Nano random fill?

[Cloysterpeteuk]

My music collection is now headed over the 4GB mark but I think i'm still going to go with the nano.

What I want to know is how do I get i-tunes (I have the 5 release) to randomly fill my ipod with a different selection of songs each time I connect it?. Is this possible?. If not I was planning on creating differrent users areas with each itunes holding different songs.


I think that what I want could be done with smart playlists, but how do you get them to work?, i've tried messing about with them but can't seem to work out what to do.

How EXACTLY would I set up the following smart playlist:-

1. Least recently played - limited to 500 songs
2. Random selection of 500 songs from i-tunes library

Hope you can help, i'm of to see if there are any smart playlist guides on this site now.

[jonnyk429]

I have the same exact problem with my iriver flash player and what i do is just list them alphebatically and then put A-M on the player and then play through a couple times and then put N-Z on. If you set the mp3 player on shuffle you won't know the difference.

[~tl]

Originally posted by Cloysterpeteuk
How EXACTLY would I set up the following smart playlist:-

1. Least recently played - limited to 500 songs
2. Random selection of 500 songs from i-tunes library
OK here you go:

1) File > New Smart Playlist.
2) Uncheck the box "Match the following rule".
3) Check the box "Limit", enter 500 into the next box, make sure "songs" is selected in the next popup and change the final popup to "least recently played".
5) Make sure "Live updating" is checked, and decided whether you want "Match only checked songs" to be checked.

Click OK and you should have an "untitled playlist" in the sidebar, name it whatever you want. Now repeat the steps above, but in step 3 select "random" in the last popup to make your random playlist.

TOM

[Cloysterpeteuk]

Right i've just done that for a random selection of 10 songs so I can see if it works properly, I have itunes set to only update smart playlists.

Does the match only checked songs means it only includes those that have been ticked?.

Thanks for your help.

[Cloysterpeteuk]

Just checked the playlist on the pod and it's ok, but when I re-connect the pod it says updating ipod but it doesn't put a fresh ten songs on!. I selected live updating so why aint it doing anything?.

Only way I can get a fresh ten songs is to go to the playlist, cntrl A then clear, then a new ten comes on so I then have to go to file update ipod.

[~tl]

Yep that's a limit of iTunes, the playlists only refill when you clear them.

TOM

[MikeM]

Originally posted by Cloysterpeteuk
J

Only way I can get a fresh ten songs is to go to the playlist, cntrl A then clear, then a new ten comes on so I then have to go to file update ipod.

I once wrote an applescript to clear a playlist each day so that when I synched, I got new songs. Need to be on a mac though...

[madmaxmedia]

Originally posted by tomlevens
OK here you go:

1) File > New Smart Playlist.
2) Uncheck the box "Match the following rule".
3) Check the box "Limit", enter 500 into the next box, make sure "songs" is selected in the next popup and change the final popup to "least recently played".
5) Make sure "Live updating" is checked, and decided whether you want "Match only checked songs" to be checked.

Click OK and you should have an "untitled playlist" in the sidebar, name it whatever you want. Now repeat the steps above, but in step 3 select "random" in the last popup to make your random playlist.

TOM

Tom's directions are correct. However, for the second list, you don't need to specify a limit. After you autofill your iPod with the first list (which is 500 songs), then you can autofill again with the second list. As long as you don't select the option to erase existing songs, iTunes will fill up the free space with songs on the second list. I'm pretty sure you can have iTunes fill it randomly from the second list as well.

This mainly just saves you the trouble of 'clearing' the list to generate another 500 songs. You don't need to worry about the first list, since it is automatically being updated by iTunes.

I'm going from memory, but I'm pretty sure this is correct.

[Cloysterpeteuk]

Well I guess i'll only have to put up with it for a year anyway, by then the flash players will hopefully have hit 8GB which should be enough for me.

[Cloysterpeteuk]

I think i'm just gonna go with the one random smart list of 500, don't really need the least played one as i'll catch the songs eventually. It's not too much hassle manually refreshing the playlist I guess, plus i'll only have to do it every couple of weeks and even then only for about a year until I can get an 8GB flash Nano which should be acceptable size for me. So only have to do it about a 100 times.

[studogvetmed]

adding a last played date to the condition in the playlist will be sure to cause them to automatically fall off the list and have a new playlist with new songs. That being said, the actual definition of "least recently played" should cause the playlist to change over time as songs are played regardless of a last played limit (currently only in iTunes... iPod functionality for live updating is crippled at the moment...).

At least it should... Testing now... Yup, sure enough, once a song has been played it falls of the list. As you play songs they will fall of the list from iTunes on a sync.

The thing with live updating is that it updates when changes are noticed, it is not a "refreash", it changes when something changes.

Cheers,
Stu

[Cloysterpeteuk]

I will try that stu dog, i'm a bit of a ###### with these smart playlists. Does it count the file as being played if you only listen to a part of it?, or do you have to listen to the whole file?.

[mtnagel]

Originally posted by Cloysterpeteuk
I will try that stu dog, i'm a bit of a ###### with these smart playlists. Does it count the file as being played if you only listen to a part of it?, or do you have to listen to the whole file?. You have to let it finish. You can fast forward all the way to the end and then let it play the end and that will work too.

[studogvetmed]

mtnagel is correct. You have to at least have the last second or so play to have it marked as played. Skipping the track will keep the track on the list.

[Cloysterpeteuk]

Superb got it working now, makes the fact that i'm only going to have a few gigs almost redundant, all I need to do is connect the pod to i-tunes every now and then and my new stuff will always be loaded with this least played list. Very neat!.

[mtnagel]

Originally posted by Cloysterpeteuk
Superb got it working now, makes the fact that i'm only going to have a few gigs almost redundant, all I need to do is connect the pod to i-tunes every now and then and my new stuff will always be loaded with this least played list. Very neat!. Finally someone gets it. I hear so many people say that it's only got 2 or 4 gig or 512 mb or 1 gig for the Shuffle. How much can you really listen to at one time. Even 2 gigs is over 30 hours of music. The battery will need charging way before you hear it all.

[archurban]

I just wonder whether ipod nano has autofill function or not. if it has, I want to fill entire songs which I want to listen everyday life like shuffle. actually, my music collection is way over 7000 songs. so I can't save all songs into it. so like shuffle but little more scale up, I want to do the same thing if it has.

[studogvetmed]

I haven't heard if it has an "autofill" like shuffle, I don't think it does and has more a mini esque autofill where it will automatically fill it with as many songs as it can if you have a big library.

The answer to autofill on a non-shuffle iPod is "update selected playlists only" make up five or six playlists, or more, or less, with different criteria, make them so the criteria can change based off of last played or playcount so these lists change dynamically with each sync to iTunes and you'll have continual rotating music after each sync. See the mini forums for examples of such set ups.

Cheers,
Stu

[Cloysterpeteuk]

Originally posted by archurban
I just wonder whether ipod nano has autofill function or not. if it has, I want to fill entire songs which I want to listen everyday life like shuffle. actually, my music collection is way over 7000 songs. so I can't save all songs into it. so like shuffle but little more scale up, I want to do the same thing if it has.

It's been confirmed that it doesn't, I just have the two playlists now one for least recently played and another to make sure my audiobooks are put on.