post Re: iOS: Playlists repeat songs in shuffle mode in iOS

iOS: Playlists repeat songs in shuffle mode

trjonas — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 19:03:38 GMT

I am having this problem too. I use my iPhone 13 to play my playlists. For instance, I have a playlist with 461 songs on it, but on shuffle it seems to play around the same three dozen songs over and over.

What I've tried
I tried scrolling to the end of the playlist / all 461 songs but that didn't do anything. I deleted a handful of the songs that were very overplayed and that did get rid of them overplaying (of course) but the rest keep overplaying. And of course I've tried closing the Pandora app and alternatively, keeping it open, but no difference.

What I'm trying now
Scrolling to the end of the playlist and playing the songs toward the end of it in order there (e.g. not shuffling), in the hopes this will get them into the shuffle collection. 🙂

Shout-out to tech support
I have always found Pandora's tech support excellent, and appreciate their attention to any issues we users have. While some issues aren't solved right away, they are all addressed, they have gone above and beyond for me more than once, and many other companies don't offer tech support nearly at this level. Thank you to @AdamPandora and his colleagues!

Re: iOS: Playlists repeat songs in shuffle mode

AdamPandora — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 19:38:04 GMT

@trjonas Thanks so much for the kind words - we really appreciate it. 🙂

Unfortunately, I am unable to provide any additional information or a timeline as to when you can expect to see this resolved.

However, the info you've provided is helpful and I've made sure to pass it along. We'll follow up with you if we need any additional details. I've also made a note regarding your experience.

Thanks for your patience in the meantime!

Re: iOS: Playlists repeat songs in shuffle mode

trjonas — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 01:47:29 GMT

No worries! I've actually been enjoying listening to the songs even just in a row toward the end of the playlist; in this meantime I can manually "shuffle" just by doing that and selecting different portions of my looong playlist. My main objective is not to hear the same songs so often and this does the trick

Re: iOS: Playlists repeat songs in shuffle mode

benny2paws — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 16:33:30 GMT

I have given up on Pandora and moved to Spotify. Spotify's shuffle isn't a whole lot better but overall it is a much better streaming service than Pandora. It has some cool features like an AI DJ. As to the shuffle issue there is no way that they cannot create an algorithm that will shuffle through your entire playlist and play every song. So ask yourself why doesn't it? The only conclusion I can come up with is money. Per AI:

Streaming services do not pay the same royalties for every song. The amount of money artists earn from streaming royalties can vary significantly based on several factors

I think the shuffle feature focuses on songs that cost them less to play. Is this true @AdamPandora ?

Bottom line your best bet is to just put together large playlists and just play them outright with no shuffle.

Re: iOS: Playlists repeat songs in shuffle mode

trjonas — Sat, 23 Aug 2025 01:22:00 GMT

I might have found something! I'll keep testing it, but it could be something for people to try.

Today I tried shuffling the same playlist on my iPhone, but the downloaded version instead of my regular collected version. (By necessity; there were storms here and wireless was down for part of the day.) I had downloaded this playlist at some point in the past and hadn't even remembered that I had.

It shuffled like a champ! It was really wonderfully random, no repeated songs, and not one of the three dozen or so songs I usually hear when shuffling that playlist.

I'll definitely try it again tomorrow to see if I have the same result.

Re: iOS: Playlists repeat songs in shuffle mode

trjonas — Sun, 24 Aug 2025 01:37:57 GMT

Day Two of testing and shuffe on the same playlist continues to work perfectly when I use the downloaded version of the playlist. So great

Re: iOS: Playlists repeat songs in shuffle mode

MariaPandora — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 16:41:13 GMT

Hi @trjonas , thanks for letting us know!

Re: iOS: Playlists repeat songs in shuffle mode

trjonas — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 21:22:56 GMT

Still shuffling perfectly when I use the downloaded version of the playlist. Hopefully this workaround will work for others too!

Re: iOS: Playlists repeat songs in shuffle mode

chaspear — Sat, 30 May 2026 15:01:39 GMT

I'm having the same issues . . . use Pandora for background much of day, have tried both shuffle OFF and shuffle ON with same result . . . I keep hearing the same 20-30 songs OVER AND OVER AND OVER . . .

My iPod Classic 160 from over 25 years ago plays correctly thru those playlists with hundreds of songs . . . so the algorithms exist for this feature, why can't Pandora fix this?

Been a documented problem for a LONG time.

chas

Re: iOS: Playlists repeat songs in shuffle mode

chaspear — Sat, 30 May 2026 15:05:08 GMT

Saw some comments about shuffling the DOWNLOADED playlist instead of the COLLECTED one, will try that and report back.

chas

Re: iOS: Playlists repeat songs in shuffle mode

trjonas — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 04:16:03 GMT

Yes, that was my comment! Oddly enough, after I did that a few times, it started shuffling my collected playlist correctly again. Hope it works for you too!

Re: iOS: Playlists repeat songs in shuffle mode

MariaPandora — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 16:45:27 GMT

Hi @chaspear , thanks for posting!

I'm sorry for the trouble with your shuffle. I have enabled a trace on your account to check in what's happening.

Are you experiencing this only when shuffling your Playlists or when shuffilng your stations too?

Please keep us posted on your experience when listening to your offline content.

Re: iOS: Playlists repeat songs in shuffle mode

chaspear — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 10:57:08 GMT

MariaPandora:

your post:

I'm sorry for the toruble with your shuffle. I have enabled a trace on
your account to check in what's happening.

Are youe xperiencing this ponly when shuffling your Playlists or when
shuffilng your stations too?

Please keep us posted on your experience when listening to your offline
content.

I have not noted whether it happens on a playlist or station, will try
to do that soon and get back to you.

I saw that some posts indicate that if I DOWNLOAD the songs and create a
playlist, THAT may fix the issue, but haven't had time to try that out yet.
I'm in the middle of RV repairs right now and that's taking ALL of my
time, but will get into this when I can.

Thanks for your tracking my use and issues,

chas pearson

Re: iOS: Playlists repeat songs in shuffle mode

RebaLexa — Sun, 08 Nov 2026 16:31:15 GMT

Came to this thread to find a resolution on this same problem. My playlist has close to 250 songs and I want it to shuffle without repeats throughout my 12 hour day, but it plays the same songs over and over.

If I download the playlist, do I need to download it again after adding new songs? Will it only add the one new song, or fill up my storage with duplicates of the same playlist?

Re: iOS: Playlists repeat songs in shuffle mode

trjonas — Mon, 09 Nov 2026 07:12:58 GMT

Sorry - I replied via email and it didn't look like it posted so I posted it again (below). I'm just eliminating the duplicate post here.

Re: iOS: Playlists repeat songs in shuffle mode

trjonas — Mon, 09 Nov 2026 07:11:13 GMT

Hi RebaLuxa! What happened for me is that whenever I added a song to the playlist, it updated both the downloaded playlist and the "real" one (or whatever I should call it), so I didn't have to manually re-download the playlist and I also didn't have any duplicate playlists. Hopefully it will do the same for you. Hope that helps! God bless. 🙂