Playlists repeat songs in shuffle mode

[Puffdaddy]

Hello All,

With nearly 1000 songs in my Thumb's Up playlist, Pandora autoplay will repeat a select group of them frequently, and rarely, if ever plays many songs.

I had figured that the entire playlist would be exhausted before any repeats occurred, no?

If anyone has a hint as to how I can fix this, I'd be deeply grateful. I do have the paid subscription.

Thank you and all the best,

Christopher

[AdamPandora · Accepted solution]

@Puffdaddy I moved your post over to this thread since it sounds like you are also running into an issue where your playlist starts repeating tracks before it plays all the way through: Playlists repeat songs in shuffle mode

When this happens, are you listening to Pandora on a computer or on a device?

1. If you are on a computer, are you listening from:
• A Mac or Windows computer?
  
• Our website, or the desktop app? If you're listening from our website, what browser are you using?
  
2. If you are on a device, what is the make and model (and carrier, if applicable)?

Thanks for working with me on this. 🤝

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*Please note: This message has been Accepted as a Solution to flag the current steps and/or status of this thread. This post will be updated with more information as it is provided to the moderation team.

[Puffdaddy]

Hello,

I'm still having shuffle issues with my Thumbs Up playlist.

I believe I replied to his post months ago, but happy to reply again in hopes of finding an answer.

At home, I use a Dell laptop using Windows. 

Access through website, not app.

When on phone, my Android Samsung S8 uses the Pandora app.

I'm still hearing only a small portion of the nearly 1000 songs I have in my Thumb up playlist.

Thank you

[MtnLife]

Hey Pandora, same problem here. Your shuffle mode **ahem**. It repeats songs in a playlist 2-3 times before other songs get played once.  How hard is that to program? It’s an annoying design flaw. Fix it!!!

[AdamPandora]

@MtnLife The next time this happens, can you please let me know the name of the playlist you are listening to?

Additionally, are you listening to Pandora on a computer or on a device?

1. If you are on a computer, are you listening from:
• A Mac or Windows computer?
• Our website, or the desktop app? If you're listening from our website, what browser are you using?
2. If you are on a device, what is the make and model (and carrier, if applicable)?

Thanks for working with me on this. 🤝

[MtnLife]

I am listening on an iPhone 10, with the most current os. Carrier is Verizon, but that doesn't matter, because I am trying to play downloaded playlists on my phone, so my connection isn't an issue. It's an issue with the coding behind Pandora's shuffle feature. 

Please elevate this discussion to someone from Pandora's development team. Enough people are complaining about that you can see it isn't a user or device-specific issue. We'd like a programmer to weigh in on this. Thank you.

[AdamPandora]

Thanks for following up, @Puffdaddy.

I went ahead and created a new ticket with our engineering team so they can help look into this further.

Thanks for your patience in the meantime!

[AdamPandora]

@MtnLife I definitely understand your frustration.

I have added your information as well to the ticket we have open with our engineering team.

One other thing they'd like to know is if this only happens when shuffling your downloaded playlists in Offline Mode?

Or does this also happen when shuffling your customizing your customized playlists while using internet?

Let me know.

[MtnLife]

Thanks, Adam. I have only noticed it with my downloaded playlists, because those are the only ones I shuffle. I mostly use the downloaded playlists when I'm places where there is no wireless signal, such as in the mountains or out on the ocean. The ability to download playlists for offline listening is crucial for me. And the ability to shuffle those lists is also important, so I don't have to spend time putting them in a particular order to listen to. I was using Apple Music for several years before moving to Pandora. Apple music worked extremely well for downloading playlists and shuffling the music. I'm willing to stick with Pandora a little longer, but if you can't fix it, I'll go back to Apple music.

[AdamPandora]

Thanks for providing me with that additional information.

I have passed this feedback along to our engineers as well.

Thanks so much for all you patience in the meantime!

[AdamPandora]

@Puffdaddy While our engineers are currently looking into the root of this issue, they believe they may have found a workaround in the meantime.

Please try scrolling to the bottom of your playlist or songs collection to give all the content to load on the display. Once you've done this, please try shuffling that content again and let us know if this helps.

Thanks again for working with me on this! 

[AdamPandora]

@MtnLife I wanted to check back in with you about this.

While our engineers are still looking into finding a permanent fix for this, they believe they may have found a workaround that may work for you in the meantime.

Please try scrolling to the bottom of your playlist or songs collection to give all the content to load on the display. Once you've done this, please try shuffling that content again and let us know if this helps.

Thanks again for working with me on this! 

[MtnLife]

Thanks, Adam. I'll give that a try this weekend and report back.

[AdamPandora]

Sounds good, @MtnLife - definitely let me know if you continue to run into issues after testing out that workaround.

[MtnLife]

Adam, I tried the solution you suggested, and it did not work. I have 150 songs on a snowboarding playlist. I let the entire list load on the playlist, and clicked on shuffle. In the first 30 songs, it played 5 repeats. It was playing songs up and down the playlist, including the last song on the list. But it still repeated songs before playing every song once. Please let me know if your engineers have figured out a fix for this problem yet. Thanks.

[AdamPandora]

Thank you for testing that out, @MtnLife.

I have passed that feedback along to the engineers who are looking into this.

Thanks again for all your patience! 

[TwisterMan]

Same thing here with Apple iPhone 11 on EVERY playlist. COME ON. We are paying subscribers. About to go to Amazon music!! Fix this 

[AdamPandora]

@TwisterMan Thank you for sharing your feedback.

Please try scrolling to the bottom of your playlist or songs collection to give all the content to load on the display. Once you've done this, please try shuffling that content again and let us know if this helps.

We appreciate you working with us on this. 🤝

[Puffdaddy]

It seems clear you have no solution to this issue?

I first wrote you in October of 2020 and still, I am hearing the same 1100-or-so songs repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat from a pool of nearly 1000 songs!

Look, I'm paying hard earned money for your service and it seems that a shuffle mode should work like this: Play each and every song on the list before repeating any....is that so hard?

You elevated it to a ticket...invited an engineer...and........I've head NOTHING!!  ie, you have no solution and have created a delay.  Come on man.

The grind of my daily workload is buffered by Pandora...I listen to it every, single day for 10 hours at least...are you beginning to get the picture??  Music is vital in my world, but apparently not in yours?

In cases where answers are foggy, often the true answer revolves around money $$$.  It is not too hard to imagine that Pandora pays a fee/royalty to the artist each time a song is played...no?....

...and those fees range in price, no?  Some are more expensive than others? So are you allowing us to hear the cheap songs and not playing the higher-priced ones??

If you have a better, more elevated answer, I'm all ears.  Until then, I am looking at other music servers as you have dragged this out for nearly half a year...while continuing to hit my bank account every month for an inferior product.

Pretty lousy business model and way to treat loyal customers.

Evolve or die.

[texdoug]

I'm having the same issue. Same songs from the same stations. Doesn't go through all the stations before starting over and keeps repeating songs. This happens when I have my Android, Galaxy S10 Plus hooked up to my vehicle or even by itself.