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It’s the Same Old Song — Until You Take It Off Repeat
Q. The Music program on my iPhone is stuck on the same song, playing it over and over, and I don’t see how to stop it. Why is this?
A. Since the heyday of the iPod, Apple has included controls for shuffling tracks, repeating playlists and albums and looping a song. If the song-looping option is accidentally turned on, the same track will play again and again.
Over the years and up through touch-screen interfaces, the controls for Shuffle and Repeat have moved around. With iOS 10 for the iPhone, they are not immediately visible. To turn off the Repeat button when you are on the Music app’s Now Playing screen, swipe up on the album cover to pull the lower part of the screen into view. There, you should see the buttons for Shuffle and Repeat, as well as a list of the next tracks to be played and the option to display lyrics.
When the Repeat button is magenta and displays a pair of curved arrows, the album or playlist will repeat. When the magenta button shows the arrows with a tiny 1 between them, the app will keep playing that one song. Tap the Repeat button to turn it gray and turn off the setting.
On the latest version of the touch-screen iPod Nano, you can get to the same controls by tapping the Now Playing screen. Once they are visible, tap the icons to turn on the feature; tap the Repeat button three times to cycle through the options.
Personal Tech invites questions about computer-based technology to techtip@nytimes.com. This column will answer questions of general interest, but letters cannot be answered individually.
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