Playlists Default to Radio of Playlist Instead of Playing

[ConnRed]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

PC - an old school tower (issue does not happen on my Android Phone)

Operating System

Windows 10

My Question or Issue

Nearly every time I hit play on a playlist when using my desktop, it automatically plays the "playlist radio" instead of the playlist. I like having the radio option turned on for playing new songs AFTER my playlist has ended, but this jumps straight into the radio - often not even playing more than one song from my actual playlist. 

If I go back in to the playlist (the same way I selected it the first time) and hit play again on the first song in my playlist, usually it will then play the actual playlist instead of the radio version, but not always. 

When I hit play on a playlist on my phone, it works fine. My playlist is played in the order I arranged it every time. 

What setting do I need to change to get this to stop? Or is it a bug?

Granted, I haven't listened on my desktop in awhile now, but I remember it working just fine last year or the year before. What has changed?

[Ver]

Hey @bfgdfgfgnghndtj,

Thanks for getting back to us 🙂

You mentioned that this happens so far with only one playlist- could you send us the URI of the playlist?

Just to double-check- does this happen when the shuffle mode is on/off or both?

You can also send us a screenshot of the queue. We'll look into this further.

Keep us posted.

[Axist]

Been having this issue for about a year now. Can't believe I havent reached out before now. This has been silently driving me nuts.. I guess the final straw was when I had the absolute perfect song come on when I hit shuffle in a 400 song playlist and it switched to radio 5 seconds in. It's happened with three different phones I've used but never with desktop. Currently happening with my galaxy S21 ultra. This has been driving me crazy for a LONG time. 

[Kelbaez]

Im also having the same issue and I do agree it started about a year ago.

I only use spotify on my android app, most times connected to my car BT. It happens with any playlist at random. Usually the first time I open and play the playlist in shuffle it would play 1-2 seconds of a song and them jump to playing radio based on playlist.

It is really annoying and frustrating as I setup my audio before driving to then have to stop again to pickup my phone and play what I actually intended in the first place..

And NO and reinstall didn't fix anything.

[CarlosE]

Hey @Axist and @Kelbaez 

Thanks for reaching out.

Can you confirm if this is only happening when connected to a car via Bluetooth, or if it also happens when listening directly on the phone's speakers or with headphones? Is there any change when the Offline mode is enabled?

@Axist, does it happen with any playlist or just one(s) in particular? 

We'll be on the lookout.

[xxmattfxx]

The only time this happens for me is when I am using Wireless Android Auto.

Happens on Android 11 and now Android 12.

The first song of the "shuffle" will start playing and then stop and switch to the artist's radio.

The only way to fix this is to got back a page and hit shuffle again, or pull my phone out of my pocket where it doesn't have this problem.  Both options are exactly what I don't need to be doing while driving.

This is a major safety issue and it's resolution needs to be a priority, instead of 3 pages deep in the post and on the backburner.

[Kelbaez]

It took me a minute to be able to capture the issue on video, even though it happens often its not everytime. Please see the attached video as confirmation. Notice how after I press the shuffle play button a song starts playing and changes after about 2 seconds to the playing radio based on list...

[MafeG]

Hi folks, 

Thank you for keeping in touch.

@Kelbaez Thank you for taking the time to send that video. We noticed that during the test you were connected to another device via Bluetooth, does the issue persist when you're using the phone's speaker? 

@xxmattfxx Since this is happening only when you're connected to Android Auto, have you tried reinstalling the app? 

It's also worth logging with another account, such as a friend's or a family member's to see if the issue persists. Alternatively, you can create a free account here, just make sure you're logged out of your own account before creating a new one.  

Let us know how this goes.

[ameliasmith23]

I have this same problem.

It especially happens when I’m on SharePlay music on FaceTime, but not exclusively.

It never used to do it, only started recently

I tried the delete and restart method but it didn’t work, so I don’t really know what else to do.

[OscarDC]

Hey @ameliasmith23,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community and welcome. 

First, to be on the same page, would you mind confirming the troubleshooting steps you've tried so far? With this, we'll make sure to avoid suggesting processes already made.

Also, to take a better look at your case, could you include in your next response the make, model and OS version of the device you're using, along with the Spotify version you're currently running? 

We'll be on the lookout. 

[Jesskah]

I’m so glad I’m not the only one having similar issues. I will shuffle my ‘Liked songs’, and it seems to be fine when I press play (99% of the time using Bluetooth connected to car) but if I turn off my car and go again it just goes straight to Song Radio based on whatever song it’s on (without the introductory 1-2 seconds that others have had). It means I don’t realise until the next song or two, depending on if the song radio songs are in my liked songs or not. 

I’m running 8.7.34.1624 on an iPhone 13 Pro Max running 15.4.1.

[diejessedie]

HAHAHAHAH hey I had the same problem I think. I hope this helps bc that’s so annoying. But I forgot that I had put an entire Radio Station in the Queue a few days ago. Today I finally considered the queue feature and realized that a Radio Station placed in the Playback Queue is basically infinite 😂 that’s why it kept interrupting every list I played. So try the little burger queue icon and I hope your problem is solved

[HK22000]

I too, am having this issue-- mostly on Android phone. I noticed it happens when hitting the play with shuffle icon, but not when selecting and playing a track in the list. Still, when you shuffle play a playlist, you don't expect 'surprises'!

My play lists are in the 1000s of tracks, so trust me, they often include everything I would like to hear in that genre and wouldn't want any other suggestions! 

[Whalebelly]

I have the same issue on an Android phone, no bluetooth. No amount of cache clearing, reinstallment, or other "suggestions" put forward by Spotify moderators in this thread has helped. Here's your issue, Spotify:
When we choose a personal playlist and press "shuffle play", some part of your code makes the play session include songs based on an AI generated playlist radio. Unless there's an option somewhere called "don't include radio suggestions in playlists" or something similar that we can turn off, it is now YOUR responsibility to correct YOUR service that WE pay for. Go through your code and fix whatever bug makes this happen. We are after all the paying customers.

If I may add, I find the amount off non-constructive answers from mods in this thread utterly ridiculous. Just fix your app's issues, clearly a lot of people are experiencing difficulties. It should be your job finding out what's causing this issue instead of pushing it on your customers and not solving anything. The first post was in September 2020 and you have yet to come up with anything better than "reinstall". Sorry to sound pissy, but come on.

[Longsource]

Still an issue in August 2022 on several Android smartphones. Seems to happen randomly upon pressing shuffle on playlists saved to the device, both with and without bluetooth enabled. Still has a ~1 sec delay before it changes from the first track after pressing shuffle to the first "radio based on playlist" track.

[donovanfiggg]

can y'all help this is happening on all my devices after both restart and reinstall. no matter what playlist or song of my choice, it not even three seconds into the song it skips the radio compiled queue. pls help.

[Alex]

Hi folks,

Sorry to hear this is happening to you.

Can you let us know the following info:

• Device model + OS version (one of the devices on which this is happening)
• Spotify version
• Does it happen on every playlist
• Does it happen only when Shuffle is enabled
• Does it happen when Offline Mode is switched on

It would be great if you can create a free account for test purposes and check if the same issue is happening there. This will help us check if it's an account related issue.

Looking forward to your replies.

[Longsource]

Hi Alex,

Device/OS: Samsung Galaxy S20, across several OS versions (phone is almost always up to date and it's happened the last few years, also on other Samsung phones)

Spotify version: Across several versions, my phone auto-updates the app so it should always be the latest version (2 weeks ago when writing my original post it happened on the latest version).

Does it happen on every playlist: As far as I can tell, at least it doesn't happen only on one specific playlist. However I don't think I've experienced it on playlists I haven't made myself.

Does it happen only when Shuffle is enabled: Perhaps, I always have shuffle enabled, haven't experienced the issue with shuffle off.

Does it happen when Offline Mode is switched on: Never tried it with Offline Mode switched on.

Hope it helps 🙂 

[Kiril]

Hey @Longsource, 
 

Thanks for the information that you've provided so far.

This suggests that there might be an issue which is specific to your account, but we need to cover one more step before we proceed to look deeper into this. 

Do you mind creating a new account and to try and test if you can recreate the issue there?

Let us know how it goes. 

[Skinhinge]

I have read this entire thread. I have had this issue off and on for a couple years now. It has happened on multiple devices (Win 10, Pixel 4, Pixel 6, iPhone, connected to a car, a bluetooth speaker, or headphones) on multiple playlists. I have friends and aquaintences that have complained about this same bug on different hardware. It does not happen consistently. I have been  in software develoment since 1993, so I am very familiar with tracking down bugs. There seesm to be no pattern I can discern to this issue.

I am posting this response over a year after the inital time stamp I found on this thread. Do we know if there has been any headway made on this issue? It is really annoying. I can only assume the service is hitting some kind of error condition, and switching to radio play automatically? I would rather recieve an error as a user than to automitically do something I didn't request. 

[Kelbaez]

so far no actual solution or workaround has been provided, at least on this thread. in the last few months it actually happened less for me, but in the past 2 weeks it has come back and it has been constantly, almost everyday in my car (android headunit) even my wife mentioned the same happens to her.

I also noticed they recently rolled out a new feature for enhanced shuffle play or something like that and that suddenly disappeared which coincides to when my issues came back more constantly