Stations removed when creating more than 250

[Radioactive]

I recently revamped my entire station set-up, moving from a small number of stations with several artists to making use of the 250-station limit to make more and more specific stations.

I have found that every so often, for reasons I do not understand and with no warning, a station will just disappear. I use a naming convention to keep the stations in some semblance of logical order and also to be able to choose a station by random using number and letter generators, which makes it a little easier to figure out which one is missing-- they are numbered A(0-9) to Y (0-9), so I can see exactly which one is missing.

But when searching, I can't use my title, and I have to remember exactly which artist(s) are missing in order to even repair the damage. To get the station back, I need to remember exactly which one Pandora recognizes as the actual original seed of the station... and so far, I usually have. But finally I found a case where I do not remember at all. 

What makes this frustrating is I have no idea why it happens, and there is no rhyme or reason to which station disappears. At first I thought it happened when I delete a station then create a new one when at the limit. Like, maybe the system mistakes the 250th station for the 251st station and deletes something. But that is not the case because this most recent disappearance happened overnight for absolutely no reason.

I know the station is "E2: (whatever band(s) were the seeds, separated by slashes)", and is not the current E2 station appearing in my collection (which is a different station I renamed to take up the slot in alphabetical order).

Right now I only have 249 stations active because I am hoping that the problem results from having 250.

But in any case, this seems like a really annoying bug. I don't know what happens when you go over 250 stations, but I would assume Pandora gives a warning or doesn't allow it, rather than, say, deleting a random station without telling you.

So I have the sad feeling that stations will continue randomly disappearing.

If it is possible for you to find and restore my E2-named station that was most recently eaten, that would be good... but at this point, I'll either eventually remember which bands are missing (probably doom metal bands, given the ones surrounding them in the order) or I guess it wasn't that important.

But I think I would prefer instead some kind of solution that ends this problem before it gets worse, because this is super-annoying having to go look to see what is missing every day and try to jog my memory. Is it that I maybe have too many deleted stations out there floating in the aether? I wouldn't mind if you permanently removed all my currently deleted stations, if possible, so long as my currently active ones stay in tact... if that helps.

Or is there some reason why high numbers of stations trigger the stations to disappear, thus an actual de facto maximum lower than 250? I have no idea, but please try to put an end to this weird and aggravating problem.

I also recently had a trouble where the sound is missing from Pandora (only when music is playing, not those "message from artist" things, which come in clear) on my Chrome browser, which I searched for answers in the community for, and there is none-- already updated Google, cleared cache, etc. But now I just use the app and that works fine... sound-wise anyway.

But if you have found a reason for that problem, that would be good to fix also. Just not nearly as important as the fact that my collection is auto-cannibalizing for some reason.

Moderator Edit: Edited title for clarity

[AdamPandora · Accepted solution]

@Radioactive Nice to see you around the Community.

As you already know, there is a 250 rolling limit on all accounts, free or paid.

It looks like you already have 250 stations added to your collection, so any new stations you create will automatically remove another in order to make space.

If you've reached the 250 limit but would like to create an additional station, we automatically remove the station that has remained un-listened to for the longest period of time.

You can always recreate that station at anytime using the same seeds and your thumb history and preferences will be restored.

Also remember that each of your Pandora stations can play a variety of different artists. If you have many stations based on similar artists or songs, you may consider deleting redundant ones or using the Add Variety feature to make a single station from those similar artists or songs.

Hope this helps!

[Radioactive]

There's definitely something weirder going on.
It is helpful to know what happens when you go over 250, but that only adds to the proof that something weird is going on.

I kept at 249 stations, in hopes that maybe no more stations would disappear, but understanding how the rules worked, I decided to add a 250th one, taking note which station was listed as the least listened to so I could easily restore those seeds somewhere if the station disappeared.
I checked the station count a few times (I found the easiest way to do that is to sort stations by recently created. On the app, 250 is 41 rows of 6, 4 more in the 42nd row).

But after a few hours, with nothing done to prompt it, a station disappeared.

And it wasn't the one that was listed as the least listened to. Wasn't the least recently listened to either. It was some other station. And again I can't remember what was on it; I can only identify it by the naming convention that keeps coded them in alphabetical order.

So it isn't because a 251st station is created, and it isn't getting rid of the station that it would be getting rid of if there was a 251st station.

I will see what happens when several hours or a day passes by with 249 stations and make sure nothing else disappears. 
But even if it stabilizes at 249, the program is doing things it is not supposed to.

[AdamPandora]

@Radioactive I've enabled a trace on your account to help us better understand what's happening.

Right now, I'm showing you have 198 stations in your collection.

If you notice additional stations get removed without you manually deleting them yourself, please make sure to reply back to this thread and let me know.

Thanks for working with me on this. 🤝

[Rob_Bekker]

Well this 250 station limit would have been handy to know about sooner.  I've been having this random disappearing station problem too, and I've been adding new stations that just immediately disappear. There should be some sort of warning that adding a new station will remove an old one at random.  How do I see how many stations I have?

Does deleting a station from my collection remove the thumbs up for the artist as well?

Moderator Edit: Merged posts

[AdamPandora]

@Rob_Bekker Yes - deleting a station will remove the Thumbs Up left on that particular station from your total Thumbs Up count showing in your profile.

This being said, if you were to ever re-create the station after it is deleted, all of those Thumb ratings will be restored with the station.

So we do save those Thumbs for you on the back-end in the event you ever want to re-create the station.

Hope this helps clarify.

[Rob_Bekker]

Are those deleted thumbs no longer used for the thumbprint radio after the artist station is deleted?  

[AdamPandora]

@Rob_Bekker That is correct - those thumbs will no longer affect your Thumbprint Radio.

Hope this helps!

[Motoracer81RR]

I use Pandora as my main streaming service for music. I have the free version. I just recently noticed that when I open Pandora, some of my radio stations are gone/deleted. I searched for the missing artists and then added them back, however everytime I connect to Pandora those radio stations are again missing. I have cleared the cache, uninstalled and reinstalled the Pandora app, updated everything that could be updated. I am using a Samsung S22+ and yes it does the same thing on a laptop. I only have one Pandora account. I honestly am tired of having to keep adding the same artists back into my library of artists. Any help would be appreciated 

[AdamPandora]

@Motoracer81RR I moved your post over to this existing thread: Stations removed when creating more than 250

To clarify, there is a 250 rolling limit on all accounts, free or paid.

It looks like you already have 250 stations added to your collection, so any new stations you create will automatically remove another in order to make space.

If you've reached the 250 limit but would like to create an additional station, we automatically remove the station that has remained un-listened to for the longest period of time.

You can always recreate that station at anytime using the same seeds and your thumb history and preferences will be restored.

Also remember that each of your Pandora stations can play a variety of different artists. If you have many stations based on similar artists or songs, you may consider deleting redundant ones or using the Add Variety feature to make a single station from those similar artists or songs.

I recommend deleting any stations you no longer want, and only keeping the ones you actually listen to in order to avoid any future issues with this.

Hope this helps!

[felixmlau]

As a longtime Pandora subscriber and avid music listener with broad taste in music, I just have to say that the 250 station limit detracts from the overall experience, and the automatic deletion of stations over the 250 limit is a major source of aggravation. As suggested above, there really should be a warning before a station is deleted, or just increase the limit of stations for paid subscribers.

[ctalaggie1]

 I think it's terrible for pandora to automatically delete a station from your account once you hit the limit. if you have reached the limit and try to create a new station, pandora should give you a message that you have reached your station limit of 250 - proceed and we will delete the station you have not listened to in the longest amount of time. Say no and your new station will not create and you can then go and delete the station of your choice.  Deleting without warning and knowledge is just a horrible practice.

[AlyssaPandora]

Hey there, @ctalaggie1. 👋

Thank you for taking the time to provide your valuable feedback regarding the rolling station limit. 

Currently, we have two existing feature suggestions that you may be interested in upvoting:

• Ideas: Increase 250 Station Limit
• Ideas: Notification when reaching station limit

To upvote an idea, click on the 💙 icon next to the title. 

To learn more about how ideas work on the community, check out: Ideas FAQs & Policy

Thanks for being an active participant in our community and sharing your thoughts. 🎧

[GtRoc9]

Hello! If I ever had an, "Every Time I Die" station, can you please reinstate it? Thank you so much!

[AdamPandora]

@GtRoc9 I moved your post over to this existing thread: Stations removed when creating more than 250

No problem - that station has now been added back to your collection.

To add some clarity, there is a 250 rolling limit on all accounts, free or paid.

It looks like you already have 250 stations added to your collection, so any new stations you create will automatically remove another in order to make space.

If you've reached the 250 limit but would like to create an additional station, we automatically remove the station that has remained un-listened to for the longest period of time.

You can always recreate that station at anytime using the same seeds and your thumb history and preferences will be restored.

Also remember that each of your Pandora stations can play a variety of different artists. If you have many stations based on similar artists or songs, you may consider deleting redundant ones or using the Add Variety feature to make a single station from those similar artists or songs.

I recommend deleting any stations you no longer want, and only keeping the ones you actually listen to in order to avoid any future issues with this.

Hope this helps!

[sgginc]

You moderators are still the greatest!

What does:

"You can always recreate that station at anytime using the same seeds and your thumb history and preferences will be restored."

mean?
What does "thumb history" and "seeds" mean.

Thanks for the great work ya all...

ken

[AdamPandora]

@sgginc Great question!

For example, let's say you accidentally delete your Frank Sinatra Radio station.

If you wanted to restore it, all you would need to do is search for Frank Sinatra Radio, and re-create it.

Doing this would not create a brand new Frank Sinatra station. Instead, it would simply restore the station you created previously and all Thumbs Up/Down ratings, and any added variety would be restored as well.

Hope this helps clarify. 

[Willa-Mae]

I wish I would have known there was a 250 station limit. I was adding all my favorite artists from all time and was gonna shuffle all the stations. Guess when I get time, I will have to Re-Do my station count and limit it to just 250 of my favorite artists.