Running multiple play lists on iPod Shuffle

You can put multiple playlists on a shuffle, BUT you can NOT choose(eg skip to) which one to play except serially or randomly.

The shuffle does NOT have a multiple playlist management capability...sorry.

The best you can do it to put the songs on your playlists at the top of the sequence. You can set the order of songs using the iPod shuffle's Contents tab in iTunes.

When you want to start playing at the top of the sequence, put the iPod shuffle in sequential play mode. Then press the center button three times (rapidly like triple-clicking the mouse button) to make it start playing at the top of the sequence.

As 0Ari0 explained, the iPod shuffle does not understand "playlists." But if you think of the entire shuffle as a single playlist (which is how iTunes treats it), you can load your songs in a particular order and get the top of the list easily using sequential play mode. I use it myself to listen to podcasts; I put my podcasts at the top of the order so that I can find them quickly.

Note: The triple-click on the center button while you are in shuffle mode re-shuffles the songs for shuffle playback, but the loading sequence is not changed.

That's not the reason. It's because the shuffle has no screen. Apple does not typically design products with features that most people would find difficult to use. Look at the iPhone's accessible design versus most smartphones (where 90% of users don't use 90% of available features). What I explained with the "triple clicking the center button" is complicated enough... Can you imagine explaining (and remembering) how to navigate between multiple playlists using only buttons and no screen?

Kenichi Watanabe wrote:
Can you imagine explaining (and remembering) how to navigate between multiple playlists using only buttons and no screen?

Easily: double click on forward or reverse buttons for playlist change.

Apple could also provide spoken audio feedback ...

No... double-clicking on forward currently advances two songs. Just as clicking five times quickly advances five songs. But you could make it double-clicking and holding on the second click, or something else that's convoluted.

I'm not saying it can't be designed. I'm saying Apple won't do it because most people would not use that feature. Many shuffle users don't even know that pressing and holding those buttons is fast forward and fast rewind within the song. And without a screen, you'd have to remember what was on each playlist. The shuffle is well-designed as an iTunes (single) +playlist to-go+.

Apple could also provide spoken audio feedback

The shuffle is just a tiny dumb cheap playback device. It does not have enough CPU power to do voice recognition. And if it did, it would be the next gen iPod nano minus screen and cost as much.

Kenichi Watanabe wrote:

Apple could also provide spoken audio feedback

The shuffle is just a tiny dumb cheap playback device. It does not have enough CPU power to do voice recognition. And if it did, it would be the next gen iPod nano minus screen and cost as much.

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear... I meant voice response to control inputs NOT "voice recognition".
Voice response doesn't take much CPU power at all, just a bit of storage for the canned response or text to speech in the case of track/playlist tags.

It does require additional firmware programming and costs, and then would require more difficult controls (quintuple-click forward to go to the 3rd playlist, etc.)

They really need to keep it at the price point they have now and keep it simple. If someone wants multiple playlists, etc., move up to the Nano.

Buy a product that does what you want rather than one that does not!

You would have to download the iPod shuffle firmware, reverse engineer it, add your own code then recompile and somehow load it onto the shuffle.