Playlists in folders won't stay custom sorted

[digger5150]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Pixel 5

Operating System

Android 11

My Question or Issue

I can no longer keep my playlists custom-sorted in folders on the android app. Whatever sorting I do in Windows doesn't transfer over to Android as it normally does. Instead, I get default alphabetical, even though I've chosen "Creator". I think there used to be a choice for Custom, but that seems to be gone.

Using the latest version of the app (May 25).

I completely uninstalled the app and re-installed it and the issue is still there. It was not an issue prior to the May 25 app update, but could also be a server-side problem. It is damn annoying though. Please fix it.

[digger5150]

Hey @siibert,

Thanks for posting here.

We've heard back from the right team and we can confirm that this is indeed the expected behavior. 

We appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback with us as we always strive to improve our app. We'll make sure to pass it on to the right team.

We also invite you to post an idea about saving the sorting order of playlists in folders on our Exchange. 

You can learn how to do this here. The Idea Exchange is a great way for us to see what our users are interested in and how many people like a certain idea. You can read more about it here.

The Community is here for you if there's anything else!
 

[djeboe]

So, it is "expected" that our stuff in folders will not follow the behavior of stuff outside of folders.

Can they, umm, FIX IT? Is that not their J-O-B? If the desktop app can manage to work a particular way, then it stands to reason, different OS not withstanding, that there must be a way to make it sort in subfolders.

I realize everyone else is all polite and happy etc, but this WORKED for years. And now, all of a sudden, it doesn't. If it never had, it would be a different story. But it is as if adding the option to sort by recently played BROKE the normal functionality. I've been subscribed to Spotify for probably 8 or 9 years at this point, once I realized how superior your service was to the others. But it seems like every time you "improve" it, it just breaks something that works for me.

That just isn't cool.

All of my best

Gary

[Kyleno1]

Yesssss! Me too! wth the order is recently played by default now I think. Nope... NOT a fan...

[Kyleno1]

So the option so sort playlists within a folder is no longer available? It certainly seems that now on my Android the order of my playlists looks NOTHING like what it does on the wonderful world of the desktop app where I can move the order as I please. Can you confirm that me statement is true? Please advise.
I am using version 8.6.48.796 on my Galaxy S21 5G Android phone.

[Kyleno1]

I just updated to 8.6.52.911 still broken.

So the functionality that has been working perfectly fine (playlists in folders on Android mobile mirroring desktop app) is now no longer available? Is that what I'm understanding? Because that makes absolutely zero sense  and my brain is melting from reading this as the "solution" from mods. Mods is this really what the "solution" is? Can you expand on this? Please advise...

[gabelesma]

these copy and pasta replies from the staff are as annoying as this programming error... well, it's august and i'm still facing the same problem, so i'm still hoping for it to be solved soon.

[Nickolind]

I've found sort of a workaround solution for myself. I've tested it on couple of devices, but I'm still not sure that it will work the same for others, so feel free to like/reply if it worked for you too.

1. Uninstall Spotify.
2. Install old version (I used Spotify-8.6.12.986.Stable)
3. Run it, login, configure it's settings if needed
4. Now go to Library -> Playlists, swipe up, tap 'Filter', select 'Custom order' there. Make sure it was applied and exit the app.
5. Update Spotify using Google Play. Run updated app.
6. Go library again
7. Tap 'Playlists' filter
8. Tap the sorting selector, select 'Creator' (or 'Custom order', if no 'Creator' present)

Now all the playlists are custom ordered again (the ones in folders as well).

--

I'm not sure if it breaks again if you change the sorting of playlists to some different (to 'Creator') option afterwards.

Also, I would like to mention, that even if my workaround didn't help - the older version (Spotify-8.6.12.986.Stable) is pretty much the best alternative solution. That version works perfectly fine. It misses some up-to-date Spotify features (most of which I don't like anyway) but playlists' custom ordering works flawless there.

[Kyleno1]

I will definitely try this! Can I ask where you got the older version? There seems like there are so many sites to choose from 😕 Thanks!

[HamsterHam]

This is rather annoying! I just want everything in folder sorted by name. Spotify UI is going downhill every update.

[Svish]

"Expected behavior" ?!? What in the world are your ux designers on? How can it be "expected behavior" to completely break the playlist sorting functionality?! Like, what is happening in your design meetings at Spotify?! 😡

[Jeremy]

Hi there folks,

Thank you for your replies and feedback.

We understand that things can feel frustrating when things don't work as you'd like them to. Rest assured that we're always trying to improve as we always strive to improve our features.

We hope for your understanding and that you continue using Spotify and find it gets better in the future.

Once again - thanks for the feedback, we appreciate it. Let us know if we can help you with anything else. 

Take care!

[HamsterHam]

The UI is terrible though! I don't understand how you all don't think it is garbage. Playlists in folders don't adhere to any rules or sorting set..surely that's a quick fix at least.

[Kyleno1]

For starters I don't believe that this issue falls under "things don't work as you'd like them to" but "AS THEY SHOULD". This is NOT an acceptable solution. The option to at least disable the automatic sorting should be available. Why on Earth would I want to have an algorithm rearrange my carefully curated playlist order!?

Please try again. This is NOT working. Listen to the users for goodness sake!

Take Care!

[draguindin]

It's especially inconvenient because I now have to dig through my list of playlists while in the car instead of having the ones I want to access most frequently at the top.

[Kyleno1]

Yes! INCREDIBLY INCOVENIENT!!!

I followed @nickolinds advice (in this thread) and installed an older version and this worked for me to bypass the obscene oversights in the newer versions.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've found sort of a workaround solution for myself. I've tested it on couple of devices, but I'm still not sure that it will work the same for others, so feel free to like/reply if it worked for you too.

1. Uninstall Spotify.
2. Install old version (I used Spotify-8.6.12.986.Stable)
3. Run it, login, configure it's settings if needed
4. Now go to Library -> Playlists, swipe up, tap 'Filter', select 'Custom order' there. Make sure it was applied and exit the app.
5. Update Spotify using Google Play. Run updated app.
6. Go library again
7. Tap 'Playlists' filter
8. Tap the sorting selector, select 'Creator' (or 'Custom order', if no 'Creator' present)

Now all the playlists are custom ordered again (the ones in folders as well).

--

I'm not sure if it breaks again if you change the sorting of playlists to some different (to 'Creator') option afterwards.

Also, I would like to mention, that even if my workaround didn't help - the older version (Spotify-8.6.12.986.Stable) is pretty much the best alternative solution. That version works perfectly fine. It misses some up-to-date Spotify features (most of which I don't like anyway) but playlists' custom ordering works flawless there.