SmartPlaylist iOS 9: French / German logical operators not working

UPDATE: Fixed in v9.0
In SmartPlaylist in iOS 9 the logical operators in French (" OU ", " ET ", "PAS ", " MAIS PAS ") and German  (" ODER ", " UND ", "NICHT", " ABER NICHT ") are not working, the result set is always empty,

Workaround: Use the English operators " OR ", " AND ", "NOT ", " BUT NOT " / " AND NOT ".

Solution: The next version of SmartPlaylist will fix this bug.

Hint: Settings for MusicBrowser also determine if pick list can be used

In the settings you can configure which element hierarchy you want to browse in SmartPlaylist's  Music Browser (Menu > Settings, then scroll to the bottom to "MusicBrowser: Show / hide:").

At the moment these settings are also applied in the rule details for Composer, Grouping, Artist, Album and Title. So, if you have deactivated Composer and Grouping as in the example above, you will not be able to pick a composer or a grouping in the details for the Composer rule or Grouping rule, respectively, as the list will be empty.

So, at the moment (SmartPlaylist v7.3.1) you have to activate all levels in the Music Browser in order to use all the pick lists for Composer, Grouping, Artist, Album and Title.
(This was done to minimise waiting time to build the pick lists. But the new iPhones / iPads are now so fast that this is not required anymore.)

In the next version of SmartPlaylist this will no longer be necessary and you can configure the Music Browser as you want and still be able to pick Composer, Grouping, Artist, Album and Title.

Problem on iPhone 5 -- fixed

Currently (with v6.0 of SmartPlaylist) there is a problem on the iPhone 5: The toolbar at the bottom does not respond. This happens only on the iPhone 5 (taller screen) and only in portrait mode. In landscape mode it works fine also on the iPhone 5.

The fix will be out in about a week, hopefully.

UPDATE: Fix with version v6.0.1 is out now.

Problem with iOS 5 and shuffle mode

When you switch to shuffle mode in SmartPlaylist with iOS 5 you might experience some funny effects where the playback stutters (goes on and off). So far I have no explanation for this problem. With iOS 4 it works just fine.

UPDATE: OK, I think I have found a way to prevent this problem. Fix will come soon (v5.9.2)

Problem with SmartPlaylist v5.6 & v5.7 on iPad with iOS < 5.1

Due to a bug, SmartPlaylist v5.6 & v5.7 does not work on iPad with iOS less than 5.1.

What you can do to solve the problem:
Update your iPad to iOS 5.1 or wait for SmartPlaylist v5.8 (due to be out approx. on 25. April).

General problems with lyrics, syncing and iTunes (Match)

UPDATE (iOS 8 / iTunes 12):
Today I purchased some songs on the iPhone and later added the lyrics in iTunes - but the lyrics did not show up on the iPhone after syncing back to it -- this is the known problem.
But then I simply deleted the songs on the iPhone and then synced again from iTunes - after the second sync the lyrics were on the iPhone. Maybe this is the way to solve this problem.
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With iCloud, iTunes Match and downloads directly to the iPhone it really get's complicated. You are no longer master of your own songs. When you add lyrics in iTunes on the mac and sync back to the iPhone, the lyrics don't show up! In other cases the old lyrics before the change show up!?

It is a problem with iOS 5. All this iCloud and Match stuff is even confusing Apple, it seems.

Deleting the song on the iPhone and then sync it back from the computer does not help.
What you have to do:

1. Copy the song from iTunes to your desktop (or any other folder) -- the lyrics are contained within this file
2. Delete the song in iTunes (with "move to trash")
3. Delete the song on the device (in the built-in music app, with a swipe gesture)
4. Sync from computer to device by cable
5. Add the song back to iTunes
6. Sync again

--- Now the song will display the lyrics both in the music app and in SmartPlaylist (in SmartPlaylist you must empty the cache with the new ⌘-command "Empty cache after sync" or do a complete restart)

Like that you will loose the Rating, Play Count and Skip Count and get a new Date Added. It is a pain.

Maybe it's better to download songs from Amazon, after all. Then you don't have those troubles.

Bug with (corrupted?) artwork

There are some songs with a kind of corrupted artwork in them, which make SmartPlaylist crash. Reason: The artwork has a size of 0 by 0 pixels. With v4.9 SmartPlaylist will detect that and treat it as "no artwork".

Workarounds:
Add "real" artwork
Create new mp3 from "corrupt" song

Problem with v4.2 - fixed with v4.3

There was a problem in v4.2: The list view crashed, when there was a song which did not have an album artwork.

Workaround: Deactivate the list view (in settings)

The fix for this problem has been published with v4.3.

Sorry for this annoyance!

"Year" and "Date added" as search criteria

Many users have asked to include "Year" and "Date added" as search rules.

Unfortunately, these information are not available on the iPhone/iPod Touch, they simply do not exist in the programming interface. There is no way to include them in SmartPlaylist  :-(

Workaround for "Year":  UPDATE: With v5.2 Year can be used to search and sort
Add the year in brackets to all your titles (e.g. "Hell Hound On My Trail [1937]"), then you can use it as a search rule on Title (e.g. Title contains "hell AND [1937]"). Or create a playlist in iTunes for every year ...

Workaround for "Date added": UPDATE: With v7.1 (iOS 7) you can search and sort by date added.
Create smart playlists in iTunes according to the date added, e.g. "Added last 7 days", "Added last 30 days", and so on, then you can use a search rule on Playlist containing e.g. "7".

The workarounds are a pain, of course, but there is nothing we can do about it at the moment. We have reported a feature request to Apple.