[Google Home] Shuffle voice command stopped working

[LucoPh]

Hi there,

Since this week, I have noticed my Google Home doesn't shuffle my playlist anymore when I give the command; "Hey Google, shuffle [playlist name] please". This used to work in the past but now it just starts playing the very first song in that playlist followed by the next ones. 

I have noticed also that if I give the following command afterwards; "Hey Google, shuffle this playlist" at first it will not respond. The music continues playing and after a few seconds of the music being continued, it will say that after the currently playing song, it will shuffle the playlist.

So it seems there is some weird delay.

I have already tried relinking Spotify from the music services in my Home settings, but that did not solve the issue unfortunately.

Have any of you experienced this before or could you help me with this?

[roffir]

Same, tried everything. Google even replies with "Ok shuffling playlist..." but it doesn't. I have to ask it again after or set it through the phone. This is a recent regression as I do this every day and only recently started not working. Same thing happens in android auto so its not just google assistant/home.

[Peter]

Hey folks,

Thanks for reaching out about this.

I just looked this up in the Google support site, and in this support article, under 'Advanced voice commands for free and subscription services' > Spotify (Free and Premium) > Advanced Voice Commands, it says:

To do this...

Play playlist pre-shuffled

Say this: "Ok Google" or "Hey Google," then...
"Shuffle Discover Weekly", “Play <playlist name> on shuffle”

Do you mind trying the second command and seeing if it works that way?

Thanks - keep us posted!

[djaani]

I've also started noticing this since a couple of days now. The problem is recent.

With the first command "Shuffle <playlist>", Google Home replies "Shuffling your <playlist> playlist from Spotify" and then just plays it starting from the first song in order without shuffling.

With the second command "Play <playlist> on shuffle", it does not even register you want it to shuffle and just replies "Playing your <playlist> playlist from Spotify"...

[LucoPh]

Hi Peter,

Thank you for your reply! I will definitely try it when I get home.

However, I do not think it will change anything since the Google Assistant is replying with "Ok shuffling playlist...", like roffir and djaani are saying.

It could possibly be that the Google Assistant is not using Spotify's API correctly and just starting the playlist 'unshuffled'. Is there a way to see any debug information on Spotify where I could see which API had been used?

The other possibility would be that Spotify is just shuffling the playlist when it is being told to.

I could try to make a video so it's possible to see/hear what is happening.

[roffir]

As mentioned by djaani, If i say "Play <playlist> on shuffle", it responds with "Ok playing <playlist> on spotify" and it does not shuffle. If I say "Shuffle my <Playlist> Playlist" then it responds with "Ok shuffling your spotify playlist called <playlist>" but again still doesn't shuffle <-- this used to work.

Hate to piggy back/derail but at the same time this broke, another weird thing happens which may be related. After the playlist doesn't shuffle I say "Ok google, shuffle" which does work, but it takes like 30-60 seconds for google to respond saying "ok the playlist will start shuffling after this song". Before the shuffle playlist command broke google would respond instantly. Not sure if they are related, just thought I'd mention that too.

[LucoPh]

So I was trying to take a video of my problem. But all of a sudden, I could not get the situation to happen again. Everytime that I tried to tried to make it play a playlist shuffled, it actually did.

I'm not sure if that was because of something that I did.

However, I did try the other commands to shuffle a playlist and none actually would play it and shuffle except for the command that I was already using (apparently). 

I am not entirely convinced it has been fixed completely so I will definitely try it out again tomorrow morning when the Google Home has had quite some 'down-time'

@Roffir, that is indeed also exactly what was happening to me. Although if I would tell it to shuffle the currently playing playlist, it will go back to playing it after recognizing the command and only after a second or 5 it would give a respond. opposed to your 30-60 seconds.

[LucoPh]

This morning, after I woke up, I tried the same command again and now it appears to not work again. So I guess I did something yesterday that caused it start working but I am not sure what exactly.

I was playing music before it started working and started playing a different playlist so it would 'reset' the playlist that I actually wanted to play. Also, I did have my computer running which had Spotify opened as well.

But as of now, I have no clue what is actually happening here.

[LucoPh]

I managed to make a video of what is happening:

Video

[lukemb64]

I also started to get this problem a few weeks ago. On various Spotify community threads it seems it has been going on since at least 2014 for some people. I have tried solutions mentioned on this thread and others and some (but not others) work temporarily but none for me on a permanent basis. I think it may be a Google Assistant issue (both phone and speaker) not a Spotify one as when I press shuffle play on Spotify on my phone that always works.

[Peter]

Hey folks,

Thanks for your reports so far.

We'd like to gather the following info before we look into this further:

• Can you confirm this only happens with Spotify?
• When did you first notice this change in behaviour?
• Are you using a Google Home/Nest speaker, or just Google Assistant?

Thanks - keep us posted!