How to turn off Shuffle mode as default for Google Clock and Android Auto integrations

[G-123]

Plan

Premium

Country

Australia

Device

Samsung S8

Operating System

Android O, P

My Question or Issue

I am on a Premium subscription and I don't understand why Google Clock keeps playing my selected playlist in Shuffle Mode. Even after I dismiss the alarm, my Spotify is still in Shuffle mode and I have to keep turning it off. Also when I ask Google Assistant to play songs from any playlist, it always plays in Shuffle mode 😞  Please help!

[Nico]

Hey @G-123! Welcome to the Spotify Community. ^^

That's odd.

Be sure to deactivate the 'Shuffle' feature in your app while playing songs.

If you do that, your alarm clock playlist will automatically not shuffle all of the songs in your chosen playlist. ^^

Let me know how it goes!  

Peace

[G-123]

Thanks for your response Nico!

I definitely turn off Shuffle mode every day.  In fact I have to because I use Spotify throughout the day and Google Clock turns Shuffle mode back on each morning.

I read that Spotify Free users can only use the Google Clock integration in Shuffle mode however I am on a Premium subscription.

[G-123]

Anyone from Spotify able to assist with this?

[Peter]

Hey @G-123.

Thanks for getting back to us, and apologies for the late reply!

Just wanted to confirm that what you're describing is expected behaviour: if you're on Premium, Spotify will shuffle albums and playlists, just like on free. The difference is that you can pick specific tracks to wake up to if you're on Premium.

Hope that clears things up! Let us know if you have any other questions - we'll be right here.

[jamesvan]

Is there any way to disable that behavior? It's pretty annoying to have to disable shuffle after every time I wake up to a specific song.

[G-123]

Thanks for your response Peter.

Is there a way to control this?

Also, is shuffling normal behaviour when asking to play a playlist (via voice) through Google Assistant?

[Peter]

Hey @G-123 and @jamesvan,

Unfortunately there currently isn't a way to change this behaviour. 

However, you can suggest this as an idea in the Community here. That way, other users can vote for it if they also think it's a good idea, and if it gets enough votes Spotify might consider implementing it in the future 🙂

@G-123 - regarding your question re: the Google Assistant, it depends on the speaker that you're using. The best thing to do is to search for an answer in the Community first, and if you can't find one, then feel free to create a new thread in the relevant help board (in your case, try Other).

Hope that helps!

[Krwnk]

This is quite ridiculous, no?

Why would Spotify go out of its way to change my default settings? I understand if Spotify feels that the alarm playlist should be shuffled. However, Spotify should understand that their users have their own default preferences and should have revert back to the users settings before the alarm.

Having to switch off shuffle every morning is quite disruptive. And as a user, I am quite disappointed in the level of thought that Spotify has put into this feature. 

[jpr4]

This behavior if not fixed will most likely cause me to get rid of spotify.  The fact that every time I play a playlist or album and have to physically turn off shuffle is a bug not a feature.  Make it a switch in settings similar to Gapless playback or Automix.

[PepperedKris]

What's really weird about this issue is that I came here looking for advice on how to make my morning alarm playlist default TO shuffle. It plays the same song every morning and I want to be surprised. 

Which is how it used to work, but an update a month or two ago has changed the behavior.

[SabrinaLittle]

Having this same shuffle issue every day after my alarm goes off. Anyone find a fix yet? Super annoying!

[Mihail]

Hey folks,

Thanks for sharing your feedback.

As thing stand right now, the integration with Google Clock works like this:

• Free users are only be able to use a playlist as an alarm in shuffle mode
• Premium users can't activate the shuffle function for playlists set as alarm

If the integration doesn't work as intended, we recommend that you perform a clean reinstall of the app using the steps here. You should also remove Google Clock from the list of third party apps that have access to your account then connect them again. This ​support article explains how you can do this.

@PepperedKris if you'd like the introduction of the shuffle feature, we recommend that you post an idea about it. The Idea Exchange is a great way for us to keep track of what changes our users are interested in and how popular a certain idea is. This page explains how exactly your feedback reaches Spotify.

Hope you find this useful. Keep us posted if you have any questions.

[holdbetter]

The problem is not just in playlist when alarm goes off. I set to play only one song (not playlist) in my Google Clock, but it overrides player behaviour. So my morning is actually like: i turned my alarm off, play an another album, and it has shuffle mode. Why? Alarm should play only one song, there is no other options for it, but it also turns on shuffle mode every time. It's annoying!

[Rustamus82]

When every time I say to google assistant to play my liked songs, it plays shufle! Nothing in this case to do with alarm, but very annoying still

[Vasil]

Hey @Rustamus82,

Is the Shuffle setting toggled off for your liked songs and does the assistant visibly switch it back on when you ask it to play?
If this is so, would it be possible for you to make a video of the issue and to post a link to it here?
Many thanks in advance 🙂
Cheers!

[rgb]

I turn off shuffle and the alarm still starts with a random track!

I hate random music!

When I choose and album I only want to hear it from start to end, as soon as it starts at a random track it ruins the whole experience.

Please allow us to decide if we want random or not.

Not all your users are mindless lemmings who don’t understand art and albums whose track order has meaning.

[Dian]

Hey @rgb,

Thanks for posting in the Community.

Just to make sure, are you using a free account or you have a Premium subscription?

if you're using a free account, does the order of the albums gets shuffled? How about the playlists?

Keep us posted,

Cheers!

[modernaire]

It's like people keep explaining the issue in a simple way, yet everyone trying to help is still asking about the kind of subscription.

I have the exact same issue and it's driving me crazy. I'll try to explain it once again as simple as I can. By the way, I have a paid Spotify subscription, not using the free service. I also never use shuffle, as I prefer listening to my albums/lists as they are.

1. I set up an alarm using the (default) Google Clock app.
2. Upon choosing the alarm sound, I select "Spotify", which is right next to "Sounds" (i.e. the default alarm sounds list).
3. I select one of my playlists (expecting the alarm to ring with the first song in that list).
4. The alarm goes off playing a random track from that playlist (not the first one).
5. I turn off the alarm and open Spotify.
6. Spotify now has shuffle turned on. I never use shuffle. I turn it off.
7. Next morning, the same thing happens. Alarm goes off on shuffle.

Let's say, hypothetically, I just turn off the alarm and don't open Spotify at all after the alarm.

The first time I'll use it throughout the day, shuffle is on from the alarm earlier (whether it's the mobile, the desktop or the web app, it's set to shuffle everywhere).

The logical behavior should be for the alarm to go off on shuffle ONLY if I've got shuffle turned on in the app. If it's deactivated, alarm should go off w/ the first song in the list or album selected.

[LiadanDeBarra]

Also having this issue. Exactly as described above. Extremely annoying as I have a wake up playlist that starts slow and gentle, then builds, and I keep waking up to random songs scaring**bleep** out of me. Not cool!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gnWGx0NmlBL6kqmt4JqxDUc7Hgqh7Ieb/view?usp=drivesdk