Ever since I downloaded the latest itunes update songs have not been syncing correctly and now they aren't all no matter what I do the settings on my iphone 4s or itunes on my PC.

Question

I recently had trouble updating my itunes, when I did do it I kept getting an error message and because of that I had to uninstall everything than reinstall itunes.  But since then my iphone, ipad, and ipod are not really syncing correctly.  My PC says its going through the steps and applying everything but when I got to my phone nothing is updated at all.  Nothing is being applied and I did the run diagnostics as well and it said that everything was fine.  When I got what is on this phone it says the playlists are on my phone but when I go to the music app on my phone the playlists aren;t there at all.  I've gone through all my settings on my computer and iphone and they are all what they should for the songs to transfer correctly and it still isn't working. 

Answer 1

So, in iTunes, when you look at the shuffle's content (in the sidebar) and click on the playlist under the shuffle, over to the right, the songs are in your desired order, correct?  Where do you look, or what do you do, that indicates the playlists are in alphabetical order?  Are you saying that when you play the songs while using the shuffle, they play in alphabetical order?
If so, when you listen to the songs on the shuffle, are you using the playlist, or are you using the All Songs list? If you are in the default All Songs list, with the shuffle's power switch set to play-in-order (the middle position), the songs play alphabetically, I believe. 
The 3rd gen shuffle uses VoiceOver.  If you are in the All Songs list, you need to use VoiceOver to switch to the playlist (see manual linked below for details).  When you are in the playlist (with the shuffle's power switch set to play-in-order), then the songs should play in playlist order.
There are more details in the manual for the 3rd gen shuffle, which is online here
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/iPod_shuffle_3rdGen_UG.pdf
See page 22 for the section about setting up and using VoiceOver.  The part about switching playlists starts on page 23 (Using the Playlist Menu).