How to access Recently Added playlists in Music on Mac?

Question

How to access Recently Added playlists in Music on Mac?

In Music on iOS, I can navigate to Library and the Recently Added section shows albums as well as playlists.

In Music on Mac, Library > Recently Added shows albums only.

My recently added playlists, instead, appear to get nested in the Playlists section in the side nav, alongside old playlists and playlists I manually crafted back in the day of iTunes.

Why the different functionality across platforms?

And is there any way I can replicate the iOS behaviour on Mac? often, when I want to listen to a playlist while I'm working on my Mac, I won't remember the playlist's name and I have no way of confidently finding it... unless I go and check on my phone.

Any ideas? thanks

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.6

Posted on Aug 14, 2022 6:24 PM

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Answer 1

ed2345

Level 9

63,794 points

Aug 15, 2022 5:17 PM in response to heykraizelburd

Hey Heykraize,

Playlists in the Music app do not have any timestamp or indication of date of creation, so there is not really a way to do what you want. Once a playlist is created it gets placed according to the alphanumeric sorting rules, which have nothing to do with date created.

One thing that might ease your situation is to put your "ripe" playlists into folders, so the list of playlists not in folders will be short and you can find your newest one(s) easily,

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Answer 2

ed2345

Level 9

63,794 points

Aug 16, 2022 4:44 AM in response to heykraizelburd

Your observation is correct. To the frustration of some folks, there are very limited tools for managing playlists in Music on Mac (or iTunes), one limitation among many being that you cannot select multiple lists.

So the way to do it is

One.

At.

A.

Time.

If you want to provide feedback directly to Apple, you can use this link: Product Feedback - Apple

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Answer 3

Aug 15, 2022 1:12 PM in response to heykraizelburd

Howdy heykraizelburd,

Thanks for posting in the Apple Support Communities.

When viewing the recently added playlist on your Mac, are you able to open the album artwork to see if all songs of the album are listed or only the songs added from that album? You may see the album shown, but it could only include certain songs of that album so let us know what you find.

As for the playlists that are available on your Mac, they should sync with your iPhone as long as you have Sync Library enabled. To check this, take a look at the steps below for Mac and you can find additional steps here: Turn on Sync Library with Apple Music - Apple Support

On your Mac

1. Open the Apple Music app.

2. From the menu bar at the top of your screen, choose Music > Preferences.

3. Go to the General tab and select Sync Library to turn it on. If you don't subscribe to Apple Music or iTunes Match, you won’t see an option to turn on Sync Library.

4. Click OK.

In addition, check out the following resource for more information on playlists with your Mac to see if this may provide more details on what you're seeing: Intro to playlists in Music on Mac - Apple Support

We hope that's able to help, and let us know what you find if not.

Have a great day!

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Answer 4

Aug 15, 2022 3:40 PM in response to Brandon_J_321

Hi Brandon_J_321

Many thanks for your reply, but I'm not sure you understood my initial post.

My Library is of course synced between iPhone and Mac, since any new albums I add to my Library when I'm on my phone do appear in my Library on my Mac, as described.

Also, when you ask me to view the "recently added playlist on your Mac", I'm not sure how this is relevant? the only "recently added playlist" I have is a Smart playlist that, yes, features all songs from recently added albums (FWIW: I rarely add individual ~songs~ to my library).

But my query is not about the "recently added playlist" – it's about finding Apple Playlists that I have recently added.

These playlists – eg. Vol de Nuit – appear on my phone's Music app in Library > Recently Added.

But when I navigate to "Recently Added" on my Mac (which is the first category nested in Library in the sidebar), Recently Added here only shows albums – no playlists. No Vol de Nuit, for example...

= a different behaviour on Mac vs iOS.

Instead, Vol de Nuit is now nested in the Playlists section in the sidebar, nested amongst over 100 playlists there (a bunch of genius playlists, then smart playlists, then standard playlists – many of which I have crafted manually, a bunch that I have added from Apple).

Often, I won't remember the name of a playlist I have recently added – which is easy enough to access on my phone via Library > Recently Added, but becomes impossible to access on my Mac.

Hope this makes sense. Let me know if you need some screenshots.

Thanks again

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Answer 5

Aug 15, 2022 5:22 PM in response to ed2345

Thanks ed2345.

Just to be clear, when you write "Playlists in the Music app do not have any timestamp", you're just talking about Music on Mac, right? because they clearly do in iOS... since playlists DO appear in "Recently Added" on iOS.

which is why I'm surprised it works one way on mobile and another way on my laptop.

Hopefully this can be ~corrected~. it's just a bizarre bifurcation of behaviour, to me.

Thanks again

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Answer 6

Aug 15, 2022 5:31 PM in response to ed2345

Also, while we're here...

I've just tried moving a bunch of playlists into a folder, but it seems I can only do this ONE AT A TIME via the sidebar?!?

Am I missing something? this is insane.

I have HUNDREDS of playlists in my side bar.

I opened up "All Playlists" and assumed I could multi-select there and move into the folder in question – but no such functionality.

Any ideas? thanks ed2345

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Answer 7

ed2345

Level 9

63,794 points

Aug 16, 2022 4:40 AM in response to heykraizelburd

Thanks ed2345.

Just to be clear, when you write "Playlists in the Music app do not have any timestamp", you're just talking about Music on Mac, right?

Yes, that is about Music on Mac.

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How to access Recently Added playlists in Music on Mac?

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