Shuffle becomes “permanent” when using Connect between devices

[Snurz]

Screen recording that explains the issue:
https://streamable.com/a42eyl

Expected behaviour: 

When playing music in the iOS/iPadOS app, 

in a playlist or in an album view

pressing play using the Play/Shuffle button,

music will play in shuffle mode as expected. 

Same scenario,
when you start playing music by touching a single song from the playlist or album view, (don’t use the play/shuffle button)

music will start playing without shuffle turned on, but in the sequence of the album or playlist. (as expected)

Unexpected behaviour:

When playing music from a playlist / album view,

touching the Play/Shuffle button, music will start playing in shuffle mode. (Expected)

Using Spotify Connect feature, continue listening on an iPhone (same account and logged in) enables you to seamlessly listen to what you started on the first device.. The music will play in shuffle mode on the 2nd device now. (Expected)

If you choose now a different playlist or album and decide to listen in non-shuffle mode, you would expect touching a song from the playlist/album would play music without shuffle turned on. However, shuffle stays on, when you touch a song (not the play/shuffle button). 

This happens after the Connect scenario mentioned above. 

You now have to launch the player view, where you see shuffle is turned on (green plays a dot under the icon) and turn shuffle off. As this icon is only visible in the player view, you may miss that, listening to a full album in shuffle mode even if you did not intend to use shuffle this time. 

Conclusion:

Please, no matter if I used Spotify Connect to switch devices, whenever I start a new song from a playlist/album by touching a song instead of the Play (shuffle) button, please DON‘T keep shuffle from previous listening. Even if I used Spotify Connect to switch between devices. 

In user reality it looks like this:

1) I’m sitting on the couch, using my iPad to read a book, and listen to Spotify in the background. I started the Focus playlist in shuffle mode as I know the playlist already a bit.
2) I decide going for a run, I have switched to my iPhone using Connect. The Focus playlist continues playing, but I choose another playlist for a run and let it play in shuffle mode.

3) I come back from my run, I switch back to the iPad using Connect. I decide listening on my headphones to a cool new album I discovered thanks to Spotify. I tap the first song in the album view and leave the ipad on the desk, while cooking a meal. Only after a few songs, I figure out, Shuffle is still on. Even I touched the first song of the album, not the play/shuffle button. I need to get to the iPad, launch spotify, tap on the cover/bring up the player screen and turn off shuffle which I did not wanted to be turned on in the first place. 

[Loxer]

Hi there!

I know it sounds simple, but it's often overlooked. Could you try restarting your device? If that doesn't help, try a quick clean reinstall of the app. Just follow these steps.

Please make sure you have the latest iOS (13.6) and Spotify (8.5.68) versions installed.

Have you tried to also skip a track and see if the Shuffle option can be turned off?

I tried that with my iPhone and an Android Box then my Mac and PC but couldn't reproduce it. Could you also share some screenshots of how it looks on both of your devices?

If you're still having trouble, could you let me know the exact version of Spotify and the exact version of the operating system you're running?

I'll see what I can suggest next!

[Snurz]

Thanks for your response.
Try it with two iOS / ipados devices please.
Both devices are on iOS ipados 13.6 and latest Spotify available from the App Store.
The problem exists since months or longer. Different previous iOS versions. Different previous app versions.

Simply use two IOS devices parallel. And see how Play-Shuffle sets shuffle on the other Connect-ed device as permanent until you turn shuffle in the player view off again.

 Here’s a screen recording. 
https://streamable.com/a42eyl

[Loxer]

Hey @Snurz,

So I tried with my iPhone and an iPad and still couldn't get it to work.

Is it possible for you to try with another account, a family's or friends Spotify account?

Keep me posted 🙂

[Snurz]

It’s pretty easy to reproduce. I assume something’s missing when you watch my screen recording.
Never mind. Maybe someone else picks up on this thread some day. In the meantime I just keep switching off shuffle manually if I don’t forget it. Have a good one and thanks for your time!

[Elena]

Thanks for the reply @Snurz!

And thanks @Loxer for helping out here.

We can confirm also that we're not able to reproduce the issue you're describing in your video.

This is why we can recommend trying some more troubleshooting steps. @Loxer has suggested that you try a clean reinstall and restart, could you give that a shot if you haven't yet?

It's also a good idea to try with a different account to check if maybe this trouble is caused by your account. 

Keep us in the loop here! We'd love to help you out.

[Snurz]

Thanks for your message Elena. 

I’ve already uninstalled and re-installed Spotify on both devices (and re-downloaded all my offline albums 😉 )

Unfortunately I don’t have another account to test it. Do you have a test account you can PM me for a trial? Or shall I just register another account, but then I don’t have premium, which would not help testing shuffle-yes/no. 

Interesting that you can’t reproduce it, indeed. Now I’m even more wondering what I can do to eliminate this local issue. 

[Snurz]

Maybe some interesting information to add:

So I gave it another go, as you suggested:

1) Logged out of Spotify on iPad and iPhone

2)Deleted the Spotify app on iPad and iPhone

3) Turned off ipad and iphone, turned on ipad and iphone

4) installed spotify on ipad. 

- After the installation and launch of the Spotify app, ipadOS offered to use saved login details to log in. 

- The app launched and continued playing the song I was playing before step 1 above. 

- Shuffle mode is “hard-on”. Tapping a song on an album does not turn off the shuffle. Shuffle must be turned off in player dialogue/screen. 

5) Installed spotify on iPhone: same as 4)

So I assume somehow shuffle “hard-on” is retrieved from server/account information. And get’s somehow set when I use Connect to transfer a spotify session from iOS to iPadOS device / vice versa. 

[Petya]

Hey there @Snurz,

Thanks for getting back to us! 

Since you don't have the opportunity to test with another account, feel free to reach out to support. They'd be able to help with that.

Let us know how it goes!  

[Snurz]

Update:
I’ve been with support in an almost 2h chat. 

Guess what the first step was:

- Delete the app, download the app, restart device. 🙂 

What happened:

I received a test account. I logged in with the test account.
I could easily reproduce the issue again as in my video shown. (You must make sure that you chose an actual separate device, which is connected via Spotify Connects servers, not locally via Bluetooth.)
There was an issue identified with my offline devices, which has been reset to defaults. Didn’t solve the issue at hand. 

Support then got in touch with what they call Speciality, possible a 2nd/3rd level support. 

I had to send the video to them with a reference number for them to find. 

Speciality had issues reproducing the steps. So it was forwarded to the Backend Developers. It’s a backend issue I was told. 

I was told to tell you that they are working on a fix and it will be rolled out with one of the next releases. 

Thanks to all who tried it out. Stay safe.