Smart playlist not making it to iphone

i use itunes on a mac. for some reason one of my smart playlist (latest music which has the albums bought in last month) does not appear on the iphone. it's got only 220 titles. strangely enough, another smart playlist with more titles does make it to iphone...

Sadly, there are lots of bugs syncing Smart Playlists on iPhones. Sort orders are lost, sometimes they don't come over, etc.
One thing that I've found is that if I sync and immediately unplug my iPhone, content is sometimes missing. I've found that leaving my iPhone plugged in for a minute or two after sync often fixes the problem. (!!)
If your stuff still doesn't come over, some people report that adding a rule to your smart playlist that says "Playlist is music" (or whatever) helps. Other people report that adding additional rules causes problems. I don't think there's a clear consensus, but, in short, try playing around with your smart playlists, either adding that "playlist is music" rule, or, if you've already got a bunch of rules, try simplifying them if you can.
Sorry I don't have a good answer. If you want to join us who have reported the bugs to Apple, please visit:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

Similar Messages

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)

Smart playlist not showing up on iPhone after iTunes upgrade to 9.1

Hello,
I just upgraded to iTunes 9.1 and notice that one of my smart playlists is not longer showing up in my list of playlists. The music is all in there, and the playlist is also listed when I plug my iPhone into my macbook (under Devices). It's just not listed on the iphone itself, so I can't play those songs. What's going on? Has anyone ever seen this before?

It's not as simple as that. I hope Apple fixes this ASAP. I have only 7 playlists I use. I use so few because they are all smart and update automatically. Equally, this problem appeared to pop up just recently, so I don't know what triggered it. I even went so far as to assume that my library was corrupted. Since nothing I tried worked, I tried deleting my library. Headaches!!! I recovered my music, but all my ringtones were gone. So were all the apps that synced to my iPhone (my music goes on my iPod, my apps and data to my iPhone). The apps on the iPhone recovered back to my iTunes library, but ONLY the apps on my iPhone. I had some apps I had paid for that I did not currently use. I guess they are gone. Even after all that, the smart playlist problem persists.
Aaaaanyway, my experience was a little different. Even though I haven't reproduced the behaviour exactly, it is my impression that the last smart playlist modified is the one that doesn't show up on the iPod. As a thought experiment, created a new playlist called Test and duplicated one of my seven playlists. I synced, and the 7th playlist now shows up on my iPod! The 8th one, called Test, only shows on iTunes, but not on my iPod. Since all 7 playlists are now displaying on my iPod, I will leave things alone until Apple fixes this latest unanticpated design characteristic.

Smart Playlists not syncing correctly to iPhone/iPad with iTunes Match

My manual playlists are syncing correctly to both devices, but smart playlists are a mess. They don't seem to match any criteria that they are created with, especially song limits. However, smart playlists are syncing correctly in iTunes on multiple computers. This is really frustrating because 99% of my playlists I listen to are smart ones. Anyone know of how to fix this? Apple, do you have any information on this or when it would be fixed?

Guys, I might have our "life savior" solution!!! (not 100% sure yet...)
I activated iTunes Match this morning.
Everything worked well apart from my smart playlists which cannot be found on my iphone/ipad anymore.
And yes, they relied on other lists...
BUT
A few smart playlists remained!!! (although they also rely on other lists)
So, after a bit of soul searching, here's my conclusion.
Those smart playlists that remained were actually dependant on "folders" which contain lists!
SO
I havn't tested yet (cause I'm at work), but if you put a list you wish to refer to in a folder, you should then be able to refer the smart list to the folder and not the actual list; and hopefully the smart list should then get synced!!!
Let me know if that works for you!

Iphone "playlist not found in source 'iPhone'"

Ok, I don't know when this started, but it's been going on for a while and I am finally trying to figure it out.
When I dock my iPhone(s) to sync with itunes, a little black window pops up in the corner that says something like 'ipod has been detected, all track plays will be queued until iphone is ejected'. Then it syncs. Then at the end it says 'ipod sync complete. playlist not found in source iPhone'
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN???
I figured it was a problem with smart playlists and live-updating playlists being in my iTunes but unable to sync to the iphone- because there are a few smart playlists that are set in itunes to sync with my 3G, but do not actually appear on the phone. So- I deleted ALL MUSIC from my iPhone.
It STILL gives me this message. There is no playlist to BE found! I checked- in itunes the iphone is listed as having no synced playlists. And when i open the ipod app on the iphone there is no music (i'd thought maybe it was some wonky playlist on the iphone that couldn't sync back.)
Then I tried adding 2 simple playlists. Not smart playlists. Not updating playlists. Just a couple little 20 song playlists.
And it still gives me that message.
It happens with my old iPhone, and my 3G.
I have 3.1.3 on the 3G, 2.2 on the iphone. 10.6.2 on my iMac, and itunes 9.0.3.
Help!!

NOT answered, but no one replied.
Thanks for all the help, everyone.

Smart playlist not showing all playlists

Since I updated to iTunes 10.4, I have notice that many of my smart playlists are corrupted. I am using smart playlist to group ordinary playlists. But today, while I was trying to edit one, I found that all my big smart playlist that contain more than roughly 5 playlist are showing almost all the conditional playlist as empty (a big horizontal bar).
If I go to manually re-select that one that are empty, I can't find them in the combo box that pop-ups, but I can see the playlist in the left side bar of the main window of iTunes.
In the picture below, you can see the _Jazz playlist. That one is OK, but what follows is a mess. First weird thing is that the first 3 playlist shown in the list are not within their respective folder. I have made red links in the picture to point where they come from in the main window list. After that, I should found in the pop-up window the entirity of the Alternative Pop/Rock folder, but I only see one playlist. Then after that, the list display the folders / playlist as it should.
Anybody know why are the smart playlist not allowing me to select my playlists anymore? I didn't have this problem a month ago.

Make sure that the Album column is showing for the playlist, and then click the Album header to sort by the album name.
If you just want to play specific albums, you will probably find it easier to turn on the Browser (View menu -> Show Browser). Then you can select an individual album and play all it's tracks, or select an artist and see (and optionally play) all album by that artist.
Hope this helps.

Smart Playlists Not Syncing Correct CONTENT on iPhone 3G

Hi, I apologize about the length of this description, but I believe all or most of it may be relevant.
I have been having trouble synchronizing ANY of my smart playlists. I first noticed it in the playlists I had created which entailed "Most Recently Added" or "Most Recently Played" options. Now I realize that all of my smart playlists are no longer syncing their play order (some too big to determine if songs aren't making it into some of them). For instance, here is the criteria for a playlist I created just to demonstrate this problem (this is a brand new playlist just I made and synced with my iPhone):
Title: Recently Played 5
Criteria: Rating is in the range 3 stars and 5 starts
Checked Boxes-
(X)Limit to [5] items selected by most recently played
(X)Match Only Checked Songs
(X)Live Updating
Playlist as it appears in iTunes:
"Summer, Man" by Taking Back Sunday
"Sink Into Me" by Taking Back Sunday
"New Again" by Taking Back Sunday
"Error: Operator" by Taking Back Sunday
"Swing" by Taking Back Sunday
Playlist as it appears on my iPhone:
"Them Bones" by Alice In Chains
"Hands in the Sky (Big Shot)" by Straylight Run
"Lead Said (And A Paper Anchor)" by Atreyu
... etc
These playlist CLEARLY do not match and it drives me crazy because these types of playlists are what I generally listen to. I'm running iTunes 9.0.1.8 on Windows 7 OS (Dell Inspiron 6400), and OS 3.1.2 on an iPhone 3G. I just recently consolidated my library. I had a collection of over 7000 songs on my external hard drive backed up, and kept about 4000 of them on my computer stored in iTunes (i.e. only the 4000 songs were present in my iTunes library, originating from my laptop hard drive--NOT EXTERNAL). Upon switching to Windows 7, I wanted to have ALL my music on my laptop hard drive and thus copied and re-added all of the music (all 7000). I lost all my track info (ratings, plays, last played date, date added, etc) in this process until I opened the iTunes library file with iTunes(had backed up from before new OS installation) and, voila, all my playlists and track info was restored. I had to do some cleaning up of duplicate files, but nothing major.
I found this thread from Sept. 2008 which seemed to be in regards to the exact same problem under almost the exact same situation: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8066846#8066846. Unfortunately, it's unanswered and archived. My iTunes did not crash, but I cleanly installed a new OS and had to start fresh.
I cannot for the life of me figure this issue out. I thought about restoring my device and syncing it again (which I will try again tomorrow to see if I can manage any progress), but I want to retain my app info and text messages so I plan on restoring from a backup. If anyone has any solutions or even suggestions, I'm open to try anything.
Thanks!

Sorry, I just realized I'm in the wrong forum... I apologize.

Smart Playlists Not Syncing Correct CONTENT With iPhone 3G

Hi, I apologize about the length of this description, but I believe all or most of it may be relevant.
I have been having trouble synchronizing ANY of my smart playlists. I first noticed it in the playlists I had created which entailed "Most Recently Added" or "Most Recently Played" options. Now I realize that all of my smart playlists are no longer syncing their play order (some too big to determine if songs aren't making it into some of them). For instance, here is the criteria for a playlist I created just to demonstrate this problem (this is a brand new playlist just I made and synced with my iPhone):
Title: Recently Played 5
Criteria: Rating is in the range 3 stars and 5 starts
Checked Boxes-
(X)Limit to [5] items selected by most recently played
(X)Match Only Checked Songs
(X)Live Updating
Playlist as it appears in iTunes:
"Summer, Man" by Taking Back Sunday
"Sink Into Me" by Taking Back Sunday
"New Again" by Taking Back Sunday
"Error: Operator" by Taking Back Sunday
"Swing" by Taking Back Sunday
Playlist as it appears on my iPhone:
"Them Bones" by Alice In Chains
"Hands in the Sky (Big Shot)" by Straylight Run
"Lead Said (And A Paper Anchor)" by Atreyu
... etc
These playlist CLEARLY do not match and it drives me crazy because these types of playlists are what I generally listen to. I'm running iTunes 9.0.1.8 on Windows 7 OS (Dell Inspiron 6400), and OS 3.1.2 on an iPhone 3G. I just recently consolidated my library. I had a collection of over 7000 songs on my external hard drive backed up, and kept about 4000 of them on my computer stored in iTunes (i.e. only the 4000 songs were present in my iTunes library, originating from my laptop hard drive--NOT EXTERNAL). Upon switching to Windows 7, I wanted to have ALL my music on my laptop hard drive and thus copied and re-added all of the music (all 7000). I lost all my track info (ratings, plays, last played date, date added, etc) in this process until I opened the iTunes library file with iTunes(had backed up from before new OS installation) and, voila, all my playlists and track info was restored. I had to do some cleaning up of duplicate files, but nothing major.
I found this thread from Sept. 2008 which seemed to be in regards to the exact same problem under almost the exact same situation: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8066846#8066846. Unfortunately, it's unanswered and archived. My iTunes did not crash, but I cleanly installed a new OS and had to start fresh.
I cannot for the life of me figure this issue out. I thought about restoring my device and syncing it again (which I will try again tomorrow to see if I can manage any progress), but I want to retain my app info and text messages so I plan on restoring from a backup. If anyone has any solutions or even suggestions, I'm open to try anything.
Thanks!

This looks like yet another example of the "smart playlists with live updates are broken" bug, which has been discussed at length in this forum. Two "fixes" are known to work, at least some of the time:
1) turn off live updates (yes, I know that defeats the purpose of a "recently played" list; so does the current situation, where you have apparently random tracks instead of the right content).
2) add a "playlist is Music" rule to the playlist (in addition to the ones you have now).
In my experience the "playlist is Music" fix also has the effect of turning off live updates (regardless of what the checkboxes say), but other people report no such problem. So it might work for you.

Smart playlists not working in iTunes 10.5 and iPhone 4s

None of my smart playlists on my 4s match my iTunes playlists

Okay, this worked for me but it might be a temporary fix, I'm not sure.
Right click or control click on the playlist in iTunes you want on your iPhone that isn't showing up. Duplicate the playlist, delete the old one. Sync and the playlist will be there on your phone.

Smart Playlists not showing the correct songs on iPhone 4

I created a "Smart Playlist" called "100 Newest" which takes the 100 newest songs added to my music list on iTunes. It displays perfectly on iTunes on my computer but when I sync my iPhone4 to my iTunes, it syncs the regular playlists I create to my phone just fine. But the "smart playlists" added to my iPhone show up with the correct title, but when I view the playlist on my iPhone, it shows all the songs in my Library under that playlist. It will NOT show the 100 Newest songs like it shows on my playlist when viewed in iTunes on my iMac. Grrrrrr! Does anyone know how to fix this annoying problem. It's one problem after another I'm dealing with in terms of these playlists to appear and play prooperly on iPhone ios 5.0.x.

What type of email?

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:
(Date Modified > is in the last > 2 > days)
It's not as if they are very complicated conditions, so I can't understand what would be wrong. Normally if a playlist had no songs in it, it wouldn't sync right? But this is what the playlist looks like on my iPhone, even though it does contain songs:

Smart playlist not selecting, includes entire library

The iTunes smart playlists I created are no longer working at all -- they both sweep in the entire iTunes library, ignoring the conditions I have specified to be matched. These smart playlists are structured mainly around song-type descriptions I have inputted into the "grouping" field (not the "genre" field that is filled in automatically). So, for example, say one playlist is set up (as "match any") to include songs with classic rock, alt-rock or punk in the "grouping" field. And yet, no matter what I do, the entire library ends up in there, including songs that have different designators, or none at all, in the "grouping" field. Needless to say, this is leading to some odd and unfortunate segues and making the playlists useless.
I've tried deleting the smart playlists and setting them up again -- no help. These smart playlists used to work just fine; this problem developed at some point in the last year or so. I'm using iTunes version 10.5.0.142 for PC.
Thanks for any suggestions.

I have searched through numerous technical support issues and there seems to be a ton of "work arounds" but no solution. I have several iDevices and the latest udpates and software for all components. The issue of live updating a smart playlist now seems to be isolated only to my iPhone 5. I have my top rated smart playlist set to rating is 5 stars, last played is not in the last 1 month, media kind is music and playlist is music and of course, LIVE UPDATING is checked.
On 3 different iPads and an iPod touch, when I play a song, it is immediately removed from the playlist. Only on the iPhone does it not remove it automatically. If I sync, then it is all fixed, but that seems like delayed updating, not live, unless the live updating option is limited to iTunes, but then why does it work on iPads and iPod touches?
The bottom line is that all of the restarting the phone, checking and unchecking, recreating, et al, does not work. It is a bug - plane and simple.
I would challenge anyone to create a similar playlist and sync it to an iPhone 5 and simply play a song and tell us if it is removed from the playlist. If you figure out a fix, then post and it with as much information about what is different as possible for a solution.
I would be that if Jobs were still alive he would never have allowed this bug to get out!

Why may smart playlists not show up on Apple TV?

I am using iTunes 10.3 to make smart playlists, and am telling iTunes to sync the smart playlist to an Apple TV (1st gen.). However, the smart playlist I tell iTunes to sync appears for a moment, then disappears after sync is complete. The music that appears in the smart playlist is indeed on the Apple TV, but the playlist itself isn't.
Any ideas why this may be the case, and are there any solutions to this problem using iTunes 10?

Must admit I'm a bit confused with this. I have Home Sharing etc enabled and run the ATV remote on an iPhone and an iPad. Now, when I have the MacBook on I can access the full iTunes library on that device along with ALL the playlists etc.
However, when that source is not available I can still access music (presumably the library on my phone because a lot of the stuff I can play from it is locally ripped CDs, not cloud material) BUT it only shows the Smart Playlists on my phone, not any that I have created. same with the iPad.
This brings me to another query. Obviously I can access my playlists through the regular iPhone Music app and then use AirPlay to listen through the Apple TV. So it's likely a quicker solution. What I wonder though is whether the sound quality is any different. Being somewhat naive with regard to how this stuff works (bit like beer really, I like it, but don't know how it works) I'm assuming the sound quality would be no different given that it would presumably use the same protocols etc. to stream the data.
Odd that I can't see device playlists when using the devices only??

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.

Smart playlists not updating live after 3.0 upgrade

I have a smart playlist: 'songs I've not played in a while'. Before the upgrade, if i had 100 songs in the playlist and played one, the playlist would update and the next time I'd access it I'd have 99 songs in it. however, after upgrading the playlist is not updating itself. It will stay at 100 songs and the only way to make it update itself is to sync with itunes. The placounts etc are all being remembered, but my playlist is no longer updating by itself.
Help! What can I do to fix this?

First, downgrading the firmware is not something that Apple will support, so if something does go wrong (not likely, but remotely possible) you could end up with a device that does not work.
Second, in order to downgrade to an earlier version of firmware, you have to already have it on your computer. If you never did a firmware update prior to installing 3.0, then you don't have a 2.x firmware on your computer to install. While you might be able to find a copy of 2.x, there have been reports of problems with the copies people are finding. But if you ever did a firmware update, say from 2.2 to 2.2.1 then you would have 2.2.1 on your computer already. If that's the case, then follow these instructions:
1- Connect your Touch to your computer and put it into "DFU mode" (Google that for instructions). Getting into DFU mode is a little tricky to get the timing just right, so pay attention to the instructions and what to look and listen for.
2- iTunes will tell you that the Touch needs to be restored to factory conditions (this is expected). Instead of clicking the Restore button, hold down the SHIFT key as you click Restore (on a Mac I think it's Option-Restore). You'll see a navigation window for you to locate the firmware. Navigate your way to where the firmware is stored on your computer, which on a PC is:
C:\Documents and Settings\(account name)\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPod Software Updates
(on a Mac these files are located at: ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates)
Select the proper .ipsw file for your device. For 2.2.1 the file is "iPod2,12.2.1_5H11aRestore.ipsw"
3- Your Touch will go through the Restore process. When you get to the point where you choose to re-load your last backup or set up the Touch as a new iPod, choose the new iPod selection since the backup contains 3.0-specific information that may not work with earlier firmware.
4- You'll then have to re-load your Touch's contents, including music, video, web links, settings preferences, etc.

Smart playlist not making it to iphone

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