Why isn’t my shuffle button on the actual playlist working at all?

[lockyer_e]

Hey all, the playlist shuffle button next to the green play button isn’t working at all for both playlists and albums on my Spotify app for iPhone. I have to go into a song on the now playing view and then click shuffle which seems to work fine.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled the app, restarted my iPhone, logged out and then back in, and cleared my cache and still nothing.

Any help is really appreciated as it’s driving me crazy, thanks in advance.

Platform: iOS
Device: iPhone 15
Subscription: Premium

[Joan]

Hi @lockyer_e,

Thanks for reaching out. This is quite odd. Could you please provide us the following:

• Is this on all devices or only on your iPhone? If you haven't tested on others, please do so if possible
• When did this start happening?
• Is this on all playlists or only specific ones.
• A video of the behaviour. If the files are too large to attach here in the Community, you can send them to us via Google Drive or as unlisted YouTube videos.

With this information, we’d be happy to investigate.

Keep us posted.

[norstromtommy]

I have the same problem and I can’t shuffle my playlist only “smart shuffle”. The button don’t turn green when I try to shuffle. 

This has been for 1 month now, please fix it!

I have iPhone 14 Pro with iOS 18.

[Novy]

Hey @norstromtommy,

Thanks for reaching out.

We'd first recommend performing a clean reinstall of the app to see if that makes any difference. If it doesn't, make sure to send over all the previously requested info: is this happening on all devices? Have you checked if the same happens on all playlists?

It'd also be helpful if you could send some screenshots or a video where we can take a better look at this behavior. 

Keep us posted.

[Somia1]

It seems like a bug in the Spotify app. Since you’ve already tried reinstalling, clearing the cache, and logging back in, make sure your app is up-to-date. If the issue persists, contact Spotify Support for further help. For now, using the shuffle option in the "Now Playing" view is a good workaround.

[aayushnarang10]

Hey Joan, I just recently switched from Apple Music to Spotify and this has been happening to me too. I’ve tried doing everything such as doing a clean reinstall and nothing seems to be working. 

Link to video 

[Gianluca_A]

I'm a bit late to the party but I think I figured out a fix. Connect your phone to your car through carplay or android auto (I'm on iphone but I guess it will work for android too). Start playing a playlist or an album and then shuffle it through the car's touch screen. Unlock your phone and you should notice the icon has turned green. Now touch it on your phone and it should work.

I disconnected the phone from the car and double-checked if it still worked and it did for both playlists and albums.

If you don't have a car to connect your phone to I guess you can try a similar procedure through other devices such as a pc or a gaming console. You just need to have the spotify connect setting activated.

Hope it helps!

[sheasmart]

Plan

Duo Premium

Country

United States

Device

iPhone 13 Pro max

Operating System

iOS 18.3.1

Spotify app version 

9.0.22.638

My Question or Issue

I recently got a duo membership and found that I can’t shuffle any of my playlists unless I first start playing them and then hit shuffle in the Playing Now view. I can’t immediately start shuffling my playlists without doing this. Whenever I press the shuffle button next to the green play button in a playlist, the shuffle button doesn’t respond. The person who is the manager of the duo account doesn’t have this issue (I am an account member but not manager).

I’ve followed several of the standard troubleshooting steps with no success including uninstalling and reinstalling the Spotify app on my phone, clean reinstall, logging out and back into my account twice in a row, and a combination of all of these steps. I also tried making a new playlist and viewing other public playlist and I am unable to shuffle any of them using the shuffle button next to the green play button in any playlist.

I did notice that when I try the web version of Spotify on my computer that I am able to shuffle my playlists just fine, however, on my IPhone in the Spotify app I can’t use shuffle immediately, but again can only use shuffle in the Playing Now view after starting to listen to the first song in each playlist. 

Also I tried to add a screen recording but I can’t attach due to file type and size limitations here. I did attach a photo of one of the playlists where the shuffle button is unresponsive next to the green play button. Whenever I press this button nothing happens. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

[konto-por-rubo]

Exactly this is happening to me too, but in Android. Any ideas?

[Yordan]

Hey there, folks,

Thanks for joining the thread!

Just to confirm, after starting a song and turning on Shuffle from the Now Playing view, are you then able to use the Shuffle button next to the big green Play button in Playlist view or is it still unresponsive? Could you test if @Gianluca_A's workaround here works for you too? 

Something that's worth checking is if the issue would persist on another account: you can ask someone (a friend, relative or your partner would do) to log in to their Spotify account on your iPhone to see if they'd be able to control the Shuffle button's state. You can also try logging in on their phone as well. This will help us determine whether this is account- or device-related.

Let us know how it goes 👍

@sheasmart, @konto-por-rubo 

[konto-por-rubo]

Well, I can actually "use" every shuffle button, and they toggle green or gray, but do nothing. The queue keeps the same order and I don't find any way to shuffle it.

[Yordan]

Thanks for the details everyone!

Our tech folks will investigate further. We'll keep you posted here as soon as we have any updates, stay tuned 👍

Cheers!

[sheasmart]

Hi Yordan,

I tried @Gianluca_A’s workaround, however, it’s still does not resolve the issue for me. I can shuffle when Apple CarPlay is connected using my car’s touchscreen, however, when I disconnect my iPhone from the car, I am still unable to immediately start my playlist with shuffle. Instead, I have to always start listening to the first song in any playlist, then navigate to the Playing Now view, and then toggle the shuffle button from there. When I go back to hit the shuffle button next to the large green play button (outside of the Playing Now view) the shuffle button will work but does not indicate it is on (the shuffle button remains grey instead of turning green to indicate whether shuffle, smart shuffle, or no shuffle is selected). Once I navigate to a different playlist, the issue starts all over again and the shuffle button next to the large green play button is unresponsive again. Then I have to again start listening to the first song in the different playlist, then navigate to the Playing Now view and then select shuffle from there. Again when I exit the Playing Now view the shuffle button next to the large green play button appears grey despite changing from no shuffle to shuffle to smart shuffle. Then when I go to any other playlist the whole issue starts all over again. I just want to be able to start listening to my playlist by selecting shuffle immediately rather than always having to listen to the first song in all my playlists. 

Regarding your other suggestion to login to another account on my iPhone. This resolves the issue. After logging into both the plan manager for the duo subscription I share, as well as the cs-test-1000 Spotify profiles on my iPhone, the issue immediately resolved itself and I was able to start using shuffle immediately in playlists within those profiles. I would assume this would indicate the issue is related to an error in the Spotify mobile app and not an issue caused by my device. 

Similarly, I mentioned in my initial response that when logging into my profile using the Spotify desktop app on my laptop, the shuffle button has no issues working. Again, this would indicate to me that this issue is caused by the Spotify mobile app. 

At this point I’m not sure what else I could possibly do to resolve the issue other than to wait for the Spotify technical team to resolve the error within the mobile app. Please advise. 

[konto-por-rubo]

Hi all

It is working for me again. I did nothing.

Cheers

[sheasmart]

@Yordan 

This issue still hasn’t been fixed for me. Can you please provide an update about the team that is working on this? 

[sheasmart]

Hi Yordan,

I’m still having this issue. Can you please provide an update on a resolution from the Spotify technical team?