Custom Shuffle starts playing stations not selected

[KRabbipal]

I have some Christmas stations selected for my current shuffle, and I noticed songs are playing from stations that are not currently selected to be shuffled. The screen shots show the stations the songs are a part of, and that those stations are not currently part of my selected shuffle stations. This has been happening ever since I selected all my Christmas stations and unselected the other ones.

[KRabbipal]

@cherylann1965 , congratulations on your upcoming wedding reception! This thread has been opened since the beginning of December, and they haven't found any solutions yet (or maybe it just hasn't been looked at yet, I'm not sure). So just a suggestion since you have an important event coming up, you might want to come up with a plan B instead of waiting on Pandora to fix this. Best of luck to you! 😁

[cherylann1965]

Thank you for the congratulations. My wedding is not until spring 2023, so Pandora has time to work on the problem before my event, although I hope they don't take that long. But I do have contingency plans for everything from dress to location to food and everything else including music.

[JoshBranJones]

Nine months later, this has finally solved for me. I tried to Custom Shuffle this weekend, and it worked. It's sad to even say this, but I'm overjoyed.

(For now, at least.)

If you've been having this problem, hopefully it'll randomly get fixed for you at some point too. Good luck.

[KRabbipal]

Wow, lucky you! I used it this weekend and had random Christmas songs pop in still. Although in fairness I guess it hasn't been a full nine months for me... 😂

[scQue814]

It does take about 4 songs for the changeover to be noticed, I've found.  Gotta let the AI catch up!  😉 

[scQue814]

On a Friday... I'm typically streaming in the car (via Android) and then switching to apple desktop once I get to the office.  No error messages. Just seems to be more likely to go "off the rails" on a Friday.... as if maybe your team is perhaps making any upgrades on the back-end "live"?   Has not been as bad the past few months, but I did note it yesterday for a bit.  

Pandora used to be really good at integrating really divergent styles of music into a coherent shuffle. But lately, it just seems to be more "random" with jarring juxtapositions.  (Twenties jazz immediately into Stevie Nicks... but without the long-game sort of bridging to get there like you'd had in the past. It's like the smart-bots aren't as smart as they were.) 

[KPH]

I figured that out... *eventually*. Hah!
*Thanks!*

*Kevin *

*New Orleans*

[cherylann1965]

@Pandora I originally posted my issue with random Christmas music playing in Shuffle mode when no Christmas stations are selected back in February. I have tried shuffling at random times throughout the year, and now again today and the issue has yet to be resolved.  Has a fix been found for this issue or should I just give up and switch over to Spotify as many of my friends have suggested?

[scQue814]

I had similar experience over this past weekend--it was either Friday (2022.11.11) or Saturday--where tunes that just never should have been popping up according to the stations programmed into the shuffle... And yet, on this one particular occasion, the songs being served actually did match an overarching theme that was implied by the shuffle selection.  It was strange.  

But I always feel like the Pandora engineers release internal updates on Friday nights, when no one is there to respond to complaints. 😉  

I have a sneaking suspicion that Pandora is trying to eliminate the "curated shuffle" option on some tiers--which flies in the face of exactly why I chose my pricepoint: I want the customizable shuffle, but (adamantly) none of the other bells and whistles (except an alphabetized shuffle list across all platforms). 

[AdamPandora]

@cherylann1965We've made a small change that should help. Please try again and let me know how it goes.

[KRabbipal]

When was the change made? I noticed it again yesterday. Is there something we need to do to get the change?

I opened this issue almost a year ago, it seems crazy that it still hasn't been fixed?

[AdamPandora]

@KRabbipal To clarify, are you still getting holiday music when shuffling your stations (despite not having any holiday stations selected)?

If so, can you please send me a screenshot of the next one that plays for you in shuffle mode?

Thanks for working with me on this. 

[KRabbipal]

Yes, I am still getting holiday music when shuffling my stations despite not having any holiday stations selected. I'm sure it will happen again in a few weeks when I reverse it and only select the holiday stations, then I'll get bleedover from the other stations. 

I will try my best to get another screen shot, but it's usually when I'm playing it in my car, so hard to take a screen shot then.

[deblee]

I am having the same problem.    Have they fixed this yet?  I keep skipping over those songs, which I think Pandora has to pay for, so I would think that there would be incentive to fix it.

[AdamPandora]

@deblee To clarify, are you still getting holiday music when shuffling your stations (despite not having any holiday stations selected)?

If so, can you please send me a screenshot of the next one that plays for you in shuffle mode?

Thanks for working with me on this. 

[KRabbipal]

AdamPandora, can you not use the screen shots I attached when I first opened this issue over a year ago? I don't understand why you need additional screen shots?

[AdamPandora]

@KRabbipal We haven't been able to reproduce the issue you initially reported.

If you are still getting holiday tracks when shuffling your stations and are unable to grab screenshots, please note the names of the holiday tracks along with the date/time they played and we will be happy to escalate your additional feedback to our engineering team so they can help look into it further.

Thanks for continuing to work with us on this.

[KRabbipal]

Ok, was finally able to get a screen shot. This song is from the Chris Tomlin (holiday) station, which I don't even have as one of my stations. I searched and found the station, and it's not part of my stations, nor part of my selected shuffle options.

[deblee]

The bottom screen shot show on the left the history of shuffle stations that recently played one after the other.  I have checked 3 times and I do not have any holiday albums checked in my shuffle.  As you can see, this station is not checked, but but it played in the  recent history. These are from google chrome and it happens using windows 10 and 11.  I am also signed in to the same account on my firestick and it is also  is also  playing holiday songs.

[scQue814]

As another... well-seasoned user... I'd love to know what phone/desktop platform you're using.  This photo makes NO SENSE.  If the station is not in your "collection" how can it be playing?  That doesn't even LOOK LIKE any sort of shuffle mode I've ever seen!   @AdamPandora something seems very amiss here.... and also with the post below (from @deblee ).