ADent...

[RAMd®d]

Regarding http://forums.macresource.com/read.php?1...msg-813558 :

They still have not fixed the order of playlists - esp my Podcasts playlist. I upgraded to 3.1 because the fixed the order of the playlists themselves (to match iTunes and iPods) - but the songs on the playlist don't match iTunes (or anything else I can figure).


Could you elaborate on that a little more?

I think I have the same problem. I just noticed that some of my playlists don't match iTunes when viewed/played on the 'Phone. Yet when I go to iTunes > Devices > iPhone > Playlist X, it matches iTunes.

This is true for a few playlists, but not all. And viewing Songs on the 'Phone shows matches iTunes.

I don't know when all of this started, but Restoring the software, and deleting the playlist, syncing, adding the playlist doesn't help.

I think Shuffle is the culprit- some how it may have left playlists permanently shuffled on the phone.

One thing (besides this mess) about Shuffle that really bugs me is that it affects Podcasts when it's used on music. That bugs me. I don't care to listen to Podcasts out of sequence.

[ADent]

I have my Main Podcasts smart playlist (genre = podcast, play count = 0, exclude certain podcasts based on name).
I sort it so the oldest is at top (by Release Date) in iTunes.
When I sync this to my iPod 5G it shows up just in that order.
On my iPhone it looks scrambled - no order I can see.
It does look like the Auto Update is working though - because one of the podcasts I listened to this morning is missing (like it should). I did hit shuffle once by accident.

My Favorite Music smart playlist - sorted by Last Date Played looks messed up too.

And a second podcast smart playlist is messed up. Pretty sure I have not shuffled this one.

--

IIRC I think the playlist content was in oder with iPhone 3.0, but the playlist menu (ie the list of playlists) did not sort like iTunes & iPod - I have a couple of playlists with '-' in the front to take them to the top of the list, but they went to the bottom with 3.0. Also the auto update was broken with 3.0 (it skiped tracks).

[RAMd®d]

Yeah, that's the same problem with my music playlists.

Some are fine, and some are scrambled. I don't know the how or why. I remember noticing that one playlist was in reverse order so I corrected it in iTunes as all was well. That shortly after updating to 3.0.

Only recently did I see the scrambled playlists and realize that I can't correct them. I don't know when it happened, but I guess it was sometime after 3.1.

These are playlists that I usually play in Shuffle mode, and it seems like they're stuck that way. In addition, some of the songs in iTunes are missing from the lists on the 'Phone and vice versa.

I only noticed this about two days ago and went to 3.1.2 hoping it would fix the problem.

No joy, of course.

[ADent]

Workaround from Macintouch - I have not tried it yet. http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/...d20oct2009

Experiences

Robert Milkovits

RE: Thomas Emmerich (and others) and problems with Smart Playlist order in iTunes 9 not matching the order on the iPhones:

There are a few threads on Apple's forums about this. It isn't specific to podcasts, but this is I think the most common place the issue appears. The following setup worked for me to work around the problem:

* Create a smart playlist for what you want. Basically this is the play list you already have, so you could just rename it. You can keep the live updating enabled.

* Create a second smart playlist whose only rule is items that are in the first playlist. You can keep live updating enabled.

* Sort the second playlist the way you want.

* Sync both playlists to the phone. You have to also sync the first playlist so iTunes and the iPhone don't complain about missing dependent playlists or something along these lines. But since the content is the same, you won't use up any added space.

* The second playlist will have the correct order on the phone. The first playlist will have the wrong order.

See Apple forums here for one thread on the topic:
Topic: Some Smart Playlists don't work on iPhone

Don't forget to file a bug report with Apple:

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

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