Anyone have a problem with the "Repeat" and "Shuffle" buttons not turning off? | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Anyone have a problem with the "Repeat" and "Shuffle" buttons not turning off?

Dr Plastic

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On my MFT with update 3.2.2 I cannot turn off the Repeat button. Although it does not repeat it stays lit all the time? This also happens to the "Shuffle" button.
 



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I've noticed the same behavior in mine with the Shuffle not turning off. I've also noticed that it doesn't always shuffle the tracks...sometimes it does, but other times it doesn't. (Using an iPhone 4S with the current iOS installed).
 






Shuffle is broken with ipods and iphones. It will shuffle and play, but the next time you turn on the car it will start playing unshuffled from the point it left off. The button will still have shuffle lit, but in order to turn it off or reshuffle you have to do weird combinations of turning repeat on and off, and shuffle on and off.

I ended up shuffling my playlists in iTunes prior to syncing to the iPhone. Its also unfortunate that iTunes 11 removes the ability to shuffle the order of a playlist, you can only shuffle the next up list. I figured out my own workaround for this too.

If there is interest I'll share, otherwise I don't want to type the whole thing out :)
 






I haven't determined if this is an iOS 6 only issue, I plan on testing with my old iPhone that is on ios 5 when I pick it up tonight
 






13Sport,

Thanks for your posts....this is what I'm seeing with my iPhone running iOS6 in my Explorer (running the newest MFT version). It shuffles fine the first time, but the next time you start the car, it picks up where it left off...unshuffled.

I will have to check my playlist when I get home, but I'm pretty sure I shuffled it in iTunes before syncing my iPhone. What I THINK may be happening on my car is that when it picks up from where you left off the next time you start the car, it rearranges the playlist by artist, ignoring the shuffle I performed on the playlist prior to syncing it.

I will try to confirm this tonite.

I would be interested in how you're able to shuffle the playlist in iTunes 11. (If there's a link you can provide with the required steps, it might make it easier for you?).
 






Randomize playlist in iTunes 11

Here's a walkthrough. I don't have a link to instructions somewhere because I haven't been able to find any, I figured this out a few days ago out of necessity.

in iTunes 11, enable the sidebar to make this easier (view -> Show Sidebar)

Here you can see my original "Demo" playlist that is clearly organized by track name.

1.png


First:
Create a new smart playlist (from file menu or from the + menu at the bottom left of the screen)

2.png

3.png


Second:
In the smart playlist options match on playlist, and select your original playlist

4.png

5.png


Third:
Select the "Limit to:" option, and put in a number that is AT LEAST the number of items on your original playlist (I just put in 99999). Make sure it is set to limit to items by random. Uncheck the "Match only" and "Live updating" options.

6.png


You will then have a new playlist that is a randomized version of your original

7.png


Optionally you can highlight all tracks, and then create a new regular playlist from them if you'd like to remove the "Smart List" (since smart lists based on other playlists don't work with icloud and itunes match)

8.png


I hope this helps anyone else that is having the shuffling problem. If you shuffle the list and then sync it to your iPhone/iPod then you can just leave the shuffle option on MFT off. MFT will play the list in the shuffled order that it was sync'd. I reshuffle my list every couple of weeks and resync it to the device. Has been working fine for me so far.
 






The issue with the shuffle & repeat buttons & with the playlist no longer shuffling after a restart has been around since last year & has not been fixed through the last two updates. Super annoying.
 






13Sport,

Thanks for the detailed directions for making a shuffled playlist in iTunes 11! Wow! That was a lot of typing, wasn't it? (And wouldn't have been necessary if the MFT system worked as designed. Maybe someone needs to let Ford know that their definition of "good enough" needs to be tweaked?).
 






13Sport,

Thanks for the detailed directions for making a shuffled playlist in iTunes 11! Wow! That was a lot of typing, wasn't it? (And wouldn't have been necessary if the MFT system worked as designed. Maybe someone needs to let Ford know that their definition of "good enough" needs to be tweaked?).

I blame apple here too. Shuffle/Repeat works fine on USB memory devices. Apple uses nonstandard ways of doing things. It also used to be easier to create a shuffled playlist in iTunes versions before 11. In iTunes 10 and below you could just hit the shuffle button while a playlist was selected, and it would shuffle the list in place. The shuffled list could then be synced/copied to the device. Apple increasingly makes simple things more difficult in order to better serve the people that need less features.
 






Damn, that "Demo" playlist looks like something my 13 yr old listens to...
 






Damn, that "Demo" playlist looks like something my 13 yr old listens to...

LOL.. your 13 yr old isn't old enough to know who the majority of the people on that list are =P I grabbed a random sample of a 20,000 song library, I was bound to get a few good songs in there :)

Glad your 13 yr old has such good taste though, it's nice to see kids coming up w/ good quality standards these days :)
 






Shuffle issues

I've noticed that my shuffle doesn't work, unless I maximize the entertainment quadrant to full screen on the center console.

Once I do that the shuffle button is operational, and it does in fact shuffle the content.

But when it's minimized, the shuffle doesn't work at all. Seems to either play in alphbetical order, or by artist.

FWIW...
 






The only trouble with 'shuffle' I have is that MFT seems to get out of sync with the actual iPod I am using once you shut the vehicle off and restart it - as others have said. I dont think it has anything at all to do with iTunes or order of songs in the playlist.

After restart, MFT shuffle indicator might be ON but its not shuffling. I use sync and say 'Shuffle All On', it starts working again. Nothing serious but a small annoyance.

MFT also seems to lose its position in the playlist because of this. Lets say the playlist has 2,000 songs in it. Its shuffling, everything is working perfectly. I'm currently playing song 287 out of 2,000.

Shut vehcle off. Come back, restart. iPod has never been disconnected. Song number now says something like 1273 out of 2000 (but still playing the same song). It is no loger shuffling - its reverted back to sequential order (or whatever order that actual playlist happens to be in.. often alphabetical unless you have is ordered in other ways). Once you turn MFT shuffle ON again - the song indicator goes back to 1 of 2,000 so its currently impossible for me to get through a large playlist without 'restarting' even if it shuffling. Shrug.

----

The only thing I have not tried is making sure the setting on the iPod itself is NOT set to shuffle before I connect it. I am wondering if the iPod and MFT are both trying to shuffle things - especially since MFT has its own internal index of all songs and playlists etc. Think I'll do that tonight. At the very least - making sure MFT and iPod are in the same state before connecting them with respect to 'shuffle'. Maybe make sure iPod SHuffle is OFF.

I am thinking at this point that MFT is using its own internal shuffle mechanism and not simply controlling the shuffle setting on the iPod. Makes sense if you consider MFT probably uses the same behavior across all media devices and not just iPods. I bet im right - will find out.

** Update **
Nope. Add this to the list of things that doesnt work for me either. MFT is simply unable to keep these settings consistently functional.
 






On my MFT with update 3.2.2 I cannot turn off the Repeat button. Although it does not repeat it stays lit all the time? This also happens to the "Shuffle" button.

What I've noticed is that you have to stop and switch the media in whatever device you are using to completely shut off "shuffle" or "repeat". In other words, let's say you have it on "shuffle" for a Beatles cd folder, if you turn off shuffle while it's playing this folder it will keep shuffling. You much go to another cd after in another folder after turning "shuffle" off for it not to "shuffle". Again, I hope Ford is reading this and fixes it in the next upgrade.
 






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