Playlists switch to radio immediately

[jjmax]

Premium, Samsung A51, latest Android OS, USA.

Sometimes when I turn on a playlist, about one to two seconds after the first song plays, the playlist will end and switch to a radio based on the playlist. Keep in mind I have premium. It will also do this about 2 minutes into the first song as well. It gets very frustrating. It will do this up to two more times after I turn the playlist back on. 

What's going on? How do I fix it?

[CarlosE]

Hi there @jjmax,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community. We're happy to help.

Can you let us know if this happens with any playlist (followed, created by you, made for your, etc.) or with some specific ones?

We'd also like to know if this happens in any other device where you use the app.

Lastly, could you let us know when this started happening and if it was after a specific event, such as an app or OS update?

Keep us posted. We'll be on the lookout.

[jjmax]

This happens to my playlists that I have made, and playlists made for me, most notably my On Repeat. This happens only on my phone. I remember it starting around 2 months ago. I don't remember anything significant happening before that time or during.

[Eni]

Hey there @jjmax, 

Thanks for your reply. 

Would you mind sending us a screen recording of the issue happening so we can take a closer look?

Additionally, could you send us the exact make/model, operating system and Spotify version of your device?

We'll be on the lookout.

[btsheehy1]

This happens to me every time I get in my car. It's so annoying. I'm on a Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ with Spotify v8.6.34.749 and Android 11. It's been happening for awhile now so I don't remember anything specific that would've triggered it. 

I use a Bixby routine that fires when I connect to my car's bluetooth. 

The routine is:

1. Open Maps

2. Set my screen timeout to 10 minutes

3. Turn my wi-fi off

4. Play Music (Spotify)

If I open the Spotify app to manually click play on a playlist and then hit home or switch apps, Spotify will wait a few seconds and then switch to playlist radio without fail. If I remember, I'll get a screen recording the next time I'm in my car

[Novy]

Hey @btsheehy1, 

Thanks for reaching out here in the Community, and welcome 🙂

Would you mind letting us know if the same thing happens when you connect to your car's Bluetooth using a different device? 

The screen recording would also be very helpful in order to take a better look at what's happening.

Keep us posted.

[ddinstel]

This keeps happening to me too. I listen on a Samsung Galaxy S20 connected to my car via Bluetooth. It doesn't matter whether the playlist is my own or one of Spotify's. It will play one song from the playlist and then go right over to playlist radio. I have to go back in and start the playlist again and it seems to usually work the second time around, but it's been going on for months now so I finally got annoyed enough to report it.

[MafeG]

Hi @ddinstel,

Thank you for sharing your post on this thread.

We'd like to have some more info about your setup. You mention this happens while connected to your car via Bluetooth, does the same happen if you play the music only on your phone? 

Also, have you tried performing any troubleshooting steps? If not, we suggest you start running a clean reinstall of the app, this will help you start with an app free of cache of leftover files.

Let us know how this goes.

[LondonGull]

Getting a similar problem around 1hr-90min into a playlist - swaps to "based on" from a random song in the playlist. Only started mid Jan 2022. iPhone SE 2020 on latest iOS. Usually notice on car bluetooth

[Julian]

Hey @LondonGull,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community.

Keep in mind that when you reach the end of an album, playlist, or selection of songs, Spotify automatically plays similar songs so the music never stops. This option can be deactivated from the Autoplay option in your app settings. 

However, if the playlist is switching to recommendations before it ends, let us know if it happens with a single playlist or with more than one. Also, we'd like to know if this happens on any other device or just your iPhone.

We’ll be on the lookout for your next response.

[kellyluvr02]

happens to me too on my iPhone 11 with Spotify premium. My playlists are 20+ hrs. It happens every time I’m already using Spotify before starting the car, then I start my car and it connects to Bluetooth. Sometimes it switches to radio right away and other times my song will continue normally and midway it stops abruptly and then the radio starts with another song. I’ve can’t even finish the playlist bc the radio switching issue prevents that. It’s very annoying to have to open up the app to manually switch back to my original playlist.

[Buzzcutboy]

I get the same issue on latest Android OS. Often it's only a second or two into a playlist and it switches to radio based on that playlist. This happens for all playlists, ones I ve created, others have created, or Spotify has created

[CarlosE]

Hey @Buzzcutboy,

Thanks for your reply in this thread 🙂

We really appreciate the details you already sent us. Please share with us the exact make/model and OS of your device along with the Spotify version you use.

On another note, is this happening on another mobile device? It’d be awesome if you could check. You can ask for the mobile device of a relative or a friend to open your account and check. 

Lastly, we suggest you perform a clean reinstall of the app on your device, to see if it makes a difference. You can find the steps to do it here.

We'll keep an eye on your response!

[joiturm]

I have the same issue.  I only listen on my iPhone happens when using it through Alexa and air pods.  It does not occur via car play.  It happens on all playlists.  As of late, I can't listen to an album straight through.

[Vasil]

Hey @joiturm,

Thanks for joining the thread!
Take a look at the requested information & provided steps from @CarlosE and let us know how it goes 🙂
Tip: If the issue persists afterwards, it'd be helpful if we could see a screenshot or a recording of it as well.
Much appreciated!

[BroBro]

I've been having this issue on my galaxy aww on Android 12 for some time. Have factory reset my phone recently and the issue still happens. It's occurring with my auto generated mixes. 

[Vasil]

Hey @BroBro,

Thanks for letting us know!
Have you tried the steps, provided by @CarlosE :?
If not - we'd suggest starting there 🙂
We'll be on the lookout for your response in case the issue persists afterwards!
Much appreciated.

[Dohhhh]

This is happening for me on a clean install. A few songs in on a 200+ song playlist, it switches to radio based on the playlist. So frustrating.

Can we get an option to turn the whole feature off?

Galaxy Tab S6 and S8+ phone both on Android 12.

[AlejaR]

Hey @Dohhhh,

Thanks for your reply in this thread and for the info shared.

We understand you have already reinstalled the app on your devices. Can you confirm if you followed these steps for the clean reinstall in both devices? If you haven't, give it a try.

On another note, is this happening when you use the app connected to a Bluetooth device? Did you notice if this started to happen after a specific event such as an OS update? If yes, please send us the details.

Keep in mind the radio feature can't be deactivated, since this is something that doesn't start to play automatically. What you can try at the moment to see if it makes any difference is to toggle off Autoplay in your settings (if you have it activated).

Lastly, is this happening with all your playlists or just with a specific one?

We'll keep an eye on your response! 

[Dohhhh]

Yes. I followed those steps since I was hitting another playlist bug wherein the playback gets stuck in a loop on 5-20 songs instead of continuing.

I turned off both of the autoplay features. So far it has not switched to radio mode, but I still get stuck in small loops in this largish playlist(200+) and it has started to stop playback randomly. Perhaps that is the point it would have switched to radio mode. It seems like spotify is having trouble doing the simple thing of just playing these songs in order.

I am playing through Bluetooth. It has been going on a long time, I just posted about it now and it happens on both of my large playlists. Spotify seems to struggle with these for some reason. My issues with spotify that are driving me to stop my subscription and look for alternatives on my two largish playlists:

1. Gets stuck in weird loops of 5-20 songs. When in a loop I can mash next track and it will never bust out and continue down the list.
2. Random playback on large playlists tends to just play a small subset in heavy rotation instead of a truly random selection.

3. Switching to radio mode arbitrarily (may be fixed by disabling the autoplay features), now appears to just stop altogether.