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

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Q: Songs keep repeating when I shuffle a playlist

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  • by swandy,

    swandy swandy Jan 14, 2016 11:53 AM in response to Jarathen
    Level 4 (1,549 points)
    Apple Music
    Jan 14, 2016 11:53 AM in response to Jarathen

    I have 4 iOS devices and they all say that 9.2 is the most recent release. Where did you hear that 9.3 "is getting out there"? Are you sure you are not reading about a beta release?

    Thanks.

  • by Jarathen,

    Jarathen Jarathen Jan 14, 2016 11:55 AM in response to swandy
    Level 1 (19 points)
    Jan 14, 2016 11:55 AM in response to swandy

    Sorry I didn't clarify, I did mean beta release.

  • by swandy,

    swandy swandy Jan 14, 2016 7:47 PM in response to Jarathen
    Level 4 (1,549 points)
    Apple Music
    Jan 14, 2016 7:47 PM in response to Jarathen

    Jarathen wrote:

     

    Sorry I didn't clarify, I did mean beta release.

    Probably not going to get any responses about the beta software as people who participate in the beta programs are not supposed to post here. (I know because I did the betas for iOS 9 and El Capitan until the official releases.) You might have better luck at sites like iMore or Mac Rumors forums.

  • by whodatwhere,

    whodatwhere whodatwhere Jan 18, 2016 8:22 AM in response to swandy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 18, 2016 8:22 AM in response to swandy

    6 pages, 3 months, and one update later...no fix. Apple: Terrible, take a lap. I was so hopeful when the new update mentioned music. But still hearing the same songs after a shuffle. When I start getting many repeats I re-hit shuffle like mentioned above but inevitably it repeats again.

  • by Morgabed,

    Morgabed Morgabed Jan 31, 2016 1:38 PM in response to whodatwhere
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 31, 2016 1:38 PM in response to whodatwhere

    Why there's no fix for something that worked well on iPods of early generation? May be it's because Apple programmers don't want to change the algorithm they put in the shuffle for some commercial reasons that I don't understand... I think this thread shows many of us just want a simple shuffle, not an algorithm.

  • by crabbyapp,

    crabbyapp crabbyapp Feb 17, 2016 1:53 PM in response to justric
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 17, 2016 1:53 PM in response to justric

    FRUSTRATING.

  • by crabbyapp,

    crabbyapp crabbyapp Feb 17, 2016 1:54 PM in response to crabbyapp
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 17, 2016 1:54 PM in response to crabbyapp

    THIS SHUFFLE BUG NEEDS TO BE FIXED.

     

    SHUFFLE on my iphone does not work without repeating songs as discussed in this thread. Seems fine in itunes on my desktop - so why the iphone is not working???

     

    It really ***** - I can't make it through my playlist and hear all of my songs because when I come back I hear same songs again.


    Is there maybe another MUSIC PLAYING APP that we can use? Surely there must be a player where shuffle works on the iphone.

     

    It's very clear this is a problem and is very distressing that there is no way to find out if there is a fix or if Apple is even working on this. This really ***** and is frustrating. Even though this "bug" affects a lot of people who passionately are upset about it there seems to be no hope.

     

    How do big companies get away with this poor kind of customer support?

  • by gonorrheagoat,

    gonorrheagoat gonorrheagoat Feb 23, 2016 11:42 AM in response to crabbyapp
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 23, 2016 11:42 AM in response to crabbyapp

    Oh man, the shuffle-repeat issue has been driving me absolutely up the wall. This is like proverbial Chinese torture. Why on Earth would Apple remove this feature? It worked great before! Utterly unfathomable!

  • by randy98mtu,

    randy98mtu randy98mtu Feb 24, 2016 5:32 AM in response to queue169
    Level 1 (30 points)
    Feb 24, 2016 5:32 AM in response to queue169

    This shuffle business was driving me nuts as well.  I have found a fix that I actually prefer over just shuffling now.  I utilize multiple nested smart playlists to keep things fresh in what I am listening to, but still favor things I like more.  I also switch back and forth throughout the day between my iPad and my iPhone for listening.  One other quick thing to mention has been pointed out in this thread before I think; your playlist sync's to your device in the same "sort order" as you have displayed in iTunes.

     

    Knowing that, if you click on the left most sort column in playlist > songs view, it is no longer really "sorted"  It's just an order.  Now in your playlist settings, check the "Limit to" box, give it a number of songs, and use "random"  Boom, your playlist is shuffled.  AND it will stay in that order until the next time you sync.  AND you can reorder songs by dragging them, if you want to hear certain songs on your commute in the morning, for example.  AND when I switch from my phone in the car to my iPad at my desk, I can just start from the song I left off with in my car and start that one on my iPad.  Every night I sync, I uncheck the "limit to" box and hit ok, then I edit the list again and turn the limit back on and it re-shuffles the list.  I have been doing this for a few weeks now and I no longer miss "shuffle"

     

    Hope some people find this helpful.

  • by iluvmyLulu2,

    iluvmyLulu2 iluvmyLulu2 Feb 27, 2016 9:44 AM in response to joelcab26
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 27, 2016 9:44 AM in response to joelcab26

    This is incredibly frustrating.  Playlists will not shuffle on my iPhone and same song repeats over and over.  I thought the problem was connected when I stopped my subscription to Beats 1, etc.  I agree; until this is fixed I'm going back to Spotify.

  • by Tomfinsf,

    Tomfinsf Tomfinsf Mar 5, 2016 1:07 PM in response to iluvmyLulu2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 5, 2016 1:07 PM in response to iluvmyLulu2

    I just update my IPhone 6S.  Playlists won't shuffle at all.  Just keeps playing same song over and over.?  Anyone run across a fix for this.

  • by McCartney 123,

    McCartney 123 McCartney 123 Mar 7, 2016 5:20 PM in response to Tomfinsf
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mar 7, 2016 5:20 PM in response to Tomfinsf

    I haven't downloaded the latest and greatest software update for the iphone (9.2.1).   Has anyone had any luck with this update fixing any of the umpteen problems with the ipod?

  • by Barakonda,

    Barakonda Barakonda Mar 8, 2016 8:34 AM in response to randy98mtu
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 8, 2016 8:34 AM in response to randy98mtu

    Fix? This is about 1000000000% more trouble than nessesary for a simple shuffle.

    and btw this bug is since ios8.4 and still hasn't been fixed even in the newest build of the public beta, even though I put several bug report on this

  • by McCartney 123,

    McCartney 123 McCartney 123 Mar 8, 2016 3:52 PM in response to Barakonda
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mar 8, 2016 3:52 PM in response to Barakonda

    Apple has become Samsung's best free advertisement.

  • by damienfromhorley,

    damienfromhorley damienfromhorley Mar 14, 2016 2:43 AM in response to MajorIP4
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 14, 2016 2:43 AM in response to MajorIP4

    My Iphone 6s kept playing the same track, even though I kept clearing the Play next queue.

    I disabled BOTH SHUFFLE and REPEAT options. Then go back to Shuffle. This resolved it for me.

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