Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference to kick off June 10 at 10 a.m. PDT with Keynote address

The Keynote will be available to stream on apple.com, the Apple Developer app, the Apple TV app, and the Apple YouTube channel. On-demand playback will be available after the conclusion of the stream.

You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple ID, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

queue169 Author

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

Jarathen

Level 1

23 points

Sep 15, 2015 8:09 AM in response to Sparky87

Very much so. The app seems to lose your place and restart from the home page if you're away from it, or at best a song is back at zero seconds even if you're well into it.

Apple Music in 8.4 and post is pretty rough.

kml815

Level 1

0 points

Sep 15, 2015 11:39 AM in response to MajorIP4

THANK YOU! Finally someone answered the question I had! I normally don't see the "now playing" screen, just the screen with the play list and couldn't figure out why it kept repeating the same song over and over again after I clicked the shuffle button.

Jarathen

Level 1

23 points

Sep 17, 2015 5:26 AM in response to Sparky87

I did some light shuffle testing last night and didn't encounter any of this problem. I am testing it again, more thoroughly, today.

The Music app has definitely been nipped and tucked in various areas. The app definitely feels more appropriate to the feel of iOS, and I'm crossing my fingers I can properly shuffle again.

LishAt

Level 1

0 points

Sep 17, 2015 11:33 AM in response to Jarathen

It still happens. You just get lucky sometimes. I played 7 songs just now and songs #3 and #7 were the same. Ridiculous.

Jarathen

Level 1

23 points

Sep 17, 2015 11:36 AM in response to LishAt

I ran a 45 song playlist and found it was mostly fine, but like five songs played at the end that had already played, though not in order. Now I'm playing a 100-song playlist to see what shakes out. I'd love a full fix, but at this point I'd accept improvement.

LishAt

Level 1

0 points

Sep 17, 2015 11:48 AM in response to Jarathen

The problem is sporadic, for sure. Sometimes it plays the same artist several times in a row, causing me to check my settings; the program should be smart enough to randomize the artists. There are dozens in this playlist. Whatever... First World problems. Just thought I'd add my voice to the small chorus, for what it's worth.

Sep 18, 2015 12:39 PM in response to LishAt

I just wanted to add my complaint to this. It's really annoying to hear the same songs several times in a large playlist and not hear others at all. I'm actually thinking about not getting a new iphone because of this. I really hope they fix this soon (before the 6s is in stores) so I can upgrade my phone with out regrets.

LishAt

Level 1

0 points

Sep 18, 2015 12:44 PM in response to MotoCynic

My iPad played the same song twice in a row, just now. I've been hearing good things about Samsung phones... perish the thought.

Sep 18, 2015 12:58 PM in response to LishAt

My Wife just got a Galaxy S6,(and loves it) I'm holding out, but I use the music player every day for hours and it really ***** to have to listen to the same song several times... I don't know how something like this got lost in the upgrade. Seems so basic.

LishAt

Level 1

0 points

Sep 18, 2015 1:54 PM in response to MotoCynic

Agreed.

Sparky87

Level 1

39 points

Sep 19, 2015 1:23 PM in response to LishAt

Since updating to iOS 9 on my iPad I have yet to notice these problems. I've even hit pause, come back the next day and started the song up where I left off like I used to be able to. Also haven't had any repeats that I have noticed, and this is spanning two 8 hour shifts at work. So in 16 hours of nonstop I haven't had it repeat, where as before it would almost every hour or more

LishAt

Level 1

0 points

Sep 19, 2015 8:16 PM in response to Sparky87

I had just finished updating when I had the same song twice in a row issue yesterday... glad it's working better for you, though!

Sparky87

Level 1

39 points

Sep 21, 2015 6:29 AM in response to LishAt

Scratch that! I just finished the weekend, 16 hours of my 26 hour playlist,without hearing a repeat. But now Monday coming back to the playlist there's already some repeats that I heard on the weekend without me having restarted or even enfing the playlist. looks like the problems are still there!

Jarathen

Level 1

23 points

Sep 22, 2015 8:24 AM in response to Sparky87

Same, Sparky. I was good last week but today it's rearing its ugly head again. Shuffle is still broken.

kml815

Level 1

0 points

Sep 23, 2015 12:42 PM in response to Jarathen

here is my theory. I have an existing playlist that i recently added songs to. I've noticed that when i shuffle the revised play list it will play the new songs added more often and often repeat it right after it played the song. I'm thinking it has to do with the internal count of how many times each song is played in the list when it is on shuffle. (so itunes knows which songs it has played in the list when it is on shuffle) Since the new songs have the fewer number of plays, itunes is trying to catch those songs up to the number of times the original list of songs have played. (ie Songs A-H have played 10 times, songs I-Z have only played 5 times so it is playing songs I-Z more times to catch up to A-H songs play count). Just a theory but it sounds logical.

Songs keep repeating when I shuffle a playlist