topic Re: Shuffle is bugged, stuck on Smart Shuffle and only plays songs in one genre in Android

Shuffle is bugged, stuck on Smart Shuffle and only plays songs in one genre

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 15:17:41 GMT

Recently I had listened to a lot of metal music. However, this genre only represents a portion of my Liked Songs, which is a lot more diverse.

Since a day or two ago, every time I try to play my Liked Songs on shuffle, Spotify will ONLY play songs in the metal genre.

I have tried selecting and unselecting one of the other genre filters, turning shuffle off completely, and even trying to play other playlists (shuffled and not shuffled). Every time, Spotify toggles Smart Shuffle back on and inevitably returns to playing only metal music when I try to listen to my Liked Songs.

I have also tried clearing my cache and force stopping the app, with no luck.

Re: Shuffle is bugged, stuck on Smart Shuffle and only plays songs in one genre

OscarDC — Tue, 03 Oct 2023 17:08:00 GMT

Hey there,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community and welcome.

The issues related to the "Shuffle" feature are commonly related to some damaged cache stored on your device. Even if you've cleared cache within the app, we'd recommend performing a clean reinstall process by following the steps in this article. This process clears all the remaining cache, fixes internal files and ensures you have the latest version of the app installed on your device.

If the issue persists, would you mind checking on a different device to see if it makes any difference?

Lastly, include in your next response the make, model, and OS version of your device, along with the Spotify version you're currently running to continue investigating the case.

We'll be on the lookout.

Re: Shuffle is bugged, stuck on Smart Shuffle and only plays songs in one genre

Nuclearraccoon — Sat, 25 May 2024 18:52:39 GMT

Happening to me too but with rap :,) like where’s my metal, edm, folk and other music at

Re: Shuffle is bugged, stuck on Smart Shuffle and only plays songs in one genre

Novy — Sun, 26 May 2024 20:35:32 GMT

Hey @Nuclearraccoon,

Thanks for reaching out.

Would you mind letting us know if you've already tried the steps that @OscarDC suggested above?

If that doesn't do the trick, make sure to send over the device info that was requested in the previous message, as well as a video where we can take a better look at this behavior.

We'll be on the lookout for your reply.

Re: Shuffle is bugged, stuck on Smart Shuffle and only plays songs in one genre

gfredhei — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 11:56:56 GMT

I have playlists I play in shuffle mode (smart shuffle turned off). After a few songs it still plays autoshuffled songs that does not fit into my playlists at all. This is really annoying! It makes those playlists unusable.

How can I stop this madness?

Re: Shuffle is bugged, stuck on Smart Shuffle and only plays songs in one genre

D_Stamp — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 23:00:39 GMT

I'm actually finally committing to canceling premium and uninstalling this app for good. Nothing but a hard time and I've had this account for 7 years on 5 different phones. Completely garbage app. Good riddance.

Re: Shuffle is bugged, stuck on Smart Shuffle and only plays songs in one genre

Beren1 — Sun, 13 Oct 2024 21:02:43 GMT

I have the same problem. Its only recommending me alt rock, it was hip hop before

Re: Shuffle is bugged, stuck on Smart Shuffle and only plays songs in one genre

Novy — Mon, 14 Oct 2024 21:35:16 GMT

Hey folks,

For anyone still experiencing this issue, make sure to follow the above suggestions from @OscarDC. If that doesn't work, please send over the info that's been previously requested in this thread.

Also, let us know if you've tried any additional troubleshooting steps so we can avoid repeating those.

We'll be on the lookout.

I can't listen to playlist anymore

Annette7 — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 13:51:18 GMT

I don't know what happened but if I choose a playlist (even one that I create) I can't listen to more than the one song I selected because the next one will be randomly selected by spotify. And the suggestion are always of the same kind (which might be the one I listen to the most but not exclusively) even if the playlist selected is of a totally different kind.

I even tried to download a playlist and listen to it offline but it still makes me listen to songs I haven't downloaded!

It's a very annoying issue, it's like I can't choose what to listen to anymore.

Plan

Premium Family

Country

Device

(iPhone SE)

Operating System

(iOS 17.6)

My Question or Issue

Magic shuffle from liked songs doesn't play private library songs in the playlist.

m162-lap1t_bt — Sun, 12 Jan 2025 07:24:30 GMT

When playing magic shuffle, i see in the queue that none of my private library songs that exist in the 'liked songs' playlist were added to the queue.

Plan

Premium

Country

Israel

Device

Xiaomi Note 13, Mac Mini

Re: Shuffle is bugged, stuck on Smart Shuffle and only plays songs in one genre

Muntogi — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 18:06:32 GMT

Hey Oscar, this is absolutely NOT a problem on the part of user's phones. The issue is Spotify shuffle is not a true random shuffle. They are doing toouvh and trying too hard. Smart shuffle has been forcing itself back on on every user's phone for years, regardless of of it's a Samsung, iPhone, etc. it's not a cache issue, this is done by design by Spotify and it's so annoying I will be leaving. The other issue is as the above commenter posted, and literally thousands of others have posted, shuffle will only play like 5-10% of your saved offline songs and just repeats them over and over. This is extremely annoying and many people including myself have tried every fix imaginable to no successful resolution. It's gotten so annoying that Spotify is losing millions of customers over it. Spotify has messed up my account and overcharged me and forbade me from getting a student account regardless of the evidence I sent proving that I am. I could go on listing the transgressions, but there are 0 customer service options, and I want my music to truly shuffle. Variety is the spice of life and I hear the same 8 songs day in day out on my commute and I have over 3,000 saved offline. I have literally NEVER heard most of the music I have saved to my phone taking up a good portion of my phone's memory for no reason. Smart shuffle continues to annoyingly force itself back on. I have actually thrown a phone and broken it because I was so annoyed a year or so ago with Spotify doing this and generally not working. I have New phone now and the same exact issues. This has been a problem for me specifically on several different makes and models of Samsung phones as well as several models of iPhones going back years. Spotify is aware of the issue and refuses to address it because they are obviously getting something out of doing this that outweighs losing the customers over it.

Re: Shuffle is bugged, stuck on Smart Shuffle and only plays songs in one genre

Muntogi — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 18:14:06 GMT

Amen brother, me too! Waste of time. I listen to music to reduce my stress level, using spotify only ever spikes my level of stress endlessly and I can never listen to the music that I want to because they decide what it is that I get to listen to that day and there's no fixing it. I've wasted so many hours of my life every week trying to fix Spotify resetting things and flipping settings on and off and just generally not working at all. It won't play half of my songs it just shows me that it's playing but it's stuck Frozen whether I'm on Wi-Fi or mobile data or have the song saved offline, it doesn't matter. It keeps flipping smart shuffle back on and it only shuffles about 10% of my songs and plays the same ones over and over and over and over and usually only within the same genre that I listened to recently. Garbage app. Same story, years of this same issue on more than half a dozen different phones. I have used the Spotify app in probably over 30 countries and the problem exists everywhere I go even if I download the app in that country on a foreign country's phone.

Re: Shuffle is bugged, stuck on Smart Shuffle and only plays songs in one genre

Muntogi — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 18:19:23 GMT

How about instead of gaslighting thousands of frustrated users that it's a them problem, you get off your lazy @$$ and actually do something to resolve the issue that is 100% a Spotify issue. Take some accountability and do something to fix these issues. They have been ongoing for years and you well know it. Enough with the stupid generic cookie cutter answers. "Did you try turning it off and back on"? Idk Spotify, did you? It would really be a shame if someone were to fly homemade drones laden with plastic explosives into your server locations in a coordinated strike. -now that's actually rock and roll. Spotify is very NOT rock and roll.

Re: Shuffle is bugged, stuck on Smart Shuffle and only plays songs in one genre

reborn78 — Thu, 08 May 2025 03:44:49 GMT

Why can't we turn off this dumb feature? You know music is free at the public library.. i'm just about to make my own playlist.. this is quite ridiculous and obvious you guys are trying to force SMART SHUFFLE on to people.. Honestly this is a lawsuit waiting to happen, we pay for service and are lied too.. better lawyer the f up 🙂

Re: Shuffle is bugged, stuck on Smart Shuffle and only plays songs in one genre

Alaskaaaa — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 05:47:24 GMT

Hey Ms. Moderator/ @Novy !!!
I've been experiencing this problem starting yesterday (Oct 8)and have tried everything. Here is a short video that shows you my problem. I have tried solutions provided above and suggestions you provided.
I am Spotify Free and this did not occur in the past three years I've used Spotify. I asked GPT (bad idea, ik), and it says this si 100% your problem.
Please fix it!!

Re: Shuffle is bugged, stuck on Smart Shuffle and only plays songs in one genre

Vasil — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 10:22:16 GMT

Hey folks,

Keep in mind that, in most regions, Smart Shuffle is the default play mode for the free tier of the mobile app.
You can read more about this here.

And, @Alaskaaaa,

Thank you for sharing the video recording 🙂
From what I can see there you're using the desktop app on free and the app is not letting you turn Smart Shuffle off, which shouldn't normally be happening. What I'd advise in this situation is to go over a few troubleshooting steps, with the help of which we are hopefully going to fix this behaviour:

See if clearing your app's cached data would make a difference
Log out of the app and then back in twice in a row to trigger a manual sync of your settings and data
See if going over the steps for a complete clean reinstall of the app would help out
See if the app version from the Microsoft app store will behave differently than the one you can download from our website (or vice-versa, depending on which version you have installed now)

I hope these will make a difference. Keep us posted on how things go 🙌🏼

Re: Shuffle is bugged, stuck on Smart Shuffle and only plays songs in one genre

Alaskaaaa — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 04:29:14 GMT

I did try the first two suggestions before I came to the forum and I would have sent a screen record of that, but the file was too large.
I tried the other two suggestions and it did not make a difference.
Although, update: smart shuffle fixed itself (?) at 9:20 today (10/15). I tried to turn it off 10 minutes earlier, to no avail. Within that timeframe, my playlist had ended and was being looped. This likely is not the solution for the other Premium users in this thread, but useful update.

Re: Shuffle is bugged, stuck on Smart Shuffle and only plays songs in one genre

MihailY — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 10:16:26 GMT

Hey @Alaskaaaa,

Just to make sure we understood you correctly - you managed to disable Smart Shuffle after the playlist started from the beginning? Is it now functioning correctly in general?

Cheers,

Re: Shuffle is bugged, stuck on Smart Shuffle and only plays songs in one genre

Alaskaaaa — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 05:16:00 GMT

It did! Sorry for the late reply, I haven't been here for a while.
But it did turn off smart shuffle after it finished looping the playlist (like with the normal loop, not the loop one song) and I was able to use normal shuffle or turn it off, if i pleased.