How to turn off shuffle in iTunes 12.x?

• Icon 1 is the Shuffle on/off button. When highlighted in dark grey (as in your screenshot) the shuffle mode is on. If it's not highlighted, then shuffle is off. Each click toggles it through on/off.
• Icon 2 is the Repeat button. In non-highlighted mode (as in your screenshot) the Repeat is off. When highlighted in dark grey Repeat is on. If highlighted in dark grey and with a 1 in the icon, iTunes will repeat the same song over and over again. Each click on the icon toggles it through off/repeat/repeat 1.
• Icon 3 is shown in Albums view (where you are now) and will shuffle the five tracks on that one chosen album. Each click will cause iTunes to select another song on the album at random. After the last track, iTunes will stop playing anything until you choose something else.
• Icon 4 is will shuffle from every song in the view you are using, so play at random all 224 songs by the artist Rush. After the last song by Rush, iTunes will stop. Each click on the icon will cause iTunes to select another song by Rush at random.
• Icon 5 is the same as icon 3, except that icon 5 will plays songs at random from the album Clockwork Angels. When it gets to the end of the last song on that album, iTunes will stop playing anything until you choose something else.

While iTunes is playing, you can tap on the list icon to the right of your number 2 circle and you will see the list that iTunes will use to play your songs - the Up Next list.

To cancel the shuffle, simply click on icon 1 to turn off the grey highlight.

Note that you can also set iTunes to shuffle albums, for example, play one Rush album and then at random choose another album and play that etc.

Look also at the menu controls:

... and notice that you can choose to shuffle songs, albums or groupings. (Don't worry about groupings unless you are interested in it specifically.)

augratin wrote:

... according to the "up next" drop down list, it has lined up assorted songs from assorted artists, but in perfect alphabetical order by song name. That means I'll get to hear "Anthem" four times:

As mentioned in my additional post, when looking in the Up Next list, if there is a song you don't want, simply remove it from the list.

augratin wrote:

I can't imagine why anyone would want that kind of a shuffle, but never mind.

One trick with iTunes is to concentrate in the features you do use and ignore the ones you don't use. Someone else may want to use the feature you don't want (believe it or not).

augratin wrote:

Under the Controls menu, I have shuffle "off" but "songs" is still checked. I can't seem to uncheck that. You'd think that shuffle being off would cause songs, albums and groupings all to become unchecked. Maybe this is why it's still shuffling?

No, definitely not.

"Songs" remains checked so that you can switch shuffle on or off but stay in the same mode (songs or albums) when you turn it back on. You wouldn't want to choose songs every time you turned shuffle on, would you?

If you switch shuffle off but don't like the Up Next list, simply click on the Clear button, which is at the bottom of the Up Next list (you may need to scroll down to it).

I should have made it clearer:

Icon 2 - the Repeat function. In Repeat mode, it means Repeat All, or repeat everything in that list. So if you are playing an album and have Repeat (All) on, when it gets to the last song in the list you are in, iTunes will start that same list again. If in normal (shuffle off) mode, iTunes will play the list in the same order as before. But if you have Repeat and Shuffle on (so shuffle songs on an album and then repeat the album), iTunes will start that list again but not in the same order.

• Remember, iTunes is playing the list you are in, and you can see what will play next in the Up Next list (icon next to your ringed 2). You can modify the Up Next list as well if you wish, by dragging songs into it or deleting them from the list by hovering over the song (in the Up Next and then clicking on the X that appears).
• You can shuffle your own list, an album, an artist, all songs in your Library. You choose.

Everything is a list, the...

• Albums view is a list of albums (and each album has a list of songs on that album)*
• Songs view is a list of songs
• Genres view is a list of genres
• Playlists is simply a name given to a list of songs you've put together, which will probably be a mixture of different albums, artists and genres and that you want to group together, presumably to always play together. (Your own compilation album!)
• Up Next is also a list (of what will play next...) *

If you go into the Albums list, you have a list of albums. If you go deeper into the albums list and look at just one album, that is a list (of songs on that album). The same applies for the Artists view - it's a list of artists. You can either play from the Artists list or delve deeper into it and select one artist (in which case you have the same list of albums by that one artist) or select one album - in which case you will see the same list of songs as when you look at the same album in the Albums list.

* edited by author to add text.

Glad you've got it sorted.

🙂