“Alexa shuffle playlist” always plays same song first, then shuffles

[inspirekelly]

Plan

Premium

Country

 Australia

Device

Echo 

Operating System

Amazon Echo

My Question or Issue

The Spotify skill for shuffling my playlist, always plays the first song in my playlist and then shuffles the rest of the playlist beautifully. I’m sure this would be a small tweak to the Amazon skill to ensure it shuffles straight away when we ask ‘Alexa shuffle playlist’ 

[gestradam]

 I have the same problem.

The problem:

Spotify's shuffle mode is not working when an Alexa command activates it (Alexa, shuffle the playlist <playlistname>).

- Choose a Spotify playlist and ask Alexa "Alexa, shuffle the playlist <playlistname>"

- Repeat the process more than twice to be sure of the problem

- You will notice that the songs played are the same every time. In specifics plays just a limited number of tracks (a limited section of your playlist, around 20 songs)

- To verify Spotify is not working and you’re not crazy. Take a look at the "queue" song list, and you will see the same tracks, yes “sorted randomly” but ALWAYS the same tracks. So it’s not really shuffling the ENTIRE playlist (>1,000 tracks).

- Compare the shuffling mode when your music is not playing on your Echo, you will notice a real shuffle mode which means your ENTIRE playlist

The workaround:

- I'm playing my playlists on shuffle mode FIRST on my phone, and then I change (on my phone, manually) from "play on my phone" to my "echo," and then I have a real shuffled playlist.

Reply if you have the same issue, so Spotify gives us a solution!

[geekexile]

I have this exact same problem.  

[Remedyz]

Been having the same issue, when I went from Computer to my Echo thought I was going crazy. Even when I change from the middle of the playlist it only shuffles within that section of the playlist. I thought it was because my main playlist is 1000+ songs I guess not. Needs to be looked at for sure, only happens when played from Echo.

[Venajeff]

I have the same problem when playing my play list on Alexa.

Here is a work around:

Add the song "One Second of Silence" to the top of your playlist.

PS: Spotify please fix this problem. I am sure it is a single line of code that needs to be corrected in the Alexa API.

[Et1Yet1]

I have the same issue.

Echo Spot

Spotify Germany

Tried to change sorting of songs in the playlist, but the result is that Alexa now plays the same changed all time. This realy sucks because I listen to 2-3 playlists with over 400+ songs and it started always the same way. Please fix this!

[Et1Yet1]

I have the one second of the silence as the first song in every playlist. It doesn't change anything. After Alexa played it, she jumpes to the second song and not to a random song.

[Venajeff]

Make sure to always say "Suffle (my playlist name)" when asking alexa to play spotify. This seams to be working for me.

[magicaltrevyn]

I’ve reached out to Spotify 3 times and been told that they’re aware of the issue and it has been passed on to the right team. This was a couple months ago now. Getting fed up of the same 10 songs to be honest 

[user-removed]

>Add the song "One Second of Silence" to the top of your playlist.

Yeah, I did the same thing, but I'm usually on Google Home or Chromecast. Heh

[Rifla2]

I just got Alexa a few days ago and thought I was going crazy.. I can't believe this bug even exists!

[tfneuhaus]

The Alexa "Shuffle <Playlist>" algorithm doesn't work nearly as well as the shuffle in the Spotify App.  It only shuffles through about the first 50 songs of my playlist instead of moving through the whole playlist. 

[Rifla2]

Lucky, my spotify does 20 songs out of over 1,000.

[Meganbatkin]

Still waiting on this to be sorted, getting a bit ridiculous now!

[sayhellorob]

quite pathetic - makes you wanna switch back to Amazon Music just so shuffle works (and pay less w/ Prime!)

[bsniz]

I was able to solve this after finding some ideas on Reddit. 

Create your routine, add music, then, next to "Play" put in the name of your playlist then "in shuffle mode" without quotes. 

This will turn on shuffle mode as it plays. HOWEVER, it will not start on a random song! It always starts on the first song of the playlist, which was annoying until I discovered my new favorite playlist kickoff song "1 second of silence" - make this the first song in your playlist, and your routine will now start on a random song of your playlist. 

https://open.spotify.com/track/5V3b2UB9tCAHuqXj2b2EP7?si=M274Uq-jQC-7xNnxZoMN3w

...now if I could only get my routine to play music to a multiroom group... 😉

[xunilhr]

Routine is not necessary.  I overcame the issue by changing from saying "Shuffle playlist My Mix" to "Play playlist My Mix in shuffle mode"

[Rifla2]

Tried that but it played from the first track, and it wasn't shuffled even after that one.

[xunilhr]

Ha! Worked twice then resorted back to the problem. Spotify doesn't play

[mattv15vt]

I have this problem as well!!! I'm a programmer and know this should be a simple fix. Listen to your paying customers Spotify!!!