iTunes 12.5.1.21 cannot turn off shuffle

I HAVE AN ACTUAL SOLUTION!!!

I followed the instructions on rebuilding my iTunes library here: http://www.mcelhearn.com/how-to-rebuild-your-itunes-library/

It took about 30 minutes, and now, when I play the first track of an album, I can see the following tracks of the album in the "Up Next" menu.

The visual controls are still baffling - The "Shuffle" button under the album artwork and the "Shuffle All" button at the top of the track list are still blue, but the shuffle icon in the now-playing box is not highlighted (does not have a dark gray background).

Same here but on Mac.

I've tried every control option and it keeps coming back.

I tried everything, and it's really annoying. The only way to "solve" is press play over the cover instead of play button.

Thank you! It plays through so far, let's see what happens upon restarts. Sheesh.

I just downloaded the "NEW and IMPROVED" iTunes... (It was fine by me before...) :/ And, I am having the EXACT same problem! I can not turn off the "shuffle", no matter what I do... 😟 I NEVER use "Shuffle" and am not in the habit/nor mood to start adopting it now... Any thoughts, or suggestions? Has anyone contacted All Mighty Apple and told them that their customers are having this problem and it's increasingly frustrating? Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks! 🙂

Thank you for that. I tried it, and it quasi-works, and is better than nothing I guess... But it is more like a "Band-Aid" for the REAL problem... I really hope Apple will fix this fast! I am NOT a fan of "Shuffle"... 😟

This solution was posted yesterday. http://www.mcelhearn.com/how-to-rebuild-your-itunes-library/

It's an inconvenience as a fix since it can take a while if you have a large amount of music, but it does explains why the issue is happening as well.

It's been working fine for me now for 24 hours.

Hi all

I've only read quickly through this thread (so don't shoot me down if I've got the wrong end of the stick) as I was having the same panic today with my iTunes. Very frustrating! After a bit of a play, it seems you can play your albums in order. If you click on a single track iTunes automatically plays a shuffle, but if you click on the play button on the artwork it plays the full album in order. I've done this with 3/4 albums now and it seems to work that way. Still a bit annoying but at least you can play your tunes in album order. I don't really like shuffle either! Hope this helps 🙂

I can't believe that Apple F**ks up everything lately...

We want our reliable Apple again.

I think "Apple recommended" the WRONG solution. Rebuilding your iTunes Library is a big deal. Not to be done lightly.

I think Lokii44 has the right answer. There are now two shuffle icons. One appears at top next to the current play display:

The other appears in the album view

It's not clear to me that the second icon does anything. It doesn't respond to my mouse click. The first icon (shown in currently playing) does respond.

If I turn off shuffle in currently playing then mouse over the album cover icon a play button appears. I can click on that to play the album. If shuffle is on then clicking on that play button caused the button status to change but no music played.

Anyway, I think this is a bad UI decision and at least one bug. But there is a workaround. I doubt rebuilding library will fix anything.

The behaviour can be worked out with a little experimenting. Click something to play and see what shows in Up Next.

• The big blue play icon on an album cover plays that album.
• The blue shuffle text below an album shuffles that album and leaves playback in shuffle mode.
• The blue play icon next to a track starts play with that track, and then plays all subsequent checked tracks in the current view, or shuffles everything if shuffle is on. In the artists view this is all tracks by the selected artist first then the next artist and so on.
• In the artists or albums views double-clicking a track plays that track and the rest of the album, then stops. In the songs view it is all tracks that follow,
• Etc.

tt2

Seems to work for me. At least I can now play an album.

I have no intention of trying the rebuild solution given the size of my library.

Get a move on Apple and get this sorted out.

Same thing happened to me. I rebuild iTunes Library as suggested by hudson_lowboy and the problem persisted.
Then I realized that iTunes wasn't really shuffling!

It was following a sequence based on Artist's name.

To solve this and make iTunes follow a sequence based on Album's order, I clicked on "Songs" on iTunes left side menu. When the songs were listed, I clicked on the "Album" tab to sort the songs list based on Album position.

Ta-dah! That solved it!

Here is what I found, and it matches what you found partially:

It depends on where I am clicking to start the track. If I click directly and with single-click the little arrow that appears when moving the mouse over the title I want to play first, it will play random songs afterwards. This does not match your bullet 3) for me. Random is off, yet "Up next" shows random titles when I click the little arrow play button.

If I double click on the title itself (not the little arrow) then it will play non-random - agree with your bullet 4).

It is a non-intuitive User Experience.

Switch to the songs view and see what column things are ordered by there. It really ought not to have any influence over the other views, but I know that reverse sorting in this layout can make albums play backwards in other views. I'd generally recommend Album by Artist except when wants a different order for library maintenance.

tt2