# Smart Playlists by Tags **URL:** \ **Category:** Feature Suggestions\ **Created:** [May 22, 2017, 12:04pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-by-tags/192802 "2017-05-22T12:04:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![WarConsigliere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/51bf81/32.png) [@WarConsigliere](https://forums.plex.tv/u/WarConsigliere)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 12:04pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-by-tags/192802/1 "2017-05-22T12:04:59Z")
I’m pretty surprised that this isn’t already implemented, but I have no idea how taxing it is on the server. What I’d really like to be able to do is to set Plex up so that I could come home at night, toss something food-based into the microwave and start playing random episodes of episodic TV, particularly if I could set a filter to exclude, say, shows that have been watched within the past six months. While I could do this with playlists as they’re set up, I’d need to build a playlist multiple thousands of episodes long, and then laboriously find and prune anything that’s been watched recently. What I’d really like is to tag shows where it doesn’t matter what order they’re shown in as ‘Episodic’, and set up a playlist to filter for that, ideally with another rule for ‘Last Viewed’. I could also set up other smart playlists so that I could say ‘I’m in the mood for a Comedy from the 1950s/an episode of a show directed by Joss Whedon/a movie that’s both Film Noir and Crime/a movie with Russell Crowe that isn’t Action’ and be mildly surprised by what comes up. ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 3:14pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-by-tags/192802/2 "2017-05-22T15:14:06Z")
There is a bug in the current Plex Web app which prevents this from working. As soon as a newer release than 3.6.0 is out, it should be possible with this: create a ‘Custom Filter’ in the 1st line use either ‘Genre’ or ‘Show Collection’ 2nd line returns only episodes which weren’t played in the last year After clicking on ‘Apply’, simply click on ‘Add to Playlist’ You will get a ‘smart’ Playlist, which you can play ‘shuffled’ in the client of your choice. ![](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/uploads/default/original/3X/8/c/8cf74df3104db3a2c81a2f3d7479b09ccd50ce75.png) ---
**Author:** ![WarConsigliere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/51bf81/32.png) [@WarConsigliere](https://forums.plex.tv/u/WarConsigliere)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 9:01pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-by-tags/192802/3 "2017-05-24T21:01:33Z")
That would only work for the web app, unfortunately. It won’t work to set up automatically-updating playlists to carry across all platforms and won’t work at all on TV platforms. ---
**Author:** ![beckfield](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/beckfield/32/7227_2.png) [@beckfield](https://forums.plex.tv/u/beckfield)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 9:16pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-by-tags/192802/4 "2017-05-24T21:16:26Z")
> @WarConsigliere said: > That would only work for the web app, unfortunately. It won’t work to set up automatically-updating playlists to carry across all platforms and won’t work at all on TV platforms. That’s not true. Though you’re creating the playlist using the web app, the playlist is created at the server, and is auto-updated at the server. As long as the same user who created the playlist logs in on any other Plex app, they will see the auto-updated playlist. ---
**Author:** ![WarConsigliere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/51bf81/32.png) [@WarConsigliere](https://forums.plex.tv/u/WarConsigliere)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2017, 12:38pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-by-tags/192802/5 "2017-05-25T12:38:40Z")
That’d be true if it was a smart playlist, but OttoKerner was suggesting a custom filter, which is a one-use, web-only deal and saying that it was as good as a smart playlist. That’s why I’m asking for smart playlists - because you could establish them once on the web app and port them, which unless I’m missing something you can’t do currently. ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2017, 1:09pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-by-tags/192802/6 "2017-05-25T13:09:48Z")
> @WarConsigliere said: > That’d be true if it was a smart playlist, but OttoKerner was suggesting a custom filter, which is a one-use, web-only deal and saying that it was as good as a smart playlist. That’s not true. If you follow my procedure, the result _will_ be a ‘smart’ playlist. ---
**Author:** ![WarConsigliere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/51bf81/32.png) [@WarConsigliere](https://forums.plex.tv/u/WarConsigliere)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2017, 2:45am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-by-tags/192802/7 "2017-05-26T02:45:10Z")
> That’s not true. If you follow my procedure, the result will be a ‘smart’ playlist. So it’ll automatically update when new episodes/movies are loaded? You don’t need to jump back in and work out which things need to be further added/deleted? ---
**Author:** ![beckfield](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/beckfield/32/7227_2.png) [@beckfield](https://forums.plex.tv/u/beckfield)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2017, 3:32am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-by-tags/192802/8 "2017-05-26T03:32:52Z")
Yes, why don’t you just try it? ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2017, 10:36am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-by-tags/192802/9 "2017-05-26T10:36:49Z")
> @WarConsigliere said: > So it’ll automatically update when new episodes/movies are loaded? You don’t need to jump back in and work out which things need to be further added/deleted? Yes, exactly like that. You can easily distinguish smart from dumb playlists: smart ones have a small ‘cogwheel’ icon on their poster. ---
**Author:** ![WarConsigliere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/51bf81/32.png) [@WarConsigliere](https://forums.plex.tv/u/WarConsigliere)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2017, 11:21am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-by-tags/192802/10 "2017-05-26T11:21:17Z")
> Yes, why don’t you just try it? Because I don’t have anything on hand that I’d need to update a list with. ---
**Author:** ![WarConsigliere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/51bf81/32.png) [@WarConsigliere](https://forums.plex.tv/u/WarConsigliere)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2017, 11:22am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-by-tags/192802/11 "2017-05-26T11:22:47Z")
> You can easily distinguish smart from dumb playlists: smart ones have a small ‘cogwheel’ icon on their poster. I was wondering what that meant. Thanks - I’ll give it a go. ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2017, 12:38pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-by-tags/192802/12 "2017-05-26T12:38:50Z")
> @WarConsigliere said: > I was wondering what that meant. Thanks - I’ll give it a go. spot the difference: 🙂 ![](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/uploads/default/original/3X/a/8/a8f337fd8ec84c4e706459b574ad0651bde97d7b.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![beckfield](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/beckfield/32/7227_2.png) [@beckfield](https://forums.plex.tv/u/beckfield)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2017, 4:26pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-by-tags/192802/13 "2017-05-26T16:26:57Z")
> @WarConsigliere said: > > > Yes, why don’t you just try it? > > Because I don’t have anything on hand that I’d need to update a list with. If you have 5 movies that match your smart playlist filter, move one of them out of your Movies folder. Update your Plex library so that movie disappears from the library. Create the smart playlist and verify it has the 4 remaining movies. Move the 5th movie back into the Movies folder. Update your Plex library again so the 5th movie is back in the library. Verify that the 5th movie is automatically added to the smart playlist. ---
**Author:** ![hstamas](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/hstamas/32/2006_2.png) [@hstamas](https://forums.plex.tv/u/hstamas)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 6:52pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-by-tags/192802/14 "2019-04-10T18:52:13Z")
What if you have more than one TV library? I have my TV shows broken out into separate libraries - Cartoons (for the kids), Lifestyle (for the wife) and Prime Time. Is there a way to create a Smart Playlist that would have shows from separate libraries? ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 7:01pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-by-tags/192802/15 "2019-04-10T19:01:53Z")
No, because you can apply a filter to only one library, not several. ---
**Author:** ![rolandbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df788c/32.png) [@rolandbird](https://forums.plex.tv/u/rolandbird)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 6:33am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-by-tags/192802/16 "2019-04-11T06:33:58Z")
This is a nice feature. I can see it working well for movies. For TV Series though it would be nice to have the ability to mix up the series in the playlist while ensuring that the episodes for each series is watched in order (If you want to watch a few series at the same time) ---
**Author:** ![hstamas](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/hstamas/32/2006_2.png) [@hstamas](https://forums.plex.tv/u/hstamas)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 5:24pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-by-tags/192802/17 "2019-04-11T17:24:10Z")
The whole separate libraries thing in Plex is so restrictive. A smart playlist being tied to one and only one library makes no sense. Sadly, I dont feel like that will every change since being able to search/link across libraries has been requested for literally years now. Emby definitely has Plex beat in this respect. ---
**Author:** ![tom80H](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/tom80h/32/19753_2.png) [@tom80H](https://forums.plex.tv/u/tom80H)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 12:33pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-by-tags/192802/18 "2021-01-16T12:33:27Z")
Early 2021 clean-up: implemented (as explained over and over by Otto and beckfield) ---
**Author:** ![tom80H](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/tom80h/32/19753_2.png) [@tom80H](https://forums.plex.tv/u/tom80H)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2021, 12:56am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/smart-playlists-by-tags/192802/19 "2021-06-10T00:56:44Z")