Q: I recently (accidentally) deleted the “recently added” playlist. How do I reinstate this list?
– Steve
A: The pre-configured playlists that appear when you create a new iTunes library are actually just standard Smart Playlists. There’s nothing particularly special about them, and you can recreate them in the same way as any other Smart Playlist.
To do this, simply select File, New Smart Playlist from the iTunes menu, and you will be presented with a dialog box asking you to fill in the criteria for the Smart Playlist. The default “Recently Added” playlist simply has a criteria of “Date Added” is in the last two weeks:
Simply fill in this criteria and click OK to save the playlist. The playlist will appear on the left-hand side of your iTunes window with the name highlighted for editing:
Name the playlist “Recently Added” and press enter.
Of course, you can also specify any additional criteria that you like when re-creating this playlist. So, for example, if you wanted your “Recently Added” playlist to contain only tracks added in the last week, you could specify a different interval. You could also limit the maximum number of tracks that are selected, choose only tracks from certain genres, limit the scope of the smart playlist to only include audio files, and so forth.