iTunes not updating Playcount

I have this same problem. The iTunes on my Mac does not update any play count on any song I play on my Mac since I updated to MacOS 10.13.6. I output to my computer speakers via my headphone jack on my 2017 iMac. I also output to my AppleTV (though my TV soundbar speakers) and my four HomePods. My AppleTV and HomePods all have the latest updates. I noticed the play count not updating soon after installing 10.13.6 on my Mac. Using my Time Machine, I restored to the previous version (10.13.5) and the play counts started updating again. So the problem is definitely in MacOS 10.13.6. I will await the next MacOS update and look to see if this problem is addressed an fixed before I install the update.

It seems to be AirPlay2, not AirPlay. After I upgraded to the latest High Sierra MAC update that included AirPlay2, my iTunes play count would no longer update. I restored my hard drive to the previous version (that does NOT have AirPlay2), and all is fine now. I even output to all my AirPlay devices only (1 Apple TV, 4 Homepods but not through the computer audio output) and iTunes updates the play count on iTunes fine (this is using the OS version that does NOT support AirPlay2 yet).

I am awaiting Mojave to see if this clears things up. If it doesn't, back to the old version that does!

I downgraded my Airport express to the previous version and now everything works as it did before.

macOS: How to Roll Back the Firmware on Your AirPort - The Mac Observer

Note: I had to reboot my network and mac afterward for iTunes to find the airplay/airport speakers.

Looks like iTunes 12.9 fixes it.

I'm having the same issue.

I've played around turning AirPlay2 off to one ATV off and leaving the HomePod on and vice versa. I've tried it with just the HomePod and just the ATV. The only time the play count updates is when I'm not AirPlay'ing to anything.

The source file, Apple Music or Matched, doesn't make a difference with my issue.

Hopefully its a bug that is fixed quickly.

Strange, I have a brand new mp3 album in my library, and playing it from my Mac to my stereo-pair HomePods gave mixed results ... most songs didn't update playcount or last played date, but some did! Very strange.

Changing AirPlay output in iTunes to play to my AirPort Express-connected Bose resulted in consistent playcount and last played date updates.

Must be a bug, please submit your feedback here:

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

Definitely AirPlay bug, if I play just from an iMac it updates and as soon as I add an AppleTV or AirPlay to a Denon receiver it stops working. I was hoping I could just always have the music on for my iMac at low volume when I'm streaming to my other devices.., alas no dice. 😟

Does anyone know if this is fixed in macOS Mojave, or tvOS 12?

Having to stop using AirPlay is sub-optimal.

The next time I used iTunes to play songs, the date played and play count was updated on each and every song played. Not sure whether just quitting and relaunching iTunes fixed it or restarting the MacBook Pro did the trick. None-the-less, it's "buggy" for some reason. I am on High Sierra 10.13.6.

I'm having the exact same problem (play counts not being recorded when using an AirPlay device). I do not have iTunes Match or Apple Music. And I have the problem both with music ripped from CD and purchased from the iTunes store. Also, for what it's worth, the problem exists both with a HomePod and with my Onkyo receiver. I only had this problem after installing the latest iTunes update, which added AirPlay 2 support.

I called Apple and gave them the feedback over the phone. I mentioned seeing a message thread online where other people have the same problem and they asked for the link. So I pointed them to this page. Hopefully, they will implement a fix for this soon, because it totally breaks things for me. I rely upon play count (and the last date played) Smart Playlists and things simply aren't working for me now. The band-aid solution is to not use AirPlay, which means my HomePod is basically useless until Apple fixes this, as AirPlay is the primary reason I have it!

libertino85 wrote:

I play 99% of my music on my iPhone. And it's not updating playcount in iTunes. It usually takes about 24 hours to update. But now it's not updating, even beyond the usual 24 hours.

I mostly play music from my iPhone as well, but the play history does immediately update iTunes when I re-sync, and my smart playlists update accordingly.

Do you auto-sync from iTunes, or manually manage the iPhone's contents. If you manually manage, playcounts from the iOS device don't always update iTunes (IIRC, this varies with iTunes releases, likely a recurring bug, or "programmer's whim").

Do you use iTunes Match or iCloud Music Library? I don't know how those may or may not update iTunes, but could certainly be a variable.

I was not responding to your post but to the post of Howard Brazee who was talking about a IOS12 update.

But you are right. The combination iTunes and Airplay2 shows the "playcount not updating" bug. So if you upgrade your Airport Express from Airplay to Airplay2 iTunes will stop updating the playcounts.

libertino85 wrote:

I use Apple Music/iCloud Music library.

I have not 'synced' my iPhone to my MacBook (by plugging it in) ever since Apple Music began. Do you recommend I sync in that manner?

I usually just allow music to sync 'automatically'...

Thanks.

I don't use Apple Music/iCloud Music Library so I can't say for sure. However, connecting your iPhone to your Mac and syncing with iTunes may be worth trying -- I would not be surprised if that works.

I just noticed that I have this same problem - play count doesn’t increment if HomePod is being used to stream music from my Mac. Although for me, it is not 100% of the time - some tracks do get updated with today’s play date, but in a maddeningly inconsistent manner (i.e., same album, ripped at same time, some tracks are ignored, some are updated).

Also in my case, for years, I’ve used an AppleTV to stream music to my stereo, this has always worked as it should. I suspect a bug in the AirPlay 2 update.

Same here. Also, I discovered that iTunes will not let me change the artwork for tracks. When I uncheck the Airplay 2 device it then let's me change the artwork. That is a strange correlation. Same for the play count situation. Bugs.