ITunes - Party Shuffle won't shuffle

[eyelight]

Just noticed that Party Shuffle wasn't shuffling, just playing every song in the library in order. Had it playing in the background, and thought it too much of a coincidence for 3 songs from the same album to play in a row.
Can't seem to fix it. Any suggestions ?

Larry
15" Powerbook 1.5Ghz

 

[scan300]

Normally whan you turn shuffle on (shuffle button) it visually rearranges the songs in your playlist. Turn it on and off and see if this is happening.

Basically shuffle rearranges your playlist in a random order, then plays the rearranged list in the that order. If you have shuffle on all the time it will look like it's playing in sequential order.

Shuffle works on a playlist, not the library.

Party shuffle (in your playlists) is different, in that it's not totally random. It uses criteria that you set up from drop menus at the bottom of the window, and the computer generates a playlist based on these and other criteria. You can also drag other songs into and edit the order of the party shuffle playlist.

 

[eyelight]

I'm not talking about the shuffle button, but party shuffle. It's worked fine up until now, but now plays things only in their order in the library. Pressing the Refresh button does nothing either. Can't see anything in the Preferences that would affect this. Anyone had this problem ?

 

[russed]

have you tried clicking on the refresh button in the top right hand corner?

 

[scan300]

Is your problem isolated to only setting the source to 'Library'. What happens when you change the source, eg to a smart playlist or one of your own custom playlists.?

 

[eyelight]

The refresh button is having no effect at all. Nothing changes.
Trying to change the source to one of my other playlists has no effect, it just stays on the same songs in their library order.
Also just noticed this. I have 543 songs in the library, but when in Party Shuffle mode, it's saying there are 415 songs, and it's not listing any songs I've added in the past few days. Very strange.

Larry
15" PB 1.5GHz

 

[eyelight]

Anyone ever had this problem before ?

And anyone got any suggestions to fix this ?

Any help apprieciated.

Larry

 

[Edot]

Anyone ever had this problem before ?

And anyone got any suggestions to fix this ?

Any help apprieciated.

Larry

I think you may have a misunderstanding of what Party Shuffle actually is. From the iTunes Help document:

--------------------------------------
You can use Party Shuffle (in the Source list) to create a dynamic playlist made up of a random selection of songs in your library or any playlist. This "live mix" allows you to see a list of songs that have played or are about to play, and edit the list at any time.

1. Click Party Shuffle in the Source list.

2. Choose a source for your live mix from the Source pop-up menu below the track list.

3. Choose the number of played or upcoming songs you want to see in the playlist.

To change the upcoming track list, click Refresh in the upper-right corner of the iTunes window. Any songs you've added manually remain in the list.

You can change the order of any upcoming songs, add new songs by dragging them to the list, or remove songs from the list. You can also choose to hide the Party Shuffle playlist in iTunes preferences.

Other types of random playlists you can create include Smart Playlists, or playlists with Shuffle mode turned on. For more information, search help for "smart playlists," or "shuffle."
-----------------------------------------


If you simply want a Playlist to pick songs randomly, or your Library to pick songs randomly you should simply activate (turn blue) the "crossing arrows" button next to the "+"(add Playlist) button at the bottom of the window, underneath the Source Column. This will turn on Shuffling for the selected Playlist or your Library.

Goodluck!

 

[scan300]

Anyone ever had this problem before ?

And anyone got any suggestions to fix this ?

Any help apprieciated.

This came from an OSX hints post:
http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?p=140392
I've quoted it here...

"(You might be able to just do step 7.. I can't test anymore since I fixed mine)

1. Close iTunes.
2. Find your iTunes folder, the one with:
iTunes 4 Music Library and ITunes Music Library.xml
3. Back these up somewhere.. anywhere.
4. Remove them from your iTunes folder.
5. Restart iTunes, it should be empty.. quit iTunes again.
6. Copy the two files back to the iTunes folder.. all your stuff is back.
7. Go to party shuffle.. I selected all and then deleted.. then I clicked refresh and it gave me random songs again."

Also another post from a user who used Aquisition to download music, said a preference in that program affected their party shuffle.

 

[eyelight]

Thanks,

That last one cured it.

 

[tj2001]

Thank You!

I had the same issue as the topic creator and deleting the list and hitting refresh worked like a charm

Thank you.