remember the last song....

[larshenkel]

hello!

there is a function in itunes that i am missing. when i quit itunes and start it again the program doesn't remember the last song i have heard. i have to start again to select a song or an album.....

i thinks it's not unusual that people want continue listening where they stooped the last time.

is there a function in itunes that i haven't discovered yet? or is there solution for this problem? maybe a script?

hope somebody can help me, thanks a lot, lars

[moriond]

Welcome to the iLounge forums,

You should have a smart playlist named "Recently Played" in the Source List column at the left under iTunes. If you don't have one, you could certainly create such a playlist or modify it to do what you want. The default settings for the "Recently Played" smart playlist are: "Match the following conditions: Last Played is in the last 2 weeks" with Live updating turned on, and no limits on the number of tracks on the playlist.

If you automatically sync your iPod, this playlist should also update to display the last songs you played on the iPod (assuming that you listened to songs on the iPod and sync'd the iPod between you last listening session in iTunes).

If you have been playing the song from an album or compilation, typing cmd+r (Mac shortcut for File->Show Song File) will show you the other tracks in that album or compilation. If you played the song from a playlist, I don't believe you can find out the last played playlist, but doing a ctrl-click on the song and looking at the "Playlists" entries will show you which playlists contain this song and allow you to select the one you want.

Hope this helps.

P.S. I believe that by default the first entry in the "Recently Played" smart playlist will be the last song you played, but if that isn't the case, once you've selected this playlist make sure that the "Last Played" field is turned on for your View Options in this playlist (use the cmd+j keyboard shortcut for Edit -> View Options; check the box beside "Last Played"), and click with your mouse in the titlebar for the column labeled "Last Played" in the main iTunes window so that this label is selected (highlighted in blue) and the triangle to the right of this label points down. You can select any Viewable column to sort on in either ascending or descending alphabetic order -- just click once or twice in the column heading.

[larshenkel]

thanks a lot for your help!

i created a smart playlist like you wrote and tried your advices. and you are right, this is a solution to find the last songs that were played with itunes and to continue where i have stopped the last time.

the perfect solution would be, if itunes just "freezes" all windows and preferences when you close the program. and you open it later you can continue where you have stopped, without starting any playlists or something else. everything is still the same, itunes continues to play your album or your playlist. i know this is not a big or important problem. but everytime i open itunes and press the play-button, itunes plays the same song. and i can't hear this song anymore......

maybe one day the creator of itunes will add this function......i would be very lucky

thanks again for your help and all the best, lars