Smart Playlists play 1 song at a time

Ever since updating to iTunes 7, my smart playlists play 1 song at a time. this is not only annoying, but problematic. I travel a long distance to work and have to constantly press play. Is this just an effect of the new software or is there a new option that needs to be checked to get this to work?
iBook G3 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Yes - all are checked. Here's my prob in detail:
- I have a smart playlist which includes all unplayed podcasts
- Before iTunes 7.0 (and I just rec'd the first update - no change), my playlist would continue to play all podcasts until I stopped it.
- After iTunes 7.0, it will only play 1 at a time, then return to the main iPod screen.

Similar Messages

Tip: How to play a playlist one song at a time from iTunes on a computer using the checkbox property

I would like to share a tip about how to play a playlist one song at a time from iTunes on a computer. The tip I am sharing is simple, but I was not able to find it in the iTunes Help. After searching on the internet I found the idea for this solution in a discussion in which this was presented as a frustrating problem rather than a desired behavior. This tip relies on the checkbox for each song in iTunes. For a song in a playlist to play automatically, the checkbox must be checked. To keep a song from playing in a playlist, simply uncheck it. Therefore, to keep all songs from playing automatically in a playlist, simply uncheck them all. Now you have a list of desired songs in a desired order but none of them will play automatically. You can play each one when you want to play it without having to search for the next song and without having to be at the computer to stop the playing after each song.
Step by step:
1. Create the playlist.
2. Uncheck all of the check boxes in the playlist (In iTunes for Windows, ctrl click one of the check marks to uncheck all of the checkboxes at once)
3. Now double click (or select and press spacebar) a song to play it. It will stop when finished because there is no other song checked to be played next.
4. If you want to change back to normal sequential play, ctrl click one of the check marks again to change all of the checkboxes back to the checked status.
Based on some discussions I found while looking for a solution (including at least one in which the questioner got bashed about why anybody would ever want to do such a thing and in which the proposed solutions were things like creating one song playlists or simply press stop after each song), some may not understand why this would ever be desired. Here's why I wanted to do it:
I was responsible for playing a series of songs at a dance. I needed to stop after each song to have a transition time to allow me to introduce the next song and to give new dancers time to get onto the floor and other dancers an opportunity to leave the floor. Furthermore, I was also dancing and didn't want to have to spend time searching for the next song (which is why I wanted to create a playlist in advance with just the songs I wanted to play in the order I wanted to play them) and I wanted each song to stop after playing since I was not at the computer to press stop.
I hope this will help others who have a similar need.

Thank you! I put some self help hypnosis tracks to listen to on my iPod. I did not want to go to the next track automatically, I wanted to listen to them individually, one at a time. (If I fell asleep, I did not want to 'wake up' in the middle of a different track.) Your information helps me understand that I need to re-load this playlist onto my iPod from my Mac computer, only first, I need to UNCHECK the boxes in front of each track so the iPod will STOP each time after playing the selected track. It is too bad that so many functions are not availabvle within the iPod, but that is probably why they can make it so compact.

My "unrated songs" smart playlist plays the same song multiple times

I recently started using iTunes match, and was excited to have my smart playlist that contains songs I haven't rated yet sync from my MBP to my iPhone 4S. While I'm playing that playlist, I rate each song as I listen to it, but after it ends, it's replaying it. I have to hit skip sometimes 4 or 5 times before it will go to a new song in the playlist. Any ideas about what's causing this or how to fix it? Thanks!

Hello there, greenstreetm.
The following Knowledge Base article provides some practical steps to use when troubleshooting an application stops responding:
iOS: Not responding or does not turn on
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts3281
If a single application is not responding or stops responding when it opens, you can force it to close.
If the device is unresponsive or if certain controls aren't working as expected, restart your device.
If the device remains unresponsive or does not turn on (or power on), reset your device.
If there is no video or if the screen remains black, verify that the device has enough charge to turn on:
If you are using an iPad, ensure that it's connected to the USB Power Adapter supplied with the device.
Let it charge for at least twenty minutes, then see if it starts normally.
If there is no image on the screen, press the Sleep/Wake button to attempt to wake the device.
If the screen displays a red battery icon, continue charging the device until the battery is fully charged. Learn more about charging iPhone and iPod touch, or iPad.
If the above steps do not resolve the issue, or the if the screen remains black or shows a persistent Apple logo, try restoring with iTunes:
Connect the device to your computer and open iTunes.
If the device appears in iTunes, select and click Restore on the Summary pane. Learn more aboutrestoring iOS software.
If the device doesn't appear in iTunes, try to force the device into recovery mode, and then restore it.
If the above steps do not resolve the issue, contact Apple.
Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Pedro.

Refreshing Smart Playlists with song limits...

I have gone from a 20 gig down to a 4 gig and I would like to create a series of smart playlists to limit and 'control' the amount of music on my ipod nano... but not have 16 gigs of music collecting dust on my harddrive.
For example, I have create a series of genre specific playlists, one of which is 'Alternative' that includes a bunch of sub-genres that I have given a songlimit. W/o a song limit there would be approximately 1000 songs on that list, so I limit the songs to 150 as to not completely fill my iPod. However, it seems that the playlist randomly selected 150 songs and forgot about the other 850 songs. I understand it will change when I change my collection by adding or subtracting, etc. Is it possible for the smart playlist to refresh itself, so dust is not collecting on music? Such as, once I listen to a song it replaces that song with another song from the potential pool.
Thanks in advance.
pc Windows XP Pro

One of the rules you can set is Last Played NOT IN THE LAST x days. If you add this to your existing rules, you could use it to exclude songs you played recently.
Would this do the trick?
You would also have to have live updating checked.

Sync "smart playlist" without song-titles?

Is it possible to synchronize only a smart playlist without all the song-titles what are included?
A example; In i Tunes i have a very large song library on my mac. Then i have synchronized some titles, with "Check Selection" mode. Now i have a "Smart Playlist" on i-tunes, that includes only song-titles, that i haven't "rated" before. Now, is it possible to import/sync only the "Smart-Playlist" without all the song-titles that are included on Itunes?
So i want only have the smart-playlist on my ipod-touch, to hear the unrated songs, that are already synced.
Other example, i have a smart playlist that includes only the song-titles, rated from 1 till 3 stars. Now i want that smart playlist on the iPod, to hear only the songs, rated from 1 till 3 stars, i already synced on the IPod.
Problem is this..: When i sinc a smart-list like that, the memory on my IPod is prompt overloaded...
I hope you understand what i mean, and would be great to have a solution for that...
regards...

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3044
2. Deselect the option for "Live updating."
Solved.

Smart Playlist plays in what order?

A couple of years ago I made a Smart Playlist that collects everything of the gendre "podcast." This lets me listed to the podcasts continuously, instead of stopping after each one.
I realize that I have no idea what order it's playing the podcasts in. It seems to be random, and when I go into the list in iTunes, sorting by each of the categories doesn't put them in the order they play.
Is there a "shuffle" option being applied to the list?

Adding "Playlist is Music" does not seem to be required on my iPhone or iPad, their playlists match the library that I auto-sync both devices to.
First, right-click on the playlist name in your iTunes library and select "Copy to play order". That saves the sort order of the playlist, and if you don't do that then the sorting on your device may not be what you expect.
If that does not help some of your smart playlists, then right-click on the playlist name in iTunes and select "Duplicate". Then get the new playlist sorted how you like and "lock" the sorting as described above, then delete the original playlist (re-name the copy if you'd like) and check/ change your sync settings to make sure the new playlist syncs to your device.
Simon Chiplin wrote:
Adding the "Playlist is Music" rule does sort the order correctly but it loses the "live updating" feature on my iPhone which allows the list to be repopulated without syncing back to the PC.
Live Updating on the device has by and large been broken since iOS 3, unless you have a very simple smart playlist. But if you include certain criteria like "Playlist Is ..." then Live Updating on the device doesn't work (even if the "source" playlist is synced to the device). There are a few other smart criteria that break LU.

How do I create a smart playlist of songs that are not in any playlist?

I have zillions of songs and many playlists to manage them. So how do I create a smart playlist that shows songs that are not in any playlist?
An easier answer would be " Playlist > is > None" but this option is not available.
Any other creative solutions?
(...and a long list of "Playist > is not > Playlist AA" through "Playist > is not > Playlist ZQ" is not a manageable answer as my playlists are too dynamic for that. Such a playlist would always be broken.)

Maybe one of these will help:
This AppleScript will create a text file that will list the iTunes Library tracks which have not been assigned to any playlist. http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=notinanyplaylist
This script searches your iTunes or iPod Library for tracks which have not been included in any Playlists and copies them to a new discrete Playlist. http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=notinanyplaylistplaylist

Smart Playlist "Played" Filter

I could be missing it, but I cannot figure out how to create a Smart Playlist of my Podcasts that have not been played.
I know I could filter on "Play Count = 0", but that doesn't meet my need. Sometimes I will right click on a Podcast and select "Mark as Played" because I've listened to the Podcast on my Treo.
Can someone please offer a suggestion?
Thanks!
Chris

polishedstaple wrote:
It looks like there are two fields. "Kind" and "Media Kind". I got it to work using "Media Kind". What do you suppose "Kind" is for?
kind would be e.g. mp3 or AAC. media kind would be e.g. tv show or movie or (apparently) audiobook
sorry, don't have many audiobooks so i wasn't 100% sure how to set it up.
but you figured it out and all is cool now, eh ?

ITunes (11 I think) in smart playlists and folders won't apply the "Last Played" search criteria in real time. Please fix!!!

The major iTunes recent makeover, generally *****.
It's ugly to look at; it's grey and blue-grey and more grey. god, how drab can you get. You know how in the Finder we can assign colors to files, folders & applications. It would be fantastic to be able to do that to playlists and the folders of playlists within iTunes. Please add some color! And/Or let us choose the color format for our personal copy of iTunes, like some browsers do.
But more importantly I have some rather sophisticated smart playlists; many of which source other (smart) playlists & folders of playlists in my collection. With this current iTunes makeover (iTunes version 11 I think), they screwed something up. None of my smart playlists will apply in real time the "Last Played" search criteria. This is very annoying. Please, please fix it.
And how about the ability to duplicate a playlist, to make new playlist. Not to have two of the same playlists, but so the second one can then be edited to something similar to the first (as opposed to having to build a new similar sophisticated playlist from scratch). This would save a lot of time in some cases.

The major iTunes recent makeover, generally *****.
It's ugly to look at; it's grey and blue-grey and more grey. god, how drab can you get. You know how in the Finder we can assign colors to files, folders & applications. It would be fantastic to be able to do that to playlists and the folders of playlists within iTunes. Please add some color! And/Or let us choose the color format for our personal copy of iTunes, like some browsers do.
But more importantly I have some rather sophisticated smart playlists; many of which source other (smart) playlists & folders of playlists in my collection. With this current iTunes makeover (iTunes version 11 I think), they screwed something up. None of my smart playlists will apply in real time the "Last Played" search criteria. This is very annoying. Please, please fix it.
And how about the ability to duplicate a playlist, to make new playlist. Not to have two of the same playlists, but so the second one can then be edited to something similar to the first (as opposed to having to build a new similar sophisticated playlist from scratch). This would save a lot of time in some cases.

Can I make a playlist where songs are removed once played?

Hi-
I would like to be able to create a "to be played once" queue so I can load up a bunch of songs, hear them played, but not have them keep cropping up the next time I access the list.
I was hoping I could have a playlist--either using the OTG playlist or a created one--where I can add songs that I'd like to hear, then have the songs automatically removed from the list once they've been played. I think iPods used to do this (I had a G1 iPod I lost long ago), but I can't figure out how to do it on my new G5 iPod.
Of course I'd be open to other ways of solving the problem if a playlist isn't right...
Thanks,
Alex

As pointed out, one option I have found very useful with iTunes and my iPod is to create a smart playlist of songs that haven't been played yet.
Simply create a new playlist and tell it to only play songs that haven't been played yet (play count = 0). Shuffle still works with this play list so when you use it you still get a random assortment of tunes, but also only the stuff you haven't heard yet (well, hasn't yet been played since adding it to iTunes that is). Very useful for when you add new albums and songs to your iTunes and iPod as they automatically get added to this playlist.
Further more, once they get played, they no longer have a play count of zero and so no longer belong to this playlist, therefore, no repeats are possible. With the iPod/iTunes set to automatic update, when you sync you iPod to iTunes, anything you played on your iPod gets the count updated in iTunes. Check "live updating" on that playlist so both iTunes and the iPod will update the playlist as you use it.
Another smart playlist is the "long time since I last played it" smart playlist. Rather than a rule of play count, instead pick the checkbox "Limit To" and set it up as follows:
Limit to 200 "Items" selected by "Least Recently Played"
Of course "200" can be any number you like. Make sure live updating is checked. If you have a large library, say 1000+ songs, it will be a long time until you hear anything over again since anything played becomes the "Most Recently Played" and moves to the back of the line. But pick a decent number of songs like 200 to allow some variety when shuffling.
Also note, that by default, any new songs added to iTunes are considered "least recently played" so unless you add to the smart playlist to NOT include new songs (play count = 0) this playlist will include anything new added to the iPod.
Patrick

Adding more rules, makes less songs in smart playlists?

Every time I add a condition to a smart playlist, the song count drops, instead of increases, I want to make sure I get all of a certain type of song, and my music collection is far too big to go through and edit all of them. There was a trick to this, but I've forgotten it, can anyone help me out?

You use match all to narrow down a selection with multiple rules, or match any to join the results of several rules together. Sometimes to get exactly what you want you need nested combinations of both options.
E.g.
Match any
     Match all
          Rule 1
          Rule 2
     Match all
          Rule 3
          Rule 4
Would list anything that matches (rule 1 and rule 2) or (rule 3 and rule 4).
tt2

Temporary Fix for Smart Playlist order bug

I stumbled across a Smart Playlist that was keeping the correct order and discovered why. It was a Smart Playlist that contained 2 other Smart Playlists. The original Smart Playlists didn't keep their order but the new one that combined them did. So I experimented on a few other Smart Playlists by making new Smart Playlists that only contained another Smart Playlist. And it works. I've also been able to keep Live Updating enabled.
Hopefully this will help everyone who reads this get by until Apple fixes this bug, which they seem to reintroduce about once a year.

I'm sorry but none of these suggested fixes work, including sort before sync, media kind as music, not referring to other smart playlists, turning live update off, setting Play Order; nothing worked. Plus, on large smart playlists (2000+ songs), not only were they not ordered correctly but the phone (4S no less) pauses 20 seconds to think every time you go into the playlist after a sync.
In fact the only "fix" for me was Apple's last suggestion in their KB article on the subject of smart playlists not syncing in order: in iTunes select my smart playlist, then select all, then make a new playlist (using I believe Edit/New Playlist) based on that selection (which is now not smart), order as needed and sync. It works great but of course the list is now is non-self-updating and I have to manually update it when I add new songs. Not a big deal but still a pain.
For me, order is critical only on my Recently Added playlist, so I went manual with that one. The others I tend to shuffle so the lack of ordering isn't as big of a deal.

IOS 7 and Smart Playlist Handling

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.
If you guys know of any tricks to make this work again, let me know! :-)

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.
Interestingly, you can add these parameters back in and they music stays on your iPhone. The only problem is it doesn't follow the smart playlist rules. For example, I can add back in "Last Skipped - not in the last - 7 days". When I play the playlist in iTunes (on my iMac) and skip a song it shows the # of songs in the playlist decreases. However, the playlist on my iPhone does not recognize the update. In fact, I notice a interesting symptom.
The playlist on the phone has a "Download all (# of songs)" at the top of the playlist. When you add back in the offending parameters this option goes away and the only way to tell the number of songs is to scroll to the bottom of the page and it shows the number of songs but no option to download all. This is clearly a programatic issue--hopefully Apple will fix this soon.

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

?

Rearranging songs in library/playing songs

Hi there,
Is there a way to rearrange songs in the library? I tried to drag the song to where I wanted it but that won't work. Anyone know if there is a way to do this?
Also, I find it annoying that itunes cuts off the last bit of the current song playing and then starts the next song right away. Is there a way for itunes to play the song right through?
Thanks,
Chris
Windows XP

No such thing as “too many songs”. :-D
See: How to Transfer Music Between the Computer and iPod
And: Transfer music manually
The iPod offers three ways to transfer music from your computer. You can select one of the following update modes from the iPod Preferences menu in iTunes (Edit=>Preferences=>'iPod' tab):
1) Automatically update all songs and playlists. This is the default mode, in which your entire music library, including playlists, is automatically synced to your iPod. If the music library on your computer exceeds the iPod storage capacity, you are prompted to select a different update method.
2) Automatically update selected playlists only. With this option, iTunes automatically copies the playlists you have selected to the iPod when you connect it to the computer.
3) Manually manage songs and playlists. You can also choose to transfer music to the iPod manually. This allows you to drag and drop individual songs and playlists from iTunes to the iPod.
Manage the iPod either Manually or via Selected Playlists.
How to Create a Smart Playlist
Deleting Songs or Playlists from your iPod

Smart Playlists play 1 song at a time

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