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

There seems to be a bug in iOS 5 and iTunes 10.5 involving the sort order of a smart playlist of podcasts. I created such a playlist and sorted by release date on iTunes but I noticed it had a different sort order on the iPod Touch.


After playing around with it a bit I found that the only way to preserve the sort order that I have in iTunes on the iPod Touch is to uncheck "Live Updating" in the smart playlist.

Posted on Oct 11, 2011 12:31 PM

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105 replies

Oct 12, 2011 4:59 AM in response to Depths of One

yup, that's what i found out aswell... but there's one more thing. apparently the configuration of your smart playlist is crutial aswell. only if live updating is unchecked and (even though unckeched) the "limit to..." option is set to random, the smart playlist of your iOS 5 device is the same as on iTunes.


live updating worked so well with iOS4, bit frustrating it's not working anymore and you have to synch to get the playlist uptodate. hoped they'll fix it with the GM but unfortunately not...


btw, if you check live updating, the used sorting option is the one used for the "limit to ..."

Oct 12, 2011 11:53 PM in response to Depths of One

I'm having the same issue with my 3GS. I've tried disabling Live Update, but nothing. My smart playlist order is still screwed up. The closest I can come to is arranging it by Date Added. But no matter how the smart playlist is arranged by date within iTunes, the order is in reserves with the lasted additions always at the bottom of the playlist within my Music app.

Oct 13, 2011 2:16 AM in response to Depths of One

Confirming this incredibly annoying bug. Basic list sorting not working... real bottom shelf work apple.


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 workaround does NOT fix the fundamental problem: sort order from itunes in smart playlists is not being synced and preserved in ios5 devices.


This is the latest in a long string of debacles which is making me seriously consider swapping to debian stable. (snow leopard to lion was a severe downgrade in performance for anyone doing heavy multitasking.. scheduling is FUBAR... when a command option escape beachballs on a brand new core 17 machine, your OS has serious problems with nice levels)

Oct 13, 2011 3:54 AM in response to Depths of One

I want to mirror that I am definitely encountering and affected by this bug. I thought it ewas just podcast related, but all smart playlists have the wrong order when synced to my 3GS on iOS5. All of mine are being sorted on date. Some are in reverse order. Some are in a seemingly random order that I cannot work out what the pattern is.


The "live updating" checkbox trick does NOT seem to fix it for me... and even if it did, that would completely defeat the purpose of how I use smart playlists, the content of which is changing on a constant basis.


Any fix from Apple or trick in iTunes that anyone else discovers to get it working again would be greatly appreciated.

Oct 13, 2011 4:13 AM in response to Jim Bridges1

No solution, but perhaps another clue as to what is going on.


In playing with the smart playlists, the track order seems to be affected by the "Limit to XX selected by <<selection criteria>>", even if the Limit check box is not clicked. The selection criteria very definitely has an effect on how the playlist order syncs even when supposedly disabled. It appears there is something more going on here, but it's the closest I have come to being able to figure out what might be happening.

Oct 13, 2011 4:57 AM in response to Jim Bridges1

I can't seem to find any rhyme or reason to the sort order. After fooling around with some sample playlists, it doesn't make much sense. The sort order on the iPod Touch playlist is not reproducible in iTunes sometimes. I'd get albums sorted by album title, but the tracks within each album were random. Or, sorted by artist, tracks within each artist seemed random. In other words, there's some strange sorting criteria going on that really needs to be fixed.

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

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