In iTunes Match, why are Smart Playlists messed up?

That sounds like it was a cache issue, so changeing the names made it refresh. I bet you could change them back and they will work now.

Dudes. I figured out how to fix it with no work around. In the smart playlist choose live updating. fixed!

I always had live updating enabled. So, that was not a fix. I'm glad things are working for you now (as they are for many of us), but live updating was unrelated to the original problem most of us were experiencing at the time.

Not to jump on your stuff, but when this discussion first started, back when icloud first came out, having Live Updating on was exactly the problem....at the time.

Glad everyone else's problems are also fixed. Apologies I misunderstood the problems others had. Mine was that all my existing smart lists became empty after iTunes Match was enabled.

Well, Steve Jobs is dead, and they fired Scott Forstall, so nobody cares about the quality of the products anymore. They are now just like every other tech corporation that is just a mass of personal politics that churns out mediocre hardware and software. I've been an Apple user for a while now, but since the death of Jobs, I've noticed that the quality of the software has slowly declined. Without the allure of the refined OS', Apple will eventually become nothing more than a luxury brand riding out the remnants of a legacy before the public realizes its obsolescence.

It's funny, as mentioned, I've been an Mac/Apple user for a while but never really had to use the help forums much until recently. I've decided, that if I'm going to have to troubleshoot the products that should just work, I might as well pay less. I was considering getting a desktop recently, but most likely, it will be Windows or Linux. Also, most likely, my next laptop will not be a Macbook Pro, and my next phone will be an Android. I'm not happy with these other options, but in a matter of a few years iOS and OSX will be just as troublesome, but more expensive, less open, and behind in hardware specs.

Oh, it's 2013 and problems with Smart Playlists and iTunes Match still exist...just canceled my Match renewal.

So, after having finally given up on getting wi-fi iTunes sync to work reliably, I fnally decided to give iTunes Match a go. After finally getting it to sync, after many stalled attempts, I open up the Music app on my iPhone eager to jump into my favourite carefully crafted playlist.

And, yes, I hit the ame issue that you've all hit. Smart playlists are totaly foobarred. ARRRGGGHHHHH!!!

Hmm, OK, I guess I could combine my multiple feeder lists into one oober list using nested rules.

Oh, except I can't, as there's no way to limit the number of tracks in a nested rule. So I have no way to replicate having 10 songs from list A and 20 songs from list B.

Plus, it seems from other people's posts, smart playlist limits don't work on the iPhone anyway.

Urggh. The only reason I signed up was to get my playlists working on my phone again.

Why don't you just sync via USB?

At any rate, Smart Playlists do work, however, the playlist cannot reference another playlist. And using limits does work. I have a handful of Smart Playlists that are item-limited.

I don't sync with USB because it's a hassle.

And yeah, smart playlists do work, but not in the way that allows me to use the smart playlists I've created over the yeras, or to reproduce them any way that does work. So, for me, that's as good as not working.

Limit's working is a start - I'd seen people earier in the thread saying they were ignored on iOS devices, which would just list all tracks.

However syncing via USB will get you exactly what you want.

Well, it doesn't as another thing I want is to not have to plug my iPhone into my computer every day.

It also only gives me what I want if there's enough space on the iPhone for all the songs in the playlist, which wouldn't be an issue with iTunes Match.