iPod shuffle won't play songs from playlist in defined sort order

A quick work around I found (will work only if your playlist is relatively short or you have patience for some clerical work) is to rename the songs 01, 02, etc plus their titles. Then they are "alphabetized" in order and the shuffle will play them that way. Took me forever to solve this problem... So dumb, Apple!

First, make sure you have it to play in order and not on shuffle.

If that is a-ok you should try restoring the iPod and make sure that the Playlists are in the EXACT order you are wanting them to play in.

Please be aware that a Restore will remove EVERYTHING from your device. So be sure that you have all the content somewhere on your computer so you can re-sync later.

I have the same problem, and a restore doesn't help. It must be a bug with iTunes.

To reiterate: shuffle mode is NOT on. It is not shuffling the songs, it is just playing them in an order that is different from my playlist order.

Please advise...

I spoke with Apple today, and they explained how to fix it.

First, plug in the iPod. Highlight the ipod on left side of iTunes. Then go to 'Summary' and make sure the 'Manually Manage Music' is checked. If not, check it, then sync.

Then, drag and drop your playlist into the ipod. On the left side of the ipod name is an arrow. Click that, which will show 'Music' and your playlist. Right click the playlist, then hit 'Copy to Play Order'. This option will not be available if you haven't already checked the 'Manually Manage Music' in Settings.

THEN, hit sync, and disconnect/remove the ipod. When you turn on your ipod the music will still be out of order. You have to press and hold the voiceover button. The voice will list your options, starting with 'All Music', then the name of your playlist.

While you are hearing the name of your playlist, press play on the ipod, and it will play them in the correct order.

And there you have it.

Why so hard, Apple?

Wow. Well said -- why so hard, Apple? That was a giant pain in the butt, and wasted two hours of my life, but the instructions above DID work. THANK YOU, Philip!

After 8 years of having an ipod and now not being able tp use my new shuffle I wondered whether there was a reason why I had been told there was I could not return it unless is was faulty (told as I purchased it).

I cannot believe that Apple would set the software (automatically) to play in alphabetical (album) order.

If you copy music over manually (in order you want it to play) or copy a playlist over, you expect it to play in that order, unless you request otherwise. Or there should be an option how you would like it to play or be held on the shuffle line-up, it would be much better is you were able to highlight or abe to move it around in the order you wanted it to play before you 'synched' it.

Anyway, all is now fixed - Thank you for making this clear (I thought I was having a major blonde moment).

I can go the the gym a happy bunny tomorrow now 🙂

thanks...lots of work for something so common....

Well I'll try this fix but then I have the new itunes version which is quite a bit different. I fully agree wuth one comment that The order of songs in a playlist should not be changed unless asked for it. This maybe not such a big problem with pop music but with classical music its a complete disaster.

This procedure doesn't work with the new iTunes. I'll call Apple when I have the time.

thank you for that post. Why the **** its that difficult to get the shuffle to play in order is beyond me. I've never had to do that before and I've had at least three of these things in the past.

I purchased a 2^nd Gen Shuffle for my wife a few years ago now. The decision to go with Apple was that I assumed the Shuffle would entail the minimum learning curve for her and save her from me tutoring her on how to use one of my Sansa players. There seemed to be just two options on the unit; either the play list was shuffled or it was in the predetermined order that she required. What could be simpler?

Well I had no idea how far from reality this understanding was, until I stumbled across this thread. I have now apologized profusely for berating her not getting this Shuffle to work for her. I now know why she threw the thing into our technology graveyard bin, and eventually just started using my Sansa Clip Zip. Now that I have a little more time on my hands I thought I would try to resurrect the Shuffle only to discover this quagmire of flakey play order implementation.

What on earth was Apple thinking when it came up with this half baked product?

I briefly had the same issue and was able to work it out using Philip's awesome post. For those who are still getting confused, I just want to reiterate an important step once you use the shuffle:

You have to press and hold the voiceover button. The voice will list your options, starting with 'All Music', then the name of your playlist. While you are hearing the name of your playlist, press play on the ipod, and it will play them in the correct order.

Unless you specifically select a playlist like this, the shuffle will just play 'All Music', which will likely be sorted by artist.

Sadly I've now tried this half a dozen times and it doesn't seem to work. Everything is up to date and I have one of the newer shuffles.

I'm trying to add a book to listen to and it's jumbling all of the chapters in amongst different songs. NIGHTMARE!

After years of not being able to play my songs in the order that I want....and years of searching the internet for a solution, I found your post and it worked! I can finally enjoy my songs in the order I want!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Philip's instructions finally worked after I did a restore/update on which was a new iPod shuffle.