Smart playlists; no longer smart in version 3 how to tell Apple?

Since iphone and ipod version 3 & itunes 9 smart playlists will not sync onto ipod. Several posts relate to this. Apple has posted a complex set of solutions, including to disable live updating. The later works but eliminates the value and purpose of smart playlists as a means to manage subscriptions and updates.
The final solution is to create a second smart playlist with the rule "playlist is (name of first playlist)". That works but is far too complicated for the average user, and has made my playlist panel into double the size with half the convenience.
If anyone knows how to contact Apple with a request for an acknowledgment that they need to fix this problem I would appreciate it. Two updates later, no fix, not even a promise to try to fix.

Anna:
Yes, I am fully updated. The last update did not resolve the smart playlist jumbling.
The solutions mentioned in my post were in fact published by Apple at this link http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3044
That would be fine but it tends to suggest that the user is doing something wrong that has to be "changed" when in fact the problem arose with the latest software versions, and the user workaround is clumsy and unsatisfactory.
I will try using the feedback form

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Smart playlists no longer update dynamically

I have several smart playlists that have a couple of rules... one based on rating and one based on whether or not it is present in a regular playlist. When I change the rating of a song so that it no longer meets the smart playlist's criteria, it remains in the list. It will not update until I sync with the PC. The other criteria, the "regular" playlist, isn't updated... and is present on the iPod as well in my iTunes library, so that's not the issue. I'm running the latest greatest version of iTunes and the iPod touch is a model PD721LL/A, version 8.2; it has over 15GB free, so space isn't a challenge either.
I suspect that there is some sequence of settings that will allow this to update dynamically, but I'm not sure what that would be or where to even attempt it.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance,
Laura Tieri

My results differ from yours.
With iOS 4.0x, 4.1 and 4.2x my smart playlists with live updating were broken. It would start with track 1 of 5, then 2 of 4, then 3 of 3, 4 of 2, then would generally crash the iPod app. If I left the playlist and re-entered it would have removed the entries already played, but I would find that some of the entries that should have played had actually been skipped in m playlist.
With iOS 4.3, my playlists are properly working for me again. Now they play 1 of 5, 2 of 5, 3 of 5, ... If I return to the playlist while it is playing, I see that the entries that have already played are removed, and if I leave the playlist to return later, it starts over a 1 of 2, 2 of 2...
I have posted another thread of how I have my playlists defined, so perhaps that would help you. I do recall that there were some conditions that used to cause problems if used in a smart playlist.

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)

Smart Playlists no longer updated with iOS 4.3 on iPhone 4

I've run into an issue with the latest iOS 4.3 update: my smart playlists are no longer dynamically being updated on my iPhone 4.
All of my main playlists are smart: they exclude songs that I've played in the past week. Earlier today when I'd play a song and it went to the next one, it'd immediately remove the song from the playlist (so I was always on track 1 of XXX). With 4.3, this is no longer happening and the smart playlist only dynamically updates when I sync my phone with my computer. This is annoying because it means that I can end up hearing the same song again if I switch playlists.
Anyone else run into this? Any fixes? I tried rebooting my phone to no avail.

My results differ from yours.
With iOS 4.0x, 4.1 and 4.2x my smart playlists with live updating were broken. It would start with track 1 of 5, then 2 of 4, then 3 of 3, 4 of 2, then would generally crash the iPod app. If I left the playlist and re-entered it would have removed the entries already played, but I would find that some of the entries that should have played had actually been skipped in m playlist.
With iOS 4.3, my playlists are properly working for me again. Now they play 1 of 5, 2 of 5, 3 of 5, ... If I return to the playlist while it is playing, I see that the entries that have already played are removed, and if I leave the playlist to return later, it starts over a 1 of 2, 2 of 2...
I have posted another thread of how I have my playlists defined, so perhaps that would help you. I do recall that there were some conditions that used to cause problems if used in a smart playlist.

Smart playlists no longer live update

I wrote in about this once before but got no solution. I use a smart playlist on my ipod touch to give me only podcasts with less than 1 play, so that I only get the new ones. When I got the ipod for Christmas, and until about late January it was working fine. All of the sudden it stopped live updating, and now only does it when I sync. This really ***** because I listen to about 25 podcasts a week, so it can be very confusing as to which I've heard and which I haven't. Is there any solution for this? I've tried using podcast = true and genre = podcast, but neither will smart update. As I said it worked fine previously, so it's not that podcast = true is completely broken, as I've heard it said elsewhere.
Any help much appreciated.

Sorry about that, I must have misunderstood.
This is the situation in detail.
When it worked:
A podcast would download. It would instantly appear in my smart playlist labeled "podcasts".
The playlist has the rules "podcast = true" and "playcount = less than 1".
I would sync my ipod.
I unplug the ipod.
When I listened to a podcast on my ipod completely (until the very end), the podcast would be removed from the smart playlist immediately, even though my ipod wasn't plugged in.
Now:
A podcast downloads. It appears instantly in my smart playlist.
I sync my ipod, and it appears in the smart playlist there too.
I unplug the ipod.
I listen to a podcast (every second of it) through the playlist. When the podcast is over, that podcast remains in my playlist, despite having a playcount greater than 1.
When I listen to podcasts on my computer directly via the smart playlist, it IS live updated. That is to say that when the podcast ends it is immediately removed from the playlist. That's what I want to happen on the ipod when it isn't connected to my computer, just like it used to.

My smart playlist no longer seems to work when it comes to ratings?

This is a bit weird. I have like 40 podcasts under one podcast (I'm behind in listening to them). Rather than copy all of them to the ipod I created a smart playlist that had these rules:
Podcast is true.
Artist contains XXXX (xXXx= name of the author)
Rating is at least * (I use one star and select the one's I want to listen to based on stars).
Then I sync the smart playlist to my ipod.
Now, all the ipods show under the smart playlist and I can't get them to go away. I would think the rating is the problem. I've "selected all" and changed the rating to "none" but the podcasts all still show under the smart playlist.
Any idea what has happened or what I'm doing wrong?
Thx.

I figured this out on my own. I noticed when looking at the smart playlist that somehow "one star" had become noted for the ENTIRE series. So it was copying everything over.

V2.0 - Smart Playlists No Longer Working

Hello all,
The Shuffle Songs routine in V2.0 is just as bad as in V1.1. We constantly hear the same songs over and over and some songs we never hear. To solve this problem I was advised to create a Smart Playlist that would only play songs with a play count of 0. This worked great in V1.1 but does not work in 2.0.
I am streaming through iTunes. Looking at the iTunes Smart Playlist, it is working correctly and removing a song once it has been played once. But no many how many times I reload that particular iTunes library, previously played songs are still being shown in the playlist when I select it on the ATV. And of course, ATV likes to play the same songs over and over again from it while on shuffle.
Any suggestions?

FYI...
Reset ATV, no change... Deleted Smart Playlist and recreated, no change... Deleted Smart Playlist and recreated with a DIFFERENT NAME than before, it now works as before in V1.1.
Go figure...

Smart Playlists Not So Smart?

Ok...maybe I am missing something, but If I create a Smart Playlist, with the criteria of: Genre: Country, Year: 1990-1999, Then why does Don Mclean's American Pie (Greatest Hits) show up, when that is clearly marked as Rock Genre, and release date 2000???
What am I doing wrong?

Dont have time to dobble check everything, but what needs to happen is set it to "match 'ALL' of the following rules" and then set rules to "genre,IS, country" and then "year, _IS IN THE RANGE_, 1990, 1999". that should do it. let me know how it goes. if it dosent work i can figure it out after classes.
PEACES, KOFO

Podcast smart playlists no longer syncing to iPod nano?

I've been a long-time iPod podcast listener, despite the obvious intent to push this product into oblivion. I am no longer seeing smart podcast playlists on my iPod. This is a HUGE bummer to me, as I listen to podcasts while I run. And I hate running with my iPhone.
Anyone else not seeing smart podcast playlists syncing to their iPod anymore?

Here is the solution: After five hours of endless error messages and incomplete re-syncs, it all boiled down to this: Restore the iPod Touch via iTunes. Everything was first erased from the iPod but then everything- contents (photos, music and settings) were restored from iTunes perfectly. Finally now MobileMe is also on all my Apple products - including the heretofore frustrating iPod.
Hope someone can save themselves a lot of aggravation by trying this fix should the updates prove to be less the "seamless"!
Cheers!
john

After I did the new update to my phone, all of my "smart playlists" no longer sync.

It's so annoying because now I can't listen to my recently added. Any way to get it back?
The playlists such as "Recently Added" "Top 25 Played" "Recently Played" and "My Top Rated"
Anyone know what to do, please?

Uh been a while since I've had this question ask. From memory, right click playlist, edit playlist.
Where it has playlist rules, click the plus button to add a new rule
Change it to "Playlist IS music", that should work. If not, play around with the rules, changing it to something to do with standard music will allow it to sync.

IPhone 4 Fails to Start Sync Wifi, Smart Playlists Won't Sync Wifi or Wired, and Missing Artwork iTunes Screensaver

Hi all,
I recently deleted a few gigs worth of photos off my iPhone 4. Ever since I've been having trouble with a few things. All software is up to date. So far here are the things I've noticed that seem suspicious.
iPhone fails to start sync using wifi. It times out on Step 1 (starting sync) or Step 2 (backup). I've tried closing and reopening iTunes, restarting the MBP and iPhone, and deleting my iPhone backup. In some cases iTunes loses the connection to phone and won't come back. It syncs fine using a USB cable, but won't get past step 2 using wifi. I hate wires so I would prefer to do this over the air.
My smart playlists no longer sync. I've tried unchecking the boxes and selecting them again, but nothing. Duplicating an exisitng smart playlist and selecting it to sync seems to have worked for now, but I'm concerned about now being able to add my original playlist. Sounds like a larger issue to me.
My iTunes screensaver on my MBP no longer displays artwork. It says there is no artwork to display, but iTunes still has artwork in it.
I've read numerous threads about all these issues. I know there are many people out there having these problems. I just haven't found a good solution for any of them. Everything was working beautifully until I tried to clean up some old stuff on my phone. Apple is playing dumb according to the people that have contacted them.
I'm running:
OSX Lion 10.7.4
iTunes 10.6.3
iOS 5.1.1
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

Just nudging this one back to the top in case anyone has some input.

Smart playlists disappeared in iPhone after syncing

Is there a way to make my Smart Playlists reappear in Music? After recently syncing my iPhone, all of the smart playlists disappeared on the phone itself. The entire library is on the phone as well as playlists I created, but the standard smart playlists no longer appear in the index of playlists. In iTunes, they still appear in the device's contents. I just can't seem to get to them through the phone itself.

I have been having the same probelm. Tonight I right clicked on each playlist and chose the option "Duplicate" I then deleted the original. After doing this with each playlist the new duplicates sync with my iphone just like the old ones used to. Hope that helps.

Smart playlists won't update, remains empty even after weeks

Before I updated to the new iTunes, my smart playlists worked fine. My current version (11.0.3.) does not seem to add songs to or update any of the playlists I have created since downloading the new version. I have turned my itunes on and off several times and the version is up to date. I read this thread, posted by someone who had the same problem but his/her playlist automatically updated itself a few hours after it was created. Some of my smart playlists have remained empty for weeks. How do I solve this issue? It is driving me crazy.

bbb854 wrote:
One of them is a 1950s playlist in which the following rules apply:
- Album title contains the word 1950
- Year is in the range 1950 to 1959
The secon playlist is a compilation of remixes:
- Artist name contains the word remix
- Song title (name) contains the word remix
- Album title contains the word remix
Are these Match Any or Match All?

Can't delete or clear songs in Smart Playlist

Guys,
I'm creating a smart Playlist to isolate my mini from my 20gb. I cannot for the life of me delete or clear any songs from a Smart Playlist, and it is REALLY annoying me. Can anyone please help? Everything is current versions BTW.
Thanks,
Todd

The reason you can't delete songs from smart playlists is because they are in fact "smart" playlists - whatever goes into them is totally dependant on the "rules" that you set in the "edit smart playlist" area. Smart playlists are completely automatic by these rules that you set, and songs can't be manually added or deleted in any way.
If you want to be able to manually add & delete songs from a playlist it has to be a manual playlist that you use.
Hope that clears it up a bit

Do smart playlists only accept one variable?

My smart playlists no longer do anything if I have more then one variable selected. Is this a new "feature"? Is there a work around?

Taylor.
Interesting. It looks to me like iTunes 12 works the same as previous releases (see below). But... as an experiment, choose Edit Smart Playlist, and while the window is there, does anything happen if you hold down the Option key?

Smart playlists; no longer smart in version 3 how to tell Apple?

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