Shuffle missing (off) for one playlist (free plan)

[Yg4L]

My Question or Issue:

Previously, all my playlists had shuffle on. I like that. Now one of them has shuffle off. When I look at the list of playlists in “your library”, “Haruki Murakami’s vinyl collection” is the only one that doesn’t have the shuffle icon on it (screenshot attached). I didn’t think that was even possible in free plan. How can I re-enable shuffle for that playlist?

Plan: Free

Country: Australia

Device: iPhone 11

Operating System: iOS 14.1

[Alex]

Hi there @Yg4L,

Thanks for reaching out about this in the Community!

Can you try playing the first song of the playlist and check if you can see the Shuffle icon in the Now Playing view. You can also check if the icon is shown when you click on the 3-dot menu when playing one of the songs.

If that doesn't work, try running a clean reinstall of the app. Make sure to follow the steps in this guide, as they offer advise on how to clear all old app data.

Keep us posted 🙂

[Yg4L]

Thanks Alex! I tried playing the first song of the playlist and couldn't see the Shuffle icon in the Now Playing view. I also checked the 3-dot menu when playing one of the songs and couldn't see the Shuffle icon there either. I followed the instructions you linked to for clean reinstall and that didn't make any difference. I tried this a few times, ensuring the cache was 0 MB after deleting it. I noticed that I never had to provide my login details after reinstalling the app, so I also tried the clean reinstall after logging out of Spotify. Still no luck. I've also noticed that there's one other playlist in "Your Library" which doesn't have the Shuffle icon . The two affected playlists happen to be the two that I've played the most.

[Mihail]

Hey @Yg4L,

Thanks for keeping us in the loop.

Certain playlist are able to be played with shuffle off on the free version on mobile. You can find out more in this Support Article. You should however be able to turn shuffle on should you want to. Could you send us a screenshot of the now playing view in one of the playlists? Just make sure to hide any private/ sensitive info. We'd also appreciate the URI of one of the playlists you mention. 

Keep us posted. We’ll keep an eye out for your reply.

[Yg4L]

thanks Mihail!

Playlist URI: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7LxqhxqClpyc76C85V7Zs2?si=bzcoEES7TGShYPERorzfig

screen shots attached 

[Mihail]

Hey @Yg4L,

Thanks for getting back to us.

Could you also send us a screenshot of the options available from the three dot menu next to the playlist name in the last screenshot? It would help us out a lot if you could log in on another mobile device and check if you see the shuffle option there.

We'd love to investigate this further! We'll be here if you have any other questions.

[Yg4L]

Thank you Mihail

Attached are screenshots of the options available from the three dot menu next to the playlist name in the last screenshot.

I’ve also logged in on another mobile device (an iPad) and I can see the shuffle option there. I can even turn shuffle on and off for this playlist, which surprises me because, in the past, I’m sure this playlist was locked on shuffle on my iPhone. 

I’m so grateful that you’re happy to investigate this further. Thank you!

[Mihail]

Hey @Yg4L,

Thanks for getting back to us with the screenshots.

While we look in to this there is a workaround that might work for you. You can create another free account and see if the button comes up there on all your devices. If that's the case, you can use the steps in this guide and transfer your music library from the old one so that nothing gets lost. 

Keep us posted. We’ll keep an eye out for your reply.

[Yg4L]

Thanks again @Mihail

I created a new free account and it does allow me to turn shuffle on and off for the affected playlists.

Interesting!

[Alex]

Hi there @Yg4L,

Thanks for getting back to us.

In this case we'd recommend you follow @Mihail's advice on migrating your music collection over to the new account. 

Don't hesitate to reach out again if you have more questions.

[Yg4L]

Hi guys, Thanks for all you’re help. I haven’t tried the workaround yet because it seems quite involved and can’t be done on my phone. Plus I’m kinda fond of my username. Anyway, I just got an offer for three month premium trial and signed up. Now I can shuffle these playlists again!:) Thought I’d let you know, just for interest. It’ll be interesting to see what happens if I revert to the free plan in February. Maybe this will resolve the issue. Thanks again!