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iPod Manually ordering podcasts on an iPod Shuffle (2nd gen)?

W

Wolfpup

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Sep 7, 2006
2,948
117
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Boring Background:
I just got in my (Product Red) 1GB iPod Shuffle. Ordered it because I could use some more headphones, and I figured it was just $20 more than the headphones by themselves.

Anyway I'm surprised by how nice it feels, and the sound quality seems just fine (at least for podcasts). I seem to have figured out how to get my podcasts to sync (I think...). It also seems to remember where in a track it was, so that's good (or it would be totally unusable for me).
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Click to expand...

But I do have one issue. I have a playlist I use for podcasts on my 5.5G regular iPod, but that playlist lets me manually drag individual tracks around to reorder them, which I frequently do. That doesn't seem to work on my Shuffle. I can drag tracks around, but when I actually play them on my shuffle, they seem to just play in alphabetical order-it doesn't remember the order I put them in on the PC (not sure yet if it's in order by track name or artist or what).

That's...fairly major for me, as I like to mix up the types of podcasts I listen to.

Less annoying is that when I play a track off the Shuffle through iTunes, iTunes doesn't list the progress/time bar for the track, the display just stays on "syncing iPod" or something along those lines.

Is there any way to "fix" either of those issues?
 
How about renaming the podcast files with a number at the beginning like:

1-golfpodcast-bunker
2-golfpodcast-chipping
3-golfpodcast-rough

Not sure if it will work or not. Might be worth a try.
 
That's a good idea! I hadn't thought of that.
...

Okay, tried it, and it doesn't work for some reason. I don't know WHAT the heck it's going off of. I've tried adding 1-s to the Artist, Track, and Album Artist, and none of them work. It just keeps going back to the same first track.

If I reorder them, unplug it, and plug it back in, that same first track comes up first in the list again :(
 
Are you adding the 1's in iTunes? Try removing the podcasts from iTunes (don't erase them) and then rename them in Finder and then add them to the library again.
 
Yeah, I was doing all this through iTunes. I've double checked, and this podcast that keeps being first actually starts with an "E" and it wouldn't be first alphabetically by file name either. Plus I'm scared to mess with a podcast that was downloaded through iTunes originally outside of iTunes because the last time I did that (on my normal iPods) it messed up iTunes/the iPod's ability to see it as a podcast correctly and deal with it correctly (I had to go in manually and find the file and delete it).

I suppose one really dumb work around might be to keep toggling "shuffle" on and off until I get the track I want :eek:

Actually another thing that doesn't seem to be working right is I can't jump back to the first track by pressing play/pause quickly three times-nothing happens when I do that (besides it pausing and unpausing.

EDIT: Clicking "autofill" with an empty shuffle doesn't do anything either. Hmm...I think this thing is a lot more primitive than the real iPods even aside from the obvious things...
 
Wolfpup said:
Ordered it because I could use some more headphones, and I figured it was just $20 more than the headphones by themselves.
Click to expand...

I just did the same thing. After getting it home, I immediately noticed that the 'buds that ship with iPod shuffles have a shorter cord (about 1 ft. shorter). Depending on the distance between your ears and your pockets, that could be a problem. Luckily, the cord is just long enough for me. And I'm more than satisfied with the Shuffle, of course.
 
Darn, I didn't realize that. Hopefully they'll be long enough for me or this is really going to be a bust. I'm really NOT satisfied with the shuffle. It's really not working all that great even for just modest podcast use. I would have been better off just ordering some more headphones. Oh well, at least at worst it wasn't $300 or something :(
 
Err...joking aside, it actually wouldn't do that either as it doesn't autofill from iTunes.
 
Mine won't. Does nothing when I connect it, and does nothing when I hit "autofill", except if I have "replace tracks..." checked it just deletes everything off there. I have it set to fill from my Podcast playlist (and tried from "Music" for the heck of it with the same effect).

For whatever reason, even though it doesn't automatically copy over new podcasts, it still syncs back the playcount for a track to the PC's copy, and when I delete it on the PC, it deletes it from the Shuffle too.

I've taken to just dragging my Podcasts playlist onto the shuffle every time I get new podcasts. I still can't order them though.

On top of that, like I said the sound quality is nowhere close to the real iPods. Even still, I do LOVE the tiny size and built-in clip. I just stick it on my shirt or pants and go. It's also already taken a week's worth of wear and tear that would have gone on my real iPod. If nothing else it's extending my 5.5G's life a bit. And I do like that it comes with a dock...I liked that on the old models (though to be fair my 3G cost twice as much as my 5.5G!)
 
Wolfpup said:
Does nothing when I connect it, and does nothing when I hit "autofill", except if I have "replace tracks..." checked it just deletes everything off there.
Click to expand...

That sounds normal. It shouldn't AutoFill until you tell it to. And, if you don't allow it to replace all songs, then it can only use the free space on the iPod to copy additional songs. So if there is no free space, and you won't allow it to make space by deleting all the songs, there's nothing it can do. You can manually make space by selecting tracks on your Shuffle and pressing Delete on your keyboard.

Wolfpup said:
I've taken to just dragging my Podcasts playlist onto the shuffle every time I get new podcasts. I still can't order them though.
Click to expand...

You should be able to order them by dragging them into the order that you want on your Shuffle (just like any other playlist). But remember to turn off shuffle mode on your player, else your ordering will have no effect.
 
pluto198 said:
That sounds normal. It shouldn't AutoFill until you tell it to. And, if you don't allow it to replace all songs, then it can only use the free space on the iPod to copy additional songs. So if there is no free space, and you won't allow it to make space by deleting all the songs, there's nothing it can do. You can manually make space by selecting tracks on your Shuffle and pressing Delete on your keyboard.
Click to expand...

I've never come close to filling it up-it just does nothing if I hit autofill, and deletes all my current podcasts if I hit it with the "replace" thing checked (without putting any new ones on).

You should be able to order them by dragging them into the order that you want on your Shuffle (just like any other playlist). But remember to turn off shuffle mode on your player, else your ordering will have no effect.
Click to expand...

I've got shuffle mode off. I can drag them around on the Shuffle, and it even says "syncing..." when I do it, but when I actually use it they're not in that order at all (and when I plug it back in it displays them again in the order they actually play on the Shuffle). My best guess currently is that it actually plays them in the order they were copied on to the shuffle, which is basically random.
 
That's strange, Wolfpup. I'm able to order songs on my Shuffle just fine. I usually make the first few tracks on the Shuffle a full album that I want to listen to, so I can listen to those tracks in proper order easily. That always works for me. No syncing issues either. I have replace all checked, and when I click AutoFill it erases everything and copies over a fresh batch of songs.

I haven't used the Shuffle for Podcasts though. Do your issues only seem to occur with Podcasts? Does it function normally when just filling it with songs?
 
I'll admit I haven't read the whole thread, but I might know what you're looking for. When you're viewing the list of songs to copy to the iPod and you drag everything around to the order you want it in, right click on the iPod in the source list and select "Copy to Play Order."

Sorry if this is redundant or irrelevant.
 
Thanks for the suggestion! I hadn't noticed that before, and tried playing with it. I can't really figure out what it's supposed to do. If I click it on the smart playlist that's on my computer, it seems to sort of invert the play order of the tracks back and fourth. If I do it on the Shuffle, it tells me the Shuffle is syncing, but nothing happens. When I remove it, the play order is still what it was before (not the way I rearranged it on either the Shuffle or the smart playlist).
 
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