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Itunes 9 breaking iphone smart playlists?

F

Farplaner

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 4, 2008
303
0
I updated to Itunes 9 last night, and everything was fine (the only thing I noticed was that Itunes U is now a separate category from podcasts). The smart playlists still exist in itunes, but after syncing with my iphone today...

I noticed that all my smart playlists on the iphone are gone.

I haven't had a chance to play around with the problem yet, but this is a huge bummer as I put all my podcasts in smart playlists so I can listen to them while driving (the ipod/iphone integration in the car only works with playlists).
 
daihard

daihard

macrumors 6502a
Feb 19, 2008
973
7
Seattle, WA
Farplaner said:
I noticed that all my smart playlists on the iphone are gone.

I haven't had a chance to play around with the problem yet, but this is a huge bummer as I put all my podcasts in smart playlists so I can listen to them while driving (the ipod/iphone integration in the car only works with playlists).
Click to expand...

Sounds like you have a Bimmer. :)

As for the problem, I still seem to have my smart playlists intact on my iPhone. Some might be broken or gone, as I have a lot of smart playlists and can't check all of them now.
 
R

rssfed23

macrumors member
Jun 5, 2008
94
10
Southampton, UK
Not sure if it's related, but for the life of I can't seem to keep the play list order matching in iTunes and on the phone after updating!

For example, I have the smart playlist "recently added" ordered by newest songs first, but when synced over to the phone it has them all in a completely random order!

All shuffle functions are off.

Any one have any ideas?

Thanks
 
F

Farplaner

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 4, 2008
303
0
Well, I found out what my problem is.

Apparently itunes 9 will not sync podcasts in any type of watchlists anymore.

It's easy to test:
- Create a smart playlist containing podcasts. Doesn't show on iphone.
- Create a smart playlist containing regular songs. Shows on iphone
- Create a regular playlist containing podcasts. Doesn't show on iphone.
- Create a regular playlist containing regular songs. Shows on iphone
- Create a regular playlist containing both regular songs and podcasts. Only the regular songs show on iphone.

WTF, Apple?
 
D

Deadman64

macrumors 6502a
Jun 2, 2008
665
185
rssfed23 said:
Not sure if it's related, but for the life of I can't seem to keep the play list order matching in iTunes and on the phone after updating!

For example, I have the smart playlist "recently added" ordered by newest songs first, but when synced over to the phone it has them all in a completely random order!

All shuffle functions are off.

Any one have any ideas?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Same here! How can I fix this? I always like to listen to my newest added songs first, so this is really annoying.
 
M

mrkgoo

macrumors 65816
Aug 18, 2005
1,178
3
For smart playlists, UNCHECK live updating.

For podcast playlists, you need to have playlists checked in the podcast tab of your device.
 
NekoFever

NekoFever

macrumors member
Apr 29, 2005
51
57
I have a 'new podcasts' smart playlist that worked fine on 3.0.1. The podcasts were arranged by release date and if they go in this order in iTunes...

1
2
3
4
5

...it now does this on the iPhone...

4
1
5
3
2

With this and the lockup issue, 3.1 has been a great update so far...
 
F

Farplaner

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 4, 2008
303
0
mrkgoo said:
For smart playlists, UNCHECK live updating.

For podcast playlists, you need to have playlists checked in the podcast tab of your device.
Click to expand...

I'll have to try unchecking live updating for smart playlists after work today. But doesn't that really defeat the point of smart playlists? So when new podcasts arrive the playlist will automatically update?

yetanotherdave said:
Is this itunes 9 or 3,1? I have iTunes 9 and 3.0.1 on my phone, I still have podcasts in a smart playlist on my phone...
Click to expand...

This is with itunes 9 and 3.0.1. I wonder what's different with your version vs mine... Are you using OSX's itunes?
 
M

mrkgoo

macrumors 65816
Aug 18, 2005
1,178
3
Farplaner said:
I'll have to try unchecking live updating for smart playlists after work today. But doesn't that really defeat the point of smart playlists? So when new podcasts arrive the playlist will automatically update?



This is with itunes 9 and 3.0.1. I wonder what's different with your version vs mine... Are you using OSX's itunes?
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's just a work around for now.

Interestingly, some of my smart playlists update automatically even with it unchecked, so I'm confused at watt live updating really does anyway.

REgarding podcasts, have you tried selecting playlists under the podcasts tab on your device? I understand podcasts won't sync in a playlist unless you do that.
 
D

Deadman64

macrumors 6502a
Jun 2, 2008
665
185
Auto updating unchecked seems to have fixed it.

Only downside is you gotta refresh the playlists, which is kind of annoying.

But thanks for the work-around!
 
F

Farplaner

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 4, 2008
303
0
mrkgoo said:
REgarding podcasts, have you tried selecting playlists under the podcasts tab on your device? I understand podcasts won't sync in a playlist unless you do that.
Click to expand...

Yes, they were already checked.

Oh and one more thing. The podcasts themselves are actually syncing to the iphone. As in, I can go to the podcast section by going to "Ipod" -> "More" -> "Podcasts" and listen to them.

It's just that the podcasts playlists won't show up.
 
C

colorblindpicas

macrumors newbie
Sep 11, 2009
8
0
Similar problems here, anything (at least podcasts and audio books) in a smart play list is appearing randomly ordered. Also, it doesn't have the same number of items (fewer in the phone compared to itunes).
 
F

Farplaner

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 4, 2008
303
0
mrkgoo said:
For smart playlists, UNCHECK live updating.

For podcast playlists, you need to have playlists checked in the podcast tab of your device.
Click to expand...

I just tried it and neither unchecking a smart playlist, nor checked in the podcast tab for a regular playlist worked for me :(

Wonder what's wrong...
 
S

SmackBookUser

macrumors newbie
Sep 11, 2009
1
0
Under the podcast tab in itunes 9, try unchecking the Automatically include checkbox. This worked for me on my next sync. Hope this helps
 
sgibson

sgibson

macrumors regular
Mar 24, 2008
130
0
Managed to get a workaround for my particular case. I have a smart playlist of unplayed podcasts in order of date, which was in order of whatever it felt like with 3.1/iTunes 9.

In the smart playlist I kept live updating on, but also set a "limit to" and selected by "most recently added". Set the limit to 1000 or something ludicrously high so it wouldn't impact the actual playlist.

Synced it across and it's all in the correct order again.

Hopefully this will help people sort their own out until Apple does another update, or at least give you some ideas of things to try in the limit options to get things back to where they should be.
 
pooryou

pooryou

macrumors 65816
Sep 28, 2007
1,329
63
NorCal
Smart Playlists on the iPhone that are supposed to be randomized are coming up with a bunch of songs from the same album, anyone else have this problem?
 
D

dday408

macrumors newbie
Sep 15, 2009
2
0
It works but certainly not the best solution

rssfed23 said:
Not sure if it's related, but for the life of I can't seem to keep the play list order matching in iTunes and on the phone after updating!

For example, I have the smart playlist "recently added" ordered by newest songs first, but when synced over to the phone it has them all in a completely random order!

All shuffle functions are off.

Any one have any ideas?

Thanks
Click to expand...


Uncheck the live updating box in each individual smart playlist and your iTunes and iPhone playlist should sync. This problem has been on and off since early 2007 and Apple apparently hasn't found the solution yet.
 
O

owf

macrumors newbie
Sep 19, 2009
3
0
Workaround Script for Smart Playlist Sorting

I've come up with a semi-solution for the sorting problem with Smart Playlists when syncing.

The script below looks for iTunes playlists whose names end with "[source]" and copies the tracks, in the same order, to a normal playlist with the same name minus "[source]". These normal playlists sync to my iPhone with the right sort order. Non-existant destination playlists will be created.

Run this before a sync, then deselect the [source] podcasts in the Podcasts sync settings, selecting the corresponding normal playlists instead. By default, track order will be the same as in the [source] playlist, but you can override this by fiddling with the destination playlist's sort settings.

This runs on Snow Leopard (Python 2.6) and should also run on Leopard (Python 2.5), but you must install the Python appscript module.

DO NOT run this script from the iTunes script menu. This will lock up iTunes. Run it from the generic scripts directory or via a LaunchAgent.

Code: 
#!/usr/bin/env python
# encoding : utf-8

import sys, os
from appscript import app, its, k, CommandError

iTunes = app('iTunes')

source_lists = [p for p in iTunes.playlists() if p.name().endswith('[source]')]

for playlist in source_lists:
    target_name = playlist.name()[:-8].strip()
    print "Copying tracks from '%s' to '%s'" % (playlist.name(), target_name)
    dest_playlist = iTunes.playlists[target_name].get()
    if not dest_playlist:
        # Create playlist
        print "Creating new destination playlist :", target_name
        iTunes.make(new=k.user_playlist, with_properties={k.name : target_name})
        dest_playlist = iTunes.playlists[target_name].get()
    #iTunes.reveal(dest_playlist)
    print "Clearing destination playlist :", dest_playlist.name()
    for t in dest_playlist.tracks():
        dest_playlist.delete(t)
    print "Updating destination playlist :", dest_playlist.name()
    for t in playlist.tracks():
        iTunes.duplicate(t, to=dest_playlist)

Perhaps someone could come up with an AppleScript version.
 
P

pb1300

macrumors 6502a
Feb 29, 2008
587
0
Aigio, Greece
dday408 said:
]Uncheck the live updating box in each individual smart playlist[/B] and your iTunes and iPhone playlist should sync. This problem has been on and off since early 2007 and Apple apparently hasn't found the solution yet.
Click to expand...

How do you do that? Is that available in "My Top Rated," because I dont seem to see that anywhere?

I have the same issue as others...my Top Rated, which was copied from my iTunes to iPhone, is in a totally different order on the phone.
 
TheCookie

TheCookie

macrumors regular
Jun 9, 2008
165
4
Boston
pb1300 said:
How do you do that? Is that available in "My Top Rated," because I dont seem to see that anywhere?

I have the same issue as others...my Top Rated, which was copied from my iTunes to iPhone, is in a totally different order on the phone.
Click to expand...

I was having a similar problem. I have several smart playlists that are ranked by play count (top 25 most played, top 200 most played, top 1000 most played, etc.). They were all coming up as identical playlists on my iPhone, with the wrong songs and in a completely random order.

It seems that unchecking live updating in the smart playlist itself fixed the problem on the next sync.

But my question is: does this mean iTunes will stop updating the playlists as my play counts change?
 
nagromme

nagromme

macrumors G5
May 2, 2002
12,546
1,196
Just noticed this myself.

"Recently added' no longer works at all on my iPhone: I get a random selection of NON-recent songs. Maybe it's using the date the songs were copied to the phone, rather than the date from iTunes. A definite bug, but unchecking Live Updating was a helpful tip.
 
T

thewolverine

macrumors newbie
Oct 21, 2009
1
0
Thanks mrkgoo

Mrkgoo,

Thanks for your post - the uncheck fixed 2 major issues for me. It fixed my smart playlists on my 3gs and it also fixed a major issue I was having with my 5th generation iPod video. I spent almost 6 hours with Apple support on this and they could not figure it out.
Essentially when I synched all my music on my iPod nano video after the synch the device would hang for about an hour. I eventually figured out that my Top Rated playlist was showing 656K songs, while I only have 1921 songs in total. So I was unable to synch that smart list and it fixed the problem, though the problem was that My Top Rated is what I like to listen to the most.
Your solution fixed that issue for me as well and my smart playlists still update in iTunes.
Appreciate your help and your post - now only if Apple support can get their act together!

Cheers mate!

T
 
E

endlsdremr

macrumors newbie
Jun 26, 2007
20
0
Ohio
Smart playlist FINALLY playing in order!

mrkgoo said:
For smart playlists, UNCHECK live updating.

For podcast playlists, you need to have playlists checked in the podcast tab of your device.
Click to expand...

You ROCK! I have been trying to figure out how to get my "recently added" playlist to play in the correct order for a while now. Your little uncheck live updating did the trick! thanks so much!!!!

:)
 
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