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Tip: Disable “Shake to Shuffle” in iPhone OS 3.0

By Jason Hamilton Thu, Jun 25, 2009 @ 12:00 PM

After picking up my iPhone 3GS on Friday morning, I was listening to some music on the way home from work. I keep my iPhone (or iPod) in the car’s cupholder when it is plugged into the stereo. At some point I had to slam on brakes and suddenly heard a funny beeping noise, and something happened to the music. At first I was a little worried that something was wrong with my new iPhone, but I quickly remembered one of the new “features” of iPhone OS 3.0 – Shake to Shuffle.

Seems like a cool idea. But in practice it can be quite annoying. Jogging with shake to shuffle is certainly going to provide an interesting, if not frustrating mix. Luckily Apple provided a fairly easy way to turn off the feature.

  1. From the home screen, go to Settings.
  2. Scroll down in settings and select “iPod”                                                             setting menu 200x300 Tip: Disable Shake to Shuffle in iPhone OS 3.0
  3. The top option in the iPod settings menu is “Shake to Shuffle.” Tap the slider to turn it off.ipod settings 200x300 Tip: Disable Shake to Shuffle in iPhone OS 3.0

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  • Sayhoe

    Yayyyy finally

    • http://www.macgasm.net Joshua Schnell

      Yeah, there’s nothing worse than walking down the street and having your songs keep skipping.

    • rich

      Thank god!! I almost smashed it at the gym a few times

  • T-ray

    Brilliant, thanks! I run with my iphone/ipod and was spontaneously shuffling.

  • http://netvlinks.com Anthony

    Thanks for the tip! It gets annoying when cycling now I can finally listen to a complete track YAY!

    • http://www.macgasm.net Joshua Schnell

      No problem! I had the same problem as well. Some features should just be off by default. ;)

  • The Klondike Kids

    Thanks for the help … updated to 3.0 and couldn’t figure out what was wrong, then I remembered about Shake to Shuffle!!! With these instructions it was easy to turn it off.

    • http://www.macgasm.net Joshua Schnell

      It’s totally something that should be off from the start. I was so annoyed mid run when it started jumping around. There’s nothing worse than trying to figure out how to turn it off when you’re out of breath. ;)

      • DanielleJL

        Thank God for this as it was driving me crazy!! It is difficult enough to breath while running to try and find the song again while out of breath… I hear you!!

  • http://www.EastsideEntrepreneurs.com Joe Kennedy

    Guess it only took me a couple of months to look for the solution – thanks for sharing! It has helped tremendously.

    • http://www.macgasm.net Joshua Schnell

      No problem. It’s what we’re here for! :)

  • Marius

    I’m just thinking about one thing – why are we complaining about this “shake to shuffle” tool. I find it really helpful.

    Yes, indeed – my wife’s been all the time complaining about it, as she loves walking our dog, and while walking the pet, her songs are randomly skipping.

    Today I decided to find the solutions for my wife, and you guys came up with it online. I wasn’t even thinking about going to my apple iPhone on iPod options, and adjust them accordingly – shame on me! :)

    So yeah, my wife’s smiling, me sad that lost of individuals complain about this feature that I thank Apple for.

    Let’s not complain, but find a solution to adjust our needs, by researching/investigating. :)

    Thanks guys for the hint.

  • jill

    thank you, I can run again!!!!!!

  • M

    Thank you. This was driving me crazy when I was walking my two dogs.

  • M

    Thank God! I had no idea what was going on…I wanted to throw my IPOD out of the window earlier today!!!

    • http://www.macgasm.net Joshua Schnell

      It threw me for a little bit of a loop as well. :)

  • R

    THANK YOU! I hated that feature! Can’t wait to go out and mow the lawn now. Very much appreciate the tip.

  • Q

    Thanks for this.
    I just updated to 3.0
    This is a good feature but pretty stupid to have on by default

  • Mark

    Ive been jogging for about a month with this shake to shuffle switched on unbeknown to me. It was rather infuriating to say the least.

    Thanks for resolving it.

    • http://www.macgasm.net Joshua Schnell

      I couldn’t even begin to imagine that. It was annoying me while I was walking. Had I not caught it before I went jogging, I probably would have thrown the thing in the lake.

      • glen

        hey thanks… i stopped running with my iphone… i used my ipod instead, but its frustrating taking both iphone and ipod just to run when you can ipod on your phone… thanks so much! i’ll be running with one device now!

  • Miss Jenn

    HOOOORAY! Was driving me nuts when I jogged! Now it’s perfect!!!!!!!

  • http://www.manta.com Pete

    You rock. This was driving me nuts. Didn’t realize it was a new feature.

    • http://Macgasm.net Joshua Schnell

      No prob. It was pretty sneaky. :)

  • Kate

    Thanks so much – this was really helpful. Before, my audio book experience was really bad!!

    • http://www.macgasm.net Joshua Schnell

      I was annoyed when my songs were changing. I can’t even begin to imagine how crappy it is for audiobooks. Glad we could help.

  • sue

    Thank you! That was bugging me.

  • PortlandChip

    awesome! Like others this was driving my crazy while walking with iphone-ipod playing from my pants pocket. Thanks for sharing!

  • CamperBob

    What on Earth was Apple thinking, turning this asinine feature on by default? I came close to hurling my iPhone across the gym when it wouldn’t stop beeping and shuffling by itself while running on the treadmill.

  • CC

    I LOVE U!!!!!!!!!

  • Damian

    Yeah someone finally told me this! Only after I got so mad at the gym this a.m. that I through it on the ground!
    What a stupid feature & to have it as a default setting! Extremely annoying and useless. I should have known it was the new OS b/c after that update that’s when the trouble started.

  • http://systemstuff.wordpress.com Jason

    I too suffered for months from this (while jogging) until I decided to
    research. My assumption was that the encoding of the music was bad. Then it happened – a song played fine that DIDN’T play fine the last time (I’ve got a large.. music collection so I didn’t really notice before).

    Usually Apple is on the ball about stuff like this. This is just bad software design. Shake to shuffle is fine as a feature but it needs to give a visual cue when it happens so that you know what’s going on. Prefereably with the words ‘shake to suffle active” in the visual cue so you can google search it.

  • Rita Lowitt

    Well, it was certainly surprising to have my songs skipping around while I was jogging. Glad I remembered the feature “shake to shuffle” so I could find the answer to disable it, online.

    Great to have an easy fix!

    Thank you.

  • Maria

    Thanks a million. I was ready to give up on my well-chosen music because of this annoying feature. Whose brilliant dumb ass idea was it anyway?

  • Maria

    Thanks a million. I was ready to give up on my well-chosen music because of this annoying feature.

  • James

    Stupid and pointless feature – was ready to smash the iphone until I found you could this crap off!

    Thanks!

  • Dave

    My car is very jumpy. I keep seeing the message “Nothing to undo”. Easy to press the “Cancel” button but I suspect the same shake function is causing this message. How do I stop it?

  • johnny p

    Thanks a ton! I hate this “feature” & I’m glad to be free of it.

  • Jeri Hurd

    Oh, thank heaven! I have a workout playlist that is specifically timed by beat–this was driving me crazy!!

    Thanks!

  • Katie

    Thanks so much for the tip !!! I was running with my iphone like it was an egg and spoon race !!!! …..swearing and cursing along the way.

  • heather bell

    Thank You!!! I can’t stand that feature. It is nice to be able to turn it off.

  • jono

    Thank you so much. SO HELPFUL!

    this feature should be off by default.

  • http://www.facebook.com/reginald911 Big Reg

    Yea!!! I think this is an annoying feature. I almost slammed my iPhone to the blacktop this morning during my run….. Jason Hamilton your advice is greatly appreciated – Thank you.

  • http://www.froufroufashionista.blogspot.com alison

    thank you, thank you, thank you!
    i didn’t realize this was a feature and i was going insane whenever i went jogging. i had no idea what was causing it.

  • Jim

    Thanks. I carry my iPhone in an Arm Pocket. Now I can jog without holding my phone in my hand. I can even do rapid crunches!

  • MelS

    THANK YOU! YOU ROCK!!

  • Kaye

    I was going nuts trying to disable this feature. Thank you! I was using music to run and bike…. very annoying to have this change every bump or footfall.

    YIKES!!! THANKS!

  • Pete

    Super stuff got an iphone recently started walking along got that beep and heard an album in under 60 seconds I bet if you jog it would do it rather faster!!! so THANK YOU for the tip chap…obvious stuff when you think about it!….It’s those little things that apple let you enjoy finding!!!!

  • SRR

    I could kiss you! I wanted to cry the first time I tried to run with my new iTouch. I knew there must be a way to disengage it but I am so not technologically savvy. Thanks!

    • http://www.macgasm.net Joshua Schnell

      Glad we could help. What do you think about the new iPod Touch?

  • Angie

    Thank you!! Can’t wait to give it a try:)

  • glen

    hey thanks… i stopped running with my iphone… i used my ipod instead, but its frustrating taking both iphone and ipod just to run when you can ipod on your phone… thanks so much! i’ll be running with one device now!

  • ellie

    It’s possible to turn shuffle off…but will it really stay off. Had trouble with the Nano, even though it was turned off it managed to turn back on so back to the store it went.

  • Paul

    your the best – thank you