Device-based smart playlists in itunes aren't very smart...

June 4, 2007 5:03 PM

Itunes smart playlists on an ipod are apparently quite stupid: A smart playlist that will list by date added to the ipod, not the entire itunes library?

I want a playlist on my ipod that displays songs added *to the ipod* for a specific range (or "in the last two weeks" really), not the date the songs were added to the itunes library. When I create a smart playlist on the ipod, it looks like the entries for "date added" on the ipod all match the "date added" into the library,which makes me think the ipod doesn't actually know when songs were copied to it. Can this be true? I know those two dates are often different depending on when i connect the ipod to the PC.

The end result I want is the ability to organize the songs on the ipod by the date they were added to the ipod, not the date the songs were imported into itunes.

Itunes 7.02, Windows XP.

I appreciate any help you can offer to resolve this critical issue in my life. Help me live through another day with fresh music in my world.

posted by disclaimer to technology (6 comments total)

I'm pretty sure that there is no metadata for when you added a song to your iPod.

You could do something like "added in the last * days and never played" if you're looking for "fresh music", but I don't know if that really answers your question either.
posted by rossination at 5:24 PM on June 4, 2007

Can't be done. The whole idea behind the setup is that your songs, ratings, and other metadata are exactly the same on your computer as they are on your iPod.

If it's fresh music you're looking for, you want to make some smart playlists using the "last played" and "last skipped" attributes. This will allow you to rotate off music you've listened to recently, and rotate in new stuff.
posted by chrisamiller at 5:52 PM on June 4, 2007

If my understanding of Smart Playlists is correct, then only some types of playlists are compiled by the iPod, as opposed to iTunes. In other words, playlists involving fields like "Date added" are actually created by iTunes and uploaded to the iPod every time you sync/connect, while playlists using fields like "last played" are compiled on the fly by the iPod. Both types of playlists give the impression of being generated on the fly, but only one of them actually is.
posted by chrominance at 6:57 PM on June 4, 2007

I've never used iTunes, so I'm not sure if this feature exists in that software, but a piece of software I played around with briefly, EphPod, has a feature that allows you to automatically build a playlist from songs that you've recently added to the iPod.
You can specify how many days you'd like to go back, but there doesn't seem to be any additional configuration beyond that. I know it's not a smart playlist, but I suppose you could always make a playlist, rename it, add more songs, and then make another. I believe the data is stored within the software and not as metadata.
posted by ktrey at 7:36 PM on June 4, 2007

Seconding rossination: I don't think that iTunes records anything when you sync a song to your iPod, thus I don't think there's an easy way to make a list of them.

"Most recently added" is easy, because when you add something to the library it notes the date. Same with "most recently played." But I can't think of any way to do it with just songs that have been added to the iPod (assuming you don't keep your iPod completely synched with your Music Library, from the nature of your question).
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:30 AM on June 5, 2007

Okay, thanks everyone, I'll just set up some smart playlists as chrisamiller says and that's that. :)

(and no, I don't sync the entire library - not enough room on the player).
posted by disclaimer at 4:05 AM on June 6, 2007