Music is repetitive in shuffle mode

[girlwhocriedpie]

For the last week or so every time I turn on Pandora (phone and desktop) it shuffles in the same order.  To the point that I can call what the next genre is going to be.  It starts with 90s country, then Tom Petty, then 90s Pop, then Beatles, etc.  How do I fix this?  It's driving me crazy! I have probably close to 100 stations on my shuffle and it keeps going in the same order. every. time...

[AdamPandora · Accepted solution]

@girlwhocriedpie Nice to see you around the community. 👋🏽

Sorry to hear our shuffle feature hasn't been working the way you'd like. I do have some suggestions that may help:
 
1. Create a custom shuffle mix. If you haven't already, try making a custom shuffle. You can include any station you'd like, and this set of stations will be saved as My Shuffle (or QuickMix) on all your devices. Let us know if you'd like the steps for that. 

You'll then be able to check the boxes next to the stations that you want to include in your custom shuffle, and this set of stations will be saved as My Shuffle (or QuickMix) on all your devices.

2. Avoid including several stations based on similar artists or songs. Choosing several stations of a similar style will create a repetitive shuffle mix. When selecting stations for shuffle (or when creating any new stations in general) consider selecting artists or tracks that musically contrast. This will yield a broader playlist.

3. Put tracks on the shelf. If you get sick of a track but don't want to completely ban it, you can put it on the shelf for a while by selecting I'm tired of this track/song.

4. Edit individual stations. In some cases, it might actually help to remove Thumbs up ratings from your shuffled stations to mix things up. If there are any Thumbed up songs you used to love, but have grown tired of, try removing those ratings.

Hope this helps! 😄

[josta59]

Hi, I'm having this problem now. I have 76 stations with a big variety, and the past few days I'm only hearing classical and goth metal, apparently from only 2 or 3 stations. I have the same issue whether I use my phone app or the website, so it must be a problem with my account.

[AdamPandora]

@josta59  I moved your post over to this existing thread: Music is repetitive in shuffle mode

Check out the accepted solution to this thread for some tips on how you can prevent Shuffle mode from getting too repetitive.

Hope this helps!

[Lukundoo]

I listen using the Pandora app on a Samsung tv. I have about 200 stations. Mostly I use the “shuffle stations” station. Recently I noticed, it almost always, virtually every time, starts off with a track by Vangelis, followed by an Alan Parsons Project track. It is strangely predictable. 

My subscription is up in a few months, and I probably won’t renew due to such repetitiveness. If I could change one thing about Pandora, I’d want an option to tell it: never play the same song more frequently than once every x number of days. Just that change could force it to be less repetitive. (I might set that to once a year at this point.) 

[josta59]

@AdamPandora That is absolutely not the problem I'm having. I've been using Pandora since 2005, and I'm very good at squeezing tons of variety from it. This is a brand new problem for me, and it's clearly a technical issue that many other users are having. Your response and action ticked me off.

[AdamPandora]

@josta59 I definitely understand your frustration.

I am going to escalate your feedback over to our engineering team so they can help look into this further.

Thanks for your patience in the meantime!

[AdamPandora]

@Lukundoo I moved your post over to this existing thread: Music is repetitive in shuffle mode

Your feedback has now been added to the ticket we have open with our engineering team regarding this issue.

In the meantime, check out the accepted solution to this thread for some tips on how you can prevent Shuffle mode from getting too repetitive.

We appreciate your patience. 

[girlwhocriedpie]

@AdamPandora This is exactly the problem I'm having.  It shuffled my stations and it seems to be stuck there.  It plays the stations in the same shuffled order every time.  This alone makes it seem like we're hearing the same songs all the time.  I have 98 stations on my Pandora.  It takes a long time to make it to the end of the list.  More often than not I'm only going to hear 5-10 songs before I stop listening, so when I turn it back on and it starts at the beginning again it sounds repetitive.  I believe this is a fairly new problem.  I've even turned off my shuffle and turned it back on; logged out and back in; killed the app on my phone (even though it's doing it on the desktop/website also); etc.

[AdamPandora]

Thanks for the additional information, @girlwhocriedpie.

I've gone ahead and added your feedback to the ticket we have open with our engineers as well.

Thanks for your patience in the meantime!

[scrapmailsucks]

Also having this issue.  I don't see an option in the mobile app or web based to create a custom shuffle mix.  How do you navigate to that?  My main shuffle has all artists/tracks selected.  Thanks for the update.

[AdamPandora]

Hi, @scrapmailsucks. 👋

To edit which stations are played during Shuffle on your mobile device:

• Go to My Collection.
  • Free and Pandora Plus listeners, swipe the Shuffle Stations icon bar at the top of your stations list from right to left. Then tap the Pencil that appears.
  • Pandora Premium subscribers will need to filter My Collection further by Stations. Then tap the Pencil to the right of Shuffle stations.

There, you can select or deselect which stations you'd like to appear in your Shuffle by Station or Genre. Tap Save on the top right corner of your screen when done.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

To edit which stations are played during Shuffle on your computer:

Stations with a blue shuffle icon will be included in the Shuffle rotation. Clicking on that icon will remove that station from your shuffle rotation.

You can customize the station included in your shuffle selection by:

• Hovering over the Shuffle On icon which will appear on the Now Playing screen which will reveal a pencil icon.
• Clicking the pencil icon will bring you to the My Collection page.
• Check or uncheck each station to modify your shuffle experience, either in the bottom right corner of each stations' album art, or (if you're using A-Z sorting) to the right of the station name.

Let me know if you continue to run into issues with this after editing your shuffle mix.

[skalrynd]

I have noticed two things recently with my list of radio stations:

• First, shuffle doesn't really appear to be shuffling the radio stations any more.  After about 10 attempts I noticed a consistent pattern where the start of a shuffle will pick a song from the same station each time, then the second song from another station which is the same 2nd station and so on.  So while the song may get randomly selected from each station the station selected to play a song seems fixed in a certan order and it looks like that order coincides with how my stations are ordered as "recently played" which brings me up to the other issue...
• The recently played isn't actually in the correct order.  For instance, I will go to the bottom of the list, play that station.  Not on a reload or even logging out/in does that station show up at the top.  I'll continue to see the station was played 2 months ago.

Desktop, iOS, Chrome

[AdamPandora]

@skalrynd I moved your post over to this existing thread: Music is repetitive in shuffle mode

Your feedback has now been added to the ticket we have open with our engineering team regarding the shuffle issue.

In the meantime, check out the accepted solution to this thread for some tips on how you can prevent Shuffle mode from getting too repetitive.

We appreciate your patience. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Recently played list in wrong order:

To clarify, does this second issue also happen across Desktop, iOS and Chrome as well?

Let me know.

[cedetwiler4]

I am experiencing the same non-shuffle shuffle issue as the others on this thread... I've noticed that when I attempted to select SHUFFLE ALL rather than CUSTOM it would not allow me to change the setting.

Hopefully the super smart engineers are close to cracking the case...

Take care,

[AdamPandora]

@cedetwiler4 I'd be happy to help with any questions you have, but I will need additional information to do so.

Can you explain your issue a bit further?

To clarify, are you also noticing a lot of repetition when shuffling your stations?

The more details you're able to provide, the better equipped I'll be to help.

I look forward to hearing back.

[rdlaporte]

I am also having this issue of the shuffle picking the same exact order of stations every time I open the app using the desktop app/chrome. I haven't tried it with my phone. I hope this gets fixed because otherwise I love Pandora and I've been curating my 248 stations for a good variety for the last 15 years.

[AdamPandora]

@rdlaporte Your feedback has now been added to the ticket we have open with our engineering team regarding the shuffle issue.

In the meantime, check out the accepted solution to this thread for some tips on how you can prevent Shuffle mode from getting too repetitive.

We appreciate your patience.

[skalrynd]

@AdamPandora I am currently using a custom shuffle.  Over time I have worked on those stations (via thumbs up/down) so that no two stations are repetitive in music.  I have about 20 different stations on the shuffle.

Yes, both issues I have noticed on desktop, ios, chrome but also my pandora app on android.

[AdamPandora]

Thanks for clarifying that with me, @skalrynd.

That feedback has now been escalated over to our engineering team as well.

Thanks again for all your patience.