Unable to sort songs on iPad or iPod in iTunes

I used to be able to sort songs on my iPod using the column browser in iTunes; I recently got an iPad and noticed that the column browser option was greyed out. I puzzled over this for a bit but didn't mind since I don't listen to music from the iPad. However, I noticed a few days ago that the column browser is no longer available for music on my iPod either.

I know that to get the column browser option one must click on the "songs" tab near the top of the itunes window - but I don't have that table. The whole line with "Songs/Albums/Artists/Genres/Radio/Match" is gone. It's available for music on my computer, in my itunes library - but not for anything on the iPod or iPad.

I'm using an iPod classic, so I've got a huge amount of music there - not being able to sort using the column browser is a huge pain the boot!

Any tips?