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Level 1

38 points

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

Best reply

danasfletcher

Level 1

9 points

Posted on Jan 12, 2017 9:23 AM

I think I've figured out an alternate option. I have over 2,500 songs on my phone and seeing the same ones in the queue after I've purposely skipped them is maddening! After reading several of these comments I went into the Songs folder. In the top right-hand corner there's a red "Sort" option. I noticed that mine was sorting songs by Artist rather than Song Title. I switched it and now I'm seeing new songs! Literally just did it though so only time will tell if that's the issue we've all been encountering.

Slainte.

View in context

246 replies

May 19, 2016 5:55 PM in response to Sparky87

Just to verify, you're running the latest IOS, right? I've noticed an improvement since updating, but it seems others haven't.

May 20, 2016 8:02 AM in response to LishAt

Still having same problem in May 2016 on version 9.3.2.

Sparky87

Level 1

39 points

May 20, 2016 10:51 AM in response to janfromwilliamson

Really? Look man I've been dealing with this problem since day one of it existing (in 8.4 when Apple Music was released) yes I'm on the newest os and yes the problem persists. This isn't something that you or I can fix with little tricks or work arounds. It's a widespread problem that I effecting EVERY ios device and apple refuses to take responsibility. They won't you to reset your device or start from scratch or whatever but none of it will work. I have had this problem on my iphone 4s my iPad Air and my new iPhone 6s Plus which is a fresh device started from scratch n not a backup. The problem is that apple will not acknowledge there is a problem with their software and immediatly blame you and your device. What is it going to take to get Apple to fix the **** problem once and for all?!?

LV4NYG

Level 1

4 points

May 21, 2016 5:45 AM in response to Sparky87

Yeah I did a reset all settings thing. Didn't help. I was wonder though, when I first setup Apple Music it did those bubble thing of what I like really like and love of different genres and artists and all that. This the have that affecting our playlists?

May 31, 2016 6:06 AM in response to queue169

Alright Apple this is getting really stupid. You've clearly ****** off a lot of music listeners, this thread has been going on for quite some time, and not a single employee from Apple seems to want to bother addressing this issue. ADDRESS THE ISSUE ALREADY, AND THEN GET IT FIXED!

Since the 8.4 update you've pretty much ruined what used to be a perfect format and a very enjoyable experience. I spent an awful lot of money on a 128GB iphone 6 so that I could load the vast majority of my music collection on to my phone, as I use it while I work, commute, at the gym etc. and 8.4 has basically made me regret this purchase. Had I known that this OS would ruin my music playlists I would have just switched to an Android from my old iphone 4, or just stuck with 8.3 forever.

I have numerous different music playlists created on my phone, and I generally like to put one on, on random, until it finishes. What used to happen, is that when opening up a playlist, it would actually list the track number for you, so you knew where you had progressed in your playlist (ex. track 36 of 250). Also, it would NEVER, EVER, repeat any songs until said playlist had finished! Now, it's basically a free-for-all crap-shoot when putting a playlist on shuffle. I may not hear the same song for 30-40 songs sometimes, but that's a rarity. In a playlist of say 300 songs, I might sometimes hear the same song three of four times within a 25 song span, which is utterly ridiculous. In a playlist of say, 300 songs, I should only hear 300 SONGS total for the duration of that playlist!! Also it shouldn't take me 500 songs to listen to a playlist of only 300 songs! It doesn't even bother telling me what track number I'm on anymore either.

I even placed to a call to Apple's customer support centre shortly after the 8.4 update and got someone who said she would look into it, put me on hold for a really long time, and then came back on the phone, said hello? about 30 times pretending that she could not hear me back and then hung up on me.

Apple, seriously, fix this mess. Or at least create a patch so that those who choose to do so can revert their music player to the old version! Something! Do something! If you don't fix this, or at the very least address it, then I'm sure myself and plenty of other music lovers that are particular with their music won't have any issues giving our hard earned money to Google instead.

How many people on this thread wanna place bets that Apple will still just keep ignoring us?

May 31, 2016 6:37 PM in response to Birdseed83

Amen!

LV4NYG

Level 1

4 points

May 31, 2016 6:49 PM in response to Birdseed83

AApple *****

tthey can't keep us here forever.

Ad Hoc

Level 1

4 points

Jun 20, 2016 12:08 PM in response to queue169

I've had this problem with my past few iPhones (I'm now on the 6S Plus) and corresponding IOS versions. I don't have playlists - I just shuffle all my music. But I found a fix that works for me. I switch from shuffle to direct play, which is my songs alphabeticall, and play through one or two songs. I then switch back to Shuffle and it starts shuffling new songs again. Not an ideal situation but Apple hasn't fixed this for a few years (and I don't expect them to any time soon). This method works for me. Plus, when I direct play I sometimes get to hear songs I haven't heard in a long time.

Hope this helps.

E9TOU

Level 1

4 points

Jun 22, 2016 10:18 AM in response to Ad Hoc

I have the same problem and it's super annoying. I listen to my iphone at work and I like to go through playlists but I can't anymore because the shuffle feature is nonexistent. I wish Apple would do something about it but they're too concerned with the latest emoji's or removing features that people enjoy and use a lot! **** you Apple for ruining something that worked great.

hnnr03

Level 1

4 points

Jul 1, 2016 10:36 PM in response to E9TOU

I've been using the Cesium music player app now since March. Unlike the Apple music player app, Cesium shuffles playlists with no subsequent repeats. Cesium also shows the number of songs remaining, like Apple's music player used to do. I only use Cesium these days, saving me the aggravation of having to listen to repeated play list songs ever again. I don't miss the Apple music player app at all. Doubt I will ever go back to it, even if they get their act together and finally resolve this issue. Not holding my breath...

Jul 5, 2016 6:16 PM in response to queue169

I don't have this issue on the iMac - just my iPhone 6+ and have had it for a long time - yes I make sure repeat is off every time. I wonder how you take something that worked for years and break it and can't geet it back

Jul 6, 2016 11:22 AM in response to hnnr03

Thanks for posting about that app, I'm using now and it is much much better than apple music.

queue169 Author

Level 1

38 points

Jul 6, 2016 12:42 PM in response to queue169

Wow. You forget to check in on a thread for almost a year....

I'm thrilled to be still having the same exact problem a year later (my iPhone 6 is currently updated to 9.3.2 [13F69]). And what's really exciting is that now the Music app comes with the helpful ability to reorder songs in the upcoming queue, which is especially great because it finally provides some visual evidence of the shuffle problem:

As a note, I started off this playlist by clicking shuffle. I haven't hit pause, or clicked around, or selected a new track, or done anything else to interfere with the queue except to open it up and look at it. I just listened to "Killing Time" two songs ago, and it's coming up again four songs from now. It's a great song, but I JUST listened to it. (This isn't actually the worst it's ever been. A few weeks ago I was on a long car trip and I had the same song play three times in a row, and was queued up to play again two songs later.)

I have a friend who works in Apple tech support, who gave me the usual "erase and clean install." It didn't work. Is there any hope at this point of getting through to Apple in a way that will actually resolve the problem--especially now that we can visually document it?

Ad Hoc

Level 1

4 points

Jul 6, 2016 12:44 PM in response to hnnr03

I'm not spending money on an app that just does what iTunes does. Every now and then, if I hear a repeat song, I just turn shuffle off for a song and turn it back on. Works every time. Sure the app is only $2 but it's the principl. Will Apple ever fix this? Don't know but I don't really have even negligible time devoted to switch from shuffle and back.

Jul 7, 2016 2:04 PM in response to queue169

I can also confirm that wiping your iPhone and setting it up from scratch as a new device did NOT correct the problem, I had a Led Zepplin song play back-to-back 4 songs into my playlist despite their song being in my playlist only once and that playlist having over 100 songs in it. It'd sure be great if Apple would at least acknowledge the bug and say they're working on a fix, even if we won't get it until September when iOS 10 is released.

Is anyone out there an Apple public beta tester and testing iOS 10? If so are you still seeing this issue?

Songs keep repeating when I shuffle a playlist