Can't Sync Playlists Since Turning on iTunes Match

This is one of the drawbacks, in my opinion, of having iTunes Match enabled on iDevices. It is a "feature" that it is no longer possible to sync. All the music is now managed directly on the iDevice, instead of from iTunes.

It is supposed to transfer playlists over via the cloud. Seems to work pretty good for regular playlists but smart playlists are a total mess.

Agreed. Any smart playlist that has a number limit doesn't really work.

And for the record, I miss being able to just do a sync (wired or wireless) once Match is activated.

I've got some smart playlists, that are not number limited, that I'm not having a problem with. It's just the ones that are supposed to only have a certain number of tracks that aren't working correctly.

To add to the running dialogue, I have been able to download playlists on an individual device using "download all" in the playlists on the device and it seems to sync if I add songs back on my main imac. My frustration is if it I want to remove the local copies of the songs/playlist from the actual device but still have access to the cloud version. It seems like if one does that, you have to de-activate match to "wipe" things and start over. Unlike with itunes you can't just check/uncheck a playlist and sync. From the device, I deleted a playlist using "swipe" delete and it deleted it not only from the device but it synced it back to my imac and deleted it from the mac (and hence, on every other device/cloud as well). I'm afraid if I do that with individual songs it would do the same thing as well.

Can't seem to get playlists to sync at all. Anyone know of a fix for that? They just don't show up at all.

The only way I can get my 256 playlists to sync on my 3GS phone is to turn iTunes match off on phone & sync with iMac. When I sync I go to music tab to make sure all playlists have check marks next to them. When sync is done all playlists are on phone. If I now turn iPhone match on phone again & re sync or charge phone play lists are gone again so as of now I just do not enable iTunes match on phone anymore. The funny thing is even with iTunes match off on phone when I click on artists, songs etc all the cloud icons are still on phone even the download options. Hope someone can figure this out.

Same behavior here. So I have also turned off and left off iTunes Match on my phone. Would like to see this stuff get cleared up!

r

If you are using SMART Playlists, there is a constraint: For you to see the songs in a SMART PLAYLIST on your iOS device, you must first have them already locally on the device.

This is a chicken and the egg situation, in my opinion. The only work around I have found is to do this:

1) Create a NEW PLAYLIST using File, new Playlist. Name it "SMART CLONE" (for purposes of this example)

2) Go to the Smart Playlist you want to have on your iOS device and select edit, select all.

3) Drag and stop all tracks selected to the "SMART CLONE" playlist.

4) Launch MUSIC on your iOS device and give it about 30 seconds to 10 minutes for the "SMART CLONE" playlist to syncrhonize the informational track references/names.

5) Click DOWNLOAD ALL at the bottom of the "SMART CLONE" playlist.

This obviously ***** because 1) it takes away from the "automation" smart playlists bring to the table, and 2) requires access to your computer to implement the work around. So if you forgot to do this before leaving house, you cant just use the Smart Playlist.

The troubling information I took back to Apple Support was this: I created the regular playlist, dropped all the tracks from the smart playlist, saw the tracks on the regular playlist, downloaded all. I then went to look at my smart playlist on my iOS devices and even though the files are now local, they still dont shop up in the smart playlist. So their explanation does not really seem to be the problem.

Further, I have 2 Apple TVs. They both have Home Sharing and iCloud enabled. The Smart Playlists show up as fully populated in both views/modes. So they are obviously going from iTunes to iCloud entact. It is how iOS Music applications interpret them. I have an iPhone 4S and iPAD2. Both have identical results, which is at least indicating it is a single problem preventing the Smart Playlists from working properly.

I hope this helps some at least limp along until a better/longer term solution comes along.

It's not quite that straightforward, though. For instance, I keep a smart playlist for all of the recent additions to my library. That playlist only updates locally on my iPhone -- if I add a new CD through my computer, for instance, the tracks show up in that playlist on my MBP, but not on my iPhone. However, those songs do show up in the Unrated smart playlist on my iPhone, for some reason. I'm testing now to see whether downloading all of those songs to my iPhone via the "Download All" option causes them to show up in my Latest Additions list, or whether that list is just broken in iCloud for some reason.

Do you have a answer for my previous post. still losing all my created iTunes playlists when I sync with match turned on on phone. Can only get my playlists on phone when match is turned off on phone but ipad2 syncs playlists if match is enabled on iPad.

Same here. None of the above touch on my issue.