Shuffle and playback broken even after clean reinstall

[markichnich]

Hey,

Since about two (?) days ago, the shuffle function in spotify entirely started to break more and more on my Desktop.

So it always worked as usual, even with the whole "Enhancing" or later "Smart shuffle" (which seems like it's unstable at this point and doesn't seem like an improvement btw).

But then one day out of nowhere, shuffling just doesn't work and the shuffle button seems to fight me. I click it, it turns green, i click play on the Playlist/Liked Songs/Album (all are equally affected), nothing happens for about 4 seconds, the first song then starts playing and the shuffle button turns back off by itself most of the time. Sometimes it stays on but still just plays the songs in order.

If i toggle shuffle on while the songs are playing in order, the songs keep playing in order, while shuffle stays on...
Even "Smart Shuffle" doesn't shuffle the songs, nor does it add any recommendations.

Now the 4-5 second delay before playing any playlist is frustrating enough, but now I don't even get to shuffle songs that i have downloaded...

No matter what I do, how many times I restart the app, clear the cache from the settings, clear the cache by deleting the entire cache folder manually (always restarting the app, too), the issue persists.

I've gone as far as to entirely remove the app from my system and performing a clean reinstall but the issue persists.

This also seems to be a server-side/cloud issue, since even on my laptop it stopped working since then. (I have not installed any updates or done anything to the app since it last worked).
On my phone (Android 14) everything works swimmingly.

This is a very frustrating issue to have as None of this is remotely complex functionality

Am I the only one who has this issue? Have others had these issues before? Since nothing I can do locally worked, I am just helpless and annoyed at this point.

Plan

Premium

Country

Germany

Device

Desktop

Operating System

Linux (x64 Arch, kernel: 6.6.9-arch1-1)

[Ivelina]

Hey @markichnich,

Thanks for posting in the Community and for including all those details!

To start, have you downloaded the app directly from our website or from the Microsoft Store? These apps can have different behavior, so it's worth checking if the issue persists if you delete the one you currently have and try on the other one. 

It's also worth logging into a family member's or a relative's account to see if the Shuffle button works there. This will give us more info if the issue is possibly account-related.

Keep us updated.

[markichnich]

Hey,
Firstly: thanks for your answer.

I have now seemingly resolved the issue by going online on desktop and mobile simultaneously and playing on desktop, then shuffle-playing on mobile. Even when closing the app on mobile afterwards, shuffle remains turned on and working on the playing desktop instance of spotify.

Still don't know what caused this or why that fixed it.

(I am using the Linux version from the website, don't think the Microsoft Store version is available on Linux).
I had tried logging into a different account and that also worked, but relogging into my original account the issue persisted.

Though resolved for now in my case, this seems like quite a nasty bug.

[markichnich]

Ok so after around 2 more days, shuffle (and playback) is broken entirely again...

Shuffle turns itself off, or the button stays "on" while not shuffling.
Every time i hit play or click on a new song, I have to wait a few seconds before anything happens (it is also after this delay, that the shuffle button turns back off by itself).

This almost seems like the shuffle function within the code errs out and just gives up after a certain amount of time...

I have tried all of the following:
- Clearing the cache (through the app itself and manually deleting the cache)
- Uninstalling and removing all associated files, then reinstalling the app cleanly from the Website
- Logging out of one device as well as the "Log out everywhere" option
- Trying a different PC
- All of the above in combination

I had seemingly fixed it by shuffling on my phone once and setting my Desktop as the device to play on, but that even doesn't work anymore now.

I will have to switch services if shuffle does not continue to work within this week, this is the most basic functionality you can offer, how is it this bugged on top of the heavily weighted "randomness".

I have recorded a small clip showing the bug in action, which I'll attach to this post.

[Xywzel]

Using Linux Desktop version ('apt show spotify-client' says its version 1:1.2.48.405.gf2c48e6f). Also problems with smart shuffle turning and staying on. Also would really like to have option to set portion of new songs should be mixed in with the playlist, say X% of songs to play, or every Nth.