Shuffle only shuffling small subset of large playlist, when streaming to other device from iPhone

[Garbonzo]

I'm on an iPhone 6s, I have a playlist of just ~8k songs., and I'm noticing weird behavior with the shuffle feature. Here are the steps I take to recreate the issues: (I am also attaching a collection of screenshots that are numbered based on the lists below, so you can see what I am seeing)

Here is what seems to be working:

1. If I have shuffle off, and then select a song from this playlist, and then view my now playing queue, I see the ordered list of songs (as expected)
2. While still viewing the "Now Playing", if I tap the shuffle icon, I see that it shuffle to a seemingly random assortment of the songs in my big playlist (although I do see an eerie number of tracks by the same band, I'd expect not to see so many in a shuffle of 8k songs)
3. If I tap the shuffle button again, it correctly disables shuffle and I see my ordered playlist again (good), starting at the location in the ordered playlist of the currently playing song.

Here is where it gets weird:

1. If (while still on the iPhone) I choose to stream to another device (like my laptop, or my chromecast audio), it switches and plays just fine
2. However, if I then choose to enable shuffle, I can see when viewing my "Now Playing" on my phone that it is showing a random assortment of just a teeny tiny subset of my entire 8k song playlist. This is a problem.
3. If I then tap the shuffle icon to turn shuffle off, it goes back to the ordered play queue (expected)
4. Tapping shuffle icon again gives me a new play queue, but it is definitely only shuffling a small subset of the 8k playlist (and the subset seems to be in the vicinty of the last played song). I tried this several times, going between shuffled and unshuffled, and each shuffled playlist is only shuffling a small subset of songs, near the song currently playing.
5. With shuffle still on, If I select a particular song from my playlist, and then view my play queue, It shows me a new shuffled playlist (which is consistent with what the desktop app does), but the play queue is still a shuffle of a limited subset of the full playlist. 
6. However, if I then tap the shuffle icon to turn off shuffle, my play queue does NOT go back to the ordered playlist, it goes back to the previous shuffled play queue. This is a problem.
7. If I go back to my playlist and choose a particular song, and then view my play queue (shuffle is still disabled), then I DO see my ordered playlist in the play queue (which is expected)
8. Tapping shuffle here again, my play queue is a shuffled subset of the large playlist (bad)

So... it seems that the shuffle feature behaves strangely (only shuffles a small subset of the full playlist) when you are connected and streaming from the iPhone to another device. 

Does anyone know a fix? Is this a known bug? Thanks!

[greenchileburro]

I am having the same problem with the shuffle only shuffling a small portion of a large playlist.  Any ideas?

[Bart27]

I'm having the same exact problem. Makes streaming to my Chromecast nearly unbearable. If I press shuffle it just gives me about 15 random songs that play repeatedly in the same order.

[bcrisp4]

Same problem. Makes Chromecast functionality basically useless.

[MattDrumDawg]

I just noticed this today and it is driving me absolutely crazy.  

I'm casting from an iPhone 6S to a Chromecast Audio.  Seems to be a limitation of Chromecast when dealing with large playlists from what I can tell, though Spotify's shuffle feature has always left a bit to be desired.  

[Bruxism]

Generally happy with Spotify shuffle and was happy with Spotify on Chromecast, but recently I've been finding that when I connect to Chromecast, the list changes and is replaced with a much narrower choice - generally all one artist.

This is clearly a new problem - it was fine just three or four days ago. Seems there was another Android update to make the app just a little bit worse.

[Tenrash]

It looks like this is only a problem when using the Chromecast (audio).

The only way to get a playlist really shuffled now is to start a session on desktop. Shuffle a playlist and play, then start the spotify app on your mobile and then connect tot the Chromecast. It wil reshuffle the "Next up" playlist, but atleast the next 50 or so songs will actually be a shuffled set from the entire playlist.

When you do not follow this method the Chromecast will pick the first 50 songs in your playlist and then shuffle those. In my case only the artists starting with A and B.

[thecream456]

Just adding that I also have the same issue with casting to both Chromecast and Google Home. It's frustrating when those are the primary ways I use when wating to quickly play my music through speakers.

Samsung Galaxy S6 (Android 7.0) (Spotify 8.4.0.539 armV7)

Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 (Android 7.0) (Spotify 8.4.0.539 armV7)

Chromecast (1.23.84839)

[matthewkylewill]

Yeah I only purchased premium for multi-room listening with my cast speakers and Google home, but when I shuffle my music I only get songs that start with the letter A. If they don't fix this soon I'm cancelling my subscription and just using Pandora where I can get a better variety

[meadowcroftt]

Spotify Connect effectively limits playlists to the first 100 songs, no matter how big the playlist is.  This is a known issue.  Spotify labels the idea to increase the playlist size, "Not Right Now".  See link here:  Go to this link and add your vote to increase the playlist size.

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Ongoing-Issues/Connect-only-plays-100-song-chunks-of-playlists/idi-...

[stevedabear]

Yep I have the same issue with Chromecast. Must admit though that Chromecast is hanging up a lot less now. I wonder whether there's a connection..

[Chikyflip]

I have the same problem, only just realised it was specific to connected devices today. Really frustrating.

One work around, at least with Android, is to use the Google Home app to connect the phone to the chosen Chromecast, then play music through the Spotify app. Seems to allow the whole playlist to shuffle as it should.

In my experience the Home app does tend to drop connection every now and then, but better that then only being able to listen to a set selection of songs of a massive playlist! Would be a lot better if Spotify just fixed issues like this in the first place.

[cuboneee]

This also happens when I stream from my phone to playstation 4. No known fix.

[Tenrash]

This seems to work yes! it's not perfect but atleast i can hear all songs.

What also worked for me was starting the spotify web player in google Chrome and casting that chrome page to the chromecast.  It's the basicly the same idea.

[ShuffleForReal]

Fiancée has a playlist of 5000+ songs she continuously adds songs to. Casting from iPhone to chromecast audio shuffles only the last 20 added songs or so, over and over again.

[Bigarthur]

I've experienced the same problem when casting a playlist using Chromecast. There is a work around (of sorts). Start the playlist on your mobile device and connect to Chromecast. Then open Spotify on a desktop computer (you'll see the playlist playing on your Chromecast device in the bottom left of the screen) and select a new song from the playlist and then select the random icon. You'll now no longer have just a small subset of the playlist playing! A bit of a pain - but worth it if you have a party planned!

[naien]

FWIW, I only noticed this weird functionality after adding a Google Home device to my... um... home. I unplugged it, but this was not sufficient to resolve the issue. I then accessed the "Google Home" app on my phone and unlinked the Google Home device and rebooted my Chromecast. This appears to have resolved the bad-shuffle topic for me.

[naien]

This is what I experienced this morning, though I had noticed the bad shuffle issue before. As I posted, I resolved the issue by unlinking the Google Home device from my Google Home app and rebooting the Chromecast.

[PAWNcreative]

This is such a stupid problem. PLEASE FIX THIS. Its not even just with Chromecast its on mac desktop app as well only shuffles like 100 songs and its generally from the same letter or section you start to play from. Come on Spotify this is a key feature!!!

[Rickertjee]

I have cancelled my subscription for this reason, as I use my Chromecast to play music at home. Can't believe this hasn't been fixed yet, who wants to hear the same songs all the time?