Amazon Alexa: Doesn't play requested playlists

[mayvalley]

When I ask Alexa to play a NEW playlist that I create in Pandora, she will usually respond by playing another playlist with a different name (not from my collection) but will sometimes respond that the playlist can't be found. I've tried many different playlist names, Alexa hears each one accurately (by checking the voice history) but the problem still occurs. This issue has been occurring for several months and I can't play any NEW playlists on my Echo device. Older playlists in my collection are played back correctly when I ask Alexa to do so. The last of these was created around Christmas-Time 2020 (a Christmas mix). Any playlist created after this doesn't work. My first thought is that the year change (from 2020 to 2021) has caused a problem. My Alexa app is up-to-date, and I've reset the Pandora skill/relinked Amazon/Pandora accounts multiple times. I am a paid-up Premium subscriber.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Dave

Moderator Edit: Changing title for clarity

[dfwlloyd]

I am having the same trouble as above.  I created a new playlist entitled 'steel'.  Every time I call for it 'alexa, play playlist steel' she responds 'playing christian blues on pandora'.  I've changed the name of the play slit several times to only get different results other than the play list.  Alexa can find all of my previous playlists with no problem.  I have also checked what Alexa heard, and she heard perfectly.  I have rebooted, unskilled and all the other things.  No luck.  Please advise.

[TannerPandora]

Hi @mayvalley and @dfwlloyd! Thank you for posting your experience and feedback when using Alexa voice commands when requesting your playlist(s).

We're investigating this with the help of Alexa. I've passed your information along to our engineers. I'll update this thread with new information as it is made available to me. 

For anyone else who may be experiencing this with their playlists, please follow the steps below: 

If you're having trouble with Alexa understanding your commands, please log into your Amazon account to view what Alexa thinks you said, in order to report feedback to Amazon directly. This is referred to as your "Utterance History report."

To view your utterance history report, click this link from a computer and log into your Alexa account. Or from a mobile device launch the Alexa app, tap the Menu icon, select Activity and then More under Pandora activity.

From here you'll be able to view what Alexa thought she heard, as well as listen to a recording of what you said. If she didn't do what you wanted, be sure to let Amazon know by selecting No.

In your reply, please include:

1. What kind of Alexa device you are using?
2. What phrase(s) did you say to Alexa? (Please be as specific as possible.)
3. What was the result?
4. Please send over a screenshot showing your utterance history report. 

[SectionJ]

Still didn't work. HELP, I spent all that time making the lists and now there are useless on the devices. 

[TannerPandora]

Hi @SectionJ! Thanks for posting and sorry to hear you're having trouble with your playlists. 

We're working with Alexa to investigate. I've added your information to our ticket.

I'll be posting any new information in this thread as it is made available to me. We appreciate your patience while we look into this. 

[arthur414]

This issue has been going on for over a year as I’ve submitted several posts and spoken with Pandora Support via the community. At one time it worked, then all of a sudden it stopped working. The answer given above is the same thing they said to me over a year ago. Either 1) they (Pandora Support) doesn’t know how to fix it; 2) something in the Amazon Alexa and Pandora relationship has changed; or 3) we are being lied to by someone. 

[mayvalley]

I got Alexa to play my NEW playlist with a workaround. I again checked the Utterance History to see how Alexa responded to my request. As I stated before, she heard my request correctly (to play "Broken Mix" playlist) but responded by playing a playlist named "The Mix" (not from my collection). I changed the name of my playlist to be the same as what she responded with previously ("The Mix"), waited a few minutes for the change to trickle through, and then asked her to play that. Here's the Utterance History for this request.

Not my favorite name for this playlist, but glad to have it working. Haven't tried creating another new playlist yet to see if this workaround is repeatable.

[mayvalley]

This workaround didn't stick. Now Alexa responds by playing another playlist in my collection that also has the word "Mix" in its name (I have multiple playlists with the word "Mix" in the name). So I need to give the playlist a more unique name, see what Alexa responds with, and then change the name to that to see if it will play. Will post if successful.

[TannerPandora]

Thanks of the update on your experience, @mayvalley! I've updated our report and shared with our engineering team and Amazon. 

Let us know if anything changes. Thank you! 🙂

[mayvalley]

I changed my newest playlist name from "The Mix" to "Moose Tracks". Alexa consistently responded by playing a playlist named "Tailgate Tracks" (not in my collection). She did the same when I changed the name to "Moose-Tracks", even after I provided feedback that she did the wrong thing in the Utterance Report. When I tried "MooseTracks", she responded that she couldn't find the playlist. I certainly thought "Moose Tracks" would be a unique-enough name that she wouldn't miss it. Finally I changed the playlist name to "[MyName]'s Moose Tracks." Alexa found the playlist instantly and has responded accurately to multiple requests to play it so far today. What does all this mean? I'm not sure but maybe more complexity (unique and/or more words) in the playlist name helps.

[Scottathew]

I have the same issue.  I have had ZERO luck getting Alexa to play my Pandora playlists.  She will only play stations.

[galaxirose]

Well at least I'm not the only one with this issue. It's really hit or miss. Sometimes Alexa will play "Sarah's music" on Pandora... sometimes not. Alexa will NEVER play my husband's playlist "Jeff's Music". We get music from Jeff Steinbeck every single time. 

[TheTerminalMan]

I just installed an fourth generation device. Same problem as others - it definitely doesn't recognize my playlists. This seems to work for Spotify. Obviously this is not a bug but some sort of policy decision going on behind the scenes 😞 I tried all the things suggested on this thread with the same results that people have documented.

[TheTerminalMan]

The same unit also doesn't play Spotify playlists. This is frustrating because that was a major reason I bought this device 😞

[TheTerminalMan]

I think we have figured this out. A friend connects to my echo and has a PAID Spotify account. She can access her playlists. I try to access a playlist with the same name in my account and can't. The same is true for Pandora.

So apparently they only allow this for paid subscriptions. That **ahem**!

[ckennedy678]

I have a paid account and it doesn’t work for me either. 

[Cbrown88]

Alexa **ahem** **ahem** at recognizing commands for songs. One week I can play the song, the next I can’t. I got into the fkn Alexa app and manually play the song, it plays a totally different song than I manually **ahem** played! Alexa is garbage!!

[tpyoung75]

I am having the same issue... I may need to change to spotify. Anyone else having better success on spotify?

[rob11]

I agree, I have been having same issue for a year

[kevagay]

so I have been listening to Pandora on my Alexa for a while now and able a month ago or so, when I say Alexa shuffle Pandora she comes back saying now playing bn152 Playlist.  I can't find this playlist anywhere and I've never made a Playlist.  how can I find and delete this playlist??