iTunes 12.2: New Playlist View Option

New in iTunes 12.2, Playlist view is only available when you’re viewing a playlist. It’s a hybrid between Albums view and Songs view; it display more information than Songs view, without taking up as much space as Albums view.
Playlist view offers fewer display options than the other views: since it includes artwork thumbnails, you cannot choose to display artwork or not; you also can’t choose which columns you want to see. It’s a one-size fits all view.

Playlist view

As you can see above, Playlist view shows a track name, artist, and album together, in a compact block of text. It also shows the duration of the track, an iCloud icon (if tracks are in the cloud), their genre, and their year (if you’ve entered year tags for your music).

When you view playlists – whether in Playlist view, or another view – iTunes creates a montage of the album artwork contained in that playlist, displaying four album covers. You can change this artwork if you wish; read this article to find out how.

52 thoughts on “iTunes 12.2: New Playlist View Option

  1. I personally don’t like this view. Songs displays much more information, except album artwork, which is sometimes useless.

  2. I personally don’t like this view. Songs displays much more information, except album artwork, which is sometimes useless.

  3. I may or may not like it too much personally, but a new view is always nice. Thumbs up for that!

    However, what is truly missing in iTunes is a way to change views globally. Say i’ve tweaked the songs view to my liking in one view, there is no way to copy or clone these settings over to another view or playlist. This can become really time consuming and fiddly, especially if you’re a sucker for wanting to have things look the same all around iTunes…

  4. I may or may not like it too much personally, but a new view is always nice. Thumbs up for that!

    However, what is truly missing in iTunes is a way to change views globally. Say i’ve tweaked the songs view to my liking in one view, there is no way to copy or clone these settings over to another view or playlist. This can become really time consuming and fiddly, especially if you’re a sucker for wanting to have things look the same all around iTunes…

  5. But did you see the new “Edit Playlist” window? You get it by clicking on the Edit Playlist button in the header. Big improvement over the last few versions of iTunes.

  6. But did you see the new “Edit Playlist” window? You get it by clicking on the Edit Playlist button in the header. Big improvement over the last few versions of iTunes.

  7. OH NOOOOO!!
    View options for playlist is now grayed-out and disabled.
    I need more than just song and artist names!
    I use sub categories to organize and create playlists.
    (yes I need playlists in order to create playlists!)

    If this function is permanently gone, I must seek other software.
    suggestion appreciated!!

  8. OH NOOOOO!!
    View options for playlist is now grayed-out and disabled.
    I need more than just song and artist names!
    I use sub categories to organize and create playlists.
    (yes I need playlists in order to create playlists!)

    If this function is permanently gone, I must seek other software.
    suggestion appreciated!!

  9. eichiesu, when you are viewing a playlist, notice that at the far right of the tab bar is a drop-down menu. The choices are: Playlists, Songs, Albums, Artists, Composers, and Genres. If you choose Songs you will see your familiar selection of columns and even the column browser, my personal favorite.

  10. eichiesu, when you are viewing a playlist, notice that at the far right of the tab bar is a drop-down menu. The choices are: Playlists, Songs, Albums, Artists, Composers, and Genres. If you choose Songs you will see your familiar selection of columns and even the column browser, my personal favorite.

  11. When a playlist is duplicated the view switches to the hybrid. How can the view be switched back to normal?

    I use a duplicate playlist when I sync to my iPhone and iPad from my Mac. I must be able to use duplicate playlists.

    Also, with the update to 12.2, duplicating my playlist now nukes some of my album artwork. This was never a problem before the update.

  12. When a playlist is duplicated the view switches to the hybrid. How can the view be switched back to normal?

    I use a duplicate playlist when I sync to my iPhone and iPad from my Mac. I must be able to use duplicate playlists.

    Also, with the update to 12.2, duplicating my playlist now nukes some of my album artwork. This was never a problem before the update.

  13. I clicked on the Songs view on the far right in my duplicate playlist, and that fixed it. Now I see my duplicate playlist the same as my regular playlist.

  14. I clicked on the Songs view on the far right in my duplicate playlist, and that fixed it. Now I see my duplicate playlist the same as my regular playlist.

  15. Hi
    How do i change the list veiw? Right now there are small icons left of the song name, how to get rid of this so there is only a line?
    How do I change what info is shown about the song? I would like to see number of veiwings eg.?
    Thanks 🙂
    iTunes 12.2.0.145

  16. Hi
    How do i change the list veiw? Right now there are small icons left of the song name, how to get rid of this so there is only a line?
    How do I change what info is shown about the song? I would like to see number of veiwings eg.?
    Thanks 🙂
    iTunes 12.2.0.145

  17. Is there any way to remove this stupid waste of space header? Apple is putting style over function once again. So many stupid mistakes since Ives took over the OS departments… You’re an industrial designer, not an Interface Designer Expert.

  18. Is there any way to remove this stupid waste of space header? Apple is putting style over function once again. So many stupid mistakes since Ives took over the OS departments… You’re an industrial designer, not an Interface Designer Expert.

  19. I am pissed! Okay? Seriously, I’m going to leave out the swear words because I really want iTunes to read my review. This new banner on top of playlists is driving me CRAZY. SERIOUSLY. Who designed this and thought this remotely looked good? I DONT WANT YOUR STUPID UPDATES OKAY ITUNES! STOP CHANGING IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This happens every 8-12 months and I ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS DECLINE your stupid “update to iTunes 234134. SERIOUSLY? WHAT CAN YOU ACTUALLY CHANGE TO MAKE IT BETTER? IT WAS FINE THE WAY IT IS. But for SOOOME reason when I restarted my computer now it updated and I have this UGLY *** BANNER that I’m stuck looking at. I don’t want to waste anymore time researching how to change it (BECAUSE YOU CANT!) LOL! IS THIS A PRANK ITUNES? SERIOUSLY? WHY DONT YOU JUST HAVE AN (OLD FORMAT) SETTINGS THAT YOU CAN CHANGE FOR EVERY ITUNES. YOU DONT BECUSE YOU”RE STUPID AND YOU DONT THINK ABOUT CUSTOMERS AND THEIR SATISFACTION.

  20. I am pissed! Okay? Seriously, I’m going to leave out the swear words because I really want iTunes to read my review. This new banner on top of playlists is driving me CRAZY. SERIOUSLY. Who designed this and thought this remotely looked good? I DONT WANT YOUR STUPID UPDATES OKAY ITUNES! STOP CHANGING IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This happens every 8-12 months and I ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS DECLINE your stupid “update to iTunes 234134. SERIOUSLY? WHAT CAN YOU ACTUALLY CHANGE TO MAKE IT BETTER? IT WAS FINE THE WAY IT IS. But for SOOOME reason when I restarted my computer now it updated and I have this UGLY *** BANNER that I’m stuck looking at. I don’t want to waste anymore time researching how to change it (BECAUSE YOU CANT!) LOL! IS THIS A PRANK ITUNES? SERIOUSLY? WHY DONT YOU JUST HAVE AN (OLD FORMAT) SETTINGS THAT YOU CAN CHANGE FOR EVERY ITUNES. YOU DONT BECUSE YOU”RE STUPID AND YOU DONT THINK ABOUT CUSTOMERS AND THEIR SATISFACTION.

  21. I have left NEGATIVE feedback on the Apple website about this shit. I just want a list of songs in my playlists. What is the point of this waste of space piece of shit banner on the top? Why is the shitty artwork view the default every time I make a new playlist. Every update Apple fucks over people who have built large organised iTunes libraries and tries to push some streaming Apple music bullshit.

  22. I have left NEGATIVE feedback on the Apple website about this shit. I just want a list of songs in my playlists. What is the point of this waste of space piece of shit banner on the top? Why is the shitty artwork view the default every time I make a new playlist. Every update Apple fucks over people who have built large organised iTunes libraries and tries to push some streaming Apple music bullshit.

  23. Also how do I show album art under Songs playlist view???? My old playlists, I could enable this using View Options but this is now GREYED OUT. Old playlists still show it but new ones don’t?? WTF are Apple doing.

  24. Also how do I show album art under Songs playlist view???? My old playlists, I could enable this using View Options but this is now GREYED OUT. Old playlists still show it but new ones don’t?? WTF are Apple doing.

  25. this new view makes it impossible to reorganize the songs already within a playlist. i like to be able to rearrange them in order of album artist to make it easier to find songs, but since they’ve gotten rid of the column headers, it’s now impossible. anyone know how i can do so?

      • still not working can’t drag songs to reorder them in the playlist nor drag to a new playlist, this is so stupid it’s like driving me mad right now

        • What is the sort order set to? In other words, check the field header bar with titles such as “Name”, “Time”, “Track #”, “Artist”, “Album”, etc. If any of those categories are selected (bold type), then naturally that determines how the songs will be sorted. If you want to be able to drag songs into an arbitrary order, click over the number column of that field header bar and you will be able to drag to sort. (A ^ symbol will appear to show that you are in the correct mode; click again an the symbol will reverse to show that you are reversing the sort order.)

          Enjoy

  26. this new view makes it impossible to reorganize the songs already within a playlist. i like to be able to rearrange them in order of album artist to make it easier to find songs, but since they’ve gotten rid of the column headers, it’s now impossible. anyone know how i can do so?

      • still not working can’t drag songs to reorder them in the playlist nor drag to a new playlist, this is so stupid it’s like driving me mad right now

        • What is the sort order set to? In other words, check the field header bar with titles such as “Name”, “Time”, “Track #”, “Artist”, “Album”, etc. If any of those categories are selected (bold type), then naturally that determines how the songs will be sorted. If you want to be able to drag songs into an arbitrary order, click over the number column of that field header bar and you will be able to drag to sort. (A ^ symbol will appear to show that you are in the correct mode; click again an the symbol will reverse to show that you are reversing the sort order.)

          Enjoy

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