Nano not updating Play Count

I noticed that none of the songs *play counts* were updated.
didn't appear on the *recently played list*

Where are these settings on the iPod Nano 5th gen? I couldn't find anything about play counts or recently played list in the manual or in any of Apple's Knowledge Base articles. Thanks.

I don't have a solution, but I can confirm this problem. I have nearly 14000 songs in my collection, and use the Play Count and Last Played fields in iTunes with smart playlists to manage what goes onto my iPod. This approach has worked for several years with my 1st-generation Nano.

I bought a new 5th-gen Nano shortly after Christmas and found that most of the time when I sync, the Play Count and Last Played information in iTunes is not updated. Occasionally, it will be updated for all of the songs I've played - it's all or nothing. I tried resetting it, updating it, reinstalling iTunes, none of that helped. I returned it yesterday and got a new one, thinking it must be defective, and found that the new 5G behaves the same way.

My old Nano still syncs fine and always updates the info, so it appears not to be an iTunes problem; but the old one just won't hold a charge for very long.

This is very frustrating because I rely on that status info to update my playlists so I can keep getting fresh tunes on the iPod.

I just realized it's also failing to update any ratings which I make on the Nano. Seems like the sync is only going one way, iTunes to iPod, and not the reverse.

I too have the same problem with my 5th gen nano's 'last played' not updating on the nano itself.

Same here. Just brought the Nano home an hour ago. I bought it specifically for the play count. I was happy with my Shuffle, but the play count doesn't update on that either. With the Shuffle, it's a known problem. Assumed Apple would have it fixed by now.

I am also having this problem and it is extremely frustrating since I use my Smart Playlists so frequently...has anyone found a solution or talked to anyone at Apple about it?

Hi,

I have the same problem. This is not an answer but I wonder if it might be a step closer to the answer. I mostly get this problem when nano is docked on a gear4 dock I have. If I've listened through headphones or other docks the play count and recently played updates itunes fine. This gear4 is fine with my iPod classic so I'm pretty sure it's an incompatibility with the Nano. Can anyone else link the non-update with dock usage?

If you have your iPod set to manually manage your music. In other words, you drag the files to the iPod, then it will not update playcount.

If you have it managed through playlists where you just click sync and your music syncs, it will update the playcount.

Dragging music on and off your iPod is different than sync'ing and the system needs the sync'ing step for the playcount to be udpated.

i

It's set to work automatically. I'm going to take it back to the apple store on Monday and see what they say. Thanks for trying anyway.

took it to the apple store today. They tested it on their Macs and found it to be working fine. Typical! The error would not recreate in the store despite it being 'broken' all weekend. The best the guy in the shop could suggest was that this was a windows related fault. Whilst not the official line on it he guessed at the USB drivers. I have the number for the apple care team who specialise in Windows. Since getting home I've reloaded my music files (they had wiped it and formatted it for Mac to test) and it seems to be working correctly now (reloading from my computer did not solve the problem before). Watch this space - we'll see what happens.

Does anyone get this fault when using a Mac?

I am using a Mac and I don't see it. I would say the best bet is to reinstall itunes. Here are the apple approved instructions for that:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1925

i

already tried re-installing itunes. That did not work.

I spent 2 hours on the phone with Apple Care the other day over this, and after all that the best solution they could offer me was to take my iPod into the Apple Store and see if they could figure out what the problem is (my iPod remembers playing about 8-10 songs, if I play any more than that the play counts will not update)

The guy had me restore my iPod, reinstall iTunes, change the settings on my iPod & smart playlists, basically everything you could think of that might solve this problem and nothing worked.

FYI, my iPod has always been set to automatically sync and I have never had a problem with any of my previous iPods. I also use a MacBook so it's not a Windows-related problem.

However, the Apple Care guy did say that they would most likely replace my iPod free of charge if I took it into the Apple Store, so I guess that is going to be my next step!