I haven't worked out all the kinks from my process : currently I need to manually remove all playlist from iTunes for the playlist update to work (and even then it's a bit of a dice roll) => does anyone have the same issue ?
It's because you're using a version newer than 12.5.3.16
That's the latest version that works properly. Every version after that has some kind of issue.
Granted you probably have to for it to work with whatever version of iPhone you are using.
Also, one improvement to the plugin that seems easy to implement is the sync order between tracks, playlists and tags.
What gives you the idea it would be easy?
From memory, this is what it does (if you're using the right version).
- MB provides a list of tracks/playlists that match the sync criteria.
- The plugin adds them to iTunes while syncing ratings from MB to iTunes(if option selected)
- If the track is a playlist, it deletes it first in iTunes and recreates it. (has to be done to work around a bug)
- depending on settings it will remove anything in iTunes that wasn't included in the sync. (just realized this could result in lost play counts).
- Playlists in iTunes are populated with songs.
- Syncs Play Count and ratings back to MB.
- Resets play count to zero in iTunes.
Could we switch the sync order to : tracks, then tags, then playlists ? And would it work
It wouldn't work. MB parses tracks to the plugin based on the options you choose when the sync is initialized. There is no way to alter that list once the sync process has started.
Alternatively, could we get an option to only update the playlists (without going through the full library update) ?
You can choose to only sync certain playlists. It will still sync back all ratings and play counts of everything in iTunes. It will probably delete playlists from iTunes though....
Honestly can't remember if this will work but if you uncheck the following setting it should leave everything previously synced in iTunes.
Hamburger button (top left in MB) -> Edit Preferences -> Devices -> iPod & iPhone Driver -> Configure -> Settings -> Delete files that are not on the auto-sync list from the device.
So if you untick that option and do a full sync of all songs/playlists. Then perform another sync with just one playlist selected, it should leave all the songs in iTunes. But it will probably delete all the playlist except for the one you selected. The songs of all the deleted playlist will still be in iTunes, they just won't be part of a playlist.
The other issue with this is it will only sync ratings from MB to iTunes (if option selected) based on the selected playlist.
But it will sync all ratings and play counts back to MB (if option selected) regardless of what songs/playlists are selected to sync.
Just to be clear, there is no way to update MB with playcounts/ratings from your device and sync updated auto-playlists back to your device in one pass.
