Shuffle not working properly

[cenizobelle]

Hi, the Spotify shuffle feature on my Android 7.1 phone and on my Windows 7 and Windows 10 laptops has not been acting normally in the last few days. It seems to prioritise one or two artists/albums over everything else. I've attached a photo showing my play queue (this is from Windows 7 laptop, but the issue is across all my devices). The first 15 songs on shuffle were from only two artists/albums, even though it was shuffling from a playlist with 57 songs and 29 different artists and albums. It's also not just specific to this playlist. What's causing the problem here? It's really annoying, because I want to listen to an actual playlist shuffle, not just a shuffle from two artists/albums. That's why I created the playlist in the first place!

[Aimee_T]

Hey @cenizobelle, welcome to the Spotify Community!

Can you change the filter in your playlists by following the steps here and let us know if you have the same issue with Shuffle Mode?

Also, we'd recommend logging out and back into your account to see if it makes any difference.

Take care 🙂

[cenizobelle]

 Hi, thanks for replying. Changing the filter didn't have any effect on Android or Desktop. I will try logging out.

[cenizobelle]

That didn't make a difference. I think what the problem is, is that the algorithm wants to shuffle the playlist, but it wants to play the new songs (new to that playlist) first. Is there a way to change this?

[Aimee_T]

Thanks for letting us know @cenizobelle!

We’ve recently made some improvements to our shuffle algorithm. We’d love to hear your feedback here.

Let us know if you need anything else, we're here for you 🙂

[cenizobelle]

I just added a new album to the playlist, pressed shuffle, and that album was the first songs in shuffle. It's a bad addition to the algorithm, sorry. Also, that thread is over a year old and solved (apparently)? So I'm not sure what adding a comment there will do...

[Sadismia]

I have this problem as well, but sadly, Spotify has a terrible shuffle system.

Basically what's happeneing is Spotify will only look at a grouping of your most recent items to a playlist. If you have a playlist that is 100+ songs (at least in my experience) then it's likely that you'll only hear the last 20-50 additions. This is extremely annoying. We're customers and Spotify is failing to provide true shuffle that randomizes an entire playlist. There's probably some technical reason for this, but it should have been addressed by this point. I don't care if I want to shuffle the entire music catalouge that Spotify grants me access to, it should just work.

[Aimee_T]

No worries @cenizobelle! 

Spotify is always checking for new comments to improve Shuffle Mode. Also, @Sadismia we'd recommend for you to post your feedback in that thread. Stay tuned for any updates.

Let us know if you need anything else 🙂