Unable to turn off smart shuffle. Server returns 502

[undefїned]

Plan

Premium

Device

Desktop PC, web app. Brave browser with shields and adblock turned off
Operating System

Windows 11

My Question or Issue

Im unable to turn of smart shuffle feature when im playing songs from my liked songs playlist. Looking through the network requests i can see that when the web app tries to change smart shuffle settings, it fails with http code 502.
{shuffling_context: true, modes: {context_enhancement: "NONE"}} - Fails with 502
{shuffling_context: false, modes: {context_enhancement: "NONE"}} - Fails with 502
{shuffling_context: true, modes: {context_enhancement: "RECOMMENDATION"}} - Works with 200.

Im able to switch the smart shuffle off in other playlists or albums. This issue only happens in my liked songs playlist.

[Dessi]

Hi there @ozzyadadadadaadasgbv,

Thanks for reaching out!

This sounds quite odd and since it's only happening with Liked Songs on the Web Player, then it might be worth trying this workaround to see if it makes a difference:

1. Launch the mobile or desktop app while the Web Player is open
2. Play Liked Songs in the Web Player, then switch the playback to the app instead
3. Once that's done, turn off Smart Shuffle in the app and the change should sync with the Web Player as well

Another thing that's worth testing is if this happens with a different browser and in an incognito window to make sure there's not something native to your browser that's causing this.

Hope this helps.

[undefїned]

Yes a workaround of turning the smart shuffle off from mobile app (while the playback goes through web app) works. 
I also tried different browser (chrome) and also incognito mode in both chrome and brave browser. The issue persists in both cases.

[Dessi]

Hey @undefїned,

Thanks for the reply and for checking!

We've done some testing on our end, but were unable to reproduce the issue you've described so let's try to troubleshoot it. Can you ask a friend or a relative to log in their own account on your PC to see if they experience the same thing? This way we can check if it's account- or device-related. Sometimes the size of a playlist may cause issues so can you also confirm how many tracks your Liked Songs has?

Keep us posted.

[undefїned]

I tried it on different machine. (Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS, Brave browser) and i get the same problem. My liked songs playlist has 6,796 songs.
Also tried fresh install of firefox on the ubuntu machine. The same issue was present.

I noticed one interesting thing though. When i firstly logged in into spotify on the second machine and tried to change the shuffle settings in my liked songs playlist, it showed a drop down menu with shufle options when i clicked on the shuffle button (shuffle, smart shuffle). When i clicked some option inside the drop down it looks like it worked and has set the correct  shuffle setting. But after the initial set through the drop down, when i tried to change the setting again, the drop down is no longer shown. Instead the shuffle button directly switches the three shuffle states. But after clicking the button, the shuffle reverts to different state after a few seconds.

I tried experimenting with this in incognito mode (new login every time) and it looks like what ever option i choose initially in the shuffle drop down menu stays in this bugged state. If if turn on smart shuffle on through the drop down, then im unable to turn it off afterwards. When i turn on normal shuffle the first time after login, in the drop down menu, then the normal shuffle cant be turned off.

To replicate this, here are my exact steps:
Log in into spotify in incognito tab. Go straight into liked songs.
Hit the big Play button.
Change shuffle settings. (At this point i still see the dropdown). In my case i changed from smart shuffle to normal shuffle.
In the network tab in dev tools, i see that the request that tried to change the shuffle setting failed with code 502. The player still shows the correct shuffle setting though.
Try to play another song or press next in the player. Now the player will show the old shuffle setting.

After that, try turning off the shuffle completely. At this point you should still have the drop down menu upon clicking the shuffle button. After you turn the shuffle off, the drop down will no longer be available after further clicking the shuffle button.

[undefїned]

I managed to capture this behavior on screencapture. Im not able to upload videos here directly so here is a link.
https://streamable.com/nejjhp?src=player-page-share

[Eni]

Hey there @undefїned, 

Thanks for getting back to us and for the screen recording you sent. 

We tried to replicate this behavior by following the steps you mentioned, but we were unable to do so. Keep in mind that a large number of songs in your playlists can affect Spotify's performance. That being said, you can try splitting your Liked songs into smaller playlists to see if the issue persists. You can test this by moving a bigger portion of your Liked songs to a playlist temporarily and checking if this behavior is consistent with a shorter Liked songs playlist. Note that if you test this, the date when you added those songs will be updated once you re-add the songs. 

If you can't replicate this with the shorter version of Liked songs, for now, you can continue using the workaround of disabling Smart Shuffle from the mobile or desktop app while the web player is active. 

Alternatively, you can create a regular playlist with your Liked Songs and using that in the web player might also make the difference. 

Let us know how it goes. 

[undefїned]

Im sorry but splitting all my liked songs into smaller playlists or creating secondary playlist from my liked songs doesn't seem like a good way to "fix" this issue. I will try to investigate it further later.

[undefїned]

I tried it on the same machine with different account that has only about 2k songs in the liked songs playlist and i wasn't able to reproduce the bug.

[AlejaR]

Hey @undefїned,
 

Thanks for your reply and for all the info shared.

Since you couldn’t replicate this on a different account, this could be related to your account, and to the number of tracks you’ve saved on your Liked Songs. As mentioned above, if you've saved a high number of songs per playlist in your library, you should consider that the web app's performance might be affected. 

In that sense, and as mentioned by @Eni earlier, you can try splitting your Liked songs into smaller playlists to see if the issue persists:

• If it still happens, then it might be more related to your account itself, so we’d recommend transferring your library to a new account.
• If you cannot replicate with a smaller Liked Songs playlist, then we could point more directly to that specific playlist. It’ll be worth trying to keep it as small as possible to avoid issues.

We understand this is not ideal, but we think it is worth the try.

As we couldn’t replicate this behavior on our side, nor have we seen recent similar reports along these lines, it’s also possible this might be linked to your specific setup as well. 

It might be worth trying to replicate this behavior on a different Windows device. You can ask for the computer of a relative or a friend to open your account there and check. It’s worth mentioning that not all browsers and OS are supported. You can see a full list here. 

We’ll be around, so let us know how it goes.