only podcasts, the playlist will not even be visible on the device (it will show in the iTunes sync).
To return podcasts to a playlist, you have to use the iTunes 9 trick:
- Right-click your particular playlist and choose EDIT SMART PLAYLIST
- Turn off LIVE UPDATING
- SYNC
Then your podcasts return in a playlist in the correct order, but you'll have to toggle it on again to update the playlist list.
This bug has existed since iTunes 9 and it seems to only be getting worse. Hopefully Apple will fix it soon - I can't believe they don't want us to listen to podcasts in a playlist!

Some Podcast Playlists not syncing from itunes to ipod

There's no problem with the actual podcasts syncing to my ipod and they play on the ipod. The playlists are the same in both itunes and the list of podcast playlists on the ipod tab in itunes. I've reset the plays, deselected and reselected, set them to not auto delete. I've 'Marked as Watched' and then 'Marked as Unwatched'. All the playlists are set up the same way. I've tried sycing using both methods of 1, using the 'File> Devices>Sync xxxx etc and 2, the sync tab in bottom right corner of the 'Podcasts' tab(ipod tab in itunes when ipod connected).

Just a stab:
The song titles need to have a check mark next to them in order to sync.
Thanks ... Ken

Podcasts Playlist and Smart Playlists Problems

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