If you’ve been trying to figure out how to shuffle your music on your iPad, well, you’re not alone. Apple could hardly have made it more confusing. First, you can’t shuffle your music on your iPad in iTunes, because iTunes isn’t even where your music is on the iPad! Your music is in the iPod app on your iPad, and you can shuffle your music on the iPod on the iPad, but you have to know the secret. So, here’s the secret.
First, as we said, your music is not in iTunes on the iPad. On the iPad, iTunes is where you buy music, but not where it is ‘stored’. On the iPad, iTunes = iTunes store. iPod = where your music is stored.
So, first, go into your iPod app on your iPad. When you first start up the iPod app, you get a default screen something like this (yes, it looks like iTunes – confusing, isn’t it?):
The Internet Patrol is completely free, and reader-supported. Your tips via CashApp, Venmo, or Paypal are appreciated! Receipts will come from ISIPP.
CashApp us
Venmo us
Paypal us
Now, you can look as long as you want – you’re not going to find any shuffle settings here. Even though in iTunes (which this isn’t but it looks like) on your computer this is exactly where you’d find the ‘shuffle’ button. Confused yet?
We’re about to demystify it all.
Start playing a song. Go ahead, just click on any song, and start playing it.
That should take you to the ‘song currently playing’ screen that looks like this:
If it doesn’t take you to that screen – or indeed any time you have music playing and you want to get to that screen, just click where indicated here:
Now, while you’re on the ‘song currently playing’ screen, look in the upper right, right at the end of the “elapsed time” indicator – do you see it?
There it is! The ‘shuffle’ icon (or shuffle button, if you prefer).
Click it! It will turn blue.
As confusing as this seems, it’s really pretty simple. If you click the shuffle icon, your music will be shuffled, and will continue to be shuffled (even if you turn off your music, leave the iPod app, etc.) unless and until you unshuffle it by clicking the shuffle icon a second time.
If the shuffle icon is blue, your music is shuffled; if it’s grey, it isn’t.
Tah-dah! Shuffled music on your iPad!
The Internet Patrol is completely free, and reader-supported. Your tips via CashApp, Venmo, or Paypal are appreciated! Receipts will come from ISIPP.
CashApp us
Venmo us
Paypal us
Great info. this issue is proof that “if ain’t broke -don’t fix it”, yet Apple continues to fix that which don’t need it!!!!!!
Too bad none of this applies after the iOS 5.0.2 update where they changed the music playback AGAIN … You can click that shuffle icon all day and nothing happens.
Great! Thanks!
Thanks
Fantastic
My “song currently playing” screen only has the music staff image and no controls at all. Do I have a different version?
This was bugging me a couple times I played with it and tried to use it as a “IPOD” It was that simple!!!! Thank you!
Thank you! That has been frustrating me since I bought my iPad 2 weeks ago.