Smart Playlists On Touch Don't Match iTunes

Question

Level 2

289 points

Smart Playlists On Touch Don't Match iTunes

Hi,

I have a weird problem. Some of the Smart Playlists on my iPod Touch don't match up with their iTunes equivalent. For example, I have a Smart Playlist in iTunes called Top 40 Electronic. The version on my iPod Touch is almost IDENTICAL to the original in iTunes except for 2 songs. The first 2 songs, in positions 1 and 2 are NOT showing up on the iPod Touch. The 2 songs have synced to my iPod Touch and can be found in the Songs menu, but they're missing from the top of that particular Smart Playlist.

To me, this seems completely illogical, since the whole point of syncing is to ensure playlists are identical in both iTunes and on the iPod. Any ideas?

17" iMac 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, 250GB Hard Drive, Mac OS X (10.5.1)

Posted on Dec 20, 2007 8:00 AM

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Answer 1

A A P L

Level 7

21,746 points

Dec 20, 2007 8:55 AM in response to Reuben Feffer

There are some issues with certain types of playlists on the Touch.
From what I gather, an update will be the most likely way we'll see them fixed.

Scott

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Answer 2

Reuben Feffer Author

Level 2

289 points

Dec 20, 2007 12:42 PM in response to A A P L

Thanks for your reply.

This problem is really frustrating. I have a Smart Playlist that is quite simply my Top 40 Purchases from the iTunes Store. Looks great in iTunes, but my iPod Touch skips the Top 11 songs, and starts the list at number 12!!!

I've just done a complete factory reset on the iPod Touch, not even reverting from the automatic backup, and the problem is still there.

So does every iPod Touch and iPhone user out there have this problem too? Doesn't anybody use Smart Playlists?

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Answer 3

Chris CA

Level 10

82,434 points

Dec 20, 2007 12:47 PM in response to Reuben Feffer

I have a Smart Playlist in iTunes called Top 40 Electronic

What is the criteria of this smart playlist?

Since it;s a smart playlist, ifsomething changes on a song that matches the criteria, the list on the iPod could be different than iTunes.
For example, if you have Most recently played transferred to the iPod and play a song not on it, the iPod playlist will update but it won't update in iTunes till you sync.

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Answer 4

m8an

Level 2

260 points

Dec 20, 2007 3:02 PM in response to Reuben Feffer

I experienced that this problem occurs if you have the "limit to x selected by y" criteria checked for a smart playlist.

just uncheck it and your playlist should work on the touch. the only downside is that your playlist will not be limited to x songs.
if, for example, you have a smart playlists that shows your top 25 songs it would contain the criteria "limit to 25 items selected by playcount". what you do is you uncheck this criteria und then sort your playlist by playcount (by just clicking on playcount in the top row of your playlist). this way the playlist will be transferred to your ipod sorted by playcount. so the only downside is now that it's not your top 25 but just all your songs sorted by playcounts. but the first 25 songs of that playlist are still your top 25

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Answer 5

Reuben Feffer Author

Level 2

289 points

Dec 20, 2007 3:19 PM in response to Chris CA

(tick) Match the following rule:
Genre is Electronic
(tick) Limit to 40 items selected by most often played
(tick) Live updating

On my iPod Touch, the number 1 song, a Purchased AAC audio file, is not present in that playlist. However, the song IS stored on my iPod Touch and plays fine. So, on the iPod Touch, the Top 40 Electronic smart playlist starts with the number 2 song of the same playlist on iTunes.

Makes absolutely no sense.

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Answer 6

Reuben Feffer Author

Level 2

289 points

Dec 20, 2007 3:40 PM in response to m8an

Thanks. So is that a fact, iPod Touchs and iPhones don't let you Limit to 40 items selected by most often played??

Right, I can turn the limit off, good tip. But then my playlist goes from 40 songs up to 140 songs. And I don't want those extra 100 songs taking up space on my iPod Touch. I just want the Top 40. That's the whole point of having a Top 40 playlist, to only carry "the best" around with me.

Are Apple working on this? I bought an iPod to listen to my playlists, and I can't 😟

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Answer 7

Reuben Feffer Author

Level 2

289 points

Dec 29, 2007 7:38 AM in response to Reuben Feffer

Ok, so I did a bit of research on this subject and the workaround for now seems to be:

Untick "Live updating" for any Smart Playlists you want to sync to your iPod Touch

This has solved the problem for me. I hope Apple are still working on a proper fix, but for now this will do.

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Answer 8

Fofer

Level 1

149 points

Jan 1, 2008 10:50 PM in response to Reuben Feffer

I'd hardly call that a "workaround." Turning off live updating? That disables the primary utility of the smart playlist. Turning off live updating makes a "Recently Played" playlist inoperable. That's not a "workaround." That's suggesting we avoid the feature entirely. Thanks, but no thanks.

I want a Smart Playlist that shows me the 15 most recently played songs, on iTunes and my iPod Touch. (Syncing should merge the results.) I hear a song and want to review to see who the artist was a few minutes later. Is that too much to ask?

This used to work (on my 3G iPod) way back when. It broke with some iTunes/Firmware update, and it ***** that it's been broken this long.

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Answer 9

Hedron

Level 1

0 points

Jan 1, 2008 11:59 PM in response to Fofer

yeah it is annoying. You can still manually update your smart lists before sync, but it is a heinous bug. I would guess this to be something they would fix quickly.

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Answer 10

Reuben Feffer Author

Level 2

289 points

Jan 16, 2008 2:34 AM in response to Hedron

Update...

This problem seems to be fixed by the 1.1.3 update. I don't want to speak too soon, but I've turned back on "Live Updating" on all my Smart Playlists in iTunes, and they now show up properly on my iPod Touch. Great.

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Answer 11

jesgal66

Level 1

8 points

Feb 1, 2008 1:11 PM in response to Reuben Feffer

I just ran into this bug on my Ipod Classic when creating playlists for my operas. The work around I can up with was to create only 2 playlists at a time, eject the ipod, then reconnect and go through the process again. It's time consuming, but hopefully Apple will have a fix for this bug soon. Good Luck!

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Answer 12

Feb 4, 2008 12:14 PM in response to Reuben Feffer

I was having this exact problem and I also noticed that unchecking the "live updating" box fixed it.

So as a workaround I kept the playlist the way I wanted it, with live updating and all. To make this appear on my iPod, I created a new smartplaylist that had as its criteria: "is on playlist: originalsmartplaylist"

This one syncs up just fine and has the same exact order and contents of the other one that doesn't work...

I hope that helps!

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