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Level 1

14 points

Shuffle options?

I see that my iPod maintains a counter for how many times each song has been played. Is there a way to configure "Shuffle" to select songs based on this counter? Maybe it already does. What I want is this -- every time I go back to a particular playlist (assuming I have not reset the counters) and play it using "shuffle", I would like for the iPod to select songs based on how seldom they have been played -- IOW, minimize repetition. Does anyone know how this works??

iPod touch, iOS 5.1.1

Posted on Jul 31, 2012 8:49 AM

19 replies

Sep 22, 2012 10:36 AM in response to the fiend

I believe that most of the auto playlists update on the device without having to sync or connect to iTunes. Such as an auto playlist with a 'rating rule'. When I change a rating on the iTouch, it immediately applies that to my auto playlist without the need to sync. What it looks like you guys are talking about, is the 'if below certain amount of plays rule', I believe that this would not update until synced because it might not register play amounts until transferred to iTunes, which then combines the total plays from the device.

That's the way I see it at this point

I hope this is revealing.

~Lt. Leviathan

pmikk Author

Level 1

14 points

Sep 22, 2012 10:43 AM in response to the fiend

Yes, I'd like to understand that process. The other part of this that's not clear to me is how the #plays is maintained. I have a playlist on my iPod that stays on there all the time. I never remove it. Sometimes, I add or remove a song, but that's it. Normally, when I sync, I believe the flow of information goes from iTunes to iPod. But have always wondered about the #plays. I rarely play music directly from my library -- so, what value takes priority -- the #plays on iTunes or the #plays on my iPod? It looks like when I sync, the #plays from iPod is transferred to my iTunes library, but it's not totally clear... Do you know?

If I understand, Lt. Leviathan, you are saying that the #plays on iTunes combines with the #plays from iPod to yield a new value... right?

the fiend

Level 7

22,536 points

Sep 22, 2012 11:28 AM in response to pmikk

The play number only increases when the song reaches the end and it moves onto the next song. If you "track forward" (or stop the song) when there is still 2 seconds left to play, the play number will not increase.

If you play a song in your library and play it on your ipod, the play count in iTunes will update there and then and the next Sync will increment the play count by a further one. I have just tried it - both by playing iTunes first and then by playing it second - so now we know for sure! The Sync process works all this out and synchronises the information between iTunes and the iPod, so that they have the same information.

I've just made a couple of tests and it appears that a Smart Playlist that has "play count less than x" does not change the count on the ipod until a Sync. This is different to the other Smart Playlists I have, although I probably need to make more tests though, before I can say for certain how this works.

pmikk Author

Level 1

14 points

Sep 22, 2012 12:20 PM in response to the fiend

Great! Now I know what's happening. Makes the most sense that the play count would be a combination of the number of plays on the iPod and the library. Your test also confirms what I observed, that songs I was certain had played more than my threshhold will not drop off until I sync again. Think I'm slowly getting the hang of this!

Thanks fiend...

Shuffle options?