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Level 1

11 points

Smart Playlist order not respected on ipod nano after upgrade to iTunes 9

I have built a set of smart play lists that have worked since iTunes 7 that include all unlistened podcasts and sorts them by release date. Before upgrading to iTunes 9 the playlist maintained this order on my Nano. Since the upgrade the playlist sorts by name. I have tried restoring the ipod and choosing "copy to play order" still sorted by name on the Nano and by release date on iTunes. Any one have any ideas?

ThinkPad X60, other

Posted on Sep 11, 2009 5:55 AM

Best reply

TMighell

Level 1

10 points

Posted on Sep 12, 2009 4:17 AM

Sorry, no answer here, but I'm having the same problem on my iPhone. Podcast smart playlist sorted in chronological order - it shows just fine in iTunes, but in a different order (not alphabetically, interestingly) on the iPhone.

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39 replies

Sep 21, 2009 4:00 PM in response to notmeeither

Add another "me too"! The work around of de-selecting Live Update works, but obviously not as a long term solution.

iPod Touch 2G (3.1.1)
iTunes 9.0

Sep 22, 2009 10:57 AM in response to notmeeither

Same problem here. MacOS 10.5.9 / iPhone OS 3.1 / iTunes 9

Sep 22, 2009 5:49 PM in response to notmeeither

iTunes 9.0.1 did not fix this problem.

Sep 22, 2009 7:18 PM in response to bushman1025

The only thing that was fixed is that in the Podcast section, you can now select "All Unplayed Podcasts" and Smart Playlists will work. But the play order is still wrong unless you uncheck "Live Updating" for each Smart Playlist.

Sep 22, 2009 9:25 PM in response to TechGeekBlogger

That's the only change I'm seeing with 9.0.1, too. It's better, but still not quite there.

Sep 26, 2009 6:44 AM in response to notmeeither

Another one with the same issue, although my problem is music related (not podcast cause I don't listen to them on iPod). Playlist is alphabetically sorted in iTunes, but it's random on iPod. 😟

amh15

Level 1

0 points

Sep 28, 2009 1:13 AM in response to notmeeither

This other thread has found a workaround through a small edit to the smart playlist:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10307993

Works on iPhone 3G anyway.

Cheers

Alan

notmeeither Author

Level 1

11 points

Sep 28, 2009 8:53 AM in response to amh15

While neither the suggestion at the link, nor the suggestion at a link referenced in the thread ( http://clkoerner.com/2009/09/27/itunes-9-smart-playlist-live-updating-iphone-fai l/) worked for me, they did lead me to a work around that seems to help (not yet fully tested).

Clicking on the ipod in itunes then on the podcasts tab, then selecting "automatically include 'all' episodes of 'all podcasts'" (at the same time as the upgrade to itunes 9.0.1) seems to preserve the sort order. I haven't yet tested to see if this breaks updating on the fly on the ipod as some of the suggestions on the other thread have been reported to.

notmeeither Author

Level 1

11 points

Sep 29, 2009 6:45 AM in response to notmeeither

It seems with this work around all playlists are sorted correctly, but only some still have live updating based on playcount = 0. (I think that playlists I haven't edited since before the upgrade to 9.0 update while the playlists edited or created since the upgrade don't update on the ipod.)

chcn

Level 1

75 points

Oct 2, 2009 10:30 AM in response to notmeeither

Interestingly, smart playlists sync in the correct order on my 3rd-gen iPod Nano, but not on either of my iPhones.

This is very annoying.

By the way, we rant about if Apple will fix it, but has anyone reported it?

Nov 1, 2009 9:42 AM in response to chcn

This is really annoying! I can't get any of my smart playlists for podcasts to sequence correctly. Even if I click the top of the number column and drag the podcasts into the right sequence they don't sequence correctly on my iPod. Really annoying if you need to hear episodes in order!

I had this problem on my 5th gen and now on my brand-spanking new iPod Classic 160GB! Is there some new setting I am missing here? I tried the workarounds with changing the "sync all" to "selected" and all that, but no luck :'(

Nov 1, 2009 11:00 AM in response to notmeeither

Just chiming in to help emphasize how this is a problem for heavy podcast listeners like me. Thanks for the above poster for finding the "uncheck Live Update" workaround. I won't have to return my new Nano, ...whew.

pelier

Level 1

9 points

Nov 11, 2009 3:32 PM in response to notmeeither

It appears that the best workaround solution is to add the following rule for the smart playlist: "Playlist is not Music" (that is, for a list that is podcasts only). When I did so and turned live updating back on, the list order was retained after syncing.

Regardless, I would still say this is an unresolved issue that Apple must address in the next update. My guess it's not an iTunes issue but rather an iPod/iPhone one.

Dec 9, 2009 12:51 AM in response to notmeeither

I have the same problem on my iPod Touch 3rd Gen with the order of Smart Playlists. I believe that the key is the Live Updating checkbox. It appears to me that when Live Updating is checked, the criteria for selecting items in the Smart Playlist overrides the specified sort order; perhaps this is due to some index being used to dynamically include items in the Smart Playlist. Unchecking this option disables this mechanism allowing the selected sort order to regain control.

StephenD

Level 1

0 points

Dec 11, 2009 8:42 PM in response to pelier

Thank you pelier!! Adding the "Playlist is not Music" rule to my podcast smart playlist resolved this bug for me - at last I can catch up with 2½ months of podcasts in the right order and not have to try to remember what ones I have listened to.

Of course if Apple would bake the little blue dot visible in podcast playlists, life would be a lot easier as I'd know where I left-off without all these fancy smart playlist rules!

Smart Playlist order not respected on ipod nano after upgrade to iTunes 9