How to Manage an iTunes Playlist

A playlist allows you to group your favorite songs together. iTunes allows you to add or remove songs based off of your personal selection with two types of playlists, a standard playlist and a smart playlist. iTunes gives you management...

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Managing Smart Playlists in iTunes

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Create a smart playlist. To create a smart playlist, click on the '+' icon at the bottom left corner of the screen and click on 'New Smart Playlist.'

To duplicate a playlist, right-click on the playlist to bring up a menu then click on 'Duplicate.'

To delete a playlist, right-click on the playlist then click on 'Delete.'

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Adjust filters in the smart playlist. Click on the smart playlist from the left hand side of the screen to show the contents of the list in the main window pane. Click on Edit Playlist shown in the top right area of the pane to bring up a new window. You can adjust the behavior of the smart playlist and how it adds songs from your library. Once you are finished, click on the OK button to keep your changes.

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Create a rule set. You can add or remove rules by clicking on the + and - buttons. You can add a rule for a rule by clicking on the ... button.

Rules can be adjusted individually or through a hierarchy of rules.

Each line represents one rule. Click on the left drop down to choose a rule, such as sort by album, artist, song, rating, loved and other options.

If you don't want to use any rules, you can unmark the checkbox located at the top left of the window.

If you want to broaden your search, you can adjust the drop down box for 'Match the ___ rule' from 'All' to 'Any.' Each sub rule can be given a similar behavior.

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Impose limits to the smart playlist. The playlist can generate songs by limiting how many songs appear, how long the playlist can play for or how large in file size a playlist can contain by choosing a resulting option from the drop down.

A check next to 'Match only checked items' will only include songs that have a check mark next to them.

Leaving 'Live updating' checked to have the list update based on how you adjust your playlist or music library. For example a playlist may remove songs based on songs without a favorite or with a lower rating.

Leave 'Live updating' unchecked to have your playlist add songs once.

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Delete a song from the playlist. If you want the playlist to avoid a particular song altogether, you can delete the song from the list by right-click on an individual song and click on 'Delete'.

To delete several songs from a list, left-click and drag over a group, left-click and hold ⇧ Shift to select a group of songs or left-click and hold Ctrl to select individual songs. Then right-click on a highlighted song then click on 'Delete' to delete the selected songs.

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Convert a smart playlist into a playlist. If you are satisfied with a particular set of songs, you can choose to turn it into a regular playlist. At the top of the main window pane, click on the '...' icon, then click on 'Add to Playlist' then either choose a pre-existing playlist or click on 'New Playlist' to create a new playlist.

Samuel Daniel

Update 05 March 2020

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