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

[lockyer_e]

Hey folks,

Thanks for reaching out.

The issue here seems to vary so in order for us to investigate further, can you please provide the following:

• A short screen recording of how things look on your end. If the file is too large to attach, you can upload it to Google Drive (make sure to allow general access to the file) or as an unlisted YouTube video. 
• The exact Spotify version, OS version and model of the affected devices.
• The troubleshooting steps you've tried (clean reinstall, log out and back in twice in a row, try on a different device/the web player, etc.)

We'll be on the lookout for your responses.

[vsa]

i got the same problem, have u found out any way to fix it yet?

[__selenophile]

Unable to play songs in shuffle 

[DwyaneLaw]

Plan

Premium

Country

AU

Device

(iPhone 14Pro)

Operating System

(iOS 17.7)

My Question or Issue

I want to shuffle the playlist but when I press the button in the red circle in the picture I uploaded, it has no response. I tried to re-install the app but the problem is still there.

[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? 

[user-removed]

This is the exact same issue I have! It works on other phones and my tv but not IPhone 13. If I click a song rather than just let it continue on to the next one it jumps back to the start and plays the songs in order again. It’s rather annoying and there’s been no solution.  

[Dessi]

Hey @sheasmart,

Thanks for letting us know!

Our tech folks are still looking into this, but we'll update you here as soon as we hear back from them.

Take care.

[MihailY]

Hey folks,

Thanks for reaching out.

The issue here seems to vary so in order for us to investigate further, can you please provide the following:

• A short screen recording of how things look on your end. If the file is too large to attach, you can upload it to Google Drive (make sure to allow general access to the file) or as an unlisted YouTube video. 
• The exact Spotify version, OS version and model of the affected devices.
• The troubleshooting steps you've tried (clean reinstall, log out and back in twice in a row, try on a different device/the web player, etc.)

We'll be on the lookout for your responses.

[mmmmmmmmm_mmmmmm]

I’m having the same issue as well on a duo plan. When I go to an album or playlist, tapping the shuffle button does nothing. Shuffle only works from the now playing screen. 

iPhone 12 Pro, iOS 18.3.1 and app version 9.0.28. 

[sheasmart]

Hi again Dessi,

Can you please provide an update on where Spotify is with resolving this issue? It has been a month since I initially commented on this thread and was told by Yordan that the technical team was working on this issue. It has almost been nearly three weeks since we’ve heard an update from you. Can you please provide an update on whether Spotify will be fixing this issue? 

[Dessi]

Hey folks,

Sorry for the delay!

Our tech team is still looking into this and working on a fix, we'll let you know as soon as we get an update from them.

Take care.

[Utamaru]

Hello,

I have the same problem with my GF account.

iPhone 15 Pro

Fresh install, logged out several times, rebooted. Nothing works. The shuffle button does not turn green on any playlist and if you press the green button it will always start from the top song.

I convinced her to switch from Apple Music so this is not a good first impression.

I hope it will get fixed soon.

[TRBro33]

it’s particularly related to duo/sub accounts. Please sort it out. Very annoying.