Create a self-updating historical iTunes playlist

Jan 23, '03 08:35:55AM

Contributed by: Jaharmi

I'm a real fan of Smart Playlists in iTunes 3, and have been finding some interesting uses for them. For example, you can make a Smart Playlist that will show the history of whatever tracks you've played back in iTunes. This can help you find a track you listened to a while ago, but can't remember what it was -- helpful if you try out random tracks from a large iTunes Library.

Of course, iTunes keeps track of which songs you've played, so even if you have a random playlist, you can just use the forward/back track commands to go through your recent history. Having a History Smart Playlist has the benefit of showing a list in the main iTunes window. Here's how to create one:

  1. Make a new Smart Playlist.
  2. Choose the Advanced tab in the Smart Playlist window.
  3. Turn on "Match the following condition."
  4. Select "Last Played" from the field pop-up menu.
  5. Select "Is in the last" from the match type pop-up menu.
  6. Select either days, weeks, or months -- your choice -- and then enter a number for the match.
  7. Leave "Live updating" enabled so that the playlist.
  8. Click the OK button.
In my experience, this history seems to reflect the order the tracks were played, with the most recent tracks at the top.

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