Tech Reference

How to turn off the initially hard-to-find 'shuffle' option in an iPhone's Music app

Written by Dave Johnson edited by John Lynch
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The option to turn off shuffle in the iPhone's Music app is hidden away. Apple
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You probably use your iPhone as a portable music player, which makes it especially surprising that the built-in Music app can be so hard to use.

There's no better example of its unintuitive design than the fact that while Shuffle is easy to turn on, it's far from simple to turn back off again. The reason for this: Apple has hidden the Shuffle control well out of sight. 

You probably already know how to turn Shuffle on; there's a Shuffle button right next to the Play button. Tap it once to enter Shuffle mode. But it's not a toggle switch, and tapping it again will not turn it off. For some reason. 

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

iPhone XS (From $999 at Apple)

How to turn off Shuffle play in the iPhone Music app

1. Start the Music app and play some music.

2. Tap the Player bar at the bottom of the screen. It has a thumbnail icon of the album as well as a Play button and Next track button. 

shuffle 1
The Shuffle button on this screen can only turn Shuffle on, not off again. Tap the Player bar at the bottom to find the real shuffle control.  Dave Johnson/Business Insider

3. The Player will now slide up and take up most of the screen, giving you access to additional controls. Swipe it up even further — there's more to this window than fits on the screen. 

shuffle 2
When you tap the Player bar, it becomes a window that takes over most of the screen.  Dave Johnson/Business Insider

4. Tap the Shuffle button to turn shuffle on or off. The Shuffle button will turn red when it's on. 

shuffle 3
Swipe up on the Player window to find the Shuffle control.  Dave Johnson/Business Insider

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dave june
Dave Johnson
Dave Johnson is a technology journalist who writes about consumer tech and how the industry is transforming the speculative world of science fiction into modern-day real life. Dave grew up in New Jersey before entering the Air Force to operate satellites, teach space operations, and do space launch planning. He then spent eight years as a content lead on the Windows team at Microsoft. As a photographer, Dave has photographed wolves in their natural environment; he's also a scuba instructor and co-host of several podcasts. Dave is the author of more than two dozen books and has contributed to many sites and publications including CNET, Forbes, PC World, How To Geek, and Insider.