The Laughing Imp
Level 3 (520 points)
Mac OS X

Q: iTunes 11 "Last Played" and playcount not updating?

I am having a playback issue in iTunes 11 under Snow Leopard, OS 10.6.8. "Last Played" and playcount are not being updated after a track finishes playing. The culprit is "Up Next". Any song played while "Up Next" has a playlist queue will not have its "Last Played" or playcount data updated. But if you clear "Up Next" and let the song finish, then that data will be updated.

 

What an unfortunate bug. Smart lists rule my world, and they heavily count on "Last Played" and playcount to create constantly evolving playlists for me.

 

Anybody else having this problem with iTunes11? Got a solution?

 

Stupid iTunes 11 Bug.png

Posted on Nov 29, 2012 4:22 PM

by The Laughing Imp,Solvedanswer
The Laughing Imp The Laughing Imp
Level 3 (520 points)
Mac OS X
A:

Thanks for all the great feedback on my original post! The disabling crossfade was the option that worked for me. As long as I never engage Up Next, the play counts and last played metadata all update properly. The moment I shift even one song order in Up Next, the metadata is no longer updated. Also, if I re-enabled crossfading while a song was playing, that song's metadata was updated, but soon after the following songs stopped updating. So…

 

  1. Disable Crossfade in iTunes>Preferences>Playback
  2. Quit iTunes
  3. Reboot for good measure
  4. Relaunch iTunes

 

Your metadata for playcount and last played should update properly again.

 

Silly bug, but I can live without crossfade. I can't live with my smartlists that dynamically use playcount and last played not updating properly. I've noticed some other iTunes11 smart list quirks, but those are for another thread.

Posted on Dec 6, 2012 10:37 AM

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Q: iTunes 11 "Last Played" and playcount not updating?

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  • by The Laughing Imp,

    The Laughing Imp The Laughing Imp Nov 29, 2012 4:30 PM in response to The Laughing Imp
    Level 3 (520 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 29, 2012 4:30 PM in response to The Laughing Imp

    Update: The problem seems to happen in playlists under Up Next. If Up Next says "from Music", then the playcounts and Last Played are being updated. Can any of you recreate this?

  • by The Laughing Imp,

    The Laughing Imp The Laughing Imp Nov 29, 2012 5:15 PM in response to The Laughing Imp
    Level 3 (520 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 29, 2012 5:15 PM in response to The Laughing Imp

    Update 2: Songs played on the iPhone update the "Last Played" and playcount data in iTunes11 after syncing.

  • by nudoru,

    nudoru nudoru Nov 29, 2012 5:18 PM in response to The Laughing Imp
    Level 1 (34 points)
    iPhone
    Nov 29, 2012 5:18 PM in response to The Laughing Imp

    Great catch! This is exactly what's happening to me - and only in a Smart Playlist. It's working as it should in a regular playlist (even though I didn't think it did when I posted my thread).

     

    My tracks update fine too when played from an iPhone.

     

    Agree this is most unfortunate!

  • by The Laughing Imp,

    The Laughing Imp The Laughing Imp Nov 29, 2012 6:20 PM in response to The Laughing Imp
    Level 3 (520 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 29, 2012 6:20 PM in response to The Laughing Imp

    If you alter the Up Next play order while under "from Music" songs no longer update their last played or playcount metadata.

  • by The Laughing Imp,

    The Laughing Imp The Laughing Imp Nov 29, 2012 6:23 PM in response to nudoru
    Level 3 (520 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 29, 2012 6:23 PM in response to nudoru

    I'm seeing this happen in both smart and standard playlists. It really does seem that Up Next is the culprit.

  • by Al Deaderick,Helpful

    Al Deaderick Al Deaderick Nov 29, 2012 7:13 PM in response to The Laughing Imp
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 29, 2012 7:13 PM in response to The Laughing Imp

    I've been seeing this problem too, while playing a Smart Playlist.  I have the Smart Playlist set so that once a song is played it is removed (Last Played is not in the last 12 months) so it's pretty obvious when it's not working.  I thought I managed to "fix" it by turning off Crossfade Songs, but then it failed again when a six second song came up on the list. (don't ask)  I turned Crossfade Songs back on just to test it, and now it seems to be working again?

     

    I haven't used Up Next so far except glancing at it once.

  • by dave374000,

    dave374000 dave374000 Nov 29, 2012 9:34 PM in response to The Laughing Imp
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 29, 2012 9:34 PM in response to The Laughing Imp

    Noticed this problem tonight on my Window 8 iTunes 11.0. Agreed ... I hope they patch this soon. I also miss seeing my play counts in album view.

  • by The Laughing Imp,

    The Laughing Imp The Laughing Imp Nov 30, 2012 3:17 AM in response to Al Deaderick
    Level 3 (520 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 30, 2012 3:17 AM in response to Al Deaderick

    Al, how did you think to try that?!! Turning Crossfade Songs off then on again fixed this issue in both standard and smart playlists for me and while Up Next was active or not. What a quirky bug! I'll be testing my playlists more tomorrow. You may have solved this.

  • by frederjonraw,

    frederjonraw frederjonraw Nov 30, 2012 8:49 AM in response to The Laughing Imp
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 30, 2012 8:49 AM in response to The Laughing Imp

    I have had the same problem with Last Played and Playcount updating so I tried the Crossfade suggestion. It didn't work on that problem but it solved something for me that was a dealbreaker - playing a song and hitting Next would take 3 to 4 seconds to go to the next song. Agonizing! Thanks for the solution.

  • by dubsoni,

    dubsoni dubsoni Nov 30, 2012 5:28 PM in response to Al Deaderick
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 30, 2012 5:28 PM in response to Al Deaderick

    I'm having the same issue. So you're not alone friend. I did the exact thing you did then looked for some answer on here.

  • by Bern.bb,

    Bern.bb Bern.bb Nov 30, 2012 5:46 PM in response to The Laughing Imp
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 30, 2012 5:46 PM in response to The Laughing Imp

    I have a similar problem where anything I play on my iPhone is not included in any smart playlist after syncing.

     

    Anything with iTunes on my Mac seems to work OK on smart playlists.

     

    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4558349

  • by AlwaysBreaking,

    AlwaysBreaking AlwaysBreaking Dec 1, 2012 8:02 AM in response to The Laughing Imp
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 1, 2012 8:02 AM in response to The Laughing Imp

    I'm having a similar issue, except songs in a Smart Playlist that are played on my iPhone don't update play count or last played when I sync the phone. Songs played in iTunes on the computer are fine. I don't even know what "Up Next" is and have never used it. I just installed the update and tried to us iTunes the same why I have for a long time.

    iTunes is getting almost unusable.

  • by jfheisel,

    jfheisel jfheisel Dec 1, 2012 8:10 AM in response to The Laughing Imp
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 1, 2012 8:10 AM in response to The Laughing Imp

    Turning off crossfade (as suggested in this thread) seems to have helped. We'll see.

  • by Fidelio,

    Fidelio Fidelio Dec 1, 2012 8:23 AM in response to Al Deaderick
    Level 1 (35 points)
    Dec 1, 2012 8:23 AM in response to Al Deaderick

    Turning Crossfade Songs off solved the issue for me. I have an additional observation: I just donwloaded two albums from iTunes Store: The Beatles Red and Blue Album. When playing the albums in iTunes (for Mac) in sequential (ie, non-random) order, all play counts properly increased from 0 to 1 EXCEPT for the first and last songs on each album (eg, "Yesterday!" and "Help!" in the Red Album). After truning crossfade off, the play count increased properly.

    When "turning crossfade songs" back on, the play count does not increase for those first/last songs again, so I have to keep crossfade turned off permanently.

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