Smart Playlists Scrambled

I can't believe that Apple has yet again released an update that breaks Smart Playlists.

I am having the same exact problem. Hopefully Apple will address this issue soon!

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.

Me too. Un frikkin' believable. It looks like the same bug that they fixed earlier (after making us wait a year or so for the fix), and now it's back again. Doesn't anybody test smart playlists at Apple?

After many different attempts to do things like restore from a 4.0 based backup, setup as a new device, create playlist referencing that playlist that is not sorted properly, copying the to play order, and all of the other things mentioned like unchecking the live update option; I am still stuck with not so smart playlists.

what i have done when having an iphone 3gs with this issue - i made a duplicate playlist - updated it myself, to fix the issue until it was resolved. although it was very annoying, at least i had my music how i wanted it.

I experienced the same problem with Ipod Touch 3G. Itunes would display the smart playlist as desired but the Ipod would display the list as if the shuffle mode had been used.

Something to try: Edit the smart playlist and notice that the default value for the "selected by" option is "random". I selected the "name" value and unchecked the "Limit to" option. When I synched the Ipod again, the playlists were sorted by the name which is exactly how they are displayed in Itunes and how I wanted them to be played. Other values listed in the "selected by" option may work for how you want the playlist to be processed on your device.

It's possible that even though the "Limit to" option is unchecked, the "selected by" value is still being used by the synch process.

No matter what the cause, Boo on Apple.

SOLUTION

Apparently the bug seems to be that the Music app does not understand the "To Play Order".

The current work around is to edit the playlist to limit to xxxxx number of items selected by Most Recently Added (or however you want it sorted, though it seems it is only a problem showing the newest on top).

From what I have seen so far, there is no max number of items to limit it to. I personally set mine to 5,000 items, that way I can make sure everything is synced and not capped by the item limitation.

I went ahead and duplicated this working playlist, then removed the item limitation (which also removes the "selected by" portion of the criteria), and as I expected it went back to how it was previously and did not display properly.

When looking at the playlist on my iPhone through iTunes, by viewing it on the sidebar, I noticed it displays properly; which leads me to believe it is not iTunes, but definitely the MobileMusic Player app on iOS 5.0.

Additionally: You may need to change the ussage of "Playlist" to "Mediakind". Please see the images below. You can get the sub criteria rules by holding down the option key when clicking the + button.

Update: I found that if I highlighted the column title that was the desired value used to sort the playlist, after the sync the playlist on the device player matched the order that was displayed by Itunes and the Device listing.

Scenario: I needed the playlist to be sorted by Name. Smart playlist "A" showed the correct order on both the Itunes and the Device playlist listing but the order on the device player was wrong. On the Itunes display for "A" I noticed that the Artist column was highlighted. I selected the Name column. The track order did NOT change. However, after syncing all the track listings for playlist A in Itunes, the Device, AND the device player all matched and were in the desired order.

One may have to make sure that the desired sort order column in the Smart Playlist is selected before a sync even if the tracks appear in the correct order without changing the highlighted column.

I tested this several times and always got the desired results as long as the sort column was selected correctly.

Selecting the sync column did not work for me even when creating a new playlist. Did it work for anybody else? I am wondering if everyone has the EXACT same bug here.

Add rule "Playlist is Music."

Solved - Smart Playlist not sorting correctly when synced to iOS Device. Here is the fix I created that works for my iTunes and iOS Device. None of the other solutions worked for me until I figured this out on my own using the two playlist solution below.

I'm using iTunes 10.7 and iOS 5.1.1. I suspect this will work with all versions of iTunes and iOS.

The problem:

Smart Playlist "order" is not maintained when iTunes is synced to an iOS device.

The fix:

Two Smart Playlists are required to fix the problem. Playlist A will contain all your criteria and selections, ordered as you want it with live updating enabled.

Playlist B is the list you'll sync to your iOS device once it is configured properly, also with live updating enabled.

Playlist A

1. Create your Smart Playlist and be sure to enable "Live Updating" by clicking to the left, inside the box.
2. Click the OK button when finished and be sure to sort the playlist by the column of your choice (the way you want it to be ordered on your iOS device.)
3. Once completed, right click on Playlist A from the Playlists column on the left within iTunes and choose "Copy to Play Order" from the menu.

Playlist B

1. Just 1 rule - "Playlist" "is" "Playlist A" (the one you just created above).
2. Enable "Live Updating" by clicking to the left, inside the box. All other boxes remain at default settings and unchecked (empty boxes).
3. Click the OK button when finished.
4. Sort Playlist B using the column of your choice (the way you want it ordered on your iOS device.)
5. Once sorted, right click on "Playlist B" from the Playlists column to the left within iTunes and choose "Copy to Play Order".

That's it!

Let's Sync!

With your iOS device connected to your PC, select the device from the list within iTunes and make sure Playlist B is selected so that content gets synced to your device along with any other lists you may have.

There is no need to sync Playlist A.

Just make sure you don't remove Playlist A, as Playlist B is strictly based on Playlist A.

Both lists have "live updating" enabled, so they'll auto update as they should.

Good luck! Let me know how it goes!

😉