Combining rules

Inside one rule everything must match. Across rules, any one is enough. That is the whole model.

Inside a rule

Everything has to match at once. Weekdays and 09:00 to 17:00 gives you office hours, and neither half plays on its own.

Across rules

The playlist plays whenever any rule matches. Rules do not narrow each other; each one is its own independent window.

That is the entire model. There are no operators to pick, no groups to nest, and no ordering between rules. With more than one rule, the Schedule tab says so above the list: the playlist plays whenever any one of them matches.

Different hours on different days

The main reason to have more than one rule.

One playlist, two windows. The alternative is two playlists holding the same content, and remembering to change both.

The mistake to avoid

An unrestricted rule sitting alongside others makes them pointless. It already matches all the time, so the narrower rules add nothing and the playlist always plays.

This happens when someone adds a rule to experiment, leaves every section untouched, and forgets it. The Effective schedule block then reads "Always active" however many other rules there are, and that is worth believing.

When to use two playlists instead

Combining rules keeps one playlist on one set of content. If the content differs between the two windows, that is two playlists, not one schedule.

Same content at different times is one playlist with several rules. Different content is different playlists.