Bug: iOS 5 and iTunes 10.5 podcast smart playlist sort order and how to fix.

Okay I added the rule verdi1987and Thank you its working once again! 🙂

Just checked my iPad2 and it does look like it has been resolved. Have to re-sync my iPhone 4. I hope this does it.

Updated the os to 5.1 and iTunes to 10.6. One of them fixed the problem.

I have updated my phone and iTunes but my podcast playlist are still not right. Is anyone that has seen the updates fix the issue using iTunes Match. I am and I wonder if that is what's breaking things. I do see weird things like my podcast playlist folder listed twice and my video podcast play list shows up as well. It is empty on the phone because I don't sync those, but is there none the less when it shouldn't be. I am still using the shadow playlist trick which works except that it doesn't remove the podcast from the list after they've been played like it should. I can't believe Apple has left one of the original basic features broken for so long.

These problems are becoming common place ie Safari memory leaks, the music player on the iPad, iTunes bloat, etc.

My smart playlist issue is fixed on my iPad2 but not on my iPhone 4.

Very frustrating.

So, I've tried several of the tips above.

I loaded a 5 disc audiobook set into my itunes today, and it's been a nightmare getting the smart playlist to work.

I've even re-numbered all of the tracks, and came up with fail.

So, yet another email sent to apple support (aka apple trash folder) to be ignored.

It's been since October and they still don't have a fix. Very frustrating.

Hi Kurt, this thread is primarily about organising podcasts.

See Audiobooks on iPods for an article that should explain why renumbering has no effect and how to use playlists as a workaround.

tt2

Still no fix with the 5.1.1 update today. Guess we'll have to keep waiting.

Since I updated to 5 and updated to itunes 10.6, I haven't really had any more problems. Well, at least not the problems I was having with sort order.

I primarily use my iPhone 4s to listen to podcasts. On iTunes I sort them by Release Date and "in the old days" - before iCloud - the podcasts would stay in the same order when sync'd to the phone.

However, once iCloud was released this old bug cropped up again. It's frustrating Apple hasn't found the time or resources to fix the problem.

My favorite fix is the smart playlist within a smart playlist. Both playlists are live and automatically update. The child playlist is the only one that sync's to the phone and it remembers the iTunes sort order.

Alexander Wehr wrote:

...

workaround update: limit to must be turned on, set it to an absurdly high number if you don't want to actually limit the playlist, then one of the sortby options in that submenu will work. The live update checkbox is irrelevant from experimentation.

...

This solved my problem

I don't get what the purpose of having the "sorting" tab under "Get Info" when you right click a podcast if this does not have any influence over the sequence that the podcasts appear and play on the iphone. Anything else seems to be a workaround for a bug.....

Nothing has worked for me thus far. Wishfully thinking that when iOS6 comes out with its own podcast app all our current woes will go away. http://www.mobilenapps.com/articles/2665/20120616/podcasts-app-ios-6.htm

It appears that this problem has been fixed in one of the recent updates to itunes and/or iOS. As far as I can tell, the sorting of the playlist in iTunes is now directly reflected on devices in the same way. No need to have duplicate playlist workarounds anymore. The only thing I've noticed is that if you change the sort order on a playlist, sometimes it doesn't reflect it on the device right away after syncing. The way I've found to force the new sort order to show on the device is to quit the music app on the device (double click home button, press and hold music app, then press the red negative sign) and then restart it. The playlists should reload with the new sort order.