topic Re: Playlist searches only play searched tracks in Your Library

Playlist searches only play searched tracks

witchvince — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 20:59:06 GMT

Plan

Premium

Country

United Kingdom

Device

Mac, Windows

Operating System

Windows 10 & Latest Desktop iOS

My Question or Issue

So I have a few big playlists that I enjoy, but sometimes I want to start from a specific track. I search the track or artist in the playlist and play it, but when I do the playlist only plays the tracks that came up in the search. The rest of the tracks in the playlist are omitted and it's really frustrating.

Re: Playlist searches only play searched tracks

Jeremy — Sat, 27 Mar 2021 12:20:32 GMT

Hey there @witchvince,

Thank you for your post here in the Community.

This is expected behavior. However, if you'd like this feature to change and you think your suggestion will appeal to other users you can always create an idea on the relevant idea board. We always take new ideas and feedback into consideration to improve the app.

You can read more about how your feedback reaches Spotify here.

We're always testing things by adding or removing features to make Spotify better overall and we’re constantly aiming to improve our features. We’re sorry that this means you’re not able to use Spotify like you wish to do at the moment.

Let us know if we can help you with anything else.

Take care!

Re: Playlist searches only play searched tracks

witchvince — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 20:58:18 GMT

On the mobile version I don't have this problem, I can search for an artist or song in a playlist choose the song and the whole playlist will play/shuffle like normal, but on Desktop if I search for a song in a playlist it will only play/shuffle the songs that come up in the search. I never used to have this problem on Desktop though.

Re: Playlist searches only play searched tracks

Eni — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 23:55:54 GMT

Hi there @witchvince,

Thanks for getting back in touch.

As @Jeremy mentioned, this is expected behavior on the desktop app.

No worries, you can go ahead and submit your idea about having this possibility on the desktop app as well, so that other users can also support it. The higher the number of votes an idea gets, the more likely it is for it to be implemented.

If you need help with anything else, just let us know.

Re: Playlist searches only play searched tracks

BillieLiar — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 16:25:02 GMT

Literally why would that be expected behavior?? It doesn't work like that on the mobile app and the repeat one track option is pretty easy to use if that's what I was wanting? That's such a stupid design feature.

Re: Playlist searches only play searched tracks

Alex — Mon, 22 May 2023 06:10:58 GMT

Hi there @BillieLiar,

The search option acts as a filter, so it filters out all content that doesn't match your criteria.

So if you search your playlist for "Metallica" you'll only get results containing that word. This is helpful when you want to listen only to the tracks from that artist or album in your playlist.

Here's a workaround you can try out: after entering the keywords in the text field, click once on the song you'd like to play, then clear the search criteria from the text field with the X button. The song you clicked on should remain highlighted, so you can now play it without interrupting the flow of your playlist.

Hope this answers your question.

Re: Playlist searches only play searched tracks

troublerocket — Sun, 21 May 2023 08:39:40 GMT

This expected behavior bothers me too much. Sometimes I just want to find a song in my playlist to start with, but when I play one song from the search results, it will only play all the songs from the search results and filter out the rest of my playlist. I tried to clear the search keywords but still - no other songs will be played except those in the previous search results.

Search works by matching keywords with titles or artist names so it doesn't make sense to completely treat it as a filter. Maybe it makes some sense for search artists names - it's possible someone just wanna listen to all songs from one artist in the playlist. But it makes no sense for searching for track or album titles. When I type "beautiful" to find a song, it doesn't mean I suddenly want to listen to all songs with titles like "beautiful" something. Or if the app wanna keep search filtering function, then maybe it's better to distinguish search to find / search in filter section clearly instead of arbitrarily assuming user's behavior intentions. I've used some other music apps before and none of them treat the top search bar in playlist as filtering the playlist.

Re: Playlist searches only play searched tracks

Yordan — Mon, 22 May 2023 06:15:51 GMT

Hi @troublerocket,

In addition to the workaround mentioned above, you can also try adding the desired song to the queue instead of playing it directly.

Cheers!

Re: Playlist searches only play searched tracks

TacNuke — Thu, 07 Nov 2024 04:50:26 GMT

I found this thread because I was wondering why the mobile client behaves as you have described. I often use only my liked songs and filter by an artist then play a song when I want to only listen to that artist, and love that it continues playing from only the searched results. Just wanted to throw this in here to point out that some people really like the desktop behavior. To add to this, you can play a single song in the playlist without having this behavior by simply queueing it and skipping the current track. I often use this trick to get it to work as you mentioned, and would hate to see the option of only playing searched matches removed when there is an extra button click option available.

Re: Playlist searches only play searched tracks

Žburki — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 13:14:06 GMT

I experience this on mobile.

Re: Playlist searches only play searched tracks

AjaMiller — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 15:36:45 GMT

It's wild that you all repeatedly say it's the innate functionality as if that excuses the awful user experience. Do you think we're dumb?