Song order in playlists doesn't get transferred to iPod classic

The iTunes drop-down in the upper-right corner shows Songs, and within it sorted by Album or sometimes Album by Artist.

That's for each playlist, correct? Not for your iTunes music library. And you sync the playlists to iPod using automatic syncing (with the Sync Music setting checked in the iPod's Music settings screen in iTunes); you don't load the playlists manually (drag and drop on iPod).

On the iPod, go to its onboard Settings screen. There is a setting called Shuffle. It should be set to Off to play song lists in-order.

Sounds like you did everything right. 🙂

I just did a test with my iPod nano, in case there's some new bug in iTunes. I confirmed a playlist sort order (by Artist) was the same in iTunes library and on iPod. I then changed playlist sort order in iTunes library (to by Name) and synced iPod. The playlist order on iPod was updated to reflect change. So it seems to work for me.

You can try doing a Reset Settings on iPod. This command is on the iPod's onboard Settings screen, at the bottom. This resets all onboard settings to default.

I don't have any other suggestions, except to do a Restore. The cause may be data corruption or software issue on the iPod. Since your iTunes library has all of your songs and playlists, you won't lose anything (except a bit of time), and hopefully this issue will be corrected. The Restore button, if you've never done it before, is on the iPod's settings screen in iTunes. This will erase the iPod, reinstall its software, and set it to default settings.

Try clicking the heading of the left-most column of numbers. This shows the current play order that will be on the device. Click the Album heading again until it reads Album by Artist, or your preferred sort order. Now right--or-ctrl-click the playlist name in the left-hand column and click Copy to Play Order. Sync your device.

tt2

After trying many things, removing "show artwork" in the playlist worked for me:

Display the playlist on the Mac.

Choose the menu item View->Show View Options

Deselect "Show artwork"

Select the item you want to use to sort the playlist if it's not already selected

Close the "Show View Options" window

In the playlist, click on the heading of the column to sort by. The column heading should highlight

Sync the iPod

Oddly enough, after the above method fixed the problem, I tried selecting "Show artwork" again in the playlist and resyncing the iPod. The sort order on the iPod remained correct!

I had this problem too when burning a CD, it will probably work the same when syncing to iPod.

Click once on the album you want to make a playlist for.

Right click and select 'add to playlist' in my case I just want this album so I select 'new playlist'

Its at this point when the tracks get muddled on the playlist.

Click once on the PLAYLIST Album

In the top right corner you will see 'Edit Playlist' click it.

On the right hand margin of iTunes you will now get the play order.

Click on 'Sort by Manual Order'

Select 'Sort by Album' this should put it into the correct order.

Now click 'Done' in the lower right corner

It seems iTunes puts the order in 'by Artist' for any new playlists by default.

Hope this works for you.

I had this problem too and the secret is to do all the changes in itunes before you connect your ipod/iphone and make sure when you do the changes in itunes that you select copy to play order before connecting the device. Worked a treat for me so hope this helps.

I have this problem too. If it's a playlist I'm adding to, I sort the playlist in the right order, then duplicate the playlist. I delete the original and remove the 1 from the new one. Not a fun work around but seems to work.