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Julien

macrumors G4
Original poster
Jun 30, 2007
11,835
5,430
Atlanta
I add songs to a Playlist and then randomize (physically) the order before syncing to my iPhone and Nano. I no longer see a way to do this in 11.

Before asking “why not use Shuffle on the iPhone”...here is what I do.

1) Have a large Playlist with the music for my device(s) sorted by date played (almost all ALAC).

2) Copy 250 of the oldest last played songs to a Playlist named Random and then randomize them so they don’t play in the same order as last time.

3) Copy to another Playlist named iPhone so I can “fine tune” (like moving same artist that are one after the other and...) then sync to my iPhone and play in that order.
 

Akwaaba

macrumors newbie
Jan 19, 2011
15
0
Bad Apple

Anyone now how to do this or has it been removed from 11?

This is my biggest complaint about iTunes 11. Apple has eliminated this feature. Why? We can only hope it was yet another mistake made while rushing out iTunes 11 in anticipation of their launch of new international stores to cash in on the Christmas shopping season. Hopefully, they will bring it back in their rumored upcoming update. But based on their recent track record, don't count on it.
 

Kar98

macrumors 65816
Feb 20, 2007
1,252
861
Well, it sure wasn't in 11.0.1, and I miss it sorely.

However, there is this way that I used before iTunes DJ came around, and I guess it still does work. File, New, Smart Playlist. Then set it up like this:

CdiI6.png


Then sync this playlist to your iThing.

Selecting everything from the list and deleting it will re-fill the list with different songs.
 
Last edited:

Pharmscott

macrumors 6502a
Dec 13, 2011
624
2
Sacramento, CA
How about a different approach (and it might be less work). Use a Smart Playlist to grab songs by play count (least played) and save all that shuffling an copying.
 

Bluzeman

macrumors newbie
Jun 19, 2008
3
0
Randomizing songs in a playlist manually

To create a playlist with manually randomized song titles;

1) create and add songs to a playlist (smart or otherwise)
2) Click on the View Menu and choose View Options
3) Click on the Sort By button and choose Manual Order
4)Close the View options window
5) You should be able to drag the individual songs into a different position in the playlist
6) Holding down the Command key while clicking on several song titles, you can drag groups of songs into different positions in the playlist as well

Hope this is useful . . .

Cheers!
 

cambo

macrumors newbie
Jun 16, 2005
13
0
Sydney, Australia
"Random" is replaced by "Shuffle"

If you look at the image in post #4 the playlist random has 301 songs for 21.9 hours.

Immediately above the word "hours" is the shuffle symbol (an extended "x" with arrows) - select this and the list plays in a "random" order which you can verify by looking at what's "up next".

If you hit the shuffle symbol again a new random order will appear in "up next".

But the playlist itself displays sorted as per your list view choice.
 

Julien

macrumors G4
Original poster
Jun 30, 2007
11,835
5,430
Atlanta
Well, it sure wasn't in 11.0.1, and I miss it sorely.

However, there is this way that I used before iTunes DJ came around, and I guess it still does work. File, New, Smart Playlist. Then set it up like this:
....
Then sync this playlist to your iThing.

Selecting everything from the list and deleting it will re-fill the list with different songs.

Thanks, using a version of this does what I want (a little roundabout but....).
 
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