Smart shuffle does not create a new mix/shuffle order

[#1]

Whenever I turn smart shuffle on, it does not generate a new shuffle order. It queues the exact same songs in the exact same order every time. Unlike regular shuffle which creates a new mix everytime it is turned off and on, smart shuffle queues the same exact songs. This is a very recent issue. Happens on both liked songs and playlists.
Have tried eating cache, restating phone, force stopping app. App is up to date. Device: galaxy s23 ultra. Premium subscription

[changbob]

Is Spotify even still alive? Nothing changed for the last 2 years... it is a shuffle, pls fix it.

[alexxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Hi,

This issue is not fixed. It still is occuring to me. Regular shuffle also is the exact same thing each time. It is so aggravating, why can't a several billion dollar company fix something as simple as this? Coding a randomizer is not difficult, it's like the first thing you learn in any beginner coding class. I feel like they're been no attempt to fix this. How could there be, it's been over 6 months since you said you and your team were working on it. **bleep**, make me a temp employee and I'll do it for you. I just want to listen to ALL my music.

[VOLDSTEEL]

Plan

Premium

Device

HP laptop

Operating System

Windows 11

My Question or Issue

Whenever smart shuffle is turned on for my playlist and when i select some other song in the same playlist while another song of that same playlist is playing, after playing it, it restarts the smart shuffle. Basically i get the same order of songs starting from the top of the shuffle queue every time i change a song. 

[patrixce]

Same issue there both under Windows + Android.

Android device shows a notification that I do have to connect to the Internet but indeed I'm connected as I can play songs OTA.

[patrixce]

I found a reason, but not a fix. As soon as there is a local file within the playlist, the issue described above shows up.

Removing the local file from the playlist allows smart shuffle, but the local file is not played anymore of course !

[VOLDSTEEL]

hmmm...let's hope spotify fixes it fast because smart shuffle isnt actually that bad

[QandaleDingle]

Plan

Premium

Country

UK

Device

Desktop

Operating System

Windows 11

My Question or Issue

if i enable smart shuffle in a playlist then start playing it will always play the exact same songs in the exact same order, it doesnt matter if its my liked songs or a different playlist.

The video attached shows normal shuffle working as expected at first but then after i turn on smart shuffle it plays the same song and has the same queue.

[FixItStupid]

I don't understand... How is it even a choice whether you will fix the feature or not. You guys put the feature into the software... Why wouldn't you fix it? FIX IT! DO YOUR JOB! YOU GUYS GET PAID BY US AND YOU WANT TO SAY " well we might fix it... but maybe not...." Get out of here with that nonsense. I've never heard of something so absurdly stupid. You guys have a broken feature so fix it. It's your job. Do your job.

[andrewz0]

Yes, I have the same problem. I use Spotify Smart Shuffle on several playlists, and the two problems are

1. It continues to recommend the same songs after I choose "remove recommendation" (icon is a circle with a minus in it)

2. It recommends identical songs to those already on my playlist, so it creates duplicates if I use "add to playlist" (icon is circle with plus in it).

The second problem is because the identical song is on multiple albums, but it's not hard to spot because they have identical name, identical artist, and identical play length. 

I use Spotify on Android and Windows. Yes, my apps are always up to date.

[#11]

When I am using Spotify through my Sonos speaker, I lose a lot of functionality. The smart shuffle doesn’t work. The same songs play every day. I have a playlist with 8 hours of songs, but often within 30 minutes I will get the same song served up three times. I am not able to click (-) to unlike a song. Only the arrow to skip will work. When I skip a song, Spotify will often play the last song again. I feel like I’m in Groundhog Day. I’m about ready to switch to pandora premium service. Spotify app works fine in car or with AirPods, but every article I’ve read about Sonos says how great they pair together. I disagree. Is this really only happening to me?!?

[VOLDSTEEL]

Is spotify going to fix this? It's been almost 2 years...What's the point of paying for premium if it doesnt even work properly

[ryndym]

Narrator: it wasn't sooner

[MusicListener12345]

No, I have the same problem, and no response from Spotify either. Not even an acknowledgement.

[littlerocker2000]

shuffle isn’t working correctly.  ill get the same few songs pop up repeatedly while others never show up.  also when using the smart shuffle feature, the songs from my playlist stay in the same order every single time, while the added songs do change

[TotoCaillou]

My smart shuffle in my liked songs is still in the same order.
The musics added by spotify are differents but the order is always the same, even if i reload spotify or disable/enable the smart shuffle

[Carol43]

I have the same issue, can’t believe Spotify still hasn’t fixed it. It’s really annoying - why create a feature that doesn’t even work? Might as well just remove it.

[KritinMehra04]

So I am facing a problem with smart shuffle not functioning as it keeps on recommending me a same set of songs that too irrespective of genre or a playlist. It is recommending same songs to a point that I remember the smart shuffle queue that forms after it is toggled on. I can see a new queue but within a second it shifts back to the same queue that is being shown. Tried uninstalling and installing the app, logging out of the app, clean reinstalling the app & even turning smart shuffle on and off multiple times. Pls provide a solution 

[HamwiseGumtree]

Plan

Premium

Country

Canada

Device

Pixel 9 and Desktop

Operating System

Android 15 and Windows 11 Home

My Question or Issue

The feature in Smart Shuffle that allows one to remove recommendations from the algorithm has stopped working, and songs I've told it to not recommend are frequently reappearing.

For example, I will create a Smart Shuffle list and I will see a song that I don't want. I will remove it from the list, either by selecting it and tapping the "-" button on Android or by right-clicking and selecting "Remove recommendation" on PC. The song will then be removed from the list, and a new set of Smart Shuffle recommendations will be mixed into the playlist. If I do something to refresh the Smart Shuffle recommendations again (remove another song, or select a song from my list to restart the shuffle) the song I just removed will be put back into the mix.

I have tried clearing storage and cache on Android but the problem persisted. I also think the problem isn't with my device because it happens on both Android and PC.

Is there a solution to this? Is it a known issue that will be resolved in the next update?

[ThomasM03]

Hello,

It's 2025, and I still have this constant issue on both mobile and desktop. I think smart shuffle is nifty and would like to have a good time using it, but since it doesn't actually "shuffle", each time I add one of the added songs to a playlist the queue reset and the same songs just start playing again. The whole purpose of "enhancing" your playlist is being made defunct by this.

Please fix this, Thomas

[Nlawyer]

This issue went away for me for a while, but recently restarted with a vengeance.  I'm using Android version 9.0.40.391 on a Samsung Galaxy S24.  It only affects my Liked Songs playlist, which is what I listen to most often.  The algorithm picked a music genre that I generally dont like (country), and plays 5-6 songs from my Liked Songs list that either are country, or have some kind of similarity (acoustic guitar).  It uses those 5-6 songs as a base, plays them over and over in the exact same order, then recommends songs from that genre.  After I have told the app to exclude those songs from the Playlist (half the time it laughs at me and continues to play them anyway) it takes away the option to exclude songs that it recommends.  I can skip songs all day long, and it does no good.  If I pick a specific song from the Playlist to start with, it goes right back to the aforementioned "smart shuffle" monstrosity (that used to be all it took to fix the problem, but not anymore).  I eventually found a solution that works, but only temporarily.  I have to clear the app cache, clear the app data, uninstall the app restart my phone, then reinstall the app.  Doing that gets me a week or so of Smart Shuffle working as it should with my Liked Songs playlist.   Yes, I have to do all those steps in that order for it to actually work.  Thats not really a sustainable solution, though, and it sure would be nice if this were fixed, especially considering how much the price of the premium membership that I pay for has increased over the last couple of years.