# How to shuffle playlists on my iPod? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 13, 2009, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-shuffle-playlists-on-my-ipod/521129 "2009-12-13T19:22:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2009, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-shuffle-playlists-on-my-ipod/521129/1 "2009-12-13T19:22:35Z")
How can I get my iPod to play playlists in shuffle mode? It will play the library in shuffle, but not my Christmas playlist, so the best I can hope for is to hear four versions of Adeste Fidelis in a row. Any help for this? ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2009, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-shuffle-playlists-on-my-ipod/521129/2 "2009-12-13T19:25:28Z")
Settings–Shuffle. I believe this shuffles all of your playlists, so you’d have to go back and turn it off if you didn’t want it to shuffle the others later. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-shuffle-playlists-on-my-ipod/521129/3 "2009-12-14T04:19:44Z")
> [@Gfactor](#): > > Settings–Shuffle. I believe this shuffles all of your playlists, so you’d have to go back and turn it off if you didn’t want it to shuffle the others later. Hmmm…I tried that on the iPod and it started playing the main library. The Christmas playlist was still alpha. Maybe if I activate shuffle on the iTunes computer library and then re-sync? ---
**Author:** ![Baracus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@Baracus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baracus)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-shuffle-playlists-on-my-ipod/521129/4 "2009-12-14T13:23:16Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Hmmm…I tried that on the iPod and it started playing the main library. The Christmas playlist was still alpha. Maybe if I activate shuffle on the iTunes computer library and then re-sync? Did you you go to _Main-\>Settings-\>Shuffle-\>Songs_ or just _Main-\>Shuffle Songs_? Because the latter will just start playing your whole library. You need to do the former and then go back to the playlist. I don’t think activating random in iTunes will do anything to your ipod. You would have to actually go in and manually rearrange the order in the playlist. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-shuffle-playlists-on-my-ipod/521129/5 "2009-12-14T16:06:15Z")
> [@Baracus](#): > > Did you you go to _Main-\>Settings-\>Shuffle-\>Songs_ or just _Main-\>Shuffle Songs_? Because the latter will just start playing your whole library. You need to do the former and then go back to the playlist. > > I don’t think activating random in iTunes will do anything to your ipod. You would have to actually go in and manually rearrange the order in the playlist. Okay, I’ll give that a try a bit later today. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-shuffle-playlists-on-my-ipod/521129/6 "2009-12-14T17:40:12Z")
> [@Baracus](#): > > Did you you go to _Main-\>Settings-\>Shuffle-\>Songs_ or just _Main-\>Shuffle Songs_? Because the latter will just start playing your whole library. You need to do the former and then go back to the playlist. > > I don’t think activating random in iTunes will do anything to your ipod. You would have to actually go in and manually rearrange the order in the playlist. Success! Thanks for the help.