Transferring my Library (Liked Songs) to another Account [IN ORDER]

[producer]

I'm running into an issue when I try to transfer my liked songs to another account using the method described by @Jemi here.

I've created a playlist with all my Liked Songs using the method described without an issue. But I'm running into trouble while restoring the songs to my Liked Songs. The trouble is they aren't added in the order of the playlist - more accurately they don't seem to be added in any particular order at all (it seems to be entirely random).

I've tried both dragging the songs (from both the playlist and queue) and adding them via the context menu, but they're just added to my Liked Songs in a random order.

The only thing that I can think to do to get around this issue is to start adding the songs individually starting from the bottom of the playlist. However this isn't practical with 2000+ songs.

Does anyone know what to do to get around this? I think it's a bug, but I'm not entirely sure.

[Alex]

Hi there @producer,

Thanks for reaching out about this in the Community!

On the Desktop app you can select multiple songs in the playlist you've created > right click > Save to Liked Songs. This should add the songs to your liked songs in the order they're currently in. 

You can batch select all tracks by clicking Ctrl+A (Win) / Cmnd+A (Mac).

Hope this helps 🙂

[producer]

Hi @Alex,

Thanks for getting back with me and trying to help solve this issue.

Unfortunately when I followed the instructions the songs that I selected were added to my Liked Songs in no discernable order. Also, this wasn't a bug because of the number of songs that I had selected, as I did it with only 13 songs.

Does this work for you? And if so on what platform? It wouldn't work for me on the desktop app running in Windows 10.

[Eni]

Hey there @producer, 

Thanks for getting back in touch and letting us know that. 

We couldn't replicate this issue on our end.

In this case, we suggest that you make sure that your Liked Songs playlist doesn't have any filters applied. 

On another note, could you send us a screen recording of the issue? Just attach it to your next response to us by using the Insert Video option in the post editor. You can also send us a link to it, just make sure to exclude any personal info from the video.

Lastly, would you mind sending us the exact make/model, operating system and Spotify version of your device?

Keep us in the loop!

[producer]

Hey Eni,

After doing some more investigation, I've found that I actually get different results running different operating systems - neither of them add the songs to my Liked Songs in the order of the unfiltered playlist.

I would like to point out that even though this may seem like a random order, it is for the most part consistently random within the respective operating system - meaning that if I add the same songs repeatedly to my Liked Songs they will be added in the same (seemingly random) order each time with some minor deviation here and there.

I initially performed all tests without filters, as suggested. Then to see what would happen, I did tests with all of the different filter combinations. Although it did effect the results at times, I wasn't able to identify any common trends among those test (at first some filters had more deviation from the standard random order pattern, but then when I tried those same filters again they reflected more or less the same pattern of all the other filters).

For all tests shown in the attached files, I added the songs to my Liked Songs without any filters applied. I've attached screenshots of this in Linux (out of date OS and Spotify). Here is a link to a narrated screen recording of this happening in Windows 10 (updated OS & Spotify)...

The attached/linked media files do not have any personal information in them.

Windows 10 Home, version 2004, OS build 19041.804, Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.551.0

Spotify version: 1.1.53.608.g7ed9c03a

Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS, 4.15.0-106-generic GNU/Linux

Spotify version: 1.1.10.546.ge08ef575

Thanks for trying to replicate the issue. By chance, were you using a Mac when you managed to add a playlist to your Liked Songs in order? That's the only platform that I haven't tested out yet and was wondering if that might be a potential workaround (aside from the obviously tedious solution - or in my case impractical because I have a ~2500 song playlist that I need to do this with - of adding each song one by one).

Let me know if there's any more tests you'd like me to try or information that you'd like me to pass along. I'd be happy to help solve this in any way that I can.

[producer]

Windows 10 Home, version 2004, OS build 19041.804, Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.551.0
Spotify version: 1.1.53.608.g7ed9c03a

Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS, 4.15.0-106-generic GNU/Linux
Spotify version: 1.1.10.546.ge08ef575

[Mihail]

Hey @producer,

Thanks for the detailed description and for the video you sent us.

Keep in mind that Spotify doesn't officially support Ubuntu, so any issues that come up there are expected behavior. You can find a list of Spotify's system requirements here.

We suggest you run a clean reinstall of Spotify on your Windows PC using steps here. That way if any damaged files are causing this behavior, they will be removed. Make sure to install the app version from the Microsoft Store, as it's the one best optimized for Windows 10.

If that doesn't fix things, could you create a new account with a different e-mail address or through Facebook and check if the feature works as expected there?

Keep us posted, we'd love to investigate this further. 

[producer]

Hi @Mihail,

My apologies for not getting back with you quicker - I was waiting to reply once I had followed your instructions, and once I had performed more test on other platforms.

My main concern really isn't about Ubuntu, I'm simply trying to test this issue on as many different platforms as I can to build context (I now realize that because Linux isn't officially supported that that information won't be enough to signify misbehavior).

In light of that and in order to further test this issue, I got my hands on an Apple computer with the OS & Spotify versions listed in the next post (otherwise this post will be flagged as spam). On this machine I tested adding songs from a playlist to the library in bulk (no more than 20 at a time in this case). Unfortunately the songs were added to the library in again a seemingly random order that did not reflect the order of the playlist. This happened despite being on a different physical computer and with different account.

On my own machine, I followed the instructions you referenced (to the letter) that guided me through how to perform a clean installation of Spotify from the Microsoft Store. However this too unfortunately yielded the same results (albeit a different mixed up order). I even searched my entire hard drive for any remnant files of a previous Spotify installation, but to of no avail. I even searched the registry, but still the songs weren't added in the playlist order when I added them to my library.

After following the instructions exactly, I still get the songs added in a mixed up order .

After all of this, I'm actually rather surprised that @Eni wasn't able to replicate the behavior I'm seeing on the platforms and accounts that I've tested. I would like to verify that you all are seeing what I am expecting to be the proper behavior:

when you add multiple songs from a playlist to your library they should be added in the playlist order (meaning that song number one at the top of the playlist would appear at the top of your library once it's added, then song number two in the playlist would be listed second in your library and so on).

This behavior is particularly crucial because you can't reorder songs in your library; also there is no practical workaround solution if you're trying to add a sizable playlist to your library while maintaining the order of said playlist.

Also, I'd prefer not to create a new account as I'm the plan manager of the family plan with my family (and not sure how much hassle that would be to switch over). I've already tried to see if I get the same behavior with different accounts, and have verified that all the accounts I try work in the same incorrect and unpredictable manner - because of this, I didn't think it was necessary to create a new account for further testing.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do to aid in the investigation of this issue - I'd love to resolve it.

[producer]

macOS Mojave Version 10.14.6

Spotify version 1.1.54.592.gcOb20638

[CarlosE]

Hey @producer,

Thanks for keeping in touch.

We've further looked into this and it looks like this is expected. The songs that are moved to Liked Songs are only being listed in the correct order if they're moved directly from an album. When moving songs from any other playlists to Liked Songs, the tracks are added randomly.

We appreciate the time you've taken to report this and for trying our suggestions. We'll make sure to pass your feedback on to the right folks.

We hope this clears things up. If you have any questions or need a hand with anything else, we're always a post away.

Have a good one!

[producer]

Hi @CarlosE,

To be honest, I'm pretty disappointed that it took this long in the conversation to establish that random behavior in this case is expected behavior. At the very least this does not seem to be widely known by the moderators I've been speaking with.

I'm not really sure how all the moderators I spoke with were interested in hearing more about this expected behavior I was experiencing. It just makes me scratch my head.

This seems more like one of those bug not a feature situations.

I'm curious, what is the reasoning/rationale behind this behavior? Especially considering considering how it's not possible to rearrange your library.

I have verified that adding an album to your library maintains the listed order. It seems odd to me that the functionality with albums wouldn't be extended to playlists.

[Jeremy]

Hey there @producer,

Thank you for your reply and feedback.

We understand that this is something that would improve the way you use the app, and if you think this feature will appeal to other users you can always create an idea on the relevant idea board. We always take new ideas and feedback into consideration to improve the app. 

We're always testing things by adding or removing features to make Spotify better overall and we’re constantly aiming to improve our features. We’re sorry that this means you’re not able to use Spotify like you wish to do at the moment.

You can read more about how your feedback reaches Spotify here.

Once again - thanks for the feedback, we appreciate it. Let us know if we can help with anything else. 

Take care!

[producer]

Hi @Jeremy,

I appreciate your response, but this isn't a feature request - it's a request for Spotify to behave as described by @Jemi linked in the first post of this thread.

If it is truly expected that playlists should be added to your Saved Songs in a random order, then it should be clarified at least in that post (and likely other places) that it's not possible to preserve the order of your Saved Songs while transferring to another account. That post is misleading.

Again that's why it's not a feature request. If Spotify doesn't want to fix this behavior, that's fine (not preferable), just be consistent and clear about how your software works. This thread is the only place on the forums (or the internet for that matter) that I've found this random order being described as expected behavior. I'm not sure how this expected behavior is advantageous to anyone.

It's unfortunate how this issue is being dismissed as a feature request, when that's not at all the case.