iOS 13 music: turning on Shuffle turns off Repeat

I teach group fitness, so on all my playlists my default choice is repeat all, no shuffle. In the past, if I did want to shuffle a playlist, I would always choose the big Shuffle button at the top right (next to the big Play button), and the result was it shuffled my playlist but kept the repeat setting on. When it had gone through every song in the playlist on shuffle, it just kept going, but with an entirely new random shuffle. I could listen to a playlist ad infinitem and the chances of hearing the same two songs back to back were pretty small. Interestingly, when I swiped up to the Now Playing tab and clicked the three dots or whatever the old setting was to find the tiny shuffle and repeat icons, the shuffle icon would be dark (even though it was technically shuffling), and the repeat icon would be highlighted. In other words, clicking the Shuffle button did not change my normal settings.


Since upgrading to iOS 13, hitting the big Shuffle button automatically turns off repeat. I can verify this by swiping up on the Now Playing tab, clicking the shuffle/repeat menu icon on the bottom right, and seeing that the little Shuffle icon is highlighted, the Repeat is not. When the playlist ends, it does not start again. If I manually go in and turn repeat on, it will repeat the shuffled playlist... but in the same order every time. It does not get to the end and reshuffle like it used to.


If I choose the big Play button, it plays the playlist straight, but Repeat is off. On the other hand, if I just click the first song in the playlist, it will play straight through with Repeat on. This is good news because it means I don't have to scramble to make sure my settings are correct for my group fitness classes (play straight, repeat on).


But it sure is irritating to have to restart and reshuffle the playlist at the end every time, when Apple Music used to take care of this for me. It's also irritating to have my shuffled playlist start all over again, clearly in the same order. That's jarringly boring, it defeats the purpose of shuffling to begin with. Why am I having to do all the work now, Apple? You had a good thing going and now you "shuffled" it all up.

iPhone XR, iOS 13

Posted on Jan 6, 2020 1:02 PM

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2 replies

Feb 9, 2020 9:02 AM in response to chris_g1

@chris_g1, I appreciate your response. However, I have tried all of the above already. In fact, after the recent update to iOS 13.3.1, I tried all the shuffle options again, and they are still behaving exactly as described above. If I hit Shuffle, it turns off repeat. If I manually turn Repeat on, it plays the newly shuffled playlist on repeat, in the exact same shuffled order ad infinitem. If I start playing the playlist from the beginning song, it turns Repeat backs on and plays the songs in order, continuously. Is no one else experiencing this? It sure looks like this is an intended design feature with iOS 13 -- albeit a very unwelcome one.

Jan 8, 2020 3:24 PM in response to kittrzeb

Hello kittrzeb,


Thanks for reaching out with your question. I can understand wanting to have the Shuffle and Repeat options working correctly on your device. I'd like to have you start with a few basic troubleshooting steps. Please let me know if you continue to have issues after following each of these steps:


  • If you have not tried already, please restart the device. Does this help to resolve the issue?
  • Do you have any available iOS software updates? Here's how to check: Update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch


Please keep me posted with the results of these steps.


Best regards!

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iOS 13 music: turning on Shuffle turns off Repeat

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