For some people, the setting to enable or disable Shuffle mode on the Apple iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch is one of the harder settings to find. I know some people who have owned their device for months and still don’t know how to shuffle the music. Some may even tell you that the setting doesn’t even exist on the device. The setting does exist though. Just follow these steps.
1. While a song is playing, navigate to the Now Playing screen.
2. Tap the album cover.
3. Tap the crossing arrows to enable or disable Shuffle. If the arrows are blue in color, Shuffle is enabled and songs in the current playlist will each be played once in random order. You can tap the arrows again to disable it.
You’ll also have an icon on the middle of the screen that will activate the Genius features on the device. To the left is the repeat icon. Tap it to repeat the current playlist. Tap it again and a number 1 will appear next to it and the device will repeat the current song. You can also drag the ball on the song timeline to skip forward or backward on the current track. This feature comes in handy if you’re listening to an audio book or a long compilation.
Another spot where you can access the Shuffle option is at the top of any playlist.
There’s one more Shuffle related setting you may want to know about called “Shake to Shuffle”. This setting will shuffle your music if you shake the device while a song is playing. Some users don’t learn about this feature and only discover it when they are walking or jogging and find that their music is being automatically shuffled. You can access this setting by going to Settings > Music and changing Shake to Shuffle to On or Off.
I think we’ve covered all of the Shuffle features on your iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section.
Last modified March 22, 2012
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Thanks so much…bought 7th gen Nano, couldn’t figure out how to shuffle without shaking which I didnt want to do while listening at home through bluetooth speaker! User manual didn’t help and after 3 days of searching, I finally found your posting that actually had the answer! I agree with the comment Christopher left…shame on Apple!
I discovered this by accident. Who says that Apple products have an intuitive interface? It would never have occurred to me.
I find the shuffle feature extremely annoying. I would never deliberately use it myself. I seem to turn it on unintentionally when I stick the iPod in my pocket. For days I couldn’t figure out how to turn the darn thing off. On day I tapped the middle of the screen and the shuffle button suddenly appeared. Ah Hah!!
Is there any way to disable this feature FOREVER????
Thanks…this works…..the Shuffle drove me crazy.
Awesome. THANK YOU.
Very informative simple instrucions.
gotta love google search — thank you for the help!
Thanks!! Been googling this for a while Finally found the answer
Yeah!!
Thank you Thank you Thank you!
You are the wind beneath my wings and now my new best friend. Shame on Apple for making that feature so difficult to get to, but thank you for your help.
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