Only one artist plays when playlist shuffled

[scenic_runic]

Plan

Free

Country

USA

Device

Google Pixel 4a

Operating System

Android 13

My Question or Issue

I have a playlist containing 579 songs with a run time of over 31 hours. For the past few hours, every time I've shuffled this playlist, only one specific artist plays. This artist makes up roughly 15% of the entire playlist. Even when I skip through the playlist, the same artist plays. I've tried uninstalling & reinstalling the app, clearing cache & storage, and I have done the Spotify recommended quick reinstall AND the clean reinstall. When I shuffle this playlist on the desktop app, I don't have the same issue - multiple artists play in a random order, not just that one artist. Is this issue related to a new smart shuffle update or something?

[Vasil]

Hey @scenic_runic,

This seems like a cache-related issue to me 🙂
To try and resolve it, take a look at this support article and follow the steps under Manage memory usage -> Android.

In case the issue persists, let us know if it occurs only with this specific playlist. If this is so, you can try copying the entire playlist content to a new one by going to the playlist -> the three dots -> Copy to other playlist.

Hope this helps! Keep us posted on how things go.

[scenic_runic]

Thanks for replying. I cleared the app cache as well as the storage as part of the clean reinstall mentioned in the original post, and that did not help fix things. This error is also happening on my other playlists as well, with different artists per playlist - it almost seems like Spotify is taking note of whatever artist is the most prevalent on a playlist and then choosing to play only that artist. I will try copying the playlist next, but you can understand the frustration I would feel having to do this for 100+ playlists in the long run.

[MihailY]

Hey @scenic_runic,

Thanks for your reply.

Rest assured, we're only asking you to copy this one playlist so we can narrow down the root cause of the issue and not suggesting it as a permanent solution for your whole library.

Another thing that's worth checking is whether this happens in Offline mode and/or after removing all apps on this page (you can re-add them later if needed).

Also, let us know the following:

• Is the app playing one artist exclusively when shuffling or there are a few tracks from other artists as well?
• How does your queue look like when this happens?

We'll be on the lookout for your reply.

[11101672060]

Plan

Premium

Country

The Netherlands 

Device

Samsung S24 + PC

Operating System

Android & Windows 11

My Question or Issue

The issue I'm having is when I toggle on Smart Shuffle it keeps on playing just 1 'suggested artist' from outside my playlist instead of adding suggestions to my playlist. 

[scenic_runic]

I understand, thanks for responding. So far, while listening to the copied version of the original playlist in question, I am not experiencing the issue.

As for the other suggestions/information: I am using free Spotify, so Offline mode should not be a contributing factor, as I have no access. I also can't access the queue as a free user, but to the best of my knowledge, one sole artist played exclusively for about 20 songs straight (most of the songs I listened to, and the rest were my hourly skips to see if the error was persisting).

[OscarDC]

Hey @scenic_runic,

Thank you for keeping in contact and for the info shared.

To continue investigating this behavior, it would be great if you could have someone log in with their account on your device - such as a friend or a family member, to see if the issue persists. If not, we'd recommend logging into your account, log out and then log back in to force the sync between your account and your device.
 

If the issue persists, include in your next response the Spotify version you're currently running on the affected device.

Lastly, since we couldn't replicate the behavior on our end, could you record a short video where we can take a better look? You can attach it to your next response by using the Insert Video option in the post editor. You can also upload it to YouTube or Google Drive and share the link with us (make sure the video has the permissions for anyone to watch it).

We'll be on the lookout for your response. 

[11101672060]

Hi, since my topic concerning the same issue has been transferred to this topic I would like to take the opportunity to share a recording of my screen to show you the exact issue although it's very simple. Shuffle works great, but smart shuffle only plays one artist. And this is happening on my android phone and on my windows desktop.  

This is the link to Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CvUHBM30pNarB_r-tX5815yydc_a1x3M/view?usp=sharing

The current artist that keeps on repeating itself through smart shuffle is The Pharcyde. The app keeps on adding the last added album to the smart shuffle playlist. And Yes, I tried all of your "Have you tried clearing cache" suggestions. Nothing seems to work. Please fix this bug, thanks. 

[Yordan]

Hi, @11101672060,

Based on the video you've sent, your playlist contains a lot of songs, so Smart Shuffle might be having a bit of a hard time generating new recommendations. I'd recommend splitting the playlist into a few smaller ones to see if it would help.

Cheers 🤘

[11101672060]

Hi Yordan, thank you for your reply and yes that's correct. That's because Spotify lets me create a playlist with a maximum of 10000 songs. However, I feel like I'm being gaslighted to let ME fix YOUR problem, I noticed this neigt in other posts as well regarding the same issue. If smart shuffle can't handle a playlist with 10000 songs, then smart shuffle shouldn't be an option in this case. So thank you, but I don't I will cut my playlist into smaller lists. So I guess smart shuffle is a nogo for me.