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How can I get iTunes to skip certain songs in shuffle mode?

This is driving me wacky! I have a ton of music in iTunes and also have a couple of audio books. All well and good, but when I'm in shuffle mode, everything in the iTunes music library is fair game, which means that every so often my party groove is suddenly interrupted with the fifth track of Harry Potter or something equally wacked. Is there some way to stop this?


Dave's Answer:

I've encountered the same problem and there are two ways I have found to "fix" shuffle mode so that you don't bump into tracks or genres that you don't want. The first works for most versions of iTunes and the second has been added in iTunes 7.0 as far as I can tell.

One way to tackle this problem is to create a Smart Playlist in iTunes that simply excludes the tracks you don't want, then choose that before you go into shuffle mode and press "play". My Smart Playlist looks like this:

Apple iTunes Smart Playlist: Exclude Audiobooks

To create a Smart Playlist, simply choose File --> New Smart Playlist and it's pretty straightforward to duplicate what I have above. You might have "Spoken" instead of "Audiobooks" as your genre, too, so I'd check that or tweak your Smart Playlist to match both.

Now it turns out that audiobooks downloaded from services like Audible.com (of which I'm a big fan, btw, and highly recommend if you're into audio books too) are already in a special category "Audiobooks" and aren't going to show up anyway. What you're talking about, however, are regular Mp3 files you import or audio book CDs that you rip and add to your library.

To try the fancy new iTunes 7.0 solution, you need to select more than one audiobook track, then choose File --> Get Info, which brings up this sort of dialog box:

Apple iTunes: Multiple Item Info
Click for full-size image

Let me zoom in on the relevant field on the bottom row so you can see the key element:

Apple iTunes: Multiple Item Info: Skip When Shuffling

That's it. Select all your audiobook tracks, bring up the Multiple Item Info, then simply select Yes and check the box adjacent to "Skip When Shuffling".

Either way, I hope this'll help you get more enjoyment out of your iTunes library.



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Comments

For iTunes 5 and 6, one can use Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes has a script.

http://www.dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/scripts02.php?page=2#setselectedtracksshuffle

Fred

Posted by: Fred Avolio at September 20, 2006 12:27 PM

It's also possible to do this for a single track in iTunes 7.0. Just hit File... Get Info, click over to the Options tab and tick the "Skip when shuffling" box.

Posted by: Mike at February 8, 2007 5:58 PM

Hey, I recently had a problem with my ipod. It was connected in the computer, i put it out (in the right way, of course) and i put on "shuffle songs" and it started skipping songs. I tried it with the "skip when suffling" option, but it won't work.
what should i do?

Posted by: Ursula at May 4, 2007 8:27 AM

Thank you so much. I was constantly hearing my spoken word and other audio I didn't want to hear in my shuffle. Now that's fixed, thanks to you!

Posted by: Fran at June 24, 2008 5:32 PM

I have a lot to say, but ...
Starbucks coffee cup I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!











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