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 Bob Maguire,

    Bob Maguire Bob Maguire Nov 20, 2015 10:50 AM in response to Jarathen
    Level 1 (65 points)
    Nov 20, 2015 10:50 AM in response to Jarathen

    Yes, it makes sense in that very Apple-ly way that they do things. They're trying to be helpful, and when they nail it, it's awesome. When they don't, though, it's the worst thing ever!

  • by Sparky87,

    Sparky87 Sparky87 Nov 20, 2015 11:09 AM in response to Bob Maguire
    Level 1 (14 points)
    iPhone
    Nov 20, 2015 11:09 AM in response to Bob Maguire

    Bob Although your hints and tricks may be helpful, that's too much effort and work for something that we shouldn't have to put this effort into. Let's not forget That the program is broken and needs to be fixed and apple isn't doing ANYTHING to fix it, **** they aren't even acknowledging it.


    Now another thing that has been a problem in conjunction with songs being repeated or skipped is songs not continuing from the point they were last played. Literally just this afternoon I was editing some metadata on some new music and found some options in iTunes that I found bothersome. Each individual song file now has 2 clickable options. Those options are "continue playing where left off and" "skip song in shuffle" so now, it seems, we have to manually go into each song file and allow or un allow this... I wonder if this may be part of the problem....

  • by Jarathen,

    Jarathen Jarathen Nov 20, 2015 11:17 AM in response to Sparky87
    Level 1 (19 points)
    Nov 20, 2015 11:17 AM in response to Sparky87

    It's part of Apple's larger movement away from dedicated music fans towards casual fans and "smart shuffling" seems like an extension of it.

     

    Wired just did a whole piece about how they're moving away from the type of library curation many of us used to enjoy.

     

    http://www.wired.com/2015/11/itunes-alternatives/

  • by Sparky87,

    Sparky87 Sparky87 Nov 20, 2015 11:22 AM in response to Jarathen
    Level 1 (14 points)
    iPhone
    Nov 20, 2015 11:22 AM in response to Jarathen

    Jarathen, i didnt read the article yet however you would think that this newer cra ppier smart shuffle system would be a clickable option instead of forcing it down our throats! I like managing my own library and having a proper shuffle system.

  • by Jarathen,

    Jarathen Jarathen Nov 20, 2015 11:27 AM in response to Sparky87
    Level 1 (19 points)
    Nov 20, 2015 11:27 AM in response to Sparky87

    Yes. It's atrocious. I hate it. I used to manage my music manually in iTunes and I loved it. Then my devices stopped syncing properly and I went with Apple Match. Now I'm on Apple Music and I like the selection, but the implementation is still rough, and Shuffle ***** hard.

  • by Bob Maguire,

    Bob Maguire Bob Maguire Nov 20, 2015 11:56 AM in response to Bob Maguire
    Level 1 (65 points)
    Nov 20, 2015 11:56 AM in response to Bob Maguire

    Based on my previous observation about there appearing to be two Up Next queues (an "outer" one and an "inner" one), I think I have a slightly firmer grasp on what's going on with the Back button.

     

    Like before, I'll start with nothing playing and an empty queue. I'll use playlists for my example because, like me, I think that's all that anyone in this thread cares about.

     

    Pretend I have two playlists called Alphabet1 and Alphabet2 with the following songs:

    Alphabet1:

    A

    B

    C

    D

    E

    F

     

    Alphabet2:

    G

    H

    I

    J

    K

    L

     

    [I won't bother shuffling because it's immaterial for this demonstration.]

     

    - I start playlist Alphabet1

    - A starts playing and Up Next shows B, C, D, E, F

    [Alphabet1 is now playing in the "outer" queue.]

    - I skip ahead through A and B

    - C is now playing

    - I go back and 3-bullet "Play Next" on Alphabet2

    - C is still playing but Up Next now shows 6 songs (G, H, I, J, K, L)

    [I'm still in the "outer" queue.]

    - I skip C

    - G is now playing

    [I'm now in the "inner" queue.]

    - I skip G

    - H is now playing

    [Here's where things get weird.]

    - I hit Back, and it takes me back to C!

    [I'm now back in the "outer" queue. When G finished playing (or was skipped), it was removed from the "inner" queue. H then became the front of the "inner" queue. Hitting back past the front of a playlist normally stops, but because we're only in the "inner" queue, playback defaults back to where we were in the "outer" queue. Thus C.]

    - I skip C

    - I is now playing

    [It would seem skipping back through the "inner" queue also removes that song from the "inner" queue, so H was removed when I skipped back, making I the new front of the "inner" queue.]

    - I hit Back and I'm back at C again

    - I hit Back and now B is playing

    - Back again and now A is playing

    - Back once more and everything stops.

     

    So what does this tell us? It tells us that we can properly shuffle a playlist by adding it to the "inner" queue, but we completely lose the ability to use the Back and Forward buttons in a non-destructive way.

     

    And to add insult to injury, when a song finishes playing from the "inner" queue, it gets listed in History, but you can't get back to it using the Back button because it's been removed completely from the queue.

     

    This has got to be a bug. There's no way this is supposed to be the intended behaviour. I'll file a bug report. Hopefully with more detail of what's going on, they'll be able to fix it.

     

    I think I just stumbled upon another bug. When I skip forward through a song in the "inner" queue, and then skip back to go back to the "outer" queue, and then just let it play naturally without skipping forward, the next song it selects is the original first song in the "inner" queue (the one I skipped forward past). Up Next shows the next will be the next song in the "inner" queue, but once this original first song finishes playing, it just stops playing. Probably because it fell into whatever weird timeline the original first song I skipped was put into (a playlist of one?) and playback stops because it reached the end.

  • by EricM710,

    EricM710 EricM710 Nov 21, 2015 5:36 PM in response to Sparky87
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 21, 2015 5:36 PM in response to Sparky87

    Agreed. This stinks. I listened to a playlist with over 500 songs over an hour and the same 5 -10 songs played at least 2 times each.

  • by colcat59,

    colcat59 colcat59 Nov 22, 2015 11:26 AM in response to queue169
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 22, 2015 11:26 AM in response to queue169

    I have this same issue with not cycling through the entire playlist (555 songs) before repeating.  It started happening the update before last.  it is driving me crazy considering I purchased all of these songs and have always been able to trust that it cycles though all 500+ songs.  It is totally driving me crazy!!!  I don't know why Apple had to screw around with something that was working fine.  Totally disgusted!!!

  • by Sparky87,

    Sparky87 Sparky87 Nov 23, 2015 5:46 AM in response to colcat59
    Level 1 (14 points)
    iPhone
    Nov 23, 2015 5:46 AM in response to colcat59

    So we are at 6 pages in the forum and there's quite a few individuals with this problem.... When will apple actually acknowledge that there's a problem?

  • by Jarathen,

    Jarathen Jarathen Nov 23, 2015 6:05 AM in response to Sparky87
    Level 1 (19 points)
    Nov 23, 2015 6:05 AM in response to Sparky87

    It is my hope that Bob Maguire, who has surely given this issue more attention than Apple has, will find his bug report successful. He's also figured out a workaround that, while not ideal, requires four button presses and then allows you to enjoy Shuffle the way you once did before. And it's a far sight better than our other option before (you know, NO OPTION).

  • by Donstil-NL,

    Donstil-NL Donstil-NL Nov 23, 2015 4:04 PM in response to queue169
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 23, 2015 4:04 PM in response to queue169

    Ooh whow I am not the only one with this problem. It's annoying me from the start of Apple Music (Before that i used Spotify).

     

    I have a playlist with 200 or so songs in it (Feel free to listen to it btw) but the music app keeps giving me the same numbers and it are always the same song witch come back . Hate it. lets hope apple is going to fix this.

     

    (I am on 9.2 Closed beta now, but it's there from the Start of Apple Music)

  • by David Kent,

    David Kent David Kent Nov 27, 2015 9:52 PM in response to Donstil-NL
    Level 1 (19 points)
    Notebooks
    Nov 27, 2015 9:52 PM in response to Donstil-NL

    Adding one more voice to this chorus, not that it will make a difference. I had been using a refurbished iPod Nano till it finally died on me last month, so I caved and switched to the Music app on my iPhone 5s. This lack of control is ridiculous, and Apple is so convinced its UX designers and developers know what we want that it's now their way or the highway. All I want is to be able to reorder my songs one time, and then treat that as a static playlist. It can't be THAT complicated to keep something working the way it already was. For years. *sigh*

  • by McCartney 123,

    McCartney 123 McCartney 123 Dec 1, 2015 6:49 PM in response to David Kent
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Dec 1, 2015 6:49 PM in response to David Kent

    you suck apple... fix this problem.

  • by ericole,

    ericole ericole Dec 3, 2015 9:37 PM in response to queue169
    Level 1 (135 points)
    Dec 3, 2015 9:37 PM in response to queue169

    I don't know how people are saying it used to be great.  I've got an older iPod Touch still on iOS 6.  It has NEVER shuffled correctly.  I'm dealing with it still.  I have a Christmas playlist that contains all single songs and albums of Christmas music.  There are 39 albums and over 200 songs represented.  Not only do I hear the same songs over and over, but I'm only hearing songs from about 4 albums in the playlist.  It is infuriating - and it has ALWAYS been like that when I try to use shuffle.

  • by ericole,

    ericole ericole Dec 3, 2015 9:38 PM in response to bosk1979
    Level 1 (135 points)
    Dec 3, 2015 9:38 PM in response to bosk1979

    I can't even find check boxes for my songs anymore.  How did you do that??

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