Disable shuffle by default

[jjg3]

Plan

Premium

Country

US

Device

iphone 6S/carplay

Operating System

iOS

My Question or Issue: I understand there is the ability to turn shuffle play off. But my issue (I've tried search, and there are tons of shuffle play questions, can't find this specific issue) is that I never want shuffle play, ever. But every time I start the app on my phone or on carplay, it plays shuffle. Maybe on the computer it works like I want, and I can select a song on my playlist and it will continue down the list from there, but why can't I opt to have shuffle off from the start? I never want to hear my playlist (there's only 1) shuffle.

[Dian]

Hey @jjg3,

Thanks for posting in the Community.

At the moment it is not possible to turn off Shuffle by default and pressing the green play button will start a playlist always in Shuffle mode. But you can tap on the first song in the playlist to start the playback without Shuffle on.

As we are constantly striving to improve the user experience in the app, we hope to see the option to turn off Shuffle by default some day.

Hope this helps,

Cheers!

[jjg3]

What I expected but didn't want to hear. Thanks

[Tamera]

I feel like this just started on my phone. Idk what happened but I had to reinstall the app and now everything is set on shuffle!!  Shuffle was never the default play option. I have premium. I make playlists for fitness classes. I need them to play in the order that I create them. . I have never had to manually turn off shuffle every single time I play a playlist. Also, now when I open a radio station it is also set automatically to shuffle. This has just started. I do not want to shuffle playlists ever unless I choose that option. Shuffle is an option not a default. I don't know what happened that this is now the default- shuffle. Please allow premium users to have all playlist set to NO SHUFFLE AS DEFAULT!! 

[Dian]

Hey @Tamera,

Thanks for posting in the Community.

Could you make sure you're starting the playlist not by pressing the green button with the shuffle sign next to it, but by selecting a song from the playlist/album to start from? The playback will then continue from this song onward without an activated Shuffle mode.

Did it work? If not, send us a screenshot and tell us which button are you using to start the playback.

Keep us posted,

Cheers!

[Bobosso]

Here's the issue. It shouldn't be expected of us to turn shuffle off or make sure we're starting a playlist from the first song (which btw, doesn't work. I start playlists from the first song by selecting the first song, then get auto shuffle anyway). The default setting should ALWAYS be to play song in order. If you want shuffle, then you either select shuffle or go into settings and make shuffle default. Don't ask if "I did this or that" to turn shuffle off.  I shouldn't have to do anything to turn shuffle off because I never did anything to turn it on in the first place.

No more questions, just fix it. 

[lucasliendo]

Dian, That's a lie. Even though I press the first song, shuffle is always activated.

no matters how many times I turn it off. It's really frustrating. Deezer works better.

[CustomerKnowsBest]

This is awful user experience 101.  Does the Product Management team actually use the app?  This must be in their Mobile User Experience meeting notes:

Product Manager 1: Let's make it as dangerous as possible for users who listen to Spotify while driving. When they start a song in their playlist before putting their car in Drive, we'll automatically set it to Shuffle Mode so that after their first selected song plays they have to take their eyes off the road and fumble with their phone to turn off Shuffle, and then select the song that was supposed to play as the second selection.

Product Manager 2: Cool.  Lunch?

[WayneBee]

"But you can tap on the first song in the playlist to start the playback without Shuffle on." <-- THIS DOESNT **bleep**ING WORK

[markbudde]

Please allow setting this as a default. This new behavior is destroying the experience. 

[UXisEveryyhing]

As an experienced QA, I would’ve never thought this was a feature and not a bug. I can’t even say it’s frustrating because it’s infuriating. I have so many questions. Did somebody complained about the old behavior? If no, then why change it? what was the reason behind this decision? Did somebody thought it would actually improve user experience?

I’m trying to think to A reason, no matter how hard to believe it is and I can’t find any. 

Don’t turn on shuffle automatically. I don’t want to listen to old songs in the playlist (I won’t take time to remove 1000+ songs).

[BenitoElBandito]

Not acceptable. Spotify need to provide a toggle to enable or disable the default shuffle feature - it has made as many people infuriated as it has made happy. A lot of people put a lot of thought into the order of the songs in their playlists and it’s unfair to expect them to have to deselect the shuffle button every time now. 

Please can we have a toggle for this asap. 

[Tamera]

So, after installing and reinstalling the app approximately 6 times it finally reverted back to how it originally was, or at least what I remember. Its not doing the shuffle ALL the time thing it was doing. Idk what happened or what changed but my app was defaulting to shuffle even after starting the playlist by only pressing the first song and not the green button. It was also shuffling when I would open a song radio playlist and it had never done that before.  Right now it seems to be operating as normal. I do think having the large green play button as shuffle is still a little weird because honestly, when you open your playlist and see it, my first reaction is to want to press it to "play" my playlist. But I don't know if it's always done this or not because I never used shuffle really. That's how the whole thing became an issue for me. Every playlist I was  opening, no matter where I started it from, kept defaulting to shuffle. And as a paying premium user, I thought that was some of what I was paying for. I don't know how the free version of the app works, I've being using it so long I don't remember. But I do know that it never shuffled on default. So my best helpful solution to anyone right now that I've discover, is to reinstall the app until you get the version that allows you to start, and play your playlist in order, from taping the first song, or whichever song you want to start from, in the list. At least I've got that working for me now. 

[Tamera]

.

[plzno1]

having shuffle on by default for everything IS NOT HELPFUL i want to be able to click on a artist’s profile and choose a song and not have their music shuffled by default ITS NOT THAT HARD it was the default for so long why would you change it i don’t need an extra step every time i do something

[PoleLaTeaz]

As a dance teacher this feature is annoying. I made my playlists in a specific order on purpose hence why it is my custom playlist. Please get rid of shuffle

[PaulAu]

Spotify: Just change the default to "not shuffled".  Please.

[markbudde]

This is not a solution. It literally worked before the most recent update. There is no need to discuss some mythical "some day"; the devs could do it in 5 minutes.

Clicking on a song doesn't work. If you click on an artist, there are five popular songs listed under them. The way it worked before, and the obvious expectation is that if you click on the first song, then the second song will play next. That is no longer the case. This is really frustrating and is really ruining the experience.

[Yordan]

Hi folks,

Thank you for your inputs so far.

The internal teams at Spotify have confirmed that the Play button with a Shuffle toggle next to it has officially replaced the Shuffle-Play button for Premium users. Free users will still see the Shuffle-Play button.

Here's how the Play button with a Shuffle toggle works:

1. The Shuffle toggle will be toggled on by default on all artist pages, however, you can manually disable it on individual ones and the app will remember your choice. If you try playing an artist's top tracks while it's toggled on, all their tracks will be shuffled.
2. When it comes to albums and playlists, the Shuffle toggle will be toggled off by default. Once again, you can manually toggle it on for individual albums/playlists that you normally enjoy listening to in Shuffle mode.

Note that the Shuffle toggle is just that - a toggle. Pressing it will simply toggle Shuffle mode on and off. You need to tap on a new track from the list in order to start new playback.

Shuffle-Play buttonPlay button with Shuffle toggle

If you preferred the Shuffle-Play button over the current one, you can add your +VOTE to this idea and share your feedback there to show your support.

There's also an idea about having both a Play button and a Shuffle Play button here that you may find interesting, so feel free to check it out as well.

If you have any other suggestions on how you think the current Play button with a Shuffle toggle can be improved, you can share them on our Idea Exchange board.

Take care!

[markbudde]

Hi Yordan, thanks for the info. Since this is a test, please do what you can to fix it back after the test is finished. Three times today I became very frustrated with the behavior to the point that I no longer have a positive feeling towards the app - whereas it used to be the favorite app on my phone. If this resolves the playlist and song radios shuffling that will be a big move in the right direction. It would still be great to turn it off on artist page, but playlists are the biggest issue. Thanks.