# Help! My iPod went Berserk! Anyone know how to fix this? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 7, 2008, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-my-ipod-went-berserk-anyone-know-how-to-fix-this/444386 "2008-04-07T21:42:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-my-ipod-went-berserk-anyone-know-how-to-fix-this/444386/1 "2008-04-07T21:42:45Z")
Ok, I have an iPod nano that I use at home, and a shuffle that I use when biking or hiking…I have 70 songs on the nano and today I was in the car long enough to hear all 70 of them - I thought. Well, that didn’t happen, I found that every 5th song or so I’d hear a repeat. I thought I wasn’t supposed to hear any repeats until the shuffle had played them all. Am I missing something? My iPod-Fu is obviously not very good, but come on now…why would there be repeats in a shuffle when that is the one thing it’s not supposed to do? Right? I looked on iTunes and I can see some songs are ranked, and some have little checkmarks next to them…what’s that? Sorry for my incompetance - any help? ---
**Author:** ![Caractacus\_Pott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@Caractacus\_Pott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caractacus_Pott)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-my-ipod-went-berserk-anyone-know-how-to-fix-this/444386/2 "2008-04-07T22:15:23Z")
Google up “iPod shuffle option not random.” You’ll get pages of links, including [this one](http://ask.metafilter.com/23813/Is-an-ipod-on-shuffle-truly-random) that explains how the randomization works. Cliff Notes version: iPod shuffling is random, not repeatfree. Maybe that’ll be in the next gen iPod. There are hundreds, if not a thousand, tracks that my iPod won’t play on its own. ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-my-ipod-went-berserk-anyone-know-how-to-fix-this/444386/3 "2008-04-07T22:40:26Z")
[QUOTE=Caractacus Pott] Google up “iPod shuffle option not random.” You’ll get pages of links, including [this one](http://ask.metafilter.com/23813/Is-an-ipod-on-shuffle-truly-random) that explains how the randomization works. Cliff Notes version: iPod shuffling is random, not repeatfree. Maybe that’ll be in the next gen iPod. There are hundreds, if not a thousand, tracks that my iPod won’t play on its own. [/QUOTE] Thousand thanks! I appreciate it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Tool\_of\_the\_Conspiracy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@Tool\_of\_the\_Conspiracy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tool_of_the_Conspiracy)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2008, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-my-ipod-went-berserk-anyone-know-how-to-fix-this/444386/4 "2008-04-08T04:51:33Z")
[QUOTE=Caractacus Pott] Google up “iPod shuffle option not random.” You’ll get pages of links, including [this one](http://ask.metafilter.com/23813/Is-an-ipod-on-shuffle-truly-random) that explains how the randomization works. Cliff Notes version: iPod shuffling is random, not repeatfree. Maybe that’ll be in the next gen iPod. There are hundreds, if not a thousand, tracks that my iPod won’t play on its own. [/QUOTE] It’s repeat-free on _my_ iPod… That thread was from 2005, but the iPod I had back then didn’t repeat either, as long as I didn’t interrupt the sequence of songs. I’m listening to mine on shuffle right now; it says “193 of 2798”. Unless I manually choose a song or select “shuffle songs” from the main menu, it’ll go through my whole collection. I’ve done that once, when my computer crashed so I couldn’t sync it. **Phlosphr** , my guess is that either you’re accidentally re-shuffling the songs (maybe when unpausing it?), or you have duplicate songs in your library. The best solution is to add a couple thousand more songs. 🙂