Hi guys, here is the 2.7 update for ByeTunes. This one is mostly about playlists. You can now create real smart playlists that Music keeps up to date by itself, pin albums and artists, see your playlist folders, and set covers and descriptions for your playlists. There are also fixes for Apple Music matching, favorites and library safety.
Smart Playlists
New Smart Playlist in the Playlists tab now opens an editor that works like the one in Music. You choose if songs must match all or any of your rules, add as many rules as you want, group them, and optionally limit the playlist to a number of songs. Rules can use Artist, Genre, Title, Album, Album Artist, Year, Plays and Favorite.
These are real smart playlists, not a fixed list of songs. When you inject a new song that fits the rules, Music adds it to the playlist on its own.
Smart playlists that are already on your device now show up in the Playlists tab too. Open one to see its rules and the songs that match right now. Smart playlists you made with an older version can be converted with Convert to Live Smart Playlist (long-press them).
There is also a Smart Playlist Files row in the Playlists tab:
- Save a smart playlist inside ByeTunes and add it back to a device later.
- Export smart playlists to a file.
- Import smart playlists from a file.
- Import smart playlists straight from a
MediaLibrary.sqlitedb.
Pinning
You can now pin albums, artists and smart playlists to Music, as well as playlists. Long-press them in the Albums, Artists and Playlists tabs, or use the Pin button inside a smart playlist. Pinned ones show a small pin.
All pins share the limit of six that Music has, and pinning closes the Music app first so it shows up properly.
Folders, Covers & Descriptions
The Playlists tab now shows your folders and the playlists inside them, and you can move playlists in and out of folders. Folder changes close the Music app first, like pins do.
The playlist screen now shows the playlist cover. Tap it to:
- Generate a gradient cover.
- Choose a photo.
- Remove the cover and go back to the automatic collage.
You can also generate a cover when you create a new playlist. Playlists can have a description too.
Library Tools
- Add Favoriting Capabilities prepares every song in your library so you can favorite it from the Music app. Use it for songs injected with an older version.
- Remove Ghost Songs deletes the unplayable duplicates that could show up in Favorite Songs.
- Fix Missing Favorites was also fixed. It no longer creates those unplayable duplicates.
On-Device Library & Queue
Songs in the On-Device Library now show LOSSLESS, HI-RES and E badges.
Songs the Apple Music lookup could not match now show a NO MATCH tag in the queue. Tap it to open the editor and search by hand.
Apple Music Matching
Artist names with brackets were breaking the search so nothing was found. That is fixed.
When the album name from the source does not match Apple's, a song can now still match if the title, artist and length agree. Standard versions are also preferred over instrumental, karaoke, live and similar versions.
Stability, Backups & Database Safety
Library uploads are now checked before they replace your library, so a damaged database or a missing batch of songs no longer gets uploaded. Snapshot folders are visible in the Files app, and the database editor can export your database.
Cancel in the Library Tools repairs now works up until the library is uploaded.
I also updated the device connection library to idevice 0.1.68. In my tests injecting a song got noticeably faster, from about 6 seconds to about 2.5 for a single song.
Thanks as always to everyone testing ByeTunes, sending logs and reporting what breaks. Hope you guys enjoy this update.