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Shuffle on iOS 6 - partial fail

I always use shuffle at work, listening to my songs in whatever order they play. In iOS 5 this worked perfectly fine. In iOS 6, I definitely have an issue. If the Music app is closed, instead of playing the "next" random song, it goes back to a previously played random song and resumes from there.


So, for instance, I'm listening and it plays randomly selected tracks 1 through 10, like:


1 -> 2 -> 3 -> 4 -> 5 -> 6 -> 7 -> 8 -> 9 -> 10


Then then next time I start to shuffle, it would start at some track in the middle and "resume", like:


6 -> 7 -> 8 -> 9 -> 10 -> 11 -> 12 ...


So there is definitely something weird going on. The Music app is losing track, no pun intended, of where it last left off. It then goes on and hits the exact same "randomly" chosen tracks again.

iPhone 5, iOS 6

Posted on Oct 1, 2012 8:06 AM

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44 replies

Oct 22, 2012 8:24 AM in response to Heidern

Same problem here: Both I (VZW iphone 4) and my wife (At&t iPhone 4) are having issues with the Music player repeating. Definitely a function of time as short pauses are fine. Perhaps Apple tried some battery saving trickery and its closing out programs without saving the resume point. I dont know, but want a fix please!

Oct 22, 2012 2:57 PM in response to Heidern

My issue is the opposite--I can't get it to shuffle at all! I go into a playlist, hit the shuffle option, and it replays the same song over and over, and I have to manually forward to the next song. It is so annoying I haven't figured out if it's actually shuffling or not when I manually forward. It is starting at a random song, though. And the shuffle icon no longer shows when music is playing!!! Getting really annoyed, and VERY glad I haven't updated my iPad yet!! Guess I'll just live with Pandora for awhile until Apple sends an update...

Nov 13, 2012 6:03 PM in response to Heidern

tmdspfl, I was having exact same problem of iPhone playing same song over and over even though it was on shuffle. I think I've fixed it (I hope!)---try this:

Get a song going in your playlist, then tap the album artwork. The litle icons should show up at the top of the album art. Make sure the Shuffle icon (little criss-cross arrows on right) are in colour, and---here was my problem---make sure the repeat arrows (on the left) are in white. Mine was in colour with a little "1" on it---I guess an indication that it was programmed to play the same song. Not sure why it went to this, as my shuffle worked fine yesterday and then got stuck today. Anyway, hope that works for you!

Nov 28, 2012 1:30 AM in response to Heidern

I'm having the same problem very annoying. Using iPhone 4S. The only things that I've noticed since the upgrade from ios5 to iOS6. No improvements for the way I use the phone. Only changes are maps are completely unusable and can't shuffle. Music starts a few songs back every single time so have to fast forward through a number of songs.

Nov 30, 2012 10:21 PM in response to maardiel

I was having exact same problem of iPhone playing same song over and over even though it was on shuffle. I think I've fixed it (I hope!)---try this:

Get a song going in your playlist, then tap the album artwork. The litle icons should show up at the top of the album art. Make sure the Shuffle icon (little criss-cross arrows on right) are in colour, and---here was my problem---make sure the repeat arrows (on the left) are in whit



This worked! Thanks!

Feb 19, 2013 2:39 PM in response to Heidern

Well, I'm having the same problem too... Noticed it yesterday. Funny thing is that, like someone observed here, this shuffle reset happens after I don't listen to music for a long time, I'm guessing about a day (I'm using a iPod Touch 4gen running 6.1)


I usually listen to music in the morning on my wayt o work and then in the afternoon, coming back. During these days I didn't notice anything. Then, one day I took a taxi back home and didn't listen to my music, and in the next morning my playlist started from the exact same song from the previous day, following the same order.


Can't wait for a correction of this bug. What I'm afraid is that Apple will say that now the music app works like that, and we have to live with it. Like it did with the Photo app: had all my pictures following the filename order, and then they change it, making a full mess in my albums...


Really... Sometimes I regret that I have updated to 6.1...

Feb 28, 2013 12:03 PM in response to duckdive

Well I'm on 6.1.2 and it seems like it doesn't happen if there is short time between plays, but it will still happen if I continue to shuffle from the end of one day and restart in the morning of the next. I have also noticed an additional anomaly with shuffle playback. My collection of music contains some duplicate songs (appeared on multiple albums, etc.) and random shuffle will now play the same track name back to back in every possible case, even if the name is slightly different. It can happen on the same album or with different albums.


I don't know what they're doing over there in iOS development, but the ease of use and "it just works" expectations from Apple products are being diluted by these problematic playback issues. I'm at a loss as to why this issue hasn't been addressed at all over the past several months. 😟

Feb 28, 2013 12:18 PM in response to Heidern

Heidern wrote:


My collection of music contains some duplicate songs (appeared on multiple albums, etc.) and random shuffle will now play the same track name back to back in every possible case, even if the name is slightly different. It can happen on the same album or with different albums.


I've experienced the same thing. Meanwhile, in the desktop iTunes, I noticed that the "Display Duplicates" function no longer recognizes two instances of the same track if they are on different albums.


No one who's posted has mentioned having an iPhone 5. If this is only an issue with older hardware running the newer software, I guess Apple has no interest in a fix?

Shuffle on iOS 6 - partial fail

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