Okay, how does this work? I know it's a feature but I just can't figure it out.

[Jade Cambell]

If my iPhone is not playing any music, and I click the button on the earphones once, it will start playing a random song from the middle of my library, and then continue to play different songs in a seemingly random order.

Even if i'm in a completely different album or playlist, and I use the clicker to stop the music, if I then double click (after having stopped it) it might start this track, the one that I mentioned above. Then it will continue to play the same random playlist.

Usually when I pause the music and then double click it takes me to the next track like it's supposed to, but if I use the clicker to start playing music from scratch, it will play my music in this random order, but ALWAYS the same order.

I've restored the phone several times since I first noticed this (for different reasons), and when I plug in the earphones, and press the clicker button, again, it plays the final track of this album somewhere in the middle of my library, followed by the same songs as before in the same order.

It's not a shuffle feature because it's the same order every time, and when I turn on shuffle, it actually shuffles it differently and gives me a different song to begin with.

When a song is playing, and I pause it, and then double click, and then maybe triple click or something, it seems to stop the music completely, and then when I click once, it starts this random track. The same one, every time. It seems that if I click on the clicker enough, it will always get me back to this same stuck random but never changing order of music.

What is this?

 

[illitrate23]

have you got any playlists on there? is this song that it always plays the first song in one of those?

 

[Jade Cambell]

have you got any playlists on there? is this song that it always plays the first song in one of those?

Yes, I have playlists. No, this song is not the first song in any of the playlists. And even that wouldn't account for the extent of this mystery. After playing this track (The last track from the Life is Beautiful soundtrack), the next track it plays is like, track 4 of the amadeus soundtrack, and then after that comes track 5 of the amadeus soundtrack (as if it were trying to get back in order), and then another random track from a different album.

 

[isleofjib]

very odd. i haven't used the ipod features of my phone very much. but it sounds like a play list since you say it's in the same order all the time. hope you get it figured out.

 

[rockstarjoe]

Well, I know if you just click play on a regular ipod it starts playing all your songs alphabetically (i think by artist). Maybe it is sorting by some field and playing alphabetically?

 

[illitrate23]

okay, based on rockstarjoe's idea, when you plug the iPhone into your computer - can you click on it's icon in iTunes and see the songs in the Music section on there?
(sorry, that may be a stupid quetion - i'm basing this on my experience with the iPod Touch (46 hrs till i get myself an iPhone) - i can see all the songs in the Music section but they're all greyed out so i can't play them - is that the same with the iPhone?)
if so, i don't spose by any chance they are in the order that they play are they?

it's a really strange one this - maybe you're iPhone just _really_ likes those tracks

 

[Avatar74]

This remote mode of using the earphone clicker plays songs from whatever list view you were last in (e.g. playlist, artist, album, etc.). If you're not in shuffle mode, then it plays them in the order in which they appear in the list view. If you're in shuffle mode, it shuffles only the tracks of the view you were last in.

So, for example, if you were in Bob's Playlist the last time you navigated the iPod/iPhone, then clicking the button on the earphones will start playing songs in that playlist. If not in shuffle mode, it will either start at the beginning or wherever you left off in Bob's Playlist if you had been listening and hit pause. If in shuffle mode, it will start randomly and shuffle through songs but only the songs in Bob's Playlist.