AppleTV2 song order in playlists

[PurdueGuy]

I got the new AppleTV today. So far, so good...except

When I choose a playlist from my Mini, it displays all the songs in alphabetical order. No matter what I try, that's always the case.

I saw another thread mentioning songs weren't alphabetical on the Remote app, but mine works correctly there.

Same thing for Genius playlists, Smart playlists, the Purchased playlist, and regular playlists. Changing the order in iTunes (using the column headings) causes the album artwork to disappear and reappear, but nothing changes the order of the songs.

Any thoughts?

 

[Avenger]

I got the new AppleTV today. So far, so good...except

When I choose a playlist from my Mini, it displays all the songs in alphabetical order. No matter what I try, that's always the case.

Can someone with a new Apple TV confirm that this is happening with music playlists? There was sort of a similiar bug I've seen in the original Apple TV where the playlist order was set to whatever it was when you initially created the playlist in iTunes.

 

[rritterson]

I can confirm this bug in the new Apple TV too.

 

[philipk]

Thanks for solving a similar problem that I have.

My Sex and the City seasons are out of order while my Sopranos episodes are in the right order.

After reading this thread, I noticed that all my TV shows are first in alphabetical series order. Then each series season's are in the order that I ripped them.

With Sex and the City, I ripped in the following order - 5,6,1,2,3,4. That is the same order for ATV.

I have the complete series of Sopranos that I ripped 1,2,3,4,5,6. Same order for ATV.

I have several shows that I only own a few seasons, each of them are in the order I ripped them.

Interesting.

 

[dhy8386]

Just to be clear, on all your music playlists, if you click on a playlist to view the songs it will show them in alphabetical order.

HOWEVER, IF YOU DO NOT ENTER THE PLAYLIST TO SEE THE SONGS BUT HIT PLAY ON THE PLAYLIST ITSELF IT WILL PLAY IN THE ORDER ON WHATEVER ITUNES YOU ARE STREAMING FROM.

I have seen alot written about the "playlist bug" but its not a bug. It works.

However, I suspect the ATV shows the songs in order for two reasons:

1) Apple assumes if you have a playlist, you will manage it from your iTunes and thus you will simply hit play on the Playlist to play it in order per my comment above. Thus, when you enter the playlist, Apple is using what it things will be the easiest default method for finding your songs which is alpha. Why do this? Because again assuming they arent expecting you to enter the playlist except to either find an album or artist, this would be the easiest way to do this and then from there they assume you may want to find other songs or albums or create a genius playlist from this artist hence why you can hold down the play button and get those options.

2) This is version 1 of the software and as we know with apple its not throw in all bells and whistles but streamline and simple. Even if it means locking things down like being able to resort a playlist on the AppleTv

I dont necessarily agree but it makes sense if you view it that way and also understand that Apple looks at this new gen of appletv as a streaming device not as a device to manage your content.

 

[PurdueGuy]

Just to be clear, on all your music playlists, if you click on a playlist to view the songs it will show them in alphabetical order.

HOWEVER, IF YOU DO NOT ENTER THE PLAYLIST TO SEE THE SONGS BUT HIT PLAY ON THE PLAYLIST ITSELF IT WILL PLAY IN THE ORDER ON WHATEVER ITUNES YOU ARE STREAMING FROM.

I have seen alot written about the "playlist bug" but its not a bug. It works.

However, I suspect the ATV shows the songs in order for two reasons:

1) Apple assumes if you have a playlist, you will manage it from your iTunes and thus you will simply hit play on the Playlist to play it in order per my comment above. Thus, when you enter the playlist, Apple is using what it things will be the easiest default method for finding your songs which is alpha. Why do this? Because again assuming they arent expecting you to enter the playlist except to either find an album or artist, this would be the easiest way to do this and then from there they assume you may want to find other songs or albums or create a genius playlist from this artist hence why you can hold down the play button and get those options.

2) This is version 1 of the software and as we know with apple its not throw in all bells and whistles but streamline and simple. Even if it means locking things down like being able to resort a playlist on the AppleTv

I dont necessarily agree but it makes sense if you view it that way and also understand that Apple looks at this new gen of appletv as a streaming device not as a device to manage your content.

Good catch on the playback, but I'll have to disagree on most other points.

No, it doesn't make sense at all to most people! Why should I have to put up with alphabetical order? And just because I have a playlist doesn't mean I want to listen to every song in that playlist.

I have a playlist of my 100 most recent purchase, sorted so the 100th oldest is at the top, and the newest is at the bottom. Maybe I just want to listen to my last 10 purchases. I would have to hit play on the playlist, and then click forward 90 times? Pass on that!

As for #2 and being v1 of the software, this is (technically) v1 on iOS, but this is not v1 of the software in general. It's the same look and feel at ATV1, and behave completely differently in some respects. We don't know how much was rewritten, ported, from scratch.

 

[ascender]

Can someone help with this please....

My music playlists are obviously displaying in the "wrong" order, but when I hit play on the playlist title, it just takes me in to the list view rather than playing it.

Am I missing something?

 

[newagemac]

You're supposed to highlight the playlist and then hit the Play button on the remote instead of the select/ok button.

 

[ascender]

You're supposed to highlight the playlist and then hit the Play button on the remote instead of the select/ok button.

Tried that and I swear it just takes me in to the playlist.

Tried the apple remote and the logitech one. I'm obviously doing something very stupid, I just don't know what....

 

[00Diablo]

I organize my playlists around albums - i.e., in iTunes I have a playlist folder for each genre of music, and under that a playlist folder with the artist name, and under that a playlist for each album I've ripped by that artist with the songs in album order. For example, David Bowie:

Folder:
Rock

Folder:
Bowie, David

Playlists:
(1970) The Man Who Sold The World
(1971) Hunky Dory
(1972) The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust
(1973) Aladdin Sane
etc.

I've found this method very useful for those of us who have ripped large libraries of our own music and who are not "singles" focused in our listening habits. This way, I can drill down quickly via playlists on my Apple TV to find any album I want to hear in proper running order on my big, fat hi-fi system.

This all works out great streaming my main library to my old Apple TV. You're telling me the new Apple TV will not support this? If so, it is a disaster to my music listening and library organizing habits via iTunes.

 

[djthomas]

Tried that and I swear it just takes me in to the playlist.

Tried the apple remote and the logitech one. I'm obviously doing something very stupid, I just don't know what....

@ascender You seem to have uncovered a secondary and definite bug in this saga - pressing 'play' the FIRST time on a playlist from the list of playlists does in fact seem to confuse the Apple TV - it attempts to play the playlist, fails, and ends up playing nothing, reverting back to the list of playlists.

However, if you persist and try to 'play the playlist' the SECOND time, it then successfully plays the playlist in correct order set in iTunes.

This is indeed annoying, and it's not possible to view the playlist order on the television interface, other than by skipping through tracks one at a time. (unless the tracks are all part of the same album, when you can hold down 'select' and click 'Browse Album' and then see the tracks in the correct order). The only way to see all the tracks is to use the iPhone/iPad remote app.

Happy listening!

One other possible way around this is actually to control playback from within iTunes on your streaming computer where the music is stored, rather than on the Apple TV itself. You can select 'Apple TV' (rather than 'Computer') as the speaker source by clicking on the double-wifi looking speaker icon at the bottom right of iTunes.