iPod Shuffle won't shuffle... (2nd Gen)

Question

iPod Shuffle won't shuffle... (2nd Gen)

Hi guys,

I've had my dear little 1GB Shuffle for years now. It hasn't seen much use in the last year, but fires up everytime I want to use it, not issue. Today however, I had a small issue that I can't rectify.

I've loaded 10 x one hour podcasts on to it, they've both synced fine. The iPod shows up in iTunes, it charges fine, it connects etc etc.

When I disconnect it and hit play with the shuffle switch enabled, the LED flashes: Orange - Green - Orange - Green - Orange. All are quick flashes. However, when I flick the switch to 'Continuous' play, it plays perfectly. So, it seems there is an issue with the Shuffle mode. I have reset the iPod, I have restored it in iTunes, but still no joy. I wondered if there were too many, so I went right down to two podcasts in the end, but still no luck. It will shuffle 'regular' songs though, I loaded 15 on and they shuffled fine (all between 3 and 6 minutes long).

For reference, Disk Mode isn't enabled. Is there an individual file size limit for songs on the shuffle?

Cheers,

Dan

(NB: All iTunes, iPod software and OSX are fully up-to-date).

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1), 21.5", 16GB RAM, 1TB Fusion Drive

Posted on Dec 9, 2015 5:47 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

Kenichi Watanabe

Level 8

41,572 points

Dec 9, 2015 3:18 PM in response to Dan the 480 Man

I think that is "as designed."

Your shuffle sounds like a 2nd gen (clip on) shuffle, since it has a separate switch for shuffle/in-order. Did you have only those podcasts on the shuffle, or a mix of podcasts and songs? If it's only the podcasts, that may be the reason for the flashing light show (which means "error"). I believe the shuffle's software does not play podcasts when it is set to shuffle (only songs). When you have a mix of songs and podcasts on the shuffle, this prevents a podcast from coming up when you just want to shuffle songs. And this works for most people, because you usually want to play podcasts in-order, not shuffled. So, if you only had podcasts on the shuffle, using the shuffle setting means there is nothing to play, so you get the error lights. But no error, when you set your shuffle to play in-order.

Back when I used my 1st gen shuffle for playing podcasts, I loaded the podcast episodes so that they were at the top of the list (as seen by iTunes). I also had my favorite songs on it. To hear the podcasts, I set the switch to play in-order and quickly pressed the center button three times. That reset the shuffle to the top of the list (when playing in-order), where the podcasts are located. To hear songs, I put it in shuffle mode.

Reply

Answer 2

Dec 12, 2015 8:10 AM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

Thanks very much for your response.

I guess that makes sense. I listen to Podcasts that span 5 or 6 years, so I like to listen to older episodes every now and again. What I'll do from now on is load them on and let my partner randomise them manually for me so I don't know what order they'll be playing in!

Cheers,

Dan

Reply