Alphabetical sorting discrepancy between playlist and queue

[paintedships]

Plan

Premium

Country

UK

Device

PC Desktop app and Google Pixel 6 Pro

Operating System

Windows 11 and Android 16

Spotify version 

Spotify for Windows (64 bit)

1.2.90.451.gb094aab0

and

9.1.50.1906 for Android 

My Question or Issue

I've found that since the latest May 2026 update on the desktop and Android apps, the alphabetical sorting is different in the playlist than in the queue (when not shuffled). This would be fine but the queue skips large numbers of songs because of the difference in alphabetical sorting. This is not just in ‘Sort by Title’, but in sort by artist and album as well. 

Examples attached from my soundtrack playlist on my desktop app, sorted by title. It's the same on Android too.

This doesn't seem to be an issue on IOS as the playlist and queue match.

I haven't changed any settings or done anything differently to what I usually do. It just seemed to change itself after the update, as if the queue was updated and the playlist sort wasn't or the other way around.

[Yordan]

Hey, @paintedships,

Thanks for the detailed report! I've forwarded it to the relevant team who'll investigate further. In the meantime, make sure you're always running the latest version of Spotify so you don't miss out on any updates.

Cheers 🤘

[mysz0neq]

Plan

Premium

Country

Poland

Device

MacBook Air M4

Operating System

MacOS Sequoia 15.6.1

Spotify for macOS (Apple Silicon)
1.2.90.451.gb094aab0

My Question or Issue

Recent Spotify update apparently changed alphabetical order sorting method - before the update whitespaces were treated as if they weren't there (i.e. "Start me up" > "Star Treatment" > "Stay"). Now they are treated as real characters (i.e. "Stairway to heaven" > "Star Treatment" > "Starboy"), so sorting has somewhat more sense, however the new sorting method has not been applied to the queue. This means, that if I play "Star Treatment" on this sorted playlist, then on the playlist it shows that the next song should be "Starboy", but in the queue it's "Stay".

[bergech]

I have the same problem. It looks like the 'Title' sort includes special chars (like ' ) and spaces whereas the queue sort does not. Hence the discrepancy. It is especially prevalent in titles starting I' .

[Roghain]

Plan

Premium

Country

Netherlands

Device

Self built PC

Operating System

Windows 10

My Question or Issue

I have a playlist set to play sorted by 'Album'. Occasionally (1-3 times per hour) it will start playing by artist name. How do I stop this from happening?

Unrelated and not as annoying but while we are on the subject of sorting a playlist.

This is how the playlist sorts a number of albums:

Nighthawks at the Diner

No Code

No place for disgrace

No prayer for the dying

No tourists

(The) No.6 Dance

Not of this earth

Number of the beast

Now, when playing it actually uses this order:

Nighthawks at the Diner

(The) No.6 Dance

No Code

No place for disgrace

No prayer for the dying

Not of this earth

No tourists

Number of the beast

Also, sorting numbers is all wrong:

4 great thrash songs

13

16 Valve hate

72 Seasons

'74 jailbreak (note the apostrophe)

99.9 F

1984

2112

What is going on here? When sorting alphabetically, it should actually do just that and why is the order played different from the order in the playlist?