A woman has shared a ‘game-changing’ Spotify hack that stops your playlists from repeating the same few songs, and it’s all to do with one setting in the app’s menu
Revolutionise your Spotify shuffle with this nifty trick.
It’s a breeze nowadays to enjoy your favourite tunes on phones, computers, or other gadgets, thanks to streaming giants like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music. They dish out endless tunes at the tap of a screen and even let you whip up your personal hit lists. But what if that tech hits a snag, and you’re left on repeat with just a smidge of your playlist?
A few Spotify users have reported issues with their app not shuffling playlists correctly, claiming that they instead play the same small selection of songs but leave most of the playlist untouched. Fear not, there’s a fix for this issue and it’s very simple – all you need is a dive into your app settings.
A woman named Francine dropped this gem on TikTok, claiming she nabbed the hack off the internet herself, gave it a whirl, and found her playlists were instantly fixed. She shared: “Whoever that girl was who posted the video saying that if your Spotify doesn’t shuffle your music properly you need to go into settings, go into playback, and turn off auto [play], I actually owe you my sanity.
“For the last two years I’ve been putting my liked songs on shuffle and just listening to the same three or four songs on repeat. The amount of people that must have got into my car and thought ‘Fran really likes this song, she’s always listening to it’. No, Spotify was just gatekeeping half my music.
“Today, after I’ve done this [trick], I put my headphones in and went for a little walk – and I’m hearing songs I have not heard since 2019. I’m listening to songs that I didn’t even remember existed.”
In her video, Francine referred to a setting called “auto mix” but later clarified in the comments that she meant “autoplay,” which is supposed to play similar content after your chosen music ends. Despite this, many commenters on Francine’s video claimed that turning off autoplay improved their playlist experience.
One person gratefully commented: “I now owe you my life.” Another added, echoing the sentiment: “Oh my god yes! I’m sick of having a playlist with 20 hours’ worth of songs and only hearing the same five songs.”
When Spotify users noticed a pattern in their playlist shuffling, last year’s query in the Spotify community forum led to a moderator confirming that Spotify does indeed “prioritise” songs that users listen to most frequently. The result is that certain tracks seem to play over and over each time a playlist is restarted.
The moderator shared with the community: “We can confirm that the shuffle option prioritizes the songs that Spotify perceives you listen to most, that’s why some songs can come up repeatedly.”
At the time of this revelation, there was an active community vote on whether to implement a “true shuffle” feature. However, as of May this year, a moderator has stated that “there hasn’t been any change on the status of this idea”.
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