Smart Shuffle turning itself on on Desktop

[Brando_Calriss]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Operating System

Windows 10

My Question or Issue

I just want to use normal shuffle but every time I change tabs to something else or look away, it switches from normal shuffle over to smart shuffle and I have to turn it off again. Then, if I pause my song and turn off shuffle altogether, it turns smart shuffle right back on as soon as I hit play for no reason. My version of spotify is fully up to date, I don't know how to stop this, and I don't like using smart shuffle on any of my playlists

[Vasil]

Hey @Brando_Calriss,

Thanks for reaching out!

This definitely doesn't look like the correct way Smart Shuffle should function. 
Let's try some troubleshooting and see if we can resolve this! 🙂

We can start off with clearing your cached data to see if that would make a difference.

Follow the steps from this article and then restart your app.

In case this doesn't help, log out of your app and then back in again two times in a row.

This will trigger a manual sync of all your settings.

Should the issue persist even after this is done, I'd recommend clearing all Spotify-related data from your desktop device and installing a fresh copy of the app.

To do so, follow the steps for a complete clean reinstall from this article over here.

Keep us posted on how thing go!

[#3]

When I start a playlist (on shuffle, like always), only 1 song in I get other music. This continues to happen like every 2nd song. I start a playlist because I want to hear it!
I find nowhere in the settings, nor your FAQ how to stop this from happening. Please help.

[Shandroff]

this "option" won't turn off on the desktop app, give me a way to disable it entirely. I don't want it, your recommendations are garbage, your algorithms are awful you don't know what I like stop trying cause you only fail

[12180514575]

I'm having the same problem and it's driving me crazy. I have autoplay turned off but I'm still getting unwanted songs. I pay for this subscription and I want to hear the songs I add, not what Spotify thinks I should listen to. For the love of God, how can we stop this?

[mayoii]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Operating System

Windows 10

My Question or Issue

I've noticed that even when you specifically don't use smart shuffle the app always switches to smart shuffle within a few songs. This is really annoying b/c smart shuffle sucks. Are yall ever gonna fix this? 

[TheBigLiima]

I'm having the same problem. I don't even want to use smart shuffle, ever. Please just give us the option to disable it completely.

[marianatuma]

Plan

Premium

Country

Brazil

Operating System

Windows 10, Windows 11

My Question or Issue

I noticed a behavior that seems to affect only long playlists (5+ hours long). I'll turn off shuffle and play a song. At some point (I wasn't looking so I don't know if it's during a song, after, etc. It's definitely not when I start the song), it turns on shuffle by itself. I also noticed that sometimes, when I try to turn off shuffle, it will cycle between normal shuffle and shuffle with suggestions, and I have to click 3+ times before it turns off shuffle. This has happened in two different computers, one running Windows 10 and the other 11. I have not noticed this behavior on Android.

[axolotl123123]

Smart Shuffle Automatically Activates When Spotify Minimized. Every time. if you minimize spotify in windows 11, smart shuffle will turn itself on. I can't express how much rage this brings me.

EDIT: Oh my god they moved this post to this post on an IOS. I AM WINDOWS. DESKTOP. NOT IOS. MY ISSUE IS DIFFERENT

[drewfyyy]

Plan: Premium

Country: United States

Operating System: Windows 11

My Question or Issue:

I have never wanted Smart Shuffle on in any of my playlists, yet it turns itself on routinely. For the past several months, when it does turn itself on and I turn it off, it will turn itself on again at the end of the song.

First and foremost, this needs a permanent toggle in the settings, though I don't foresee that ever happening (even though there has been a well supported Live Idea to that effect up for over a year now). Secondly (and equally important), it should never turn on automatically, and it should turn off when I turn it off. Not sure why either these are even in question, yet here we are.

While I'm soapboxing, why am I paying for a premium service and yet still receiving "sponsored suggestions?" Recommendations for music unlike anything I prefer or listen to, but given an "ad spot" that takes up a third of the screen when I open the app?

I've payed for, loved, and supported Spotify against all other streaming services for seven years (and used the free version for several years before that) and clock months worth of listening every year, but I'm heavily considering taking my leave. Spotify's reputation has become one of disregard for their userbase, and I'm sick of using a service that doesn't care a lick for what their users actually prefer.

[tzar25]

And still nothing. It just turns on that **bleep** 'feature' no one asked for the first time you are not looking. If I want to listen to some random garbage I'll turn on some radio or something, thank you. Every other song is your $4!7 instead of a song from my list, which I made specifically because I wanted to listen to those. With premium, one would rightfully expect to have some control over what they listen to, especially when the main profile of your app should exactly be this.

[AetherIsComplaining]

I have these same issues and I do the steps to fix it, but it keeps coming back. This shouldn’t be an issue in the first place. This is an ongoing issue. Look into it.

(Does anyone else think that community support isn’t helpful at all? Perhaps we should stop paying for this garbage **bleep**.)

[tzar25]

I found a way to fix this. This might not apply to everyone. I use the app on PC and phone as well and the app seems to prefer the older setting. I haven't used it on the phone for a while and the "smart" feature was turned on there, which caused spotify on my PC to turn the setting back on right after turning it off.
What fixed it was that I turned it off in one place (don't minimize, close or put to background) and turn it off in the other. For now it seems to have fixed this.

[bikiniweekend]

Smart Shuffle is bullsh*t. I DON'T want to listen songs I've never asked to. Remove it please. Everytime I switch from normal to shuffle mode, Smart Shuffle turns on again and again. Just remove it, nobody wants that. Or at least add an option to disable it forever!

[Thurpled]

I appear to have found a fix for this.

For some reason whenever you turn smart shuffle on for your playlist once it could be accidental or whatever but if you turn it on just once it'll keep doing this for that specific playlist. All you gotta do is duplicate the playlist and it shouldn't start turning smart shuffle on by itself.

[Corvvids]

Thank you for posting this solution! I was having the EXACT same issue, and this fixed it!

What's weirder is that Smart Shuffle *wasn't* enabled on my phone initially, because the computer and phone were not synced up. But when I did sync them, it showed up and turning it off on my phone with the window open on the desktop fixed it!

Unfortunately, I remember struggling to turn smart shuffle off a lot earlier too, which must have led to this much more major version of the problem later down the line.

I know less about the phone app version of this problem, but I'm assuming that this issue may very well stem from the IOS App bug, affecting desktop devices regardless of origin. 

Again, thank you!

[ryndym]

I'm using Spotify on my laptop to connect to my desktop PC that's actually playing the music. Both are Win 10, both have fresh install of newest Spotify version (non-Windows Store).

I cannot use normal shuffle on the laptop, only smart shuffle and non-shuffle. The icon shows normal shuffle being enabled but it uses smart shuffle instead. Then when I change to smart shuffle, the icon changes on the laptop accordingly but queue ofc shows no change as it was already on smart shuffle.

From the PC that actually plays the music, I can change shuffle modes normally and my laptop follows whatever I do there. It would make sense somewhat if I couldn't change the shuffle at all, but that only smart shuffle and non-shuffle works is weird.