Preserving smart playlist order on iPhone
I have a smart playlist configured to play my favorite podcasts during my commute. It's a list of audio-only, unheard podcasts:
In iTunes, I've ordered the playlist by Release Date -- i.e. I want to listen to the oldest podcast episodes first. The order is correct in iTunes but when I sync to my iPhone the order is jumbled.
Currently, I have five episodes in this playlist -- ordered by release date they're A,B,C,D,E. On my iPhone, they're ordered B,D,C,E,A. There's no sort order that's obvious to me -- not sorted by name of episode, name of podcast, length of episode, date added, etc.
Any solutions to ordering smart playlists on the iPhone?
Update: This is likely an iTunes 9 bug. There's lots of discussion about this over on Apple.com.
Solution 1:
had the same problem and found a fix suggested by a user somewhere else (it worked for me) - Olivier
"I did find another workaround that works better for me. If you create a smart playlist that is based on another smart playlist, then the track order of the former will be correct on the iPhone.
So what I did was to create a first smart playlist that included all podcasts. Next I created a second playlist where the first rule is that it contains everything from the first playlist (Playlist is). The result is that the second playlist is still updated automatically in iTunes, but it does not seem to get updated on the iPhone . . . and that's probably where the bug is. Anyway that second playlist will keep its ordering from iTunes.
This isn't quite as much of a pain as flipping the Live Update box on and off, at least for me. "
Solution 2:
To make sure your smart playlists gets copied to your iPhone in the exact sort order you have done in iTunes, just right-click on the smart playlist, and choose "Copy To Play Order".
Re-sync with your iPhone, the playlist should now be copied and the songs will be in the exact order you wanted. Make sure to turn Shuffle off.
Solution 3:
MacWorld posted fix (http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-10360396-233.html) turn off "live updating" for the smart list. Worked for me (Snow Leopard 10.6.1, iTunes 9.0.1 & iPhone 3.1)