I have had my 120gb ipod classic for nearly 2 years now and I have been realizing for a while that when I use the "shuffle songs" feature it basically cycles through the same artist's songs everytime. I searched on this a lot last night and saw many others have the same problem, is there any good solution to this? Would restoring the ipod and putting all 12k of my songs back on it do anything? Thanks in advance....
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iPod Ipod Classic's "Shuffle Songs" feature is not random at all..same artists often
- Thread starter Siciliano611
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Haven't used a Classic in years, but the shuffle feature shuffles through the songs of the current selection, or not? So if you invoke it from the all songs overview of an artist, it will obviously shuffle through those only.
No I mean the shuffle songs feature...the same artists basically show up a lot, and certain ones i havent heard through shuffle in a LONG LONG time....doesn't seem random is too random
The same artists show up a lot because it is random. Random means exactly that: at any given time, every song has an equal percent chance of being played next. I would assume you just need to keep shuffling. I mean, if you got one song from every artist, that wouldn't be random, now would it?
I've noticed this on a lot of iPod models...
I understand how random works... but the probability of drawing the only two songs by the same artists in my library back to back repeatedly is ridiculously small...
I understand how random works... but the probability of drawing the only two songs by the same artists in my library back to back repeatedly is ridiculously small...
Do you rate your songs? I think there's a setting option that causes higher-rated songs to be played more often.
Where does it say that shuffle is random?
I find my Classic will also go through a phase, one day it will play several Rolling Stones songs but not consecutively. Other days it will do it with another artist. Like Alan64 said, my higher rated songs get played more.
Not sure what algorithm is at work but it isn't quite random.
I find my Classic will also go through a phase, one day it will play several Rolling Stones songs but not consecutively. Other days it will do it with another artist. Like Alan64 said, my higher rated songs get played more.
Not sure what algorithm is at work but it isn't quite random.
Random?
I had a 3rd gen iPod for years.
Have most of Queens catalogue.
Did they ever turn up when playing random songs?...
I had a 3rd gen iPod for years.
Have most of Queens catalogue.
Did they ever turn up when playing random songs?...
it's cognitive bias. you notice when two songs by the same artist play, you don't when they don't.
sorry, shuffle *is* random, you are not.
sorry, shuffle *is* random, you are not.
I wonder who is better at being random, your human brain or a computer... 
If it really bothers you, restore seems to "reset" whatever algorithm apple uses. I do agree that the iPod tends to favor songs after a few weeks of using it and I'm pretty sure if you are using the rating system that it tends to favor higher rated songs.
Alternatively you could fix this issue by creating a smart playlist that follows these rules:
Last Played - is not in the last - 2 weeks (or whatever date you want)
Alternatively you could fix this issue by creating a smart playlist that follows these rules:
Last Played - is not in the last - 2 weeks (or whatever date you want)
Random or Not
The Shuffle Song feature in both my iPhone and iPad have the same problem you've described. Regardless of how many songs are in my playlists, the same artist comes up back-to-back until I manually forward to the next selection. I'm talking about 3-4 songs in a row by the same artist, regardless of how many of this artist's songs comprise the playlist.
Definitely another one of Apple's glitches that people seem to accept as proper functionality even though I am able to get a true random selection on my other non-Apple devices with the exact same playlists.
The Shuffle Song feature in both my iPhone and iPad have the same problem you've described. Regardless of how many songs are in my playlists, the same artist comes up back-to-back until I manually forward to the next selection. I'm talking about 3-4 songs in a row by the same artist, regardless of how many of this artist's songs comprise the playlist.
Definitely another one of Apple's glitches that people seem to accept as proper functionality even though I am able to get a true random selection on my other non-Apple devices with the exact same playlists.
My iPod Classic did this too. I just thought that due to my music collection being rather vast and consisting of three main artists that had the most songs combined that it would be obvious that songs from those artists would get played back to back more often.
Also, I am sure you can set it so that higher rated songs are played more often, as mentioned already.
Also, I am sure you can set it so that higher rated songs are played more often, as mentioned already.
This phenomenon is thoroughly discussed in Steven Levy's book "The Perfect Thing" in the chapter "Shuffle" ;-)
Thinking Apple may discontinue these at some point. I just bought a spare. It's a very handy model to have. It's large capacity allows me to keep years of music on it.
So, years after, I find this forum and the same problem I have.
Basically, there isn't a solution for this?
This is my problem:
I'm a bartender in a jazz bar, and I use my Ipod a lot for playing jazz. (the whole day actually)
But when I'm home, I'm tired of jazz, and I would like it very much to 'simply' shuffle all my songs. It just keeps on playing the same jazz artists over and over when I shuffle, because the device thinks I like it because it play it all the time at 'work'. I have 10.000 songs on my ipod, of which 2000 are jazz and I would like my ipod to do a real random shuffle...
[doublepost=1496865190][/doublepost]also, I've switched off genius in itunes. But I have the feeling it's still enabled on my ipod.
Basically, there isn't a solution for this?
This is my problem:
I'm a bartender in a jazz bar, and I use my Ipod a lot for playing jazz. (the whole day actually)
But when I'm home, I'm tired of jazz, and I would like it very much to 'simply' shuffle all my songs. It just keeps on playing the same jazz artists over and over when I shuffle, because the device thinks I like it because it play it all the time at 'work'. I have 10.000 songs on my ipod, of which 2000 are jazz and I would like my ipod to do a real random shuffle...
[doublepost=1496865190][/doublepost]also, I've switched off genius in itunes. But I have the feeling it's still enabled on my ipod.
There was an article I read awhile back where basically shuffle used to be completely random, but consumers were complaining it never played the songs they liked, so now its weighted to play songs more frequently listened to with some random ones in between.
And yet, on my iPhone, when out mowing over the weekend, I was playing shuffled tunes, and the choices it makes on some sessions is amazing.
I have a lot of rock on it, and this last weekend I got everything but rock. Classical, jazz, top 40, ballads, etc... Yet other times, I get all rock. Like every song... It's just weird how sometimes it seems to be so 'off'... I mean, I'd think that just being random, there would be enough 'rock' on there to be hit quite often. Hmm...