"Live" updating iTunes from Apple TV

[macdad914]

being late to this discussion, I have a smart playlist that has Last Played date as a filter. so currently the data is set to 12/31/17. I have an iPod, iPhone, and an Apple TV that i can play my itunes music. When Im playing music on my iPod (in the car), I can synce with itunes and there the songs are update. If Im playing my music through my Apple TV this doesnt sync with itunes.

 

[cjmnews]

The lack of streaming updating Last Played and Play counts happened with the release of iTunes 12.7 back in 2017. There is no fix.

Those with those devices have to find alternative methods to work around it, like don't use Last Played Date or Play Counts as a criteria unless you are using an iPod/iPhone/iPad. Use a script to update the Play Count and Last Played for what you listened to streaming (manually fake the listening process).

Apple's support for smart playlists has been appalling. It was a differentiating feature they seemed to forget about.

One work around I heard about, but can't try since I don't have an Apple TV yet, is to sync the iTunes playlist to the Apple TV so the tracks and playlist are local to the Apple TV, then sync again after you are done listening and the smart playlist may be updated in iTunes. This makes the Apple TV behave like an iPod which makes sense.

 

[decafjava]

Interesting advice, I never thought that it's possible to sync a playlist from iTunes to a Apple TV. I may have to try it, as an aside something in recent iOS or MacOS updates seems to have improved syncing of smartplaylists between my iPhone and iMac.