Song Order Within a Playlist Keeps Changing

[fivethirtyam]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

MacBook Pro/iPhone7P

Operating System

OSX High Sierra/iOS

My Question or Issue

I listen to the Friday Cratediggers Spotify Playlist every week to pick out what I like. Over the past couple of weeks, the order of songs will randomly change as I am listening (some tracks I haven't listened to yet will jump to the top of the playlist, while some I've already listened to will go to the bottom), this makes it hard to keep track of which songs I have already sorted through. I have noticed the same problem while listening on my iPhone as well. Please advise on whether this issue can be fixed. Thank you.

[Wannabeavet22]

Yeah I've been having this issue as well and it's mildly infuriating

[JakeSlater]

Yup this has been frustrating, but I think I found a workaround. I use the mobile app on an Android phone.

If I play the playlist from the screen that lists all of the songs, they do not seem to change order. I usually like to play songs from the screen that shows just the song cover so I can skip around the track or hit next easily, but the playlist songs seem to change order when I do this.

[CJ-Lister]

I have this problem to when listening to any playlist that lasts longer than 1 hour it is so annoying please help us fix it.

[Ver]

Hey everyone,

Thanks for reaching out to us. This sounds odd and we'll do our best to help you sort it out.

We'd suggest you restart your device and log out and log back in to the account. If that doesn't help, you can check these steps and run a clean reinstall. That way you can make sure the app is up-to-date and the cache is not causing any issues.

If that doesn't do the trick, you can try on another device. Does the issue persist?

@fivethirtyam If you still experience this issue, it's a good idea to try with another account. By doing that we can see if it's an account-related issue.

Let us know how it goes. If you have questions, you know where to find us.

[JuicyJoy]

Hi Ver,

I've followed your steps on how to run a clean reinstall and am finding I am still having the same problems as previously mentioned by others.

I currently listen to a Spotify-curated playlist called "Beast Mode" and the order of the songs change while I'm listening to it. I don't have it on "shuffle" but even then it shouldn't change the order of the songs within the playlist.

I am using Spotify on an iPhone 11 Pro Max running the latest iOS 14.2. There haven't been any recent software updates nor Spotify updates that I've seen.

Any suggestions on how else to fix this?

Many thanks!

- Joy

[JuicyJoy]

Apologies, I forgot to add that I was having the same problem as above with another Spotify-curated playlist called "Workout". I was so frustrated with this in the end that I just deleted it off my list of saved Playlists.

[Mario]

Hey @JuicyJoy!

Thanks for reaching out about this.

Could you let us know if this happens across devices or only on your phone?

Additionally, would you mind trying it with a different internet connection?

On another note, let us know if this has always happened or started happening after a specific event. Also - does this only occur with the playlists you mention or with other playlists too?

Cheers - We'll keep an eye out for your reply 🙂

[JuicyJoy]

Hi Mario,

I only use Spotify on my iPhone and generally not on my other devices like iPad or Laptop so I haven't noticed anything weird.

Internet connection - I have tried both on WiFi and mobile data. It seems to be an issue with Spotify-curated playlists in which the song order would randomly change. Any other playlists whether created by me or someone else doesn't seem to have this issue.

I feel like this has probably been a recent change I've noticed. I don't recall it happening after a specific event as such.

Thanks so much!

[Ver]

Hey @JuicyJoy,

Thanks for getting back to us 🙂

Could you try on another device? That way we can see if it's a device-related issue. Are there any changes?

In case you're using any battery optimization or power saving apps, it's a good idea to deactivate them for Spotify.

Keep us in the loop! If you have questions, you know where to find us.
 

[JuicyJoy]

Hi Ver,

I just tested on both my iPad & Laptop and it seems the song order doesn't change for these Spotify playlists whilst listening to them.

I have noticed the issue seems to have improved on my iPhone ever since I followed those steps on clearing the Spotify cache, deleting the app and reinstalling it. This was yesterday (Mon).

For some reason, I've noticed the song order in the playlist to maybe change once a day and everyday it may shuffle to a slightly different order. It's usually whenever I open that Spotify playlist for the first time for the day, I will see the song order change slightly. Is this normal and to be expected?
Also, this doesn't happen to every single one of my Spotify playlists. Only to some whilst others seem to remain the same.

Thank you.

[Ver]

Hey @JuicyJoy,

Thanks for the info 🙂

Spotify created playlists update more often than others. That's why you might notice the updates while you're listening to the playlist. This is expected behavior.

In case this also happens to your own playlists, you can send us the URIs of them. We'll look into this further.

If you have questions, we are here for you.
 

[JuicyJoy]

Hi Ver,

Thanks for your response. It seems a little strange that the Spotify playlists may change song order whilst listening to them as mentioned before. 

I haven't noticed any odd song order changes whilst listening to other non-Spotify playlists.

Thanks for your help!

[Jeremy]

Hey there @JuicyJoy,

Thank you for your post and feedback.

We're always testing things by adding or removing features to make Spotify better overall and constantly aiming to improve our features. We’re sorry that this means you’re not able to use Spotify like you wish to do at the moment.

You can read more about how your feedback reaches Spotify here.

Once again - thanks for the feedback, we appreciate it. Let us know if we can help with anything else. We're always one reply away.

[Tylae]

I'm also having this issue from the web browser application. My work computer doesn't allow installing the Spotify application so I am forced to use the web app. I listen to the playlist "Instrumental Madness" and the songs periodically change. It makes me wonder if it's trying to give precedence to songs I listen to more, which I appreciate, but the song's play order changes without visually updating the track list, which is frustrating. The track list updates upon refreshing the page, but I shouldn't have to do that. I haven't noticed any problem from the Spotify application from my primary computer nor the Android app, but I don't pay attention to the track list when I'm listening to this playlist on those devices.

Work computer is on Windows 10, using Chrome latest.

[Novy]

Hey @Tylae, 

Welcome to the Community, thanks for reaching out about this. 

We suggest you make sure to clear your browser's cache/cookies and to keep it up to date.

We'd also recommend taking a look at this article for more info and useful tips about the web player.

If you have any other questions, we'll be right here.

[rancorpit]

This is still happening, btw. I started listening to the "Best of Rock: 1986" playlist by Spotify yesterday, and when I returned to it today, the order had changed. Luckily Last.fm scrobbling had worked this time, so I knew which songs I'd listened to already.

This was on the web player, but I've seen it happen many times on Android as well, and (for me at least) it's always been a playlist created by Spotify, such as Discover Weekly or what have you. Maybe it's got something to do with Spotify adding each track to the playlist on the exact same millisecond or something? I don't know how the playlist ordering works.

Not that I'm expecting to ever get any useful replies to this from Spotify, nor am I expecting it to ever be fixed either. (Yes the app's up to date, yes the cache is clear, no that didn't do it.) It's just one of those myriad annoying things about the app that cause endless frustration. Too bad the competitors are somehow even worse.

[CarlosE]

Hey @rancorpit,

Thanks for reaching out and welcome to the Community.

The order of the songs in playlists made by Spotify may vary as they're constantly being updated, so this is expected. However, we appreciate you sharing your feedback on the matter and we'll make sure to pass it on to the right folks.

If you need a hand with anything else, we're always a post away.

Have a good one!

[MacWehr]

For the last half year or so I've also experienced this same problem of frequent song order change on playlists created by Spotify. By frequent, I mean song order changes several times during a day and within an hour of the last change.  This makes it difficult to play through a playlist.  What happens is 2-3 songs will flip places in order or be jumped ahead or moved back in the playlist.

The most recent example was with the Energy Booster: Pop playlist by Spotify, which has 98,278 followers.  The playlist is 5h and 53min.  I can't even get through the first hour without the playlist song order changing, which results in either hearing songs again that I've recently played or skipping some songs and never hearing them unless I manually go back to them. 

This happened yesterday, 5/5/2021, with the Energy Booster: Pop playlist on the Spotify app both on my Android phone and on my iPad, 2 totally separate operating systems and platforms.

This frequent changing of song order never happens with playlists I create.  And it never used to happen until the last 6 months or so.

I understand Spotify keeping playlists fresh by moving songs around and in and out but it shouldn't happen so frequently that you can't even get through a single playlist listen without being made to hear some recently played songs again or never hearing others.  If a playlist is almost 6 hours long then maybe updates should occur every 12 hours or 24 hours so listeners can get through the playlist.  Don't update a 5hr and 53 min playlist in less than an hour repeatedly because then a listener can't even get a single playlist listen cleanly.

[JuicyJoy]

Yeah, that is really annoying!
I feel you. I think I've had this happen with "Wor K Out" and "Powerwalk!" Playlists by Spotify. It got so bad like you, I've been very frustrated too!
Thank goodness it's not just me experiencing this as I thought I was going crazy!