FAQ


Please read Menu > Help... in SmartPlaylist.


Q: I’m an iTunes fan so SmartPlaylist is my favorite music app. But would please add Sort by Disc#0-N function? Many of my albums have more than one disc so the titles will be sorted out of sequence without disc number.
A: "Sort by Album A⇣Z" already contains "Sort by Disc # 0⇣N" and then "Sort by Track # 0⇣N", so you only have to use "Sort by Album A⇣Z" for all of this.
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Q: Can you add the search rule for a song's year, please?
A: You can activate the search rule "Year" in Menu > Settings > Show/Hide Rules
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Q: Can you filter with "OR" for each group?
Example: (Genre contains Rock) OR (Singer contains Bon Jovi) OR (Ratings >= 3)
A: You cannot do this directly. But what you can do:
Make a list with „Genre contains Rock“, say „A“
Make a list with „Singer contains Bon Jovi“, say „B“
Make „C“ with „Ratings >= 3“ +A, B (that is, use list operations to add A and B to C)
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Q: Does the app transfer the playlist over to iTunes when it syncs?
UPDATE: Yes, with SmartPlaylist 13.2 you can save a SmartPlaylist as normal playlist, which will be synced to Music
A: No, nothing is synced over to iTunes, neither the list of songs nor the search rules.
SmartPlaylist is all about making ad-hoc playlists on your iPhone. The search rules of a SmartPlaylist can be stored in the iCloud and thus synced to another iOS device.
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Q: How can I play a song in the list?
UPDATE: With SmartPlaylist v9.4 there is now also a play/pause button in the detail view
A: This is described in Menu > Help...:
Press with 1 finger (half a second): Play the selected song or play/pause the song already playing.
In other words: Just tap and hold the finger ("press") until the song starts or stops playing (nowadays Apple would call this "3D Touch" :o).
The same also works in the detail view: Just press on any line in the info table to play/pause the selected song. You can also press on the artwork, also when this is enlarged (like that you have one large play/pause button).
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Q: In iTunes on my Mac, I have a Smart Playlist that contains music whose Last Played Date is over 18 months ago. As soon as a song finishes, it drops off the list. I created a smart playlist in your app with the same criteria, but after playing, the song persists on the list. What's going on?
A: A list in SmartPlaylist is only updated when you reload it with "Load titles".
This has two reasons in iOS:
  1. Reloading a list interrupts playback for a fraction of a second, so it wouldn't be nice to do this after every song
  2. This would not work when SmartPlaylist is in the background
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Q: Is there any way to save the list I make to the music app so I can use it and view it just like any other playlist?
A: SmartPlaylist uses the built-in Music app for playback. The playlists created and selected in SmartPlaylist become automatically the Music app's playback queue.
After having loaded a list in SmartPlaylist
  • you can go to the Music app's now playing song to see the current playback queue from SmartPlaylist (where you can reorder the titles in the queue)
  • you can pause / play / skip / fast-forward the currently playing song in the iOS Control Center
  • you can see / pause / play / etc. the song in the lock screen.
It also works the other way: When you play any song in the Music app, you can go to SmartPlaylist > Menu > Now playing❯ to see all the details of this title (this only works if you start or open  SmartPlaylist in the rule view or in the detail view "Now Playing", because SmartPlaylist automatically re-loads its own lists in the list view).

However, you cannot save a SmartPlaylist as a "normal" playlist in/for the Music app, because then it would not be smart anymore ...
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Q: Can I filter or sort by "Date Added"?
UPDATE: Yes! With SmartPlaylist v7.1 (on iOS 7) this becomes possible.

A: No, unfortunately this is not possible: Date Added is only available in iTunes, but not in iOS. I have requested this feature from Apple in April 2010.
Workaround: Create some smart playlist in iTunes like "added in last 7 days", "added in last 1 month", "added in last 2 months", etc., sync them to your device and then use these as a Playlist rule (e.g. Playlist contains "7")
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Q: How can I change the rating in SmartPlaylist?
UPDATE: With iOS 10 you can no longer do this in the Music app! But with the next version of SmartPlaylist (v10.1) you can do it (and not only for the song which is playing at the moment)
A: This is technically not possible. You have to switch to the "Music" app (go to "Now Playing" / "Sie hören" / "À l'écoute") and change the rating there. When you switch back to SmartPlaylist you may have to refresh the display to see the new rating.
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Q: I only want to see the rules which are actually used for a list - how can I do that?
UPDATE (since v7): Show all search rules (according to your settings) or show only active rules with "All/Active" at the bottom of the rules page

A: Open the command menu with "⌘" (in the lower left) and tap "Show only active rules". Shortcut: Tap on the text in the middle at the bottom indicating the number of active rules (e.g. "A: 3 rules"). This  toggles "only active" on and off.
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Q: Any chance of a 'crossfade' feature on SmartPlaylist?
A: No. SmartPlaylist uses the built-in music player to play the selected songs and there is no crossfade option there.

19 comments:

  1. How do I stop continuous play in order to have a single track played then stop playing without moving to the next track?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not possible. The playback queue always moves or shuffles to the next song. Only if the repeat mode is off ("Repeat: none") the playback stops after the last song in the queue.

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Icloud songs that are not downloaded appears ob playlist how can i hide them?

    ReplyDelete
  3. You must set the rule "Is in iCloud" to "No", then reload the list.
    (In older versions of SmartPlaylist this rule was just called "iCloud" and you had to select "not in ☁".)
    If you do not see this rule, go to Menu > Settings and activate it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks, then i pressed in LOAD how can i play that music?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Well, just press your finger on the song you want to play (not just tap, but press for about half of a second).

    Please read Menu > Help...

    ReplyDelete
  6. I have a couple of questions and requests. The first is the Add and Remove options below the Fusion line are grayed out for me. How do these work?

    Is there a way to filter out music videos from the list? "kind" is available in iTunes, but I don't see this field in SmartPlaylist. Could this be added to the criteria list? Or some other option to include or not include music videos from the list?

    In the Mix: section, where you chose the order the songs are listed, can you add "album artist" now that you have added that field to the criteria list?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You can add a song to other playlists or remove a song from the current list in the detail view with "Add/Rem". Those include/exclude exceptions are then shown in the rules, where you can delete them. See http://smartplaylist-iphone.blogspot.ch/2012/09/excludeinclude-tutorial.html (illustrated with an old version of SmartPlaylist ...).

      I will add "Kind" (Music, music video, podcast) to the rules, why not.

      I was too lazy to add albumArtist to the sorting, will do it later.

      Delete
  7. Thanks for the response, and for the future changes!!!
    I checked out the tutorial that you linked, and played with it on my phone and it makes sense. It would be really intuitive (I think at least, LOL!) if when viewing the list, you could swipe the song from the right to the left to delete it from the list - like deleting an email or text. Not that it doesn't work the way you have it :-)

    I know the reason it doesn't automatically update the list during playback is that it would require a pause after each song and SmartPlaylist needs to be active, but you do have a playback option to pause after each song. If you have the option to pause after each song, how come you don't add the list updating at that moment? Just curious what the pause after each song option is for if not that...

    All in all, I LOVE your app, definitely well worth the money spent on it. Very powerful, and it is great to be able to add smart playlists to my phone on the go!

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. When a song is marked for "exclude ⊖" it cannot be removed from the list (= playback queue) right away because this would interrupt the playback of the current song. But this has nothing to do with the "Pause after each song" feature.
      This behaviour also has another bonus: You can temporarily mark songs for "exclude ⊖" so that they are automatically skipped for playback (works only when SmartPlaylist is in the foreground).Then later you remove them from the exclude list.

      Delete
  8. Hi. Is there any way to use a rule based on the loves / hearts? Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  9. Unless I'm missing it, "Loved=true" is not a parameter. Any chance of adding it? With Apple Music losing star ratings, is key to my playlist building.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oops. As I submitted saw your answer above. Carry on. ;-)

      Delete
  10. Have just transferred to iPhone from Android and was shocked that the inventor of iPod and iTunes do not implement smart playlists on their flagship phone. Your app, helps fill that gap - thanks. Can you tell me how I can limit the amount of music tracks each smartlist presents (e.g. limit to say 25 tracks in total or 500MB or 45 minutes?). Cheers

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In the rules view, go to Mix by tapping the corresponding "(i)" button - there you can limit the number of songs in the list (or the total duration in minutes or hours). You can also limit the number of titles per artist, album or album-artist. In all cases you can specify which songs SmartPlaylist should prefer (any/random, or those with the highest rating, or ...).

      Delete
  11. Hi, I really like the app but can't seem to get it to shuffle play the songs in the lists I create. Always plays in order rather than shuffle play. How do I get it to shuffle?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In the list and details view there are the playback options in the upper right corner, labelled "Opt." or "Options". There you can select "Shuffle: titles".

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