Actually, when you say "broken", thats not my real problem, and is not the true problem as experienced by some others here I take it. We are talking about 2 separate yet related issues/bugs here. The first issue is the inability to sync a smart playlist at
ALL on an iPod/iPhone. When you sync a Smart playlist which has Live Updating active (almost all do), the contents of the smart playlist on the device does
NOT reflect what is in the smart playlist in the computer... i.e. incorrect songs, incorrect ordering,etc.
This bug has a relatively simple fix:
http://clkoerner.com/2009/09/27/itunes-9-smart-playlist-live-updating-iphone-fai l/
Issue #2, which I and some others are having, is different from that. I can successfully get my Smart Playlist to sync which my iPod Touch, each and every time I sync (after i followed the instructions in the link above), I see my iPod Touch reflect the exact contents
and order of tracks in iTunes as of the last time I synced....
The problem for me lies in when I make a change to the track while
ON my iPod touch.... it does not reflect right away like it apparently used too. For example, if i rate a track 5 Stars on my iPod Touch, I should be able to go in the "My Top Rated" playlist and see it appear their instantly afterwards. In other words, I expect the smart playlist to CONTINUE "Live Updating" while on the device. This does not happen as expected. 😟 Only after I perform a sync and iTunes realizes I gave a track 5 Stars, does the "My Top Rated" playlist on iTunes reflect it. Off course, during this same sync session, it will sync back the My Top Rated playlist to include the new track and rated while in the iPod Touch.
In other words, the Smart playlists on iPod Touch/iPhone are now STATIC, no longer live updating, and require an iTunes sync for the *iTunes version* of the Smart Playlist to update itself.
Was this the case with previous non-iPhone OS devices? Do current nano's Live Update while on the device itself??