Smart playlist auto-update

Question

Smart playlist auto-update

I was an avid iPod user before I switched over to the iPhone 3GS. One of my favorite features of the iPod was that smart playlists would update themselves without needing to synch to iTunes.
I don't like listening to the same songs over and over again, so I have my smart playlists organized by "least recently played". I would play a song and as soon as it was finished, it would be removed from the smart playlist. This worked great with the iPod, but the iPhone doesn't seem to be able to duplicate this. Am I missing something here? Thanks.

iPhone 3GS OS4.2, Windows 2000

Posted on Jan 12, 2011 11:36 AM

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Answer 1

Sboq

Level 2

430 points

Jan 12, 2011 1:16 PM in response to Michael Trinh

i was having the same issue as well, and if you look at this discussion, you will see a workaround that is still working for me.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2698673&tstart=0

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Answer 2

Jan 12, 2011 1:37 PM in response to Sboq

I read that link and I don't think that workaround would apply to me because the smart playlist I'm using now is not determined by how many plays. I will try to adjust the rules by "play date" and see if that works. Thanks.

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Answer 3

Jan 12, 2011 7:19 PM in response to Michael Trinh

Allow me to be super specific about the problem I have with auto-update smart playlist since I couldn't find a similar problem. I created a "dumb" or fixed playlist. I then created a smart list linked to the "dumb" list limiting it by 50 songs by Least Recently Played. The smart playlist is also sorted by Lest Recently Played. Both playlists are on my iPhone. When I play the first song on the smart list to completion, the smart playlist doesn't update to rotate the next song on the list to the top position. This always worked on my iPod nano. What else do I have to do to make the smart playlist update without having to sync it to iTunes?

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Answer 4

Sboq

Level 2

430 points

Jan 13, 2011 7:08 AM in response to Michael Trinh

sadly, it doesn't work like that. i have no idea why, i've wanted it myself ever since i got my first iPhone, and the solution that i linked to is the ONLY thing that has worked for me.

do you listen to all of your music, or are there only certain songs that you want added to the list?

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Answer 5

Jan 13, 2011 8:31 AM in response to Sboq

That is rather disappointing that a feature that works on the iPod isn't carried over to the iPhone. I keep hoping it would be with each OS update. The auto-update feature was so helpful in preventing me from hearing the same songs over and over again without the need to syncing to iTunes. I guess the iPhone is only 99% perfect.

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Answer 6

Dalar005

Level 1

0 points

Feb 17, 2011 8:37 AM in response to Michael Trinh

I just got my iPod Touch 4th gen and I'm disappointed there doesn't seem to be a way to fix this. My old iPod would update a 'not recently heard' playlist on the go preventing me from trying to sync every day with iTunes. You would think that a new model would be able to do the same. Hopefully this gets addressed in a future iOS update.

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Answer 7

Jun 4, 2011 8:42 AM in response to Michael Trinh

Been tinkering with "smart" playlists since my 3g iPhone; never had an iPod. There was a lovely time when the temporary smart list worked perfectly - a song or music video would play once, drop off the list, no repeating ad nauseam, didn't have to worry about play counts either. Now I'm on 4g OS 4.3.3 - cannot figure it out for the life of me. Only way I can even part way handle it now is to keep upping the play # "plays is <than 16" then the lists still don't function until I switch to another list. Maybe I'll try tweaking everything again - live updating, whatever; I guess something has to keep me busy.

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