Workaround for iPhone smart playlist bug

There is a bug (do a search for smart playlist in this forum) with smart playlists not displaying the correct songs on the iPhone.
I just tried something that seems to have worked...
I have a playlist in iTunes called "Recently Added" which I want to keep synced with my iPhone.
I created a new smart playlist called "Recently Added (iPhone)". The playlist has one rule: "Playlist is Recently Added" with live updating checked.
I now sync this second playlist with the iPhone and all the correct songs show up in it.

Excellent idea Jeff.
Your approach works for the same reason that my original idea works.
The inclusion of another playlist as a condition in a smart playlist, causes the playlist to become "rasterized" or static.
The developers wanted smart playlists to be really smart - instead of copying a static list of songs from the smart playlist to the iPhone/Pod, they simply send the definition of the playlist to the iPhone and let it calculate which songs from it's own library belong on it.
The nice thing about their approach is that the playlists will continue to live update on the Phone in-between syncs - so if you have a playlist called "Last 25 played" it will have the last 25 played songs on your iPhone, instead of the last 25 played songs that you played in iTunes.
The problem of course, is that there's a bug in the way the iPhone calculates these rules (probably related to the porting of code to a new architecture).
So why does this fix work?
Well, my theory is that when you create a smart playlist that references another playlist, iTunes simply calculates the songs that should appear on the smartplaylist and sends a literal list to the iPhone/Pod.
This solves the problem that would be created if you only sync the parent playlist, and not the playlists it references. (IE, if you would want to be able to sync the "25 most played" playlist without also having to sync the "MusicOnly" playlist).

Similar Messages

  • How to create "Purchased on iPhone" smart playlist?

    I lost my old iPhone Larry but the "Purchased on Larry" playlist was still active. My new iPhone Ploobie's purchases were automatically added on it, but as soon as i synced my iPhone to my computer, the new songs got deleted from it. I ended up deleting that playlist in order to create a new one for my new iPhone. However i have found you can't create a "purchased on iphone" smart playlist from neither my iPhone or my computer. Could someone please give me some advice on how to do it?
    Thank you.

    I am having the same issue.  I tried merging two "Purchased on iPhone" playlists.  I created a new playlist and copied all tracks from both playlists into the new playlists.  I then deleted both "Purchased on iPhone" playlists.  I purchased a new track on my iphone hoping that when I plugged in my phone to sync a new "purchased on iPhone" playlist would appear so that I can then paste all the tracks in the playlist.  The new "purchased in iPhone" playlist was not created and now I have no idea how to add it back. 

  • Workround for Smart Playlist bug in iTunes 6.0.5

    I'm using iTunes 6.0.5 on MacOS 10.2.8 (hence I can't upgrade iTunes to a later version 'cos my OS is too old).
    When I try to use Smart Playlists, the program closes down whenever I create a Playlist featuring a date-type condition (like "Last Played") and change from "is" to something else (like "is not in the last" ... ). This seems to be a bug common whenever iTunes 6.0.5 is used on MacOS 10.2.8.
    Is there any work-around for this problem? (The computing administrator here is unlikely to allow me to upgrade the OS just so that I can play music more conveniently!) If it were possible to make copies of Smart Playlists, then I might be able to adjust the standard "Recently Played".
    Thanks (hopefully!) in advance,
    Martyn

    ih1, that one is often caused by a damaged itunes preference file. try the technique described in this user tip:
    b noir: iTunes won't let me change a preference

  • IPhone Smart Playlist doesn't remove played podcasts

    I have a smart playlist created of my UN-PLAYED podcasts. The rule is set to podcast = true and played count = 0. It used to work fine prior to upgrading to 3.0. I am guessing I am not the only one with this problem but I have seen anyone else comment on this.
    It is very irritating in the fact that if I stop playing my podcasts and come back later. I don't know which podcast to start back with.
    They used to remove their selves from the playlist which made it easy.
    When I re-sync with iTunes, the smart playlist in iTunes updates and then syncs back to the iPhone just fine but it may be days before I re-sync sometimes.
    Does anyone have any ideas or workarounds? Thanks in advance.
    --Mickey

    Well - I finally found my on answer. The trick to resolving this bug is to create a NEW smart playlist. The old one doesn't work for some reason.
    I created with this criteria(better than the one I originally had):
    Criteria
    --Play Count is less than 1
    --Genre contains Podcast
    --Kind contains Audio(lower case in the example)
    Basically gives me all of my PODCASTS that haven't been played. Just the AUDIO ones only.
    Tried it today and it works fine.
    --Mickey

  • Any workaround for mixed media playlist on ipod classic?

    On Itunes I can create a mixed media playlist (music and music videos)
    I can put that playlist on my ipod.
    But when it comes to playing the video the ipod will only show the audio if coming from the playlist.
    It shows up fine when being accessed via music videos.
    If I plug the ipod into itunes, and click "on this ipod" my playlist shows up.
    When I play the playlist on the ipod and a video comes up, the video starts in itunes with no problem.
    Does anyone have a workaround for this to happen on the ipod classic?
    Can I encode audio only in mp4?
    Then maybe all songs will be listed as music videos, and those with audio only will display the cover?
    Just brainstorming out loud here.
    Thanks,
    Dan
    P.S. Just noticed other people had a similar question.  A lot of discussion but no definitive answer.
    Maybe someone will have discovered a workaround since the last thread.

    I found the problem !!! I had many smart playlist with a rule that was -> "Album - is - "empty"". It seems that the new iTunes this kind of "empty rule" would not accept. I had to add a new rule -> "Playlist - is - Music". Now it shows all the songs on the iPod.
    It seems to be an Apple Bug on iTunes. I hope they can resolve this problem.

  • IPod touch / iPhone: Smart Playlists empty / missing after 3.1.3 Update

    Dear all,
    the following problem is very persistent and it happened to me and a friend of mine (iPod touch / iPhone), in both cases, smart playlists created in iTunes (Mac), latest version, are home to several tracks. These tracks are being transferred to the iPod/iPhone - but the playlist doesn't show up or is shown as empty (both cases happened). The tracks are on the iPod/iPhone if you select them manually.
    Re-Creating the playlists helped, but this is not the solution as the problem pops up with other playlists after having done that (however, the re-created playlists work).
    The iPods/iPhones have been reset, freshly installed etc., music has been taken off completely from them - the problem remains / comes back.
    It seems as if 3.1.3 has a problem with smart playlists and dubious one at that. Annoying at the very same time.
    I'm a bit disappointed about having wasted several hours of my life on this problem, that is not what I expect from Apple. :/
    Any permanent solutions out there?
    Alex.

    "Some sort" of solution.
    So after having dabbled with Apple's attempt for a solution, I seem to have found one that seems(...) to work for me when it comes to audio books:
    - create a new smart playlist
    - filter the current cd "Terry Pratchett (Disc 2))
    - counter is 0
    and(!)
    add:
    maximum of X hours, sorted by NAME... that actually did the trick.
    Of course, you need one more thing: you have to add the track's name to the name of the audio track... (see Doug's apple scripts for that script).
    Honestly... I'm a bit disappointed that I had to become smarter than Apple. Don't you want to give me a job, guys?

  • Smart Playlist bug?

    Anyone else having this problem? My music library consists of primarily contemporary Christian music. I attempted to set a Smart Playlist that would auto update music selections in two genres of music, "Gospel" and "Gospel & Religious" as per the album tags that were associated with the selections I wanted. iTunes won't do it - I end up with only the selections that are tagged with the "Gospel & Religous" genre, it will not include the selections tagged "Gospel" in the Smart Playlist.
    I've considered retagging all the files to the same genre, but would rather not. Is this an iTunes issue, or is the "&" character in the genre causing Windows to burp?
    Just trying to figure it all out ...
    Thanks for any help in advance.
    Dell Deskop   Windows XP Pro  

    That's not a bug, RuRod. It's what we refer to as a "feature". ; - )
    A Smart Playlist defined by Genre, i.e. Genre is Gospel & Religious, will include only songs identified specifically as Gospel & Religious - not Gospel and not Religious.
    The solution is to change the playlist rule to either -
    1) Genre contains Gospel
    or
    2) Match any of the following rules:
    Genre is Gospel
    +
    Genre is Gospel & Religious.

  • Anyone have a work around for sorting Smart Playlists in Match?

    So I was surprised by changing a couple criteria in some smart playlists, they sync to my iPhone.  Obviously from reading around here, play counts are not updating when played with match and are ignored by the iOS device.  Also, sorting seems to be totally random regardless of how the playlist is setup in iTunes.
    Anyone got any tricks for these things?
    Thx

    Bootcamp made the partition and provided the drivers, that is all, it doesn't 'run' anything
    Here are instructions from Microsoft on using the Windows System Image:
    To restore using a Windows installation disc
    Use this method if your computer came with a Windows installation disc.
    Insert the installation disc, and then restart your computer by clicking the Start button , clicking the arrow next to the Lock button , and then clicking Restart.If your computer is not configured to start from a CD or DVD, see Start Windows from a CD or DVD for instructions about how to do this.
    Press any key when prompted to do so.
    Choose your language settings, and then click Next.
    Click Repair your computer.
    Select the operating system you want to repair, and then click Next.
    Note
    If you are restoring a 64-bit system using a 32-bit Complete PC backup or a 32-bit system using a 64-bit Complete PC backup and have more than one operating system installed, you should not select an operating system. If an operating system is selected by default, clear the selection by clicking a blank area of the window, and then click Next. 
    On the System Recovery Options menu, click Windows Complete PC Restore, and then follow the instructions.
    Note
    Insert the last CD or DVD of the backup set when prompted to do so. 

  • Top 25 smart playlist bug fixes.....yay!!!!

    Just noticed that with my iphone 4 & iTunes 9.2 the top 25 playlist is fixed, with live updating checked.
    I must assume this is to do with iOS 4 as it was never working with 3x.
    ANyone else confirm this is the case?
    John

    I have a couple of issues with the iPod Touch.
    1) I have a smart playlist with the 25 most played songs in iTunes. When I sync the playlist and open it up on the iPod Touch, the playlist contains 25 random songs which are totakky different from the ones in my iTunes playlist.
    2) I have songs from Creed's Greatest Hits CD and from Queen's Greatest Hits CD. When I look for songs by artists, by songs, or by playlists I find them with no problem. But, when I look for them in Cover Flow it puts the Queen's songs under the Creed's album cover. The odd thing is that when one of those Queen's songs is playing, the cover art displayed is the correct one... and on the top it reads:
    Queen
    "Name of song"
    Greatest Hits
    But if I flip the iPod to see cover flow, it'll change the cover art to Creed's cover art.

  • Workaround for JSFL shape selection bug?

    There seems to be a bug in the document selection reporting in JSFL in  CS4 (haven't tested earlier versions).  I submitted it as a bug to Adobe  but I'd really like to find a workaround for it.  I've included my bug  report below.  Has anyone else encountered this?  If so, have you  figured out a workaround?  It's pretty annoying, making the tool I'm  working on really difficult to manage.
    ******BUG******
    After performing a publish preview, fl.getDocumentDOM().selection  reports an incorrect selection of raw shapes.
    Steps to reproduce bug:
    1. Create a JSFL command with the following contents:
    doc = fl.getDocumentDOM();
    fl.trace("there are " + doc.selection.length + " items selected");
    2. Start the authoring environment fresh, with a new document.
    3. Draw several shapes on the stage, not touching each other, all in  the same frame and layer.
    4. Select one of those shapes but leave the others unselected.
    5. Run the previously created JSFL command.  It will send the following  text to the output panel, as one would expect:
    "there are 1 items selected"
    6. Do a publish preview (either Flash or HTML).
    7. When it comes up, close the preview window.
    8. Deselect all and then select one of the shapes (again, keeping the  others unselected).
    9. Run the JSFL command again.  This time, it will say that there are n  items selected (where n is the number of shapes you drew in step 3).   So if you drew three shapes, it will print out the following:
    there are 3 items selected
    Note that this result will be the same even if you go to a different  document, do a publish preview on that document, then return to the  original.  It seems that simply doing a publish preview alters Flash's  state to report the selection incorrectly.
    Results: The JSFL command reports that all the shapes are selected,  despite the fact that only one of them is.  The only way I've found to  get Flash back to its normal behavior is to restart the authoring  environment.
    Expected results: In the steps above, the JSFL command should always  print out that there is one element selected.  There's no reason that  doing a publish preview should change that.

    When selected all shapes in selection are treated as one. You can see it if you run this script with selected multiple shapes:
    fl.trace( fl.getDocumentDOM().selection[0].contours.length );
    It will output you twise bigger number then selected shapes (because each Shape has two contours - one clockwise, other counterclockwise).
    Of course this. implementation is strange for me too. Thats how i found your post

  • How to turn on / off live updating for all smart playlists at once?

    Hello.  Is there a way to turn live updating on or off for all my smart playlists at once?  That would be a fantastic feature since too many smart playlists with live updating turned on brings iTunes to a crawl. 
    Currently, I run iTunes on Windows 7.  I have over 40,000 songs, and I have hundreds of smart playlists to help organize all my songs and what's on my various iPods at any time.  The problem with having so many smart playlists is that iTunes runs very slow.  One thing that I do to make iTunes run slightly faster is to turn off live updating for as many smart playlists as I can stand (by going into each one and editing), but then it's hard to tell which have live updating turned on and which don't.  As a result, many of my smart playlists don't get updated when I would like them to because I have to go in and manually edit each one again to turn it back on.  Maybe showing which have live updating turned on or off would be useful, too? 
    On a related note, my iPod Classic will actually not work when I sync too many smart playlists.  This has been a long-standing problem with iPods, and I'm surprised that it hasn't been fixed yet.  I have not experimented to see if it makes any difference if the smart playlists have live updating turned on or off. 
    Thanks.

    this is exactly what i was hoping to see -- but i can't get it to run right on iTunes 12, yosemite
    it also doesn't seem to recognize "Home Videos" or "Audiobooks" as special and tries to turn them off -- i modified the earlier script to add those two to the lists of exclusions, but still get the same error message on the first "unspecial/real" smart playlist -- hasn't somethign changed in the object model perhaps?
    thank you muchly!
    =mjb
    tell application "iTunes"
    activate
      set allPlaylists to (get every user playlist)
      repeat with thisPlaylist in allPlaylists
      if (thisPlaylist is smart) and name of thisPlaylist is not in {"Music", "Movies", "Podcasts", "Books", "TV Shows", "iTunes U", "Apps", "Ping", "iTunes DJ", "Genius", "Home Videos", "Audiobooks"} then
      set view of browser window 1 to thisPlaylist
      tell application "System Events"
      tell process "iTunes"
      tell menu bar 1
      tell menu bar item "File"
      tell menu "File"
      click menu item "Edit Smart Playlist"
      end tell
      end tell
      end tell
      set theCheckbox to checkbox "Live updating" of window 1
      tell theCheckbox
      if (its value as boolean) then click theCheckbox
      end tell
      click button "OK" of window 1
      end tell
      end tell
      end if
      end repeat
    end tell

  • How do you set up nested rules for iTunes smart playlist

    How do you set up nested rules for a iTune smart playlist

    Hello \"alice\",
    It sounds like you want to add additional criteria to your Smart Playlists.  I found an article with steps you can use to refine your Smart Playlist.  Step 2 specifically has what I think you are looking for:
    2. To have iTunes add songs that match specific criteria, make sure to select "Match the following rule," then make your selections from the pop-up menus.
    For example, you might want iTunes to only add songs that are by a particular artist, or songs with at least a four-star rating.
    To add additional matching criteria, click the Add button.
    You can find the full article here:
    iTunes: How to create a Smart Playlist
    http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1801
    The article says it is archived.  In the current version of iTunes, in step 1 you will select File>New>Smart Playlist.  Also, if you need to edit an existing Smart Playlist, you can right click (or hold command while you click) on it and select Edit Smart Playlist. 
    Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
    Best,
    Sheila M.

  • IOS 6 Smart Playlist Bug

    Hey, recently updated to iOS6. Having smart playlist issues when attempting to add songs purchased through iTunes, from the iPhone. (eg, attempting to add songs to the playlist on the handset). Adding songs to these playlists from ripped CDs works fine. Is anyone else having this problem?

    I actually am having an issue with not having any playlists sync to my phone at all. All my music is there but not one playlist. But the funny thing is, if I clike on my phone within itunes to see all the content, the playlists show up and I am able to play them from my phone, from the playlist, in itunes. You are the closest one that seems to be having the same problem I am.

  • Syncing multiple machines for advanced smart playlists

    Okay, here's my issue, I just got a new Mac Pro and I have copied my iTunes library to the new MP from my older Macbook Pro.
    I want to find an easy way to sync any purchases / additions to the new one when I get home without manually copying and pasting to the MP from the MBP.
    Also, I have a pretty long list of rules on some smart playlists to filter songs I don't want in it. Mainly by way of checked status in iTunes. This makes it easier to shorten playlists that I then sync to my iTouch. My question for this second topic; can I also sync the checked status of my entire library without copying and pasting from one machine to another?
    Thanks for any thoughts!

    any ideas?

  • 10.2.1 Recently Played smart playlist (bug)

    Like most users, I often skip around from song to song before the song is finished. These songs used to be added automatically to the "Recently Played" smart playlist (set to Last played in the last 30 days, live updating).
    I have noticed since 10.2.1 update, that a song must be fully played before being added to said playlist.
    It is very time consuming to scrub through the entire song of each song you play to get it added to the recently played smart playlist.
    Has anyone else noticed this?

    Vicki:
    You might like to have a quick gander at our discussion of the Smart Playlist issues...?
    http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=1514307#1514307
    Kind regards,
    Gopha.

Maybe you are looking for