Q: I just got my first iPod touch. I installed several meditation CDs as well as some music. I have discovered that everything is shuffled even though they appear in the right order on the lists. Shuffle appears to be off in iTunes. What can I do to unshuffle? I have tried the buttons on the iPod with no luck.
In fact I can’t even tell from what they look like whether they are on or off. Of course I want to play the meditations in the correct order.
– Janice
A: Chances are that you have inadvertently enabled shuffle mode on your iPod touch. The shuffle setting in iTunes has no bearing on whether shuffle is enabled on the iPod touch or not. Shuffle mode is enabled on the iPod touch from the “Now Playing” screen in the Music app—simply tap the artwork while a track is playing and you’ll see additional controls appear at the top of the screen.
The button near the top-right corner controls shuffle mode and will appear in blue when shuffle is enabled, or white when shuffle is disabled. Similarly, the button near the top-left corner is used to set repeat mode and toggles between repeat off (white), repeat single track (blue with a small 1 overlaid), and repeat all tracks in the playlist (blue). If the shuffle button is blue, simply tap on it once and it should turn white and disable shuffle mode, at which point your tracks should play in the order in which they’re listed in the playlist.
You may also want to ensure that the iPod’s “Shake to Shuffle” feature is disabled in your Music Settings. When enabled, shaking the iPod touch while a song is playing will shuffle randomly to an alternate song and may enable shuffle mode.
