Each rule in the list carries a status.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Active | Matching now, somewhere |
| Pending | Its window has not started yet |
| Expired | Its window has passed |
| Never plays | The combination can never match |
Why “somewhere”
Screens run on their own clocks, so a rule can be active in Singapore and finished in San Francisco at the same instant. The statuses are worked out across every time zone rather than yours.
A rule is only Expired once it has passed everywhere in the world, and stays Pending only while it is still ahead everywhere. That is deliberately conservative: it will not tell you something has finished while a screen somewhere is still playing it. See Time zones.
Never plays
The rule contradicts itself, and it is a warning rather than a save error, so a rule can sit there doing nothing until somebody notices.
The usual causes: except dates that cover the whole range, a Wednesday-only rule inside a range that contains no Wednesday, or a time window that ends before it starts.
The list shows these warnings without you opening each rule.
The effective schedule summary
Above the list, a plain-language description of what all the rules add up to.
Read it before saving. Each rule can be individually correct while the set of them is not, and this is the only place that shows the combination. A playlist meant to run on weekday mornings that summarises as “always active, on every screen, every day” has an unrestricted rule in it somewhere.
When nothing can match
If no rule can still match, the list says so directly: the playlist will never play. Usually that means every rule has expired, and the playlist wants either new dates or disabling.