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Apple Music on Alexa won’t shuffle playlists

The Apple Music skill for Alexa is broken and won’t allow users to shuffle playlists either by a direct voice command or playlists in a Alexa routine.

Search the internet for “Alexa Apple Music shuffle” and you’ll get a lot of people saying the same.

Both companies blame each other when you reach out for support to either, which does mot help consumers.

But it is my Amazon provides an API for developers like Apple to use so their music service can run on the Alexa platform, and it’s Apple Music that responds to requests for a shuffled playlist .

It’s clearly an Apple issue - please fix it. I am paying for Apple Music every month and the service should just work .

if anyone has any workarounds that actually work I would be grateful if you can let me know.

Posted on Dec 23, 2020 2:19 PM

Similar questions

35 replies

Feb 1, 2021 10:51 PM in response to Londonmediaman

According to a thread on an Amazon forum, where this issue was raised, shuffle on playlists on the Apple Music Alexa skill should now be working. I am not convinced that it is working properly. What do others think?

The response is on the 2nd page of this thread, from Ryan (Amazon Staff):-

https://www.amazonforum.com/s/question/0D54P00007tN7WESA0/no-shuffle-on-apple-music-playlists

Feb 2, 2021 3:10 AM in response to campo-espana

I just don’t get it. If Spotify playlists can be shuffled either with a direct command “Alexa turn on shuffle mode” or “Alexa play my xx playlist shuffled” or the myriad of other shuffle commands why can’t Apple Music? Both Streaming services use the same API Amazon offers them. Apple Music isn’t offered as a freebie on Amazon Alexa. It is a paid service and it shouldn’t be broken like this for so long. It’s frankly embarrassing from a company like Apple

Doc_Sea

Level 1

4 points

Feb 2, 2021 4:06 PM in response to Londonmediaman

So, I keep checking in here to see if anyone has found a solution? I too have spent much time on chats with both Amazon and Apple and both claim it should be working! My last Apple call actually said they tried shuffle on their device and it worked. When I ask my Echo to shuffle songs, it replies “Shuffle mode on” but will only shuffle the songs from the current group playing and not the dozens of other artists in the playlist? I think it should just shuffle ALL the music in the playlist, just like on my phone. I tried “shuffle playlist” but it just opens my station and starts to play songs unrelated to the current playlist. If anyone comes up with the correct request language to accomplish a normal shuffle- please share here. I’ll keep checking back!

Feb 2, 2021 4:49 PM in response to Doc_Sea

I was thinking that this behavior was related to the playlist having been a composition of albums as opposed to individual 'songs'. However, I haven't checked that out thoroughly. If I find that that is the case, I'll report it.

Feb 3, 2021 12:54 AM in response to slothinker

It seems to be down to Amazon to fix this and a very recent message on the thread (see below) from Amazon claim that this has been fixed. I would urge people here who are experiencing this problem to add to the Amazon thread in order to make it clear that the problem has NOT been fixed!

https://www.amazonforum.com/s/question/0D54P00007tN7WESA0/no-shuffle-on-apple-music-playlists

claybae

Level 1

4 points

Feb 20, 2021 9:14 PM in response to Londonmediaman

Not the best solution, and someone may have already mentioned it, but here’s what I’ve been doing:

Connect my iPhone to the Echo as a Bluetooth speaker. Shuffle the playlist on my phone. You can still use voice control to play/pause/skip/volume. Something definitely still needs to be fixed on the Apple side, but this works for now.

Doc_Sea

Level 1

4 points

Feb 21, 2021 4:09 AM in response to claybae

I have tried this before and it does work. My problem is that I have my Echo Bluetooth linked to the home stereo (which sounds great) but does not allow me to use this trick.

Oddly, Echo has been sort of shuffling tracks for me over the past week. It will typically shuffle just the first 10 songs on a playlist of a hundred or so songs. So better, but not fully functional.

Mar 14, 2021 1:16 PM in response to slothinker

My experience as well. Shuffles current album and not entire playlist. Drives me crazy!

Jan 13, 2021 9:24 PM in response to Paullemagne

Adding my frustration for this issue. All of the sudden this skill stopped working. Extra frustrating. Apple please fix!

Jan 16, 2021 8:53 AM in response to Seanner

mine worked until a couple of days ago too. hoping they fix it soon since listening to playlists in the same order each time gets very boring. hopefully all this feedback will get them somewhere.