Playlist sorting and shuffle reset randomly

[m_marquardt]

Plan

Premium

Operating System

macOS Sonoma

I noticed on several different macOS devices that the sorting of my playlists as well as my shuffle and repeat settings randomly reset.

Instead of sorting by artist (which is my preferred sorting), I find my playlists in "Custom order" and shuffle as well as repeat deactivated even though I left them active.

Why is this happening and how can I prevent it from happening?

[MihailY]

Hey @m_marquardt,

Thanks for reaching out.

As a first step, can you please let us know the following:

• Your exact OS version and Spotify version.
• Have you tried any troubleshooting steps like reinstalling the app?
• Does this happen on other devices using your account or on your device using a different account?

Keep us posted.

[m_marquardt]

Thanks for the reply.

The OS version is 14.3.1 and the Spotify version is Spotify for macOS (Apple Silicon) 1.2.31.1205.g4d59ad7c

I tried reinstalling but that didn't help, unfortunately. It happens on three different Macs I was able to test it on with the same versions of the OS and Spotify on all of them.

[m_marquardt]

Do you have any more information for me then? 🙂 

[Maria]

Hey there @m_marquardt,

Thanks for keeping us in the loop!

Just to confirm, were you able to try using another account? For example, you can ask a friend or a family member to log in to their own Spotify on your Mac to see if the same thing happens.

Also, are you using Connect or Bluetooth during these sessions? Have you noticed if it resets at any specific points - is it after a longer period of not using the app or when you've just paused it for a bit?

Let us know how it goes.

[m_marquardt]

I'm trying to confirm this on another account, but the people I asked so far do not care about the sorting of their playlists and therefore have not paid attention to this.

On my Mac mini, I use wired headphones. On my laptop, it's mainly bluetooth headphones, but this sorting behavior does not seem to be related to it from what I can tell.

I use the desktop app daily and the sorting seems to change entirely at random.

[Joan]

Hi @m_marquardt,

Thanks for the reply. Could you please provide us the following so we can further investigate this issue:

• Does this issue occur on any non-Mac devices? Please test this if you haven't already.
• Is the issue purely sporadic? Have you noticed any pattern or "trigger" for this to happen? For example, leaving the Mac on sleep mode for a given amount of time, after long periods of inactivity, etc.
• A video of the behaviour. If the files are too large to attach here in the Community, you can send them to us via Google Drive or as unlisted YouTube videos.

With this information, we’d be happy to troubleshoot further.

Keep us posted.

[m_marquardt]

I don't use any non-Mac devices with Spotify.

There doesn't seem to be a specific trigger for this and therefore, I'm afraid, I can't take a video of it. Sometimes I start Spotify and my playlist is sorted by Artist and set to shuffle (as I want it to be) - other times it's sorted by "Custom Order" and shuffle is disabled.

I have, however, been informed that this has now happened on another person's Mac (an M1 iMac) as well with these installed versions:

macOS Sonoma 14.4, Spotify 1.2.31.1205.g4d59ad7c

[MartinT]

Hey @m_marquardt, 

Thank you for the response. And for the troubleshooting you've done so far.

As of now we haven't received reports from other users on the matter so our viewpoint is limited. You mentioned that your acquaintance is not keen on troubleshooting this thoroughly, so we would advise to try using a different account on your devices for some time. If you don't have access to another one you can make a new free one and use that one, and lets see if this will come up when using a different account.

Also could you let us know if this also happens then using the Web player and the mobile app? 

Keep us in the loop.

[YadinKap]

Hi,

I'm on the premium plan and am writing about a problem on my desktop app on my Macbook air.

Recently, the tracks order on my playlists keep changing from "Artist" to "Custom Order". This is a new problem, the desktop app on my Mac was fine until a few weeks ago, all the tracks on the playlists were organized according to artists. For some reason recently it keeps going back to custom order on all playlists, and only on my Mac. My Android's app works just fine and the order of tracks stays according to artist.

I've already cleared the cache several times and reinstalled the app - yet it keeps bouncing back. Also, at the same time that this problem appeared, I noticed (once again - only on the Mac desktop app) that the order of the playlists on the main menu keeps changing back from alphabetically to recent.

Spotify support didn't have any solution to this new problem...

I'd appreciate any advice.

Thanks:)

[Yordan]

Hi, @YadinKap,

Thanks for joining the thread!

Sounds like Spotify's cache is being reset. Are you using any apps/settings that might clear cache (or temporary files) automatically? If so, make sure Spotify is excluded. You can also try disabling them entirely to see if that helps.

Let us know how it goes 👍