Shuffle not shuffling

September 4, 2006 12:59 PM

iPod Filter: A colleague's iPod Shuffle no longer shuffles after he clicked on a column in iTunes to SORT the files into album order. Is it possible to "un-sort" them?

He has tried clicking on the column headings but to no avail. Is there a way to un-do the sort as at present the shuffle just plays the songs in a straight listing basis and not in a random shuffle.

posted by pettins to technology (7 comments total)

isn't there a physical switch on the back of the shuffle for "play in order" "repeat" and "shuffle"?
posted by noloveforned at 1:01 PM on September 4, 2006

Thanks for your quick replies.

No, this is not the problem - The issue is that after sorting the songs in iTunes the Shuffle appears to no longer be able to play them in random order, only in the new sorted order.

Any thoughts?
posted by pettins at 2:15 PM on September 4, 2006

The order of the songs on iTunes shouldn't have any bearing on the playback of the Shuffle, assuming it is actually set to shuffle mode (by sliding the switch on the back all the way down).

Try using the iPod Updater to reset the firmware on the Shuffle.
posted by saintsguy at 2:29 PM on September 4, 2006

The Shuffle needs to be resynced to your computer to play in a new shuffle order -- it has no capability for random playback built in.
posted by scruss at 2:58 PM on September 4, 2006

If the iPod is selected in iTunes, you should see its song list in the main iTunes window. With the iPod so selected, look in the the bottom left-hand corner of iTunes and see if the Shuffle button (two arrows crossing over each other) is on (the arrows will be blue) or off (the arrows will be grey). If it's off, click it to turn it on.
posted by eustacescrubb at 7:55 PM on September 4, 2006

Did he click on the track number header? That should put them back in the correct order.
posted by witchstone at 6:53 AM on September 5, 2006

I don't have a shuffle, but with every other iPod I've had/worked wiith, its main playlist is like the iTunes Library -- you can't click the track number header.
posted by eustacescrubb at 10:21 AM on September 5, 2006