iTunes changes the order of songs when burning a playlist onto a CD. This is extremely frustrating.

Question

iTunes changes the order of songs when burning a playlist onto a CD. This is extremely frustrating.

iTunes on Mac won't burn a cd in the order of my playlist.

View > Sort By > Playlist Order

When I right click on the playlist name, it makes no difference whether or not I click "Copy to Play Order," iTunes will burn the cd alphabetically by the artists' names!!! I've burned many, many, MANY cds using iTunes over the decades, and this never happened before. I cannot think of a single good reason why Apple would mess with this process.

Mac mini, macOS 26.4

Posted on Sep 2, 2026 9:06 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 2, 2026 9:50 PM in response to peterfromcopiague

Are you referring to the iTunes application or to the Music application?

Your tag line says that you are running macOS 26.4 (Tahoe). There hasn't been an iTunes application on the Mac since the release of macOS 10.15 (Catalina).

If you plan on filing a bug report with Apple (Product Feedback - Apple), it would probably be useful to tell them

Exactly which version of macOS you are running
Exactly which version of iTunes (pre-Catalina) or Music (Catalina and later) you are running

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Answer 2

Zurarczurx

Level 5

6,370 points

Sep 3, 2026 6:36 AM in response to peterfromcopiague

If it's a smart playlist then try turning off "Live Updating" in the smart playlist settings, then doing the "copy to play order" and burning to disc. I don't know if it will work for burning to CD but it's the only way I know to get it to work when synching smart playlists with iDevices.

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Answer 3

Sep 3, 2026 6:23 AM in response to Servant of Cats

Okay, it is the Music app, version 1.6.4 (in Tahoe 26.4), thanks for that. I started using iTunes so long ago that the name always pops up in my brain first, like my grandparents used to call their refrigerator "the icebox." And I *will* file a bug report, thank you for the link.

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Answer 4

Sep 3, 2026 8:11 AM in response to Zurarczurx

Thanks a lot, I never thought of that. I've actually never intentionally used the smart playlist feature, but as they say, stuff happens.

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