remove smart shuffle

[ButchTheBear]

Im a premium user, and we pay for the subscription to listen to our music the way we want, not to have some ai add random stuff to it and mess up our playlist, the process of switching between them is also extremely tedious and obnoxious because we have to wait for it to add songs and remove them all over again before we can reshuffle our playlist or just turn shuffle off it's making me debate having two playlists, one shuffled and one not so just give us back the control we pay like $13 American for every month 

[Eni]

Hey @ButchTheBear, 

Thanks for getting in touch about this here in the Community.

Switching between Shuffle, Smart Shuffle and turning those features off completely should be almost instantaneous. 

If it's taking too long, could you send us a screen recording where we can see how long it is taking to switch between those options? You can attach it to your next response by using the Insert Video option in the post editor. You can also upload it to Google Drive and share the link with us (make sure the video has the permissions for anyone to see it).

Additionally, sending the exact make/model, operating system and Spotify version of your device would come in handy. 

We'll be on the lookout. 

[Bevjeb2]

I can’t see a facility to switch off smart shuffle and put on normal shuffle so I’m just listening to my own tracks

[4xrtsvnhmns8cex6xr0m]

100% agree! I want to hear MY playlist, shuffled. I will add songs when I want to add songs.

With the current spotify app I can either play the list in order, or smart shuffle.

And I can't downgrade to a previous version of the app without going to some dodgy website.

I am a paying customer and I am **bleep**.

[therealjelle]

So true. I have a playlist named "Personal soundtrack". You know, songs that have a deep personal meaning to me. Songs that remind me of people, places etc. And what does Spotify do? Adds random songs that z-are either unknown or completely irrelevant to me. Just let ME decide when I want to listen to new music and add more tracks okay?

[thyagofurtado]

Not a solution. Just remove smart shuffle. It was a terrible idea taking control from the user and against UX heuristics.

What is the issue with Spotify having terrible UX?? Is it a lack of senior designers is that their recommendations get trampled by executives with a "vision", is it that there's no user interviews to figure out the process... Please get your UX game together Spotify, get good designers and empower them to fix your product, it's only getting worse.

[NoahG2021]

I cannot see how to remove smart shuffle. Can you give me step by step please?

[Schackda]

I know this isn't perfect, but the best way I've found to circumvent smart shuffle is to download my playlists while smart shuffle is turned off, and then switch to offline mode. I know it's certainly not perfect but it's the only way I've found to get around this.

Be warned, if you download a playlist while smart shuffle is turned on, Spotify will also download smart shuffle songs that will get inserted once you go offline. If that happens, you have to remove that playlist download, turn off smart shuffle, redownload the playlist, and then go back offline.

It's really disappointing that as a paying member I have to put so much extra effort just to listen to only my songs. It didn't used to be this difficult. In general the app has gotten worse and worse over the years to the point where I've finally had to stop my subscription renewal.

[MattSuda · Accepted solution]

Hey everyone, @ButchTheBear @Schackda @NoahG2021 @thyagofurtado @therealjelle

Good news! Spotify has listened to user feedback and you can now disable Smart Shuffle from the mobile app settings, as mentioned in this now implemented idea. This setting will also be added to the desktop app in a future update.

Steps to disable Smart Shuffle in the mobile app:

1. Tap on your profile picture at the top left corner
2. Tap on Settings and privacy
3. Tap on Playback
4. Switch Include Smart Shuffle in play modes off

Note: This is for Premium users only and right now it's only available in the mobile app, but in a future update, there will be a setting to disable Smart Shuffle in the desktop app as well.

More info can be found in the Shuffle help article here:

https://support.spotify.com/article/shuffle-play/