In shuffle mode, some songs never get played, why?

Here's the thing with computers; as random as they are, we may not think of it as being random. If your iPod just happens to play 10 songs from one artist before moving on, that's how it works.

However, the folks at Apple are smart, and have catered to the needs of users like you, who wish for more random-ness. In iTunes, you can tweak the settings for shuffle and just how likely it will be that hear the same artist or album twice in a row. The setting is under Playback in the preferences. I'm not 100% sure if iPods have a different slider in the iTunes preferences or if they use the one you can set in iTunes, but play around when your iPod's plugged into your computer. If there's no setting under the iPod preference pane, then it uses the same one that's under Playback.

Let me know if this helps!

Is this on the iPod or in iTunes?
This is the iTunes forum.

When selecting a playlist, go to Music -> Playlist -> Playlist name and then press Play.

Do NOT go to the playlist name and press select so you see the songs and then press play. If you do this, it will not reshuffle the songs (at least not all the way).

If you have a playlist of 2500 soings and play it all the way thru (without stopping), you will hear all 2500 songs with no repeats.

Does shuffle mode favour songs with a higher playcount?
Not on the iPod.

The iPod does not have the preference to adjust playing higher rated songs more often.

I've heard this excuse before, that what we think is random really isn't, but when certain trends occur enough times, its pretty clear that there is some kind of algorithm or something in the coding that affects the shuffle.

I know random means random, but there are too many "random" coincidences and apparent patterns that occur to raise doubt that it truly is as random as Apple claims.

One such example, is that when using the Shuffle Songs feature (that shuffles all tracks on the iPod) I had 2-3 tracks from the same album (an album I had never even listened to yet) showing up within the first 40 tracks five times in a row. Numerous other songs showed up in at least 3 of the 5 "trials." Out of 8,000 songs.

On a playlist (of 300 or less songs is all I have tried), if you have multiple songs off the same album, you are far more likely to hear at least one other song off a given album within about 10 songs then you are to not hear a song off the same album. A specific example of this is on a playlist of 105 songs I have, there are 3 songs off one album, however nearly every time 2 of the songs will play within a 10 track range, and nearly as often all 3 songs will play within the same 20 track range.

I know random isn't perfectly spaced songs, but when certain things happen often enough, the odds of it become so low that even the "true random" explanation doesn't cover it.

Well, 2500 songs is a lot, but that shouldn't mean that iTunes will completely ignore 300 of those. Tell me what iPod you're using and what computer you have so that I can give you more advice...

If you want to see the playlist you are in, you can press the menu button one time.
It will take you backwards from where you are.