iTunes 9: Podcasts in a playlist won't copy to iPod?

Again, however, let's be clear about the issue: The episodes in question have been syncing to the iPod successfully throughout this discussion. The problem isn't getting the episodes to sync, but getting the playlist to sync, so podcasts can be played in a desired sequence without having to operate the iPod.

Apologies - others have been having trouble getting episodes synced and I've confused the threads... I don't have a touch to test but I can't say I can think of anyway around it if you've opted to sync the NPR playlist on both the Music tab & the Podcast tab.

tt2

I suspect this is a bug, but I have been able to work around it.

Under podcasts tab in iTunes, select:
- Automatically include ALL episodes of SELECTED PODCASTS
- Check all podcasts in the Podcasts pane
- Select all playlists which contain podcasts in the 'Include Episodes from Playlists' pane

My playlists which include podcasts now sync correctly.

Based on Kevin's workaround, I found this perhaps to be the 'intended' fix:

On the Podcast tab
1. Leave 'Sync Podcasts: checked
2. UNCHECK 'Automatically include...'
3. Check the appropriate playlists in 'Include Episodes from Playlists'

(It saved me from having to sync tons of old podcasts that I wasn't auto-deleting)

turingtest2 wrote:
I don't have a touch to test but I can't say I can think of anyway around it if you've opted to sync the NPR playlist on both the Music tab & the Podcast tab.

tt2

I don't think the issue is limited to the touch — the post that started this thread was a nano owner, I believe. But I didn't realize anyone had mentioned a potential conflict created by having a playlist selected under both the Music and Podcast tabs. Has that caused a problem, in your experience? I'm mid-sync right now, but I'll have to try that next.

Yes, that would work too. Of course, if you have other podcasts you actually do want that aren't in your playlists, that would exclude them.

I finally was able to get my podcast playlists on my iPhone, but I cannot get them to sort by release date or date added, as I have in the past.

I'm not sure which of the steps I took got the items in the playlist, but I did add all episodes from all podcasts in the podcasts tab, and I also removed the playlists from the iPhone and added them back in. I haven't yet succeeded in populating these playlists on my iPod nano.

The failure to sort is a huge problem for me. Bad Apple!

Kevin O'Shea wrote:
Under podcasts tab in iTunes, select:
- Automatically include ALL episodes of SELECTED PODCASTS
- Check all podcasts in the Podcasts pane
- Select all playlists which contain podcasts in the 'Include Episodes from Playlists' pane

Lance VE wrote:
On the Podcast tab
1. Leave 'Sync Podcasts: checked
2. UNCHECK 'Automatically include...'
3. Check the appropriate playlists in 'Include Episodes from Playlists'

Now that's just plain crazy — but it works like a charm. You guys rock! Didn't there used to be a way to mark a post/poster as "helpful"? I haven't found it yet, but if I do I'd love to give you guys credit for solving what would've been a real thorn in my side.

They continue to (I believe) sort in the same order as the in the playlist in iTunes.

Ken and Michelle Walker wrote:
... But I didn't realize anyone had mentioned a potential conflict created by having a playlist selected under both the Music and Podcast tabs. Has that caused a problem, in your experience? I'm mid-sync right now, but I'll have to try that next.

Not a conflict but a requirement. The point I was failing to make was the one Kevin made - you needed to *Select all playlists which contain podcasts in the 'Include Episodes from Playlists' pane*. Glad you got there in the end but I still think this is a totally unnecessary complication to the way mixed media playlists operate.

tt2

turingtest2 wrote:
The point I was failing to make was the one Kevin made - you needed to *Select all playlists which contain podcasts in the 'Include Episodes from Playlists' pane*. Glad you got there in the end but I still think this is a totally unnecessary complication to the way mixed media playlists operate.

Crazy thing was, I'd selected my playlist(s) down there. What did the trick seemed to be either setting the Podcasts tab to automatically sync all episodes of all podcasts, in addition to selecting my playlists under "Include Episodes from Playlists," or setting it to automatically sync nothing, then selecting my playlists under "Include Episodes from Playlists." When I had the Podcasts tab set to automatically sync unwatched episodes, or the most recent episodes, etc., it didn't matter whether I'd selected playlists in the following pane or not.

A totally unnecessary complication? I'd agree wholeheartedly. In fact, I'd say this is a bug. If it were by design, then there should have been an alert on first sync after upgrading to iTunes 9, alerting users that certain playlists would not be synced under the new logic. But the fact that you must select either all or nothing to automatically sync on the Podcasts tab seems to make it clear that this change wasn't made by design.

When I view the playlists on the iPhone in iTunes, they appear to be sorted in the same order as in the iTunes playlist. But when I open the playlist on the iPhone, they are in different order. It's bizarre, undecipherable and vexing.

Thank you, thank you. I hope you find eternal love and the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I am technologially stupid, but need my podcasts to sleep at night and you solved my itunes 9 not moving my auto podcast to my ipod problem.

Others have reported the sorting issue with iPhone in another thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2151606&tstart=0

Thanks for the workaround. I was going nuts trying to find my missing podcast playlist.