Songs Play out of order when playlist is sorted by Artist

[marrston]

Plan

Premium

Country

United States

Operating System

Windows 10

1.1.53.608.g7ed9c03a-a

My Question or Issue

Whenever I sort a playlist by Artist, which is how I almost always keep them sorted, the songs play out of order. How do I get it to play the songs in order no matter how I have the playlist sorted? 

[Mihail]

Hey @marrston,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community.

If you want the play order to be different from your sorting order, you can use the queue to set just the right sequence of tracks. You can find useful tips and tricks on how to manage your queue and listening history in this support article. 

Hope this is helpful but don't hesitate to let us know if you have any further questions!

[marrston]

I don't want the play order to be different than the sort order, that's the problem. When the playlist is sorted by Artist, the play order bounces all around.

It is one of the many glitches and errors in the terrible desktop experience that is not being fixed.

[CarlosE]

Hi again @marrston,

Thanks for keeping in touch and for the clarification.

In this case, make sure to clear the Play Queue. Then, sort your playlist to your liking and the start playing it - it should be played in the order that is sorted, just make sure to have the Shuffle mode disabled.

If that doesn't do the trick, could you send us a video where we can see this behavior?

Keep us posted. We'll be on the lookout.

[marrston]

There are many other users commenting about this same exact problem in the Desktop Experience feedback thread, which is being completely ignored by Spotify.

I was able to downgrade to an older version of Spotify for a month or 2 when I was forced into Desktop Experience, but downgrading no longer works so I am forced to use the Desktop Experience with all these glitches and problems. I am working on switching to Amazon Music because of this awful Desktop Experience.

[CarlosE]

Hey @marrston,

Thanks for keeping in touch and for that info.

Could you try clearing the Queue, sorting the playlist, and then playing it? Make sure that the playlist isn't being played before doing the first two steps.

We're sorry to hear that your experience with the New Desktop isn't being as expected. Rest assured, the feedback thread is constantly being monitored by the right folks and updates are regularly shared there. All your comments and feedback are appreciated and taken into account for upcoming updates, as it has been since the rollout.

Keep us in the loop on how it goes.

[marrston]

The queue never clears as shown in my video. It fills up with more songs. Clearing the queue or changing how the playlist is sorted doesn't change the queue at all. I figured out that the queue is reflecting only the 'Custom order' sorting.

[Novy]

Hi @marrston, 

Thanks for your reply.

Could you let us know if this happens with all your playlists or just certain ones?

If it's a specific playlist, could you send over a link to it so we can take a look? 

Keep us posted.

[marrston]

It happens in all my playlists. It seems to only happen when there are multiple songs from the same artist within a playlist. The only thing I can think of is that the play queue is tied to the custom sorting and isn't updating when the playlist is re-sorted. 

I'd really like to opt out of this desktop experience.

[CarlosE]

Hey @marrston,

Thanks for bearing with us.

We know you mentioned that it happens with all playlists, but could you send us a couple of URI/links of the affected playlists so we can take a closer look?

Also, could you give it a try using a different account, like a friend's or relative's, and let us know how it works?

We'll be on the lookout.

[marrston]

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3D0XdLfd0iGVS6PGXrbbkq?si=1b8b50407dcc4875

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3pothwhlrnTbchMBIYk4uj?si=25be95c31aaf4641

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3cqNRj2ouOjlpW9yt76g6w?si=0b0d40910c384b34

The only people I know that use Spotify are fortunate enough to not have desktop experience and their Spotify works fine.

[Eni]

Hi again @marrston,

Thanks for keeping in touch.

We've tested playing those playlists on our end on both the old and the new desktop clients and they played in the correct order based on the sorting.

Could you try following these steps:

1. Open the app.

2. Go to the desired playlist.

3. Sort it by Artist or any other sorting option.

4. Play the first song.

This should do the trick. If you've already started playing a playlist and then sort it, it'll continue playing in the order it was when you started it. If the playlist is already playing and you change the sorting, you must click on the first song again so the Queue is rearranged to the new sorting applied.

Give it a try and let us know how it goes.

[marrston]

Still doesn't work. Having to restart the playlist to update the sorting is very annoying and just a workaround to a broken program.

I've been dealing with this broken desktop experience for months and have seen very little response from Spotify about it, let alone any fixes for it. I think I will go back to working on migrating all my playlists to Amazon Music.

[marrston]

I even just uninstalled and reinstalled Spotify. It worked ok at first, but once I closed it and re-opened it, it updated back to the desktop experience version (1.1.53.608.g7ed9c03a-a) and is still playing songs out of order compared to how they are sorted. I tried what you said too and nothing changes it.

There are multiple people complaining of this issue in the desktop experience feedback thread. You are the 4th moderator to comment on my thread here and I've only been given workaround suggestions (which don't work) and am told that it works fine and I am using it wrong. I've wasted enough time trying to troubleshoot Spotify and giving feedback on the awful desktop experience update.

[jumpinjachflash]

Enough wasting time. Switch to amazon music, it's awesome

[Novy]

Hey @marrston, 

Thanks for getting back to us. 

We're still unable to reproduce this issue and the tracks play in the Artist order. Adding songs to the queue doesn't change it as well. 

Would you mind letting us know if there's anything we're doing wrong in this video? This will help us continue investigating. 

We'll keep an eye out for your reply. 

[marrston]

Thank you for your help, but your video link is private and to be honest, I don't feel like jumping through hoops to get access to watch it. It looks like my Spotify updated today to 1.1.54.592.gc0b20638-a and at a quick glance, it seems that songs are playing in the correct order now, but I don't care to spend more time struggling with this forced alpha testing of desktop experience. I cancelled my Spotify Premium yesterday and signed up for Amazon Music.

I've been using Spotify since 2011 and it was perfect up until 6 months ago when the desktop experience update came out. I never had any issues with anything and never had to spend any time on these forums trying to get something to work. I still really enjoy using the app, but the desktop program is very clunky, unintuitive, and annoying to use. There are 127 pages (and counting) of comments highlighting these issues in the desktop experience feedback thread, which has mostly gone ignored. If I could opt out of this alpha testing and get rolled back to the old version, I'd probably stay with Spotify, but I am tired of paying for broken software and being ignored when asked for feedback.

[Novy]

Hi @marrston, 

Thanks for your reply and apologies for the inconvenience with the video.

We completely understand that it can be frustrating when something we're used to changes, but the New Desktop Experience will allow us to easily address feedback around usability and navigation. It will also help us deliver a more streamlined, personalized and meaningful experience across all of our platforms. 

A lot of improvements have already been made to the new desktop app and they're based specifically on what we've heard from the thread. Faster updates is something the new app allows and there's more to come.

We're always listening to the feedback we receive and we'll continue to innovate the product experience, so would welcome you to keep sharing your opinion, even if you're not actively using the app anymore. We hope that one day you'll reconsider. 

If there's anything else we can help you with, we're always a message away. 

Have a good one.