Shuffle mode playing the same songs all the time

[Tom7777777]

I have a playlist with 10,000 songs and use shuffle to listen to them. What I realized the past weeks is that the same songs are played over and over again - and not because I listen to this playlist 24/7 but because the shuffle mode seems to not pick songs just randomly but has some kind of algorythm behind to pick certain songs all the time again and again. This is quiet annoying because the reason I use shuffle in a playlist with 10,000 is not to listen to the same songs all the time but to have variety!

[Tom7777777]

Hi @Tom7777777,

Thanks for posting in the Spotify Community!

Unfortunately, in large playlists (over 150 songs), the shuffle option prioritizes the songs that Spotify perceives you enjoy the most; this is why you might notice that some songs are repeated while listening on shuffle.

However, there is currently a Live Idea to have an option for a “true” shuffle, which would play all the songs in a playlist in a random order, and once they’re all played, reshuffle them and play them again. If this is something you’re interested in, I’d recommend adding your +VOTE to this idea; the more votes an idea gets, the likelier it is that Spotify will implement it, and you can read more about how feedback on ideas reaches Spotify here.

It will also be useful for you to Subscribe to the idea by clicking the three dots next to its title; that way, you can be sure to be informed of any relevant updates.

Let me know if you have any other questions, and have a good day!

[D351]

At bare minimum, being able to randomize the playlist order permanently from the edit menu then save that new order would be an extremely simple and useful approach. Users could then simply play their playlist in order. It is extremely irritating to listen to the same half hour of music on loop when I have several days worth of music saved to my device. Pretending that this is a more complicated issue than it is is just embarrassing. 

[badwolfus]

In my case this is a complete lie. Whenever I fire up shuffle the same songs in the same order play. I checked it with removed catche, restarted spotify and with any playlist.

I see that this is an ongoing issue, previously I was thinking I'm going mad because this is not how shuffle works.

Either change the name or algorithm or I will change streaming provider (been with spotify for 8 years).

It's crazy that for so long this haven't been fixed. Talk to your managers for goodness sakes

[t-carter1]

This works!.....Find the required playlist and change from custom order to duration, then select shuffle

[1290510252]

yeah, this is ridiculous.  Just give us a true random option as well! PLEASE!

[Youre_toast]

I have a playlist with like 700 songs, and there ones i havent gotten yet, the shuffle is so unrandom it hurts, so is there a setting witch fixes this, or alternativevly just add a true shuffle, make it a premium exulsive or something idk, cause i dont see a use for shuffle id its not random

[Muntogi]

Then stop calling it shuffle as that is not what it is. You're playing with fire and about to get sued for false advertising. People are paying for a feature that you have falsely offered to users that is in no way what you are calling it. If Chevy offers a truck with 3,500 towing capacity, they would get sued if that feature was actually not present and it only sometimes towed some portion of that amount if you hook up a bigger truck to the front to help tow it and it's load. Do you see my point? How about this one. A pharmaceutical company advertised a drug that cures cancer, but instead of curing cancer, it just makes you feel extremely frustrated and hides the cancer symptoms 10% of the time. 

If you're toting around with the idea of a "true shuffle" feature, then that 100% verifies that you do not have a shuffle feature and I demand you immediately stop referring to it as shuffle or I will be taking action and putting out a call for others to join me. We are paying for a service we are not receiving. You are lying to people. It's unacceptable. It's deception for monetary gain. There should be no algorithm embedded with the shuffle feature that picks and chooses what you get to listen to. The only math involved should be that that generates a completely random shuffle of the songs within a given playlist. That's the definition of shuffle and that argument will hold up in a court. Yours will not. Fix it yesterday. Literally thousands of people have been on your forum demanding this for years now and I for one am tired of waiting for you to stop yapping and start doing. 

[DrummerJS]

I'm about to cancel my subscription over this. Ridiculous. 

[maedo]

Like the title. My playlists are around 500 songs each, but recently, once shuffling, my Spotify has been only playing around 100 songs, then replaying them before the playlist is finished. However, it’s not the same songs every time—it seems completely random. I have a feeling it might be a device thing—my friend used my account a few days ago, and the issue seemed to not occur there. Btw, I don’t have Autoplay on, so it’s probably not an issue regarding that.

Plan

Premium

Country

Canada

Device

iPhone 12

Operating System

iOS 18.5

[mybuttcheex69]

Even though I have my playlists on shuffle (By the way I have the Free Spotify Plan), it plays the same exact songs over and over again. Like I have so many songs on my playlist, yet I hear the same ones over again, no variety or different songs from my playlist. Can you guys somehow change that please, it’s called shuffle for a reason. If you know how to shuffle a deck of cards, you can easily shuffle the playlist. Thanks so much.

[Ramasesuk]

Haha you have no chance mate, we premium members have been complaining
about this for years they don’t care

[Qmatice]

Yeah screw that I’m just switching to Apple Music.

[garyphillips]

same here

[nichomach]

That this is still an issue more than 3 years later speaks volumes as to how little Spotify values the people that pay them.

[rednblu]

Yes, this crippled Spotify shuffle is sure annoying!

And I guarantee all my six family accounts that I can fix their broken Spotify shuffles in ten minutes when they break like that-- Blast, Blast, Rip, Rebuild-- But sigh-- The user fix takes ten minutes.  (Sigh)

And it's not fair!-- The Spotify managers should allow the programmers to just fix this by making the "play next track from the top of the shuffled queue" module skip over  the play of the next track if the track has already played in the last [90 days, 30 days, 10 days-- You set it by your own listening pleasure].

[c4l]

Noticed the past few months the same thing. Stick on a playlist with a big selection of music and the next day, I hear the same songs again even though there is another 900+ songs to select from. Now from reading through this thread my main questions is why is there an algorithm in place to select songs we may like in shuffle? Is that not what the "Liked Songs" playlist is for? And when those same songs are played over and over, surely it feeds that algorithm? There is no need for some algorithm when the playlist is put in shuffle to select the songs. Just needs to select each song in a playlist once randomly and when each song has been played, it stops until play is pressed again and a new random order is made up. 

[KissingxToast]

This is still an issue in 2025. An 11 hour Playlist and it plays like 10 songs on repeat over and over. What happened? I get it not being truly random but seriously it can't grab a new song in 30 minutes of play? What's the point of making a Playlist at all, 30 songs or 1000 songs if I hear the same one twice in 15 minutes! 

[sdschramm]

Same issue, specifically using the Spotify app in a Tesla. Was fine in the past, but started happening 100% of the time in the last month or two.

[Zoey_Marie]

My playlist has only like 54 songs and it still only plays the same songs in shuffle and since I dont have premium I can't turn it on and off.