While iTunes does a great job of keeping track of all the music that you’ve purchased on both your Mac and your iPod/iPhone with its Purchased Playlists, it doesn’t include any purchased music that you’ve restored from backup CDs or that you may have imported into your music library another way.
I know that I was extremely disappointed the first time I imported in all my music files to iTunes after a fresh install and found NOTHING listed in my Purchased playlist.
Luckily, iTunes lets you create your own Smart playlists so you can filter through your library and find all the music you’ve purchased on the iTunes music store.
Custom Previously Purchased Music Playlist
To rebuild a purchased music playlist you’ll need to:
- Create a new Smart Playlist.
- Check Match “ANY” of the following rules:
- Set the first rule to “Kind” “Contains” and then type in “Protected AAC audio file”
- Since Apple announced iTunes Plus files you’ll need to also add another rule with “Kind” “Contains” and type in “Purchased AAC audio file”
- Check the Live updating Box and click OK
Your newly created smart Previously Purchased Music Playlist should now appear under your playlists. Selecting it should display all the music you’ve purchased on iTunes.
