"Show in playlist" not working?

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"Show in playlist" not working?

Does the (right-click) "Show in playlist" feature list all playlists a song is in?

If I start playing a playlist and click on a song I get only "music" and "best tunes by artist". After reading around on here it seems I should see a list of all playlists the song is in. Or does it not show the current playlist, meaning I would only see another playlist if it was not the current playing playlist? Is it another case of the default setting being wrong? How do you turn it on?

After spending 2-3 weeks painfully migrating to iTunes, the lack of even basic music management capability is killing me, but this feature would at least be something.

MacBook Pro 17", Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Dec 8, 2010 9:24 AM

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Answer 1

varjak paw

Level 10

182,686 points

Dec 8, 2010 9:38 AM in response to delu

Or does it not show the current playlist, meaning I would only see another playlist if it was not the current playing playlist?

That is correct; at least, it's the same way on my system. It shows you the other playlists the song is in. I can only guess that Apple's iTunes programmers presumed that you'd already know that the track was in the playlist you have selected. If you want to see all the playlists a given track is in, find the track in the full Music library list, then select Show Playlists.

the lack of even basic music management capability is killing me

iTunes has a lot of music management capability. What is it that you're trying to accomplish that you think you can't now? Perhaps there's a way to do it that you're just not finding.

Regards.

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

278,297 points

Dec 8, 2010 11:16 AM in response to delu

I suspect that *Show in playlist* is a trifle ambiguous. Is it a way to instruct iTunes to show the selected track in a new playlist or does it list which playlists the track is already shown in (in addition to the current one). The former action is achieved by *Add to playlist* while the latter describes the actual function.

*Shown in playlist* would make more sense...

tt2

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Answer 3

delu Author

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Dec 8, 2010 1:46 PM in response to varjak paw

Thanks for the responses. Indeed, in the (massive) full music listing I can see ALL playlists it is in.

Part of the problem is that you don't always know what playlist you are playing if you have been editing or moving around the library, hence a full list of all playlists would be better, by probably not critical for a player.

-----

As for management capability, iTunes is functionally light compared to other music management apps. I had typed a very long list of issues, but they're not your problems and you have been very helpful with the 'show in playlist' issue.

But as you asked, in short, with iTunes you can't sync playlists with non-Apple devices (most notably the flashdisks in my new car), can't play 20% of my tunes (FLAC, WMA, OGG, etc.), can't import songs into playlists with some foreign characters (even though it let them into the library), can't manage the music folders/location on the harddisk making workflows for adding large numbers of tunes for fixing very problematic, can't export multiple playlists, each M3U files need editing before importing into other media player, can't standardize views for all playlists, hard to identify songs needing fixing (artwork, artist name, album details, etc.), can't customize blue-gray look and feel, there is no 'now playing' window showing the tunes queued so can't create mixes on the fly, album art searching limited to iTunes shop with no ability to edit query (exact match or fail), can't sort songs on file/folder location, can't easily jump from a song to view all by the artist or rest of album, no lyrics window, no lyrics searching tool, no community of app/script developers to fill out functionality, can barely see what is now playing in top window giving the song title and artist (a 5 point font I suspect), can't see next songs queued to play (or add songs to be played on the fly), etc.

-----

I now realize that you have to use iTunes or nothing works on a Mac (no iMovie, no iPhoto, no FrontRow, etc.). I struggled for months managing my music through a Win7 VM app, but I admit defeat (although I still need the Win7 music app to sync my weekly podcasts 'cos iTunes can't). So I trade-off openness & functionality for being able to do basic home computing - trading not being able to sync music to devices or easily add & fix large numbers of music files, for being able to use iMovies, Aperture, FrontRow, etc. I'll add small numbers of songs for the kids, but my growing 3,000+ waiting-list songs will have to wait even longer. I just wish iTunes had a big brother like iPhoto has Aperture, or iMovie has FinalCut. Unless there are plans for an iTunes+ in the pipeline???

Sorry for the long moan, thanks again for your quick and helpful responses.

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Answer 4

turingtest2

Level 10

278,297 points

Dec 8, 2010 2:06 PM in response to delu

Might be worth a visit to http://dougscripts.com/itunes/ to see if any of the scripts there would prove useful though they're not going to help with the unsupported media formats or playlist/character import problems.

This tweak might help you get from an existing song to others by the same artist or from the same album.

tt2

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Answer 5

varjak paw

Level 10

182,686 points

Dec 8, 2010 2:15 PM in response to delu

Part of the problem is that you don't always know what playlist you are playing if you have been editing or moving around the library

Control-click/right-click in the Now Playing window and select "Go to Current Song". That will jump to and select the playlist currently playing.

Some of your other comments do have solutions:

can't manage the music folders/location on the harddisk making workflows for adding large numbers of tunes for fixing very problematic

Apple's design philosophy is to let iTunes manage the track files; most users don't want and don't need to be burdened with file organization. But Apple's provided a solution for those of you who want to manage the file organization yourself. Uncheck the option to Copy Files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library" in the iTunes Advanced preferences, as well as the "Keep iTunes Media Folder Organized" option. Then you can organize your music in folders however you wish; you just use the "add to library" command to get them into iTunes.

can't export multiple playlists
Perhaps there would be something on Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes that would work for you.

there is no 'now playing' window showing the tunes queued so can't create mixes on the fly

Have you checked out iTunes DJ?

album art searching limited to iTunes shop

You can get album art from many places, and there are utilities to automate it. Just do a web search for "iTunes album art" and you'll find a lot of information.

no community of app/script developers to fill out functionality

Sure there is. Start with the aforementioned Doug's AppleScripts. There are also sites dedicated to AppleScripting, as well as a forum for AppleScript here in the Discussions.

can't see next songs queued to play (or add songs to be played on the fly), etc.

See the aforementioned iTunes DJ.

I now realize that you have to use iTunes or nothing works on a Mac (no iMovie, no iPhoto, no FrontRow, etc.).

This I have no idea what you mean. iMovie and iPhoto do not depend on iTunes, though they can have direct access to the iTunes library for audio tracks. I'd need additional information on what you mean before I could comment further.

As to your other comments, some I agree with and some would matter not at all to me (and someone more familiar with tagging may be able to address that particular comment). No one solution is ideal for everyone, and iTunes certainly has areas where it could be improved. If you have suggestions, you can send them to Apple through the iTunes feedback page. There's no guarantee Apple will implement any suggestion you make -they have millions of uses to consider, after all - but they do listen.

Regards.

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Answer 6

delu Author

Level 1

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Dec 10, 2010 11:45 AM in response to varjak paw

Thanks Dave.

I have checked out the Doug Scripts and there are a few things there that may help. I guess Apple don't permit much 'open' development to keep control and lock-in, but I hope to discover other utilities.

I understand the Mac trying to insulate people from the files and directory structures, and I of course do not let iTunes 'manage' my files. I suppose that is why the Finder is so lightweight - Apple don't want you to navigate the harddrive (anyone found a decent replacement for Finder? PathFinder is a small step up but still only marginally more useful than a command line).

The biggest issue is that I use a folder structure (in Music folder) to hold all tunes not yet fixed or in need of splitting (art, names, titles, genres, etc.) before playlisting and rating. With iTunes, this ain't possible meaning you have to read files in before fixing and playlisting. This is fine when adding a song or two, but how do you do it for many songs? I know you can order on 'recently added', but when you have 2000 recently added songs it becomes unmanageable and impossible to find stuff. The result is I have a backlog of 2-3000 songs waiting to be added which may have to wait till I upgrade in a year or so before I can hear them.

I will look closer at iTunes DJ. I assumed it was one of those lame 'suggest songs like this' utilities, but it seems to be more of a temp playlist which could be useful for creating CD mixes.

These iTunes gripes are the least of my worries, its inability to work effectively in an office (windows and Msft ExchangeServer) environment has cost me many days of work (self-employed). But because everything in a Mac centres around using iTunes (no music in iMovie or iPhoto or AppleTV, or FrontRow without it), I can either use a Windows music management player through VMware and sync my playlists, or use iTunes and be unable to sync or easily add much music (but at least hobby/home computing is possible).

Thanks again for your help and support, appreciated. The lack of support with Macs from the stores is quite appalling.

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Answer 7

turingtest2

Level 10

278,297 points

Dec 10, 2010 1:01 PM in response to delu

One trick I use is to "tag" files with the Grouping field. For example you could import everything on your drive that is currently unchecked, sort the libray by date added order, and then tag the recent imports as Unchecked. A couple of smart playlists later...

Checked = *Match all rules, Playlist is Music and Grouping contains "Unchecked"* and
Unchecked = *Match all rules, Playlist is Music and Grouping does not contain "Unchecked"*

and you'll have your unchecked stuff at hand when you want it. Once created you can also select all the tracks in Unchecked and uncheck them, just to make sure they're not played or put on your iPod until you've had a chance to deal with them.

Smart playlists also make it easy to gather up tracks with, for example, no album artist, artwork, or containing words you'd like to replace, such as Ft. with Feat.

It sounds like your folder structure probably contains meaninful data not yet in the tags. I'm fairly sure I've seen one of Doug's scripts that can copy the path into say the Comments field if this would be useful.

Just in case you're not already aware of some of iTunes organisational quirks I'd also suggest a quick look at my article on Grouping Tracks Into Albums.

tt2

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