"Purchase Date" smart playlist

Oh! and by the way:

You could try using the Date Added field to determine when you purchased a song, presuming that you added it to your Library on the day you purchased it (and why wouldn't you?).

Songs View, which is accessible from the Sidebar, then add the Date Added field to the columns displayed. The Sidebar can be turned on from the top bar menu; View/Show Sidebar. The shortcut in Windows is CTRL + S, don't know what it is on Macs, sorry.

Then, in Songs view window, right-click anywhere in the header bar to display the Context Menu (again, Windows, I'm sure someone else here can tell you how it's done on Macs):

if your Column Browser is displayed, it will look like this instead:

and the Context Menu:

I've been having a senior moment.

The Context Menu does have the Purchase Date field, albeit Purchased.

Smart Playlists can use the rule Purchased / is true (or Purchased / is false) but - and it's a crucial one - as previously stated, digital music purchased from alternative sources usually does not have the purchase date field completed.

Look at my Smart Playlist of purchased songs - it has just 14 songs:

It has reminded me that I have a copy of the U2 album and one other song I had forgotten had come from iTunes, but it does not include any of my other digital purchases, so my previous answer still stands.

It would have to be manually. The purchased date property isn't exposed anywhere in the iTunes scripting interface.

It is only set on iTunes store purchases. The image above is an MP3 file, not AAC, so isn't an iTunes track.

tt2

Thanks, though I was hoping for a reply from 'the fiend' 🙂. Actually one of 'Doug's Scripts' will prepend the purchase date in the comments field - http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=purchasedatetocomments,but not completely consistently. If we could then copy that to the 'Date Added' field we could be getting somewhere I suppose. Though I would be happy if we could just use the Purchase Date field in a smart playlist!

I must try and work out how the script works if I can.

You've posted in iTunes for Windows. Doug's scripts only work on a Mac. Likewise on Windows date added cannot be modified by the user. Short of removing the file from the library, changing the system date, adding back the file, then restoring the correct date there is no way, and that leaves you will all sorts of other properties you have to capture and restore.

tt2

Sorry - didn't notice it was 'iTunes for Windows'. I just found this on a general search for ways that the Purchase Date could be handled in iTunes - I just assumed you were talking about Macs. I'll get my coat...

No sweat. I'd just assumed likewise that because the thread is in iTunes for Windows you'd be running on Windows too. I think Macs have the same issue with date added but I haven't delved as deeply there.

Yep, covered here: http://dougscripts.com/itunes/solutions01.php

tt2

The song I pictured (Atmospheres) was purchased from a store called PlayDigital. There is not and was never any information on the File tab about the purchase. I have not erased any information. Reference to purchasing it from PlayDigital is in the comments field and was put there by PlayDigital.

Of all my digital purchases, only the ones from iTunes have purchase information on the File tab. I have purchased from Amazon, Beatport and Bandcamp amongst others. Some stores have purchase information in the comments field, added by the store. In the case of Amazon, each song has a unique identification number, added by Amazon. Other stores only mention their own name. Many of my digitally purchased songs have no identifying purchase information in them at all.

To create my Smart Playlists, where there is insufficient or inconsistently provided information, I either use a key word from the information they provide as a Smart Playlist rule or write in my own identifying information and use that instead. Hence the reason my initial reply was as detailed as it is.

voles wrote:

Thanks, though I was hoping for a reply from 'the fiend' .

I was working on it as you posted that (see my separate post...).

voles wrote:

Though I would be happy if we could just use the Purchase Date field in a smart playlist!

Even if Apple did accommodate you, it would not work on any non-iTunes Store purchases for the reasons stated in my other post.

This is a user to user help forum. You are not addressing Apple here.

To send suggestions or requests directly to Apple, use this link:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

See Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy to guard against data loss.

I have a script called ExportImport that can sometimes be used to extract information from an older database in the Previous iTunes Libraries folder and then import it into the current library.

tt2

If you are really determined to use the purchase date as a rule for your Smart Playlist, how about copying the purchase date into the comments field? Then using a rule in your Smart Playlist that looks for the word "purchased" (which you also typed into the comments) and the date you are after.

Here's one I made earlier 😉

Notice that I have specified only part of the date, in my case the month and year (in the UK we write the date as DD/MM/YYYY). If you write the date as MM/DD/YYYY, then simply create an additional rule, so that one line looks for the first number while the other looks for the year. For example, if I change my Playlist to look for the 13, and 2014, it contains the same song:

Look what happens though, if I remove the numbers and simply look for the word "purchased":

The additional songs are purchased, but the "purchase date" information is in the comments field and not in the "Purchase Date" tag area used for songs purchased from the iTunes Store.

How do you transfer the purchased date into the comments field? Do you mean manually?

Furthermore, how was the purchased date erased? That looks like magic 🙂