Q: Apple TV television shows out of order?

Sounds like we use our libraries completely differently, then.

But your method of one Smart Playlist might work, but must have the episodes tagged "correctly" for them to sort correctly.

A smart playlist with the rule Playlist is TV Shows (or anything else more complicated that you choose to create), sorted on the Show field, followed by a right/option click on the playlist name and the Copy to Play Order command should end up sensibly ordered when viewed from your ATV.

tt2

Same issue with TV shows all out of logical sequence.  I tried sorting by different fields from the computer's iTunes library, but that didn't correct anything on the AppleTV. Like a number of people in this thread, we resorted to using the Remote app on our iPads, which works, but doesn't fix the AppleTV interface.  Making Smart Playlists may also be a solution for some, that also doesn't fix the essential problem either. So, hopefully Apple's engineers will turn on their own Time Machines and retrieve the lines of code that are causing the current error.  Please.

jchambers-shanghai wrote:

 

So, hopefully Apple's engineers will turn on their own Time Machines and retrieve the lines of code that are causing the current error.  Please.

Agreed. A permanent fix in the form of an iTunes update needs to come from Apple. Soon.

I finally managed to restore iTunes to 10.5.3 this afternoon and get TV Shows showing up in Alphabetical order again, phew.

It was not a trivial task, but worth it. Explaining to the kids and wife why everything was all in random order was getting difficult. :-)

Douglas Parker1 wrote:

...Make sure you let Apple know about the issue.

I have searched for how to "let Apple know" in some effective way.  All my attempts (so far) are routed through the "Express Lane" support and to a "Pay Per Incident" option.  How do I add my name to the list so this bug gets attention?!!!? 

I too have thousands of TV Show episodes which are now hard to access because the list of TV Shows itself is randomly sorted under the "By Show" tab.

Use Apple TV Feedback or iTunes Feedback.

tt2

turingtest2 wrote:

 

A smart playlist with the rule Playlist is TV Shows (or anything else more complicated that you choose to create), sorted on the Show field, followed by a right/option click on the playlist name and the Copy to Play Order command should end up sensibly ordered when viewed from your ATV.

 

tt2

I have created a smart playlist in iTunes and now see the TV Shows listed in that playlist on iTunes on my Mini.  However, I cannot see the playlist on my ATV.  I've changed the ATV "Settings" value so that it shows "All" playlists but I cannot find how to access/view it on my ATV (2nd Gen.).  The only "Playlist" I have found is under "Music" and the playlist for the TV Shows isn't showing up there.  What have I missed?

Sad to say I can't tell you for sure, I don't have an Apple TV to experiment with.

According to Michael's post:

They should be at the top of the TV Shows or Movies lists. But you may need to enable it. Go to Settings > Audio & Video and set Show Playlists to ALL.

If you go to Edit > Preferences > Sharing are you sharing your entire library or, if not, have you ticked the new playlist?

tt2

turingtest2 wrote:

 

Sad to say I can't tell you for sure, I don't have an Apple TV to experiment with.

 

According to Michael's post:

 

They should be at the top of the TV Shows or Movies lists. But you may need to enable it. Go to Settings > Audio & Video and set Show Playlists to ALL.

 

If you go to Edit > Preferences > Sharing are you sharing your entire library or, if not, have you ticked the new playlist?

Thanks - I found the playlist (at the head of the "TV Shows" list).  And it does have the 1046 shows, all in alpha order by the "TV Show" -- however, these are all individual items, i.e., NOT grouped by the value in the "Show" field).  Does anyone know how to achieve a "Grouping" when using this Smart Playlist route?  (I just tried the iPad Remote app and it does seem to give some relief.)

keriah wrote:

 

Does anyone know how to achieve a "Grouping" when using this Smart Playlist route?  (I just tried the iPad Remote app and it does seem to give some relief.)

You can't do what you want with a single, mass Smart Playlist. If you want to have the shows to display by:

TV Show

     Season

     Season

     etc.

Go back to my post, here, and see if those suggestions get you closer to what you want to do.

Michael Allbritton wrote:

You can't do what you want with a single, mass Smart Playlist. ...Go back to my post, here, and see if those suggestions get you closer to what you want to do.

Looks like not -- I have many, many "TV Show" headings (hundreds? more??)  I'll settle for running from the iPad interface (Remote) until there's a fix.  Thanks, tho'.  It was something I'd not tried before — could be useful for something else in the future.

Here is the message I sent to Apple via technical support for iTunes:

I own Apple computers, many iPods, several iPhones, iPads and an Apple TV.  However, where you really make money from me is from TV shows that I purchase on iTunes and play on my Apple TV.

You recently updated iTunes to 10.6 which completely messed up the sort order on the Apple TV. It is now displaying shows in a random order and it takes me up to 10 minutes to find a show on my Apple TV, rendering it almost useless.

Please inform your superiors that in the last 12 months I spent $1171 on iTunes and that I will not purchase any more iTunes content until this problem is fixed.

I believe this is your bug report 11005924.

Thanks.

Cole Thompson

Here is their response:

Dear Cole,

Thank you for contacting iTunes Store Customer Support. My name is Vince and I'll be glad to assist you.

I am sorry to hear that after updating iTunes to 10.6 the TV shows displaying in a random order. I know this issue can be frustrating and I wish I had the solution to this issue.

Cole, Apple is currently working toward a resolution for the issue you have reported. You will receive an email after the matter has been investigated and further information is available.

Thank you for your patience. Apple wants your iTunes experience to be as enjoyable as possible. Have an amazing day, Cole!

Sincerely,

Vince

iTunes Store Customer Support

http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/ww/

The new interface reminds me of the Windows Metro UI junk!!!

Glad to see I'm not the only one experiencing this issue.

I tried rebooting, resetting, and doing a full factory restore on my ATV2, to no avail.

I hadn't even thought that it could be caused by iTunes 10.6, not the software update on the ATV. I'll be filling out a feedback form like others of you have.

Hopefully the Apple folks can break their usual schedule of putting off bug fixes for months and doing one big update and can do a quick update to fix this. The ATV is such a useful little box, but this loss of functionality really hurts it.