(This is one of a series of articles looking at elements of iTunes that I think need fixing. I’ll choose one element for each article, and offer a solution. See all articles in this series. If you have any particular gripes about what needs to be fixed in iTunes, drop me a line.)
Remember, back in the day, when you clicked the Shuffle button on a playlist, iTunes would re-order the songs, showing you the order in which they’d be played? If you didn’t like it, you could move some of the songs around, or re-shuffle the list.
Well, iTunes 12 did away with that feature. Now, when you click the Shuffle button, iTunes picks one of the tracks and random and starts playing it. But that track isn’t necessarily at the top of the playlist; it could be anywhere.
It would be great if Apple returned the Shuffle feature to its earlier incarnation. I like to shuffle my music, and I like to see what’s coming up, to adjust the playlist accordingly. You can see upcoming tracks in the Up Next menu, but that menu is annoying. It’s confusing, and it’s not as easy to see what’s coming up as in a playlist.