smart shuffle shouldnt break local files

[endotether]

When “smart” shuffle is turned on (even for a second as you toggle back to normal shuffle) local files are removed from your playlist. It would be fine if they were added back properly, but while they are removed from the playlist, Spotify decides to remove them from the phone's storage.

This means every time I turn shuffle on, I have to wait several minutes for all my local files to be copied over from my computer.

This is not a good user experience

[Laserfocus]

Plan

Premium

Country

Colombia

Device

iPhone 15

Operating System

(iOS 17.1)

My Question or Issue

I was in the airplane and turned on airplane mode on my iphone. When I did that, Spotify deleted about 1900 songs from one of my playlists "All songs". I have already downloaded these songs and they were on my PC and my phone, but somehow just deleted from the app. What happened?

Image attached: I had about 1900 songs here before, all added to playlist via the local files and then DOWNLOADED. Yet they were deleted when I turned on airplane mode.

[Laserfocus]

Additional information: I went in and re-synced everything on my PC. For some reason I had to "redownload" the songs on PC as on the PC at least the songs were greyed out (as opposed to not even being there on the iphone). 

However my songs still dont show up on my iphone even though they are all there on the PC.

Why not, I thought the spotify account on PC is same anywhere...

[MihailY]

Hey @endotether,

Thanks for reaching out. We've moved your post to the Help board as it better fits here.

Can you please let us know your device model, OS version and Spotify version? Does this happen with all local files added to the playlist? Have you tried any troubleshooting steps like reinstalling the app or testing with a different account?

Also, does the issue occur when the files are copied to your phone's storage and imported directly from there?

Keep us posted.

[Laserfocus]

Device model: iPhone 15 Pro Max

OS version: 17.1

Spotify version: 8.8.82

There are no issues with local files, those are all still there. Just my playlist called "All Songs", where I added ALL songs from my local file have been suddenly and randomly removed from that playlist automatically.

I have just uninstalled and re-installed Spotify on my iphone and all the songs are here now.

BUT I have to re-download all the songs, and thus have to pay for Spotify premium once again.

Regardless, I'd like to know why all the songs from this playlist on my phone have been deleted in the first place.

[headshot305]

Plan

Premium

Country

Australia

Device

Zenfone 9

Operating System

Stock 

My Question or Issue

Hi Team,

Whenever enhanced shuffle is enabled in a playlist it will remove local files from the playlist (why it does this in the first place makes no sense...). When it removes the local files from the playlist the app then decides the local files are not needed at all, and hence once you go back to non enchanced shuffle, your local files are no longer on your device and cannot be played.

Extremely frustrating issue when you consider you need to then go back to wifi sync to get the songs back from your home device. Even more frustrtating when you realise that to disable regular shuffle, you must toggle past enhanced shuffle.

The only workaround I currently have is to put all my local files into another playlist and keep that downloaded. But thats not ideal because its more manual upkeep and I also cannot find all of my local files out of a 2000 big playlist to add to this secondary playlist.

Pls fix.

[Laserfocus]

Hi, I'm just another user who has the same issues.

Except for me, the songs get removed whether shuffle is on or not.

And funny enough, that is exactly what I did, create another playlist called "All Songs" to prevent part of this issue from happening.

Spotify is extremely unreliable and I can't count on it to hold all the songs I added.

Please help

[MihailY]

Hey folks,

Thanks for your replies.

@Laserfocus, thanks for sharing the info. @headshot305, can you please send us your exact OS version and Spotify version?

Cheers,

[Laserfocus]

This also happens very frequently where songs from a playlist become unplayable (the grey song in the image under my "All Songs" playlist), whereas the song is still there under the local files (local files image).

Happens randomly and I can't figure out what causes it. Might be the same issue as the primary user of this post, MAYBE has something to do with shuffle but I am not sure.

[Laserfocus]

Update: When I open spotify on my PC, the songs get "downloaded" again to my phone, even though when looking at the phone, it says they are already downloaded.. what is going on?

[MihailY]

Hey @Laserfocus,

Does this happen after enabling Smart Shuffle in the All Songs playlist?

Cheers,

[Laserfocus]

I am not sure. But given the problem the original user of the post has, it is possible. Perhaps we can look into this shuffle bug and then after fixing it, see if the issue still persists on my end.

[thefury7]

Same problem here on Samsung s23 ultra. When you tap on smart shuffle, all local file is removed. You need to re-sync from pc. It's very frustrating, above all when you payed for the premium.

[Laserfocus]

Actually, now that I kept track of this, I haven't used smart shuffle in over a week and all my songs are still intact and haven't disappeared at all. I think I can confirm now that smart shuffle or maybe (any) shuffle is the problem.

[Tomas252]

I also have this issue, android 8.8.96.364. If a playlist contains tracks which have been downloaded to the phone via pc (i.e. local tracks on pc added to a playlist then the playlist is downloaded on the phone when connected to the same WiFi network which adds the pc local files to the phone), the local files are removed from the playlist on the phone any time smart shuffle is enabled. Because smart shuffle cannot be disabled and must be enabled when cycling between normal and shuffle play, this results in the local pc files being removed from the playlist quite often.

Can this be reviewed please? The easy fix would be an option to disable smart shuffle completely...

[Maria]

Hey there folks,

Thanks for all the details you've provided!

Since we have been getting some reports on this we've checked with our teams and they've done some investigating. We appreciate your feedback as it helps inform our improvements going forward, but just as a heads up, we’re not able to confirm if or when specifically Smart Shuffle and Local Files sync up will be looked into further.

We recommend keeping your Spotify app up-to-date to guarantee you get the latest features and fixes as soon as we launch them.

If anything else appears, the Community is here for you!

[odkrys]

Why on earth don't you guys provide an option to turn off this damn smart shuffle? I've been using Spotify for 8 years and now I think it's the worst version ever.

[Macky1995]

I have the exact same problem

[spreceriany]

Any updates on this issue? I am travelling quite often and when I don't have a laptop, all of my local files are gone because of this feature I don't even use. Please, let us disable it so it doesn't break the local files. 

[RickyDicky662]

I also have this issue. 

It also "deletes" my local files after using an alexa speaker. but mostly swapping between smart shuffle really kills it.. it can be downloaded, ill quick swap between shuffle, smart shuffle and back to normal and it is all the sudden unavailable...... super infuriating. Been on spotify for years, this problem has been here for awhile. how is it not fixed yet?

iphone 15 pro max, latest ios, latest spotify app #