iTunes 101: Use smart playlists to limit size

Want to make an iTunes playlist that will fill your iPod, without making one that's too big to fit? With an iTunes Smart Playlist you can do this and much more. In this Mac 101 tip I'll show you how.

Start by making a new Smart Playlist by selecting File > New Smart Playlist (or hold down the option key and click the gear that appears in the bottom left hand corner). You can select what you want from the drop-down menus in the middle section. For instance, I chose "Genre ... is ... Rock," but you can choose any of the options you want. Check the box next to "Limit ..." and type in how much storage your iPod or iPhone has, then select "GB" or "MB" from the next drop-down menu for Gigabytes and Megabytes. You also should make sure the "Live updating" checkbox is checked.

When you're done, click OK. You then need to make sure that you sync this and only this playlist to your iPod by going to your iPod (under devices) > Music, and select "Sync Music," and "Selected Playlists." Then put a check mark beside the playlist you just created. Re-sync, and you're done!

Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 section today.

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Want to make an iTunes playlist that will fill your iPod, without making one that's too big to fit? With an iTunes Smart Playlist you can...

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Leland

To re-randomize a Smart Playlist, make sure that the Live Updating box is checked (it is in the example here). Select the playlist, then select the tracks, and press Delete. Removing those tracks from the playlist will result it in being refilled just as quickly.

That's how I refresh a playlist I've got of 25 random tracks.

November 19 2008 at 2:55 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

dan

Good to know but there is so much more you can do with smart playlists.

I've completely changed the way I manage itunes after reading this http://deanandyou.blogspot.com/2008/07/ultimate-guide-to-itunes-smart.html

November 18 2008 at 3:14 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Sid

I have a smart playlist with 1000 random songs.

Everytime I sync my iPhone I would like iTunes to randomnly swop in a few songs and remove a few songs so that over time my complete library will randomnly make it onto my iPhone. Is this possible?

November 18 2008 at 2:15 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Sid's comment

dboone21

Yes. Just add a new rule to the same smart playlist and include 'Last played is not in' x amount of time...
I have one set up for 300 songs that aren't 1 or 2 stars, that have a last played not in the past 12 months, that aren't less than 1 minute, that aren't more than 12 minutes.

November 18 2008 at 6:00 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

moose

my iPhone:
3gb most recently added
10gb most played

November 18 2008 at 10:12 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

glaurent

There's an annoying bug related to this feature, if you use it to create a playlist of random albums (select items at random, with Controls->Shuffle->By albums set), many albums will be incomplete. I tried using such a playlist to random-fill my ipod, but because of this it turned out to be rather frustrating since you have to manually edit the list afterwards.

November 18 2008 at 9:49 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Ron

P.S. If anyone knows of a good way to do something similar with iPhoto, I think it would be appreciated.

November 18 2008 at 9:48 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Ron

Thanks for posting this... too bad I didn't know about this before I went and trashed a bunch of my cd's from iTunes so my whole library would fit on my new iPhone... LOL

November 18 2008 at 9:46 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

mwb

I wish there was a way to grab.....

from a single genre,
"x" songs from an artist

and then even better,

from a single genre
the top "x" played songs

November 18 2008 at 9:44 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

alex_dlc

the title should say mac 101, unless you plan on making a whole new section for itunes tips. dont think it would be a good idea to start writing: "finder 101", "safari 101", "ical 101"............

November 18 2008 at 8:28 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

eugene

annoying bits are (a) you can't do size by decimal, so if i have 8.5 gb to fill, i have to go to 8500 mb and (b) i want there to be a percentage kind of thing (i.e. this smart playlist to be 40% of my space, or of my music space [i haven't worked out all the details in my head, i just know i want something i don't have to constantly adjust the actual size of]).

also, maybe a checkbox to not include anything (e.g. music videos, podcasts, audiobooks) that isn't music without having to do that manually per smart playlist (assuming you want something like an all music added in the past month playlist)

November 18 2008 at 8:19 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

2 replies to eugene's comment

Paul Sargent

There's something I can't work out though.If I have a smart play-list that selects tunes from another play-list randomly, but is limited by size, count, time, etc, how do I make it re-randomize the selection?

I seem to be stuck with the tracks it selected when I created the play-list. That gets boring very quickly.

November 18 2008 at 8:34 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Dave

Instead of specifying all that you dont want to show, tell the smart playlist to only include music files. Say, file is, MP3, AAC files... That way it will only include the ones you want.

For my iPhone I have a list that includes only songs that havent been played in the last month, are only 2-4 stars, have a play count of less then 10 and limited to 2 GB. This gives me a cycling smart playlist that as I listen to songs they get pushed out and updated with other songs when I sync.

November 18 2008 at 12:54 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply