Recently Added smart playlist won't show songs in correct album order

There are several things to be taken into consideration.

The latest iPod Touch has a Recently Added section below the Music/Library headings. Drag the screen upwards to find it. This Recently Added section is an improvement over the old Recently Added Playlist (which I'll come to in a moment), in that it will list the album tracks in the correct order.

However, I suspect that you mean that you have created your own Recently Added Smart Playlist and that list is in alphabetical order. You can rearrange the order of the Smart Playlist.

Look at the list in your iTunes Library. Here's mine, View/View As/Songs:

The section between the two orange arrows is the Name field. Notice the upward pointing arrow in that field. This means that the list is being sorted on that field (that is, by name, therefore alphabetically). Notice also that item number 3 in the list is a song by Don Covay. To put the list in the order of the songs on the album, and keep the Don Covay album together, change the sort order by clicking on the column headers.

I clicked on the top of the number column (ringed in orange on the left of the list). Notice though, that while the Don Covay tracks are all listed together, they are in reverse track order. To change it, simply click on the column header again to reverse the order.

You may need to select the option to Copy to Play Order, by right-clicking on the Playlist and selecting Copy to Play Order from the pop-up menu in order for it to be accurately listed this way on your iPod. That's not an option I've had a need for, so I haven't used it. However, from other discussions here I think this is what you may have to do.

A couple of things. This has effect no on the listing order on the iPod.

Do you mean Copy to Play Order? I was under the impression that that is precisely what it does. Perhaps I've been misinformed.

I guess I just can't have a smart playlist the lists tracks in album order but also lists albums in the order they were purchased withe west at the top. There was a time you could do this.

The purchase date field is only completed for iTunes Store purchases, so sorting on that field would not work unless every song was from the store. Even if all your music was purchased from the iTunes Store, you cannot - and (as as far as I recall) have never been able to sort on two separate fields at the same time.

However, there are still things you can do. If you have the Smart Playlist sorted by the leftmost column (the numbered column in my third screenshot of my previous post), you can then move songs to the order you prefer, by dragging.

Let's address the points you've raised.

A. I didn't find Copy to Play Order to do anything, but maybe I didn't play with it long enough.

B. All my music at this point is purchased

C. I really shouldn't have to drag or sort anything for what I want. I bought an album; add the album to the playlist. Why is it putting it alphabetical order?

A. Copy to Play Order: Try it again.

B. Purchased music: to be specific, I stated "music purchased from the iTunes Store". If you purchase music from any other outlet, it will not have a purchase date in the Purchase Date field

C. List order: I believe I explained this, carefully. I'll re-cap and expand on it - and let you know about yet another option, which may actually suit you better

First, in iTunes, when you create a Smart Playlist, if iTunes doesn't arrange it the way you want, all you have to do is make a one-time setup change and I have explained how you do that.

I did notice what you wrote - that you shouldn't have to drag or sort anything to get what you want. Really? Are you joking? iTunes makes it easy for you to create a list that does exactly what you want (by allowing you to tweak the Smart Playlist yourself) and all you do is moan about it. By your rules, I shouldn't have to be here explaining to you how to do this. But I am. And so you know, I am not an Apple employee, I'm an iPod user, trying to help others get the best from their iPod. I don't get paid to be here - I do it to help people like you.

Back to the matter in hand. Next - on your iPod, you can create on-the-fly Playlists. This means that should you decide, while out and about, that you want to listen to your four most recently purchased albums, you can create a Playlist there and then.

• if you look in the iPod Touch's Recently Added section (which is below the music Library menu), you will find each album separately listed and the songs in the correct order. I did mention this before, and stated that it's an improvement over the old Recently Added Playlist that iTunes used to create (similar to the one you created) because it keeps the songs in the correct track order. You can tap-and-hold any album title in this Recently Added section on your iPod and a pop-up menu appears. One item on the menu is Add to a Playlist. If you select that you get the option to create a new Playlist. Once done, you can add the other three albums to the same list. Job done.
• if you go into the album list and tap-and-hold any album title, the same Add to a Playlist option appears. Once again, it will add the album with the songs in the correct order.

Forget what happened before, mainly because it's not happening now. If you find that iCloud makes your life more difficult, then why are you using it? I don't. Likewise, if you're buying music, then why do you need Apple Music? If those things are making life more complicated for you, don't use them.