How To: Save storage space on iPhone using Smart Playlists
by Frank Hedley | October 16, 2008
Although the new iPhone comes in 16GB capacity as well, storage optimization is always a good option to keep in mind, especially for those who like to keep music libraries and movies altogether on their iPhone. Deciding which movies and which songs to keep on your iPhone takes a lot of time and patience in order to sort everything out. The good news is that iTunes can automatically create an iPhone optimized playlist that goes very well with using Smart Playlists.
Such Smart Playlists are the effect of an iTunes feature by which special automatic playlists are created from an existing music library according to some factors of your choice. E.g: a smart playlist may be created that automatically includes every song from a certain year. Further on, I will use my favourite criteria, rating songs, because I think it's the easiest way of getting only and all those songs you like.
1. To start with, please rate songs in the iTunes library, not all of them, just those you like, which can take up to a good percentage of the entire library.
2. In order to create the Smart Playlist, go to the File menu from iTunes and select New Smart Playlist.
3. You will see the Smart Playlist window. In the first row, select My Rating from the first drop-down menu. In the second menu, you can choose is or is greater than, depending on how many songs you have rated from the lot. In the last box, choose 4 or 5 stars, as you like. Afterwards, click the plus icon.
4. You will now see a second row in the window. In this one, select size from the first drop-down and is from the second. In the last box, select the percentage of disc space on iPhone that you wish to have occupied with music. Keep in mind that it can not be larger than 7GB or 7,000 MB.
5. Click OK to create the playlist. After this, you have to name the playlist from the tray in the left. Choose something recongnizable, "Top Rated songs", "iPhone Smart Playlist".
6. You need to sync the playlist to your iPhone, so dock the iPhone and from the iPhone management screen, select the Music tab at the top.
7. Select the "Selected Playlists" option at the top and then the iPhone playlist you have just created below it. Don't select anything else. Click the Apply button at the bottom right and resync the iPhone.
From now on, every time the iPhone is synced with iTunes, it will only transfer the Smart Playlist. And the best part of being smart is that every time a new song is rated with 4 or 5 stars, the playlist will automatically add it, and so to the iPhone, the next time it is synced.
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