queue169

Q: Songs keep repeating when I shuffle a playlist

On every iPod and iPhone I've ever owned:

I open a playlist and set it to shuffle. It does. I pause a song, put the device away, and press play a few hours or days later. The device remembers what I've already played so I don't hear the same song twice until I get through all, say, 250 songs on the playlist (unless I select a different playlist, manually select a song on the playlist, or close the iTunes app on my phone). As an illustration, using my iPhone 6 (still on iOS 8.3) last month I spent a week of commuting time, about 45 minutes a day, listening through a playlist and never heard the same song twice.

 

On my iPhone 6 since updating to iOS 8.4 (12H143):

I open a playlist and set it to shuffle. It does. I pause a song, put the device away, and press play a few hours or days later. It doesn't seem to remember what it's already played, so I end up hearing the same set of about 25-30 songs (with occasional randoms thrown in) every time I pause, put it away, and press play a few hours or days later.

 

Why doesn't Music seem to remember what it's already played? Is there any way of fixing this, or working around the issue so I don't have to keep hearing the same songs on a playlist?

 

On a possibly related note, I just connected my phone to my computer, and noticed that several of the songs that keep getting repeated show up in iTunes as having never been played. Has Music/iTunes stopped counting, or is this feature just not working any longer?

iPhone 6, iOS 8.4

Posted on Jul 23, 2015 9:12 PM

Close

Q: Songs keep repeating when I shuffle a playlist

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

first Previous Page 5 of 14 last Next
  • by justric,

    justric justric Nov 9, 2015 2:42 PM in response to cpd1980
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 9, 2015 2:42 PM in response to cpd1980

    One more voice of someone who is frustrated by the broken shuffle functionality. I listen to my playlists daily and am as frustrated as the rest of those posting when the Apple music app keeps repeating just a few songs over and over. I am constantly skipping to the next song to try to find one I have not heard in the current shuffle session. Sometimes I have to skip several songs because the app keeps throwing up songs that i have already heard. Extremely annoying!

     

    Today I wondered if there are other music player apps for iOS that will shuffle the songs in my 218 song playlist, without repeating before the entire list is played. I am using one now called audio-3D which has shuffle (plus several very nice sound settings), and so far it is working fine and not repeating songs. I am finally getting a nice mix listening to my playlist and hearing songs in playlist which the Apple music app has not played in a long time.

     

    Apple definitely needs to fix that problem but until they do, I will be using other music players on my iPhone that know how to shuffle properly!

  • by janfromwilliamson,

    janfromwilliamson janfromwilliamson Nov 10, 2015 3:20 PM in response to cpd1980
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Nov 10, 2015 3:20 PM in response to cpd1980

    I just wanted to join the club here and report the same annoying problem with my iPhone six. I was on Android for a few years but switched to Apple specifically because the fifteen or so music apps I tried repeated songs. Now Apple has caught up with their incompetence.

  • by THE JUJE,

    THE JUJE THE JUJE Nov 11, 2015 2:36 PM in response to bosk1979
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 11, 2015 2:36 PM in response to bosk1979

    Where do I go to find what's checked or not?  And I, too, am having this same problem.  I just went through shuffle several times and each time, it shuffled about the same 6 songs. Annoying.  I have 1800 songs.  I'm using the iPhone 6 Plus.

  • by OOLIE19,

    OOLIE19 OOLIE19 Nov 11, 2015 5:09 PM in response to THE JUJE
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Nov 11, 2015 5:09 PM in response to THE JUJE

    I believe you are referring to the box to left of the song listing in iTunes.  All the boxes should be checked, most likely this is not your problem because I don't think that has solved anyones problem as it is a problem built into the software. 

     

    I think justric has the right idea about using another app.  By the time I posted here I was already at the end of my rope with this problem and after reading the other posts I have lost hope in Apple fixing this problem anytime soon especially since they don't even want to acknowledge the problem it seems.  Ironically Apple Music has made me a Spotify Premium customer and I will never be an Apple Music customer.  At least now I can listen to my entire playlist and then some added tracks too.  Doubt I will have an Apple phone when my contract is up.  I hope everyone else finds a way around this completely stupid annoying problem. 

  • by -rye-=987=-,

    -rye-=987=- -rye-=987=- Nov 17, 2015 2:34 PM in response to queue169
    Level 2 (307 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 17, 2015 2:34 PM in response to queue169

    I've been filling out apple feedback reports about this for months. Today I just called them. The woman I spoke with hadn't heard of this issue, nor had her supervisor. They told me to restore the phone. I don't think that will fix it, but maybe I'll do it in a few days. I'm not really that interested in doing so now... but this is indeed extremely annoying especially since it hasn't been fixed.

     

    I wish Apple would address this

  • by Steve-O23,

    Steve-O23 Steve-O23 Nov 17, 2015 11:40 PM in response to queue169
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Apple Watch
    Nov 17, 2015 11:40 PM in response to queue169

    If you've raised this as an issue here, please make sure you also report it via the Feedback app (if you're running the dev or public betas) or by going to www.apple.com/feedback - there's now an Apple Music section there.

     

    I have 4.9 days worth of music in My Music, yet hear the same sodding tracks every single day. Infuriating.

  • by KyleEdwardD,

    KyleEdwardD KyleEdwardD Nov 18, 2015 1:48 AM in response to queue169
    Level 1 (30 points)
    Nov 18, 2015 1:48 AM in response to queue169

    The shuffle feature works very much like the way a casino dealer would shuffle a deck of cards. The music is shuffled into a random order and then you will hear everything once all the way through. However, if you reshuffle the playlist then you're essentially putting all the songs which have already played, back into the upcoming tracks which may be quite soon after already hearing it prior to shuffling.

     

    Hope this helps!

  • by Steve-O23,

    Steve-O23 Steve-O23 Nov 18, 2015 2:17 AM in response to KyleEdwardD
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Apple Watch
    Nov 18, 2015 2:17 AM in response to KyleEdwardD

    But the problem is that isn't how it's working. Of course you will get tracks crop up again when you re-shuffle, but these are the same tracks (out of thousands) every single time. There is a fundamental issue with the algorithm being used.

  • by OOLIE19,

    OOLIE19 OOLIE19 Nov 18, 2015 3:01 AM in response to KyleEdwardD
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Nov 18, 2015 3:01 AM in response to KyleEdwardD

    Yep Kyle that is the way it worked for years until apple music.  If you were counting cards now you would find 16 Kings in a single deck that is why everyone is so ******!!!

  • by OOLIE19,

    OOLIE19 OOLIE19 Nov 18, 2015 3:14 AM in response to OOLIE19
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Nov 18, 2015 3:14 AM in response to OOLIE19

    guess you can't say p i s s e d lol

  • by Sparky87,

    Sparky87 Sparky87 Nov 19, 2015 5:42 AM in response to KyleEdwardD
    Level 1 (14 points)
    iPhone
    Nov 19, 2015 5:42 AM in response to KyleEdwardD

    NO Kyle this doesn't help anyone here, nobody is reshuffling their playlist the music app doesn't know how to shuffle properly anymore at all. This problem has been going on since June and apple won't acknowledge it as a problem, anyone who calls or makes a report gets told that it's their phone that's the problem and not the software. I have been having this problem on my iPad and I have since wiped and started from scratch and it is still doing it.... Most of us hit shuffle and let the music go and don't touch it again yet in a playlist that's supposed to last 26 hours with no repeats it's repeating after 30 Minutes if not less.

  • by Sparky87,

    Sparky87 Sparky87 Nov 19, 2015 5:48 AM in response to wetsprocket
    Level 1 (14 points)
    iPhone
    Nov 19, 2015 5:48 AM in response to wetsprocket

    wetsprocket wrote:

     

    SO here's my input.  I use my iPhone to play 12-14 new albums (150+ tracks) on shuffle each week in my car.   I Bluetooth to the factory stereo.   The display on the stereo gives me a track number, so even though the playlist is randomized, I get a running count on how many of the songs I've heard, and the assigned track number stays consistent until I reshuffle.   So if I note that piano man is track 17 and if I want to hear it again without screwing up the shuffle, I can go back to hear #17 and then skip forward to wherever I was without causing a reshuffle.

     

    SO this is what I've noticed (this is an example.   The actual numbers are different every time):   the app plays track 1,2,3,4,5 and then plays 2, then goes back to 6-14 like nothing happened.   Then it'll go back to 6,7,8 and then pick up again at 15-25.   It isn't reshuffling, because the track numbers all stay the same.  It just decides to go play those tracks again.   If I skip forward through the replays, I eventually get to the end of the playlist. 

     

    One anomaly is that a few times it was displaying all of the replayed tracks as track #62553. 

    This seems to be the best example of what the problem is in my opinion

  • by janfromwilliamson,

    janfromwilliamson janfromwilliamson Nov 19, 2015 7:15 PM in response to Sparky87
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Nov 19, 2015 7:15 PM in response to Sparky87

    Amen.

  • by Bob Maguire,

    Bob Maguire Bob Maguire Nov 20, 2015 10:01 AM in response to queue169
    Level 1 (65 points)
    Nov 20, 2015 10:01 AM in response to queue169

    I have this exact same problem, too. After playing around with it for quite a bit, I think I found a way to properly shuffle a playlist.

     

    Let's assume for starters that I'm not currently playing anything, and the Up Next queue is empty.

     

    - Go to the Playlists view in the Music app

    - Start the playlist

         + Tap the playlist thumbnail, or

         + Tap the 3-bullet icon on the right, and tap Play Next, or

         + Tap the 3-bullet icon on the right, and tap Add to Up Next

    [Near as I can tell, if the queue is currently empty, all three of those options behave identically.]

    - Bring up the player screen

    - Tap the little Up Next icon to bring up the Up Next screen

    - It'll read: "UP NEXT: FROM {playlist-name}"

    - Tap clear, and confirm by tapping "Clear Up Next"

    - Tap "Done" to get out of the Up Next screen

    - You should be back in the player screen with whatever song currently playing

    - Go back to where you started the play list from and this time use only either of:

         + The 3-bullet icon on the right, and tap Play Next, or

         + The 3-bullet icon on the right, and tap Add to Up Next

    - Bring up the player screen again

    - Tap the little Up Next icon to bring up the Up Next screen

    - It now reads: "UP NEXT: {# of songs} SONGS"

     

    It seems to me, once Up Next gets into this "mode" where it shows the upcoming song count instead, that the playlist is properly shuffled and it shows all songs in the Up Next list.

     

    When it's only showing "FROM {playlist-name}", Up Next only shows the first 20 matches it found from that playlist. Maybe I'm imagining it, but I think when it's in this "mode" it's not properly shuffling the songs, but only picking them randomly without accounting for past songs. It also seems to favour my higher rated and "hearted" tracks, because it's those ones that seem to be repeated more frequently.

     

    It gets even weirder if you don't clear Up Next the first time. Let's say you didn't clear the queue when it was in "FROM {playlist-name}" mode, and then added the playlist to Up Next using the 3-bullet "Play Next" option. You still put it in the "{# of songs} SONGS" mode, and I assume it's shuffled, but if you now clear the queue, it doesn't actually clear the queue, it only clears out the 2nd sets of songs you added, and puts it back in the "FROM {playlist-name}" mode.

     

    So it seems Up Next isn't just one queue, but two. A default one that's context aware (i.e. it initiates differently depending on how you start playing a song; via Songs, Artists, Albums, Playlists, etc...), and a second one that you can manually add to that takes precedence.

     

    I think it's that first (or "outer") queue that isn't shuffling properly. So when you re-add the playlist the second time, you're adding it to the second (or "inner") queue in an explicitly shuffled order.

     

    P.S. Don't get me started on how broken the Back button is! Maybe a better person than me can figure it out, because I can't make heads or tails of it.

  • by Jarathen,

    Jarathen Jarathen Nov 20, 2015 10:13 AM in response to Bob Maguire
    Level 1 (19 points)
    Nov 20, 2015 10:13 AM in response to Bob Maguire

    This actually makes sense. I feel like Shuffle isn't truly random but circles around given genres, artists, or albums when I Shuffle All. And both implementations you outlined align with my experience since Apple Music went live.

     

    It's like Apple wants a Smart Shuffle that's more like the radio, when NO ONE WANTS THAT.

     

    But I will share your tips with my wife, Bob. She has a work playlist and it drives her nuts to see it repeat so soon. It took me a minute to figure it out, but I did, and I see what you mean. This could be GREAT for making playlists work and allow me to use playlists the way I did for years before this.

first Previous Page 5 of 14 last Next