Cannot play a song and then shuffle play playlist

[swenpai]

Plan

Premium

Device

PC

Operating System

Windows 10

My Question or Issue

Hi,

It happens a lot when there is a specific song I want to play from a playlist and then continue playing that same playlist on shuffle, so how it should normally function as I see it and as it also does on mobile, for some reason the issue is only on PC, is that I'd just have to search that song on the playlist using the search function, play it, and then it should persist to the rest of the playlist shuffled (since shuffle mode is on). Yet that is not the case, Spotify just keeps playing that same song over and over again (or a couple of songs which include the same tag words which I searched for and are in the playlist) until I play another playlist and  then come back and play the original playlist or play a specific song from the original playlist.

I am not sure if this is an issue on my end or an issue with Spotify itself, I made sure the app is up to date and reinstalled it a couple of times. That does not solve it.

[Alex]

Hey @swenpai,

Thanks for the post.

Try clearing the search criteria when you play the song you were looking for.

The 'Search in Playlist' option is like a filter. So it will only show results matching the search criteria you've entered. This is why the playlists doesn't continue.

Hope you find this info helpful. We're here for you if you have questions.

[swenpai]

Hello,

Even when I clear the search criteria the problem presumes, it keeps playing the same songs that include the key words I searched for before clearing the search bar.

[Alex]

Hey @swenpai,

Thanks for the reply.

We'd recommend running a clean reinstall of the app. Please follow the steps from this Spotify Guide exactly, as this will assure that all app data is cleared completely, before reinstalling.

If the issue continues, please upload a screen capture video, so we can have a better understanding what is happening at your end.

Cheers.

[swenpai]

Hi again,

A clean reinstall did not fix the issue.

I have recorded the problem and included it in this reply.

[Kiril]

Hey there @swenpai,

Thanks for keeping us in the loop here and thanks for the video!

After taking a look at it, we can conclude that this behavior is rather expected, when filtering inside a playlist (as @Alex mentioned), and we can also see that you have the Repeat and the Shuffle options toggled to on for this playlist. Basically having those two settings toggled to on and then applying a filter to the playlist, creates a play queue for the app that includes only the results matching your search, which then get repeated and shuffled. To escape this and continue to play songs from the whole playlist we'd suggest you to remove the search terms and then just click the play button on any other song, so the play queue loads all the songs from the playlist and not just the filtered ones. 

Hope this helps clarify things. Don't hesitate to give us a shout if there's anything else we can help with.

[DutchJonne]

Hi @Kiril,

I ran into the same problem as @swenpai and I don't quite understand why this behavior is expected, because the behavior of the desktop version on PC is different from the mobile version on Android.

When using desktop, Spotify will create a play queue based on the filtered songs. And as you said, the only way to leave this play-queue is to start a song from another playlist or album.

On Android however (and I guess iOS too), it will start playing the playlist with the specific song you searched for, after which the playlist continues in its entirety, even when you don't clear the query from the search bar.

Cheers!

[swenpai]

Hello,

As @jonnemdeurloo mentioned, the behavior of the same process is different between mobile and PC, I included a screen recording from mobile app to show that point.

I believe that on mobile the function works as intended but there's some type of issue on PC.

[Yordan · Accepted solution]

Hey everyone,

Thanks for your replies!

Here's a workaround which you may find useful, feel free to give it a try:

1. Open your playlist and enter the song's title in the playlist's search bar.

2. When the desired song shows up, click on it to highlight it and press Ctrl + F. This will take you to the search bar again.
3. Now, without clicking anywhere, simply press the Backspace key on your keyboard until you remove all text from the search bar. When you're done, the song should remain highlighted and you'll be returned to the whole playlist, so you can play it without causing the loop.

Cheers!

[swenpai]

Awesome!
Appreciate the help from everyone, hopefully the team looks into this.