in which order plays iTunes the songs?

iTunes will play in various different ways.You simply need to take some time understanding what it is doing, so that you are in control.

For example, in the screenshot below, I'm in the Songs view, playing in normal order and the order of the songs shown is is controlled by the Header column. In this shot, it is the Last Played (ringed). iTunes is currently playing the song with the speaker icon next to it:

• As you can see, the speaker icon is next to "...And They Move", so that is what is playing now. The next song to be played will be the one below it, "Magic Bus", followed by "What's It Take?". That order is Last Played, as you can see from the Last Played column times shown.
• If I click on the Last Played Header, the order will reverse, so the song play order will be the reverse of what you see now:

Exactly the same songs, but in reversed order now. As you can see, still playing "...And They Move", but the next song to play will be "Love Over Gold" followed by "Chance". Don't believe me? Okay, look at the Up Next list by clicking the Up Next icon (marked 1. in the shot above):

But wait, there's more!

If I click on the Shuffle button (marked 2. in the second screenshot, above), the Up Next list will show a random list of songs that will be played next:

Now, although the list of songs in the main window is still exactly the same as before, and I'm still playing "...And They Move", the Up Next list is not the same. It is a random list, because I'm in Shuffle (songs) mode. (It's possible to play in Shuffle Albums mode if you wish.)

Although my post does not cover every possible play mode or view, you can see that what plays is controlled by various options available to you. You only need to take the time to learn and understand how to control the player.

If this is a playlist click the heading of the left-most column of numbers and click again if needed so that the triangle points upwards. This will show the current Play Order of the playlists. If you have sorted on any other column you can right-click on the playlist name in the left-hand sidebar and click Copy to Play Order to, um, copy to the play order.

This also presumes that all tracks are checked. iTunes will skip unchecked tracks during track to track playback.

tt2

turingtest2 wrote:

This also presumes that all tracks are checked. iTunes will skip unchecked tracks during track to track playback.

Good point.

(I see I've gone way over the top again with my explanation!) 😊

Well it is certainly more thorough than mine. 🙂

tt2

Do you have the blue shuffle icon lit up as shown in the last of the four images above? If so click it to switch to sequential playback. You iPod also has a way to turn shuffle on or off. In iTunes, when not shuffling, playback usually proceeds down the screen (skipping unchecked tracks) although I recall in the previous version it was possible to confuse the grid view and have it play last to first. Any iPod should follow the Play Order I mentioned earlier, which may not necessarily be the same order as you see when you look at the playlist in iTunes, unless you sort on that column heading.

tt2

If you mean that artist and album names need to be consistent if tracks from the same album are going to play in the correct order when sorted as, for example, Album by Artist, then yes, it can take a bit of work to clean up any existing inconsistencies.

tt2

applewoi wrote:

But when I have the adjustment like your first screenshot, the speaker jumps into a different album after it has played a songl and thie I don't understand.

In my first screenshot, the songs listed are from different albums. So after "...And They Move" from the album "Silent Movies" finishes, the song "Magic Bus" from a different album; "The Singles" will play. That's because the Last Played order of this list reflects how I played them in the previously. (So - also note that because the list is in Last Played order, when "...And They Move" finishes, that song will jump to the top of the list - since it will then be the last one played!.)

But if the song that plays after "...And They Move" finishes playing is not the next one down (in my shot, "Magic Bus"), then presumably, your iTunes is in Shuffle mode (unless it is an un-ticked song of course!) You can see if it's in Shuffle mode or not by looking at the Shuffle icon. I marked it "2." in the second screenshot. Here it is again. If the icon is blue, then Shuffle is turned on, if it's black, Shuffle is off. In this shot, it's black, so Shuffle is off.

compared to this shot (also shown previously), in which that same icon is blue, so Shuffle is on.

But there is one more thing about this. The Shuffle may in either Songs mode, or Album mode. If it's in Album mode, then the Up Next will show songs from the same album, then songs from another album, and so on. So in the shot below (when I'm in Shuffle Albums mode), the remaining five songs from the (nine song) Album "Silent Moves" will play, followed by the one song from Sharon Jones (it was a one-song freebie) and then followed by seven of the eight songs from the album "In Spiral Expression, and so on. (One track on the "In Sprial Expression" album is not ticked, so - as mentioned by tt2 - it will be skipped (not played) by iTunes:

You can see the Shuffle options on the Controls Menu, which may be shown in your iTunes in the top left. If it is not currently displayed (see the screenshot below), turn it on by pressing the CTRL and the B buttons together.

In the shot above, notice that the Controls/Shuffle menu has an option named Turn Off Shuffle. If you click on it, Shuffle will turn off, so it means that Shuffle is currently "on". Below that, the tick next to "By Albums" means that iTunes is currently shuffling by album. My cursor is about to click on "By Songs", so that iTunes will then shuffle by songs.

applewoi wrote:

and in which order are the songs played in tPod? in the same order as in the titlelist?

Basically, it's the same as iTunes, but you will of course, be using the iPod's menus to look at your songs. You can have iTunes in Shuffle Albums mode, but your iPod in "Shuffle is off" mode if you wish.

(Back to iTunes for a moment...)

Up to now, we have only talked about being in the Songs menu and my screenshots show that I'm looking at all Genres of music. But if I change my iTunes library back to Shuffle Songs, and look only at New Wave genre, the shuffle list will contain a random selection of songs from only the New Wave genre. Look!...

It works the same way on your iPod. You can play all songs, songs from one genre only, shuffle by albums etc. etc. Turning shuffle on and off depends upon the particular type of iPod you have, so once again, you will need to learn how to use your iPod (or ask here). We can though, only do so much. In the end, it's down to you to spend the time understanding how to master iTunes and your iPod.

Apple has provided you with so many options, that no matter what you want, you can do it. But this does mean that is why you need to take time to understand how it works. You said: "but I am very impatient"

Ah well, patience sometimes needs to be learned as well.

Are you familiar with Ti Kwan Leep? 1:20 "You must learn patience". "Yeah, yeah, yeah, patience. How long will that take?"

tt2

😁 I wasn't - until now.

That's really good, I may even become a fan.

Thanks Steve.

Phil

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