Temporary Fix for Smart Playlist order bug

Doesn't solve the problem for me, TGB. Tried moving my podcasts into a new smart playlist, then sync the original smart playlist (now pointing at the new one) to my phone. Still doesn't preserve the proper order. Oddly, it's only my podcast playlist doing this, not my "smart shuffle" music playlist.

Worked great for me, thanks!

I have a smart playlist that includes checked audio podcast episodes (I have a separate one for videos: it's a waste to have videos play while I'm driving for example). iOS 5 screwed up the order.

Call my original playlist PLAY1. I just created a new playlist PLAY2 which includes anything that is in PLAY1. Then in PLAY2 I can drag the order around to where I want, and it is preserved on the iDevice. In PLAY1 the order is not preserved on sync.

Just to recap:

Once I've played episodes I go back to iTunes and uncheck them: they disappear on the next sync. I arrange the order for all sorts of reasons: Quirks and Quarks stuffs up the segment order and I have to drag them back into line, I arrange music episodes together so I can put the iDevice on 1x speed for those but I listen to most others on 2x speed (changing backwards and forwards with intermingled tracks would be the pits), etc.

Thats how I've had my podcasts arranged for a few years now. Since they introduced this bug the first (or second?) time... (I've been doing this since Gen 2 iPod, Gen 3 iPod, iTouch and now iPhone.) About once a year or so this gets broken.

To recap what I have:

• 1st playlist with selected podcasts matched as album name is xxx, limited to 5gb selected by most recently added, live updating enabled.
• 2nd playlist includes the first playlist and adds only the condition that playcount = 0, limited to 5gb selected by most recently added, live updating enabled.

Since ios5 this has not worked. Tried disabling live updating and changing the sort... Nothing changes. Just get the podcasts in order added.

Well I have tried this suggestion and every other one I have found. Unlike in the past, none of the suggestions seem to work for me. So silly that after 5 years Apple can't get this one right. I mean, really.

Yeap - this is a repeat of an old bug that keeps creeping back in every time it get's fixed. That work around does work - I had forgotten about it so Mucho Grasis for posting. I can live with this.

--Mickey

The workaround doesn't work for me. I thought I had it fixed but as soon as I added more music it got all messed up again.

Another interesting data point to consider.

I plugged in my old 3rd Gen iPod and my non-updated (to ios 5) iPod Touch today and got them synced.

Both of them continue to present my sorted playlists correctly.

So this problem is most definitely related to the Music app in ios5. It is NOT related to iTunes 5.

Considering backing out ios 5 on my iPhone until they rev ios again. The benefits (on a 3gs) don't exceed the hassle at this point.

This was the original workaround when this first occurred in iPhone OS 3 (from memory)

and it still works in iOS 5.

The key is that you need to sort the newly created Smart playlist with the sort order you require

and then this will be transferred to the iPod Touch/iPhone when it is synched.

It is slightly disappointing that this bug has resurfaced in iOS 5 and hopefully a fix will be

deployed soon.

Regards,

Thirsty of North Sydney

Uncheck Live Upate for each Smart PLaylist - resync.

Where effort of work is directly proportional to the number of smart playlists you have.

Your mileage will vary with the Nest playlist of playlists.

Correct - Uncheck LIve Update does defeat the purpose of Smart lists - but better to have the correct order than songs listed with gay abandon.

Thank you.

(As per tradition - history - when a fix is out - you can re-check Live Update - with out any other changes.

FWIW you can manually update the Smart list if you are aware of adding. (Again - depends on how many you have).

Cheers.

I'm sorry but none of these suggested fixes work, including sort before sync, media kind as music, not referring to other smart playlists, turning live update off, setting Play Order; nothing worked. Plus, on large smart playlists (2000+ songs), not only were they not ordered correctly but the phone (4S no less) pauses 20 seconds to think every time you go into the playlist after a sync.

In fact the only "fix" for me was Apple's last suggestion in their KB article on the subject of smart playlists not syncing in order: in iTunes select my smart playlist, then select all, then make a new playlist (using I believe Edit/New Playlist) based on that selection (which is now not smart), order as needed and sync. It works great but of course the list is now is non-self-updating and I have to manually update it when I add new songs. Not a big deal but still a pain.

For me, order is critical only on my Recently Added playlist, so I went manual with that one. The others I tend to shuffle so the lack of ordering isn't as big of a deal.

If you are trying to sort by 'Date Added', try adding 'Date Modified' to your playlists and sort. Not perfect but works in most cases until they fix this bug. Come on Apple this is rediculous.

That worked for me and is just what I needed! Thanks.

That worked! Thanks for getting my favorite playlist back into use. I was going crazy without it.

"Date added" sort order for a smart playlist for recently added music by, e.g. newest first, has never worked when syncing to iDevices (iD). This tip from TechGeekBlogger is simple and works!

I have a "mother" smart playlist in iTunes with "kind is music", "data added is in the last x months", etc. Then I created a "sister" smart playlist with the only rule being "playlist is [mother]". I set iTunes to sync this "sister" playlist to my iD's, instead of the "mother", and the sort order is exaclty as I have it set in the mother smart playlist!

Of course the only thing to remember is that you have to manually select each playlist from iTunes to sync to your iD, but that's a small, one-off step compared to the endless irritation of iTunes not preserving the "date added" sort order!

[Curiously, sorting a smart playlist by any other field in iTunes, e.g. artist, does transfer correctly to the iD.]