Rekordbox and Itunes playlist issue

Pioneer has confirmed that the issue is Apple changed their XML output and it no longer contains the sort order. Unfortunately until Apple makes an update to iTunes to revert back to the old XML export, Pioneer is unable to do anything about that issue.

I can confirm that Rekordbox does not respect iTunes playlist order. This is a major issue for me since sorting order is crucial for navigating through my library. It's clear that the quick Rekordbox trick didn't really do the trick.

I have discovered that a few playlist, normal (not smart) that contains just a few tracks are sorted correctly. But somewhere around 40 tunes Rekorbox goes bananas and shuffles all into random order.

Please Pioneer, this is a real show stopper for many of us, look into this fast!

This is killing me as well. Hoping we can get a fix for this soon.

For that matter, I also can't sort intelligent playlists in rekordbox now (native rb playlists as opposed to imported itunes playlists). I like to sort by title, and if I sort by title and then Playlist -> Renumber Track Order, when I sync to my USB, that sort doesn't stick. Seems to be sorted at random.

Is there a temporary workaround for this?

Luckily I have an old Rekordbox export from before the iTunes 12 debacle started. This is a good advice for everyone, use two USB sticks and always sync ONE of them so you know you have a previous version that works. Worst case scenario you won't be able to play the tunes you bought that day. Next time, sync the other one, always keeping one stick one export behind.

I've been also struggling with my smart playlists, I've found a work around, it isn't ideal but it does work, if you duplicate the playlist and delete the old one in iTunes the re-sync them in rekordbox it seems to work for that import but the next one messes up again, hope it helps and we get a full solution soon

It should retain the order - provided you have updated to iTunes 12.2 and rekordbox 3.2.2. If you have copied the playlist to rekordbox (and aren't loading it from the iTunes tree section), get it sorting the right way and then right-click up at the top of the column header and select "Renumber playlist." It will then keep that order on your export devices after you update / re-export the USB device.

Pulse, your answer doesn't help. There is no way to re-create the order from the playlists in iTunes. Rekordbox shuffles all tracks into random order and there is no sort option that puts them back in the right order. This is definitely a bug and is a major problem for us who rely on sort order in playlists from iTunes.

Let me just add that the playlists are synced by the sync manager straight to a USB device. Short normal playlists retain their sorting order. All smart playlists and normal playlists over about 40 tracks gets shuffled.

That is a huge problem for me too.
For me, it takes about an half hour to sort my tunes perfectly (as they are in iTunes).
But i think you're not interested in us, the low CDJ user. Because there is no problem on the >CDJ 900 because there you can sort by, in the player.
I often play with my 850, and there the songs have to be pre sorted.
Anyway. Soon i will upgrade my 850 because they are full of bugs and not in any way ready for rekordbox -.-

This bug is very much affecting all users on all levels syncing iTunes playlists through Rekordbox. Can we please get an update regarding this? It is a HUGE problem! I'm lucky having an old export but cannot do any updates before this bug is fixed. If I didn't have a backup, there would be no way for me to do a proper DJ set.

In desperation I just did an experiment. Tried to export a small part of my collection on a fresh stick to see if any residing data could be the culprit. But no, two selected playlist, both smart, one with 15 tracks was exported in correct order and one with 51 tracks that got shuffled.

Henrik, If you duplicate the playlist in iTunes and delete the old one, then go into the sync option then add the new playlist, it then syncs in the correct order, I have mine organized by date added in iTunes with various playlists having over 500 tracks in and it works fine just a pain having to duplicate delete etc each time a update of your hard drive, I may add that it doesn't need to re add all the tracks as they are already on my hard drive so it's quite quick when updating the actual hard drive as it's just the playlist organization if that makes sense

Thank you for the advice but sadly it will not work for me. I have over 150 smart playlists being automagically populated with the tracks in my collection. Duplicating, deleting and re-syncing that many playlists is not realistic.

And it's not fixed in Rekordbox 3.3.0. Pioneer, please listen! This bug is rendering Rekordbox USELESS for anyone syncing iTunes smart playlists! I want to use all caps here but it seems no-one is listening anyway...

Everyone please vote this issue up, maybe pioneer will pay attention.

I got excited thinking this may have been fixed with the update :(

I honestly don't think they are aware of the severeness of this bug. Since the new iTunes was released I haven't been able to update my USB-sticks. I guess not so many people are syncing iTunes playlists but since Rekordbox's smart playlists lack essential functionality there is no other options.

In 3.3 the Re-Numbering option seems to have also gone when you right click!

Please, Pulse give a voice to your engineers, we have serious problem with this randomized Itunes playlist. For example i have a playlist sorted by "date added" in itunes and limited di 50 elements. In rekordbox is impossible to create a so smart playlist, in itunes it is possible BUT in older versions i was able to export on USB playlist "as it is" in itunes and sorting by "default" on a cdi, it give me the exact order in iTunes. Now this list are randomized. Rekordbox "added date" could be different from itunes "added date". This is for me and for my organization order a big problem. Thanks!

I created a new thread since this one obviously is ignored. Vote it up, maybe we'll get Pioneers attention. https://forums.pioneerdj.com/hc/communities/public/questions/204717289-Two-months-without-being-able-to-export-to-USB-critical-shuffle-bug-still-not-recognized-or-fixed-

Not being ignored; please see this thread for some discussion we've just had and reason why it's not Pioneer's fault!

https://forums.pioneerdj.com/hc/communities/public/questions/204717289

Problem solved! I have downgrade di Itunes 11.4 and every thing works perfectly! It is not a Pioneer problem but APPLE problem...maybe the Apple programmers should be go to take the apples down the threes like his name suggest.
@Pulse: i'am waiting for "LOAD LOCK" feature of my XDJ-RX...please is absolutely necessary to avoid brown scenes.

I don't agree. After comparing the XML files from an old iTunes version and an up to date version there are differences but the information is the same. This means that Apple changed how they output the data and that caused Rekordbox not to recognize the sort order anymore. Rekordbox has to be updated to recognize the new iTunes XML file structure. How many months now? Four?

I have also solved the problem with an old version of iTunes, on an old computer that never, ever gets connected to the internet to avoid sneaky automatic updates ;)

I was having this problem but think I have sorted it. I believe that Rekordbox does preserve the itunes sorting order but maybe not quite how you might expect.... Go into your itunes smart playlist and sort by playlist number, rather than by date added / artist / track name (as I was previously doing). I think rekordbox will copy over smart playlists in the order that you can see in iTunes having sorted by playlist number. To correct the sorting in itunes I found the best way is to "edit smart playlist", change the "limit" to 1 track and change the "selected by" to most recent added, or artist or name or whatever it is you want to sort by. The smart playlist will empty itself ready for you to restart fresh with all your tracks. Go back into edit smart playlist and change the number of tracks to a figure exceeding your collection (I went for 5000 for sake of ease). Your smart playlist should then populate in its entirety according your sort criteria. Hopefully this should then be preserved in Rekordbox. It worked for me anyway, see how you get on?

Thanks for your instructions...but it can't be a serious fix because the playlist doesn't update...every time you made a change you have to do that work for every playlist.

And that's the whole point of smart playlists, that they updates. No feedback in months regarding this, it's obviously being ignored.

Or they have no idea how to fix it! lol

I've just asked the engineers to follow-up on this.

Please Pulse keep us updated as we are already waiting for a very longtime for a resolution on this...
It used to work in the past, so I don't believe it's impossible to fix it...
Thanks