I made a mix CD for a friend from an iTunes playlist (not a Smart Playlist), but when my iPod syncs (it updates automatically) the songs in that playlist appear in reversed order on the iPod! I've tried reversing the order in iTunes, but it doesn't fix the problem, they're still reversed on the iPod. The only solution I've found is to transfer all the songs to a new playlist and re-sync. It works, but only the first time - after that they're all reversed again. It's only this one playlist.
I ran a test on this. I created a standard playlist and added the songs of an album, in track order. I synched the iPod and ejected it. The iPod showed the playlist and the songs in album order.
In my iTunes library, I sorted the songs by Song Name and redocked the iPod. After synching and ejecting, I checked the playlist on the iPod again and the tracks were sorted by Song Name.
I resorted by Album Name again (which also sorts the Track No field automatically) and deleted the last two tracks. I then added those two tracks in reverse order and resynched the iPod. The iPod now showed all the tracks in album sequence. When I looked at the playlist to find out why it didn't list the last two tracks in reverse, I discovered that by having sorted the tracks by Album Name, I had negated my custom sequence.
My next experiment was to create a new playlist and add the second half of the album, then the first half. This synched to the iPod as planned. When I returned to the playlist in iTunes I found, as I had expected, that I could move the tracks around to create a different sequence. One thing that I hadn't realised is that as soon as you sort a playlist, you've lost the original sequence and you can't move individual tracks around anymore.
I suspect that you created a sequence of tracks, then for some reason, you sorted them and thus you lost your sequence. You may have thought, as I did until I ran these experiments, that the original sequence was kept despite sorting, and only it would appear on the iPod. Moral of the story: create a playlist in the sequence you want, then don't touch it.
by japester on Feb 26, 04 | 6:01 am
I see this all the time on my iPod and I think it is a bug!
I know that I used to be able to sort a list any way I wanted in iTunes and the iPod would reflect the sort. Now (since probably 4.0) I find that often the sort is on the correct field on the iPod, but reversed from the order of iTunes.
example: I'll have a "Just Added" smart playlist:
Date Added -> is in the last -> 1 days
The default sort will be date added ascending. If I sync to iPod, it looks fine- new songs at the top of the list. The next day after syncing, I find that the iPod has the list, but it is sorted descending- with new songs at the bottom of the list.
I've played with the "copy to play order" item in the contextual menu, but haven't really figured this one out yet.
I ran a test on this. I created a standard playlist and added the songs of an album, in track order. I synched the iPod and ejected it. The iPod showed the playlist and the songs in album order.
In my iTunes library, I sorted the songs by Song Name and redocked the iPod. After synching and ejecting, I checked the playlist on the iPod again and the tracks were sorted by Song Name.
I resorted by Album Name again (which also sorts the Track No field automatically) and deleted the last two tracks. I then added those two tracks in reverse order and resynched the iPod. The iPod now showed all the tracks in album sequence. When I looked at the playlist to find out why it didn't list the last two tracks in reverse, I discovered that by having sorted the tracks by Album Name, I had negated my custom sequence.
My next experiment was to create a new playlist and add the second half of the album, then the first half. This synched to the iPod as planned. When I returned to the playlist in iTunes I found, as I had expected, that I could move the tracks around to create a different sequence. One thing that I hadn't realised is that as soon as you sort a playlist, you've lost the original sequence and you can't move individual tracks around anymore.
I suspect that you created a sequence of tracks, then for some reason, you sorted them and thus you lost your sequence. You may have thought, as I did until I ran these experiments, that the original sequence was kept despite sorting, and only it would appear on the iPod. Moral of the story: create a playlist in the sequence you want, then don't touch it.