Turn Off Shuffle on Spotify: Step-by-step Guide and Tips

Spotify is the largest music streaming platform with a 31% market share. It offers a lot of music streaming features while including the ability to download songs and play them offline.

If you’ve recently switched to Spotify then you might have realized that controlling shuffle playback on the app is somewhat of a mystery. While the option is sometimes available to you, at other times it can seem to vanish without reason. So what’s going on? Let’s find out!

Can you turn off shuffle on Spotify?

Shuffle is unfortunately a premium feature on Spotify for the most part. Free users can only play a few playlists without shuffling them. This mostly includes Made for you playlists and your Daily mixes.

Premium users on the other hand can control their playback as needed and turn on or turn off shuffle at will.

Here is an overview of what Premium and Free users can control on Spotify when it comes to Shuffle.

  • Free users
    • Turn off Shuffle Play: No
    • Turn off Shuffle in Premium content: No
    • Turn off Shuffle in Daily Mixes: Yes
    • Turn off Shuffle for Made for You content: Yes* 
  • Premium users
    • Turn off Shuffle Play: Yes
    • Turn off Shuffle in Premium content: Yes
    • Turn off Shuffle in Daily Mixes: Yes
    • Turn off Shuffle for Made for You content: Yes

* Some Made for You playlists might not allow you to turn off shuffle based on their content and publisher.

Related: How to Add Songs to Spotify in 7 Ways

How to turn off shuffle on Spotify

Here’s how you can turn off shuffle on Spotify depending on the device you’re currently using. 

On Computer

You can either use keyboard shortcuts or the icon in the Now Playing bar in the web player or the desktop app to toggle Shuffle on computers. These methods work for both premium and free Spotify users. Let’s get started.

Method 1: Using keyboard shortcuts

Note: Keyboard shortcuts only work in the desktop app and not the web player.

Press Ctrl + S or Cmd + S to toggle Shuffle for the currently playing playlist.

You can check the current status of Shuffle using the Now Playing bar at the bottom. If the icon is green then Shuffle is currently turned on for your playlist. 

If the icon is grey similar to other icons, then it means Shuffle is turned off. 

And that’s how you can toggle Shuffle using keyboard shortcuts on computers.

Method 2: Using the Now Playing bar

When playing a desired queue or playlist, use the Shuffle icon in the Now Playing bar to toggle the same. Click on it to turn on or turn off shuffle for the current queue or playlist. 

Here’s what the color of the icon signifies depending on its status.

  • Green shuffle icon: Shuffle is turned on
  • Grey shuffle icon: Shuffle is turned off

And that’s how you can toggle shuffle using the Now Playing bar.

On iPhone and Android

If you’re using the Spotify mobile app on iOS or Android then you can use the following methods to toggle Shuffle.

For Premium users

Premium users have the option to toggle Shuffle when either playing a playlist or for a currently playing one. Use either of the methods relevant to you.

Method 1: Turn off shuffle for your current queue

Tap the Now Playing bar at the bottom of your screen.

Tap the shuffle icon to turn it off. The icon should turn grey to signify shuffle is turned off.

A green icon means shuffle is currently turned on.

If however, you don’t have a shuffle icon in your Now Playing bar, then tap the 3-dot(More) menu icon. 

Tap Shuffle to turn it off.

And that’s how you can turn off shuffle for your current playlist or queue.

Method 2: Turn off shuffle when playing a playlist

Here’s how you can turn off shuffle when initially playing a playlist on your device.

Open the desired playlist on Spotify. Now take a look at the Play icon. If there is no shuffle icon beside it, then you can use the same to initiate playback in the order shown on your screen.

However, if there is a shuffle icon beside it then it means you can play the playlist on shuffle directly using the icon. As we wish to avoid this, simply tap on the first song to initiate playback in the order on your screen.

Tip: If playback still seems to start with Shuffle turned on, we recommend using double tap when selecting your song instead. This is a known bug that should be fixed in the upcoming updates. 

And that’s how you can control shuffle when playing a playlist on Spotify.

For Free users

Free users have the option to turn off shuffle in some playlists on Spotify. These playlists will mainly show up under the Made for you and Daily mixes sections on Spotify.

You can use the same methods as premium users to disable shuffle in support playlists. You can use the icon in your Now Playing bar.

Or, you can use the Shuffle option in the context menu of the now playing section.

You can even identify playlists that support toggling Shuffle by looking for a shuffle icon under them.

Playlists without this icon will allow you to turn off Shuffle playback.

Have issues turning off shuffle? Try these fixes!

Shuffle playback and control can sometimes encounter bugs and issues depending on your playlist, account, and current platform. Here are a few commonly encountered issues and their fixes to help you troubleshoot the same on your device.

If you can not turn off shuffle for an album or playlist

Depending on your app version or album, the Shuffle and Repeat controls can sometimes be hidden from the Now Playing bar.

You can still access the same using the menu options. Tap the 3-dot(More) icon in the top right corner.

Select Shuffle.

You will now have turned off shuffle for the current album or playlist on Spotify. 

If you can not turn off shuffle as a free user

This is the expected behavior as controlling shuffle playback is mostly restricted to premium users. Free users can mainly control Shuffle in the following types of playlists.

  • Daily Mixes
  • Made for You
  • Spotify Campaign playlists

If you can not turn off shuffle for customized playlists (Made for you, daily mixes, etc.)

Some Daily Mixes and Made for You playlists might not have the option to control shuffle whatsoever. In such cases, you will need to change your settings for another playlist. Such mixes inherit your previous playback settings and thus Shuffle will be disabled for the same. 

Open a random playlist and turn off shuffle for the same.

Go back to your mix without Shuffle control and check the queue. The songs should now play in order as intended.

If you can not turn off shuffle whatsoever

In such cases, it might be that your settings are being wrongly synced from a signed-in device without the ability to update the same. Signing out of all your signed-in devices will help fix the same. Use the steps below to help you along with the process.

Note: You will need a computer to sign out of everywhere from your account.

Visit Spotifiy.com in your preferred browser and log into your account. Once logged in, click the User icon.

Ensure Account overview is selected on your left and scroll to the bottom on your right.

Click Sign out everywhere.

And that’s it! You will now be signed out of all your signed-in devices. As the page suggests, this process can take up to an hour. Once the necessary time has passed, you can log back into your account and turn off shuffle as intended.

A few things to note…

During our testing of the currently released apps as of publishing this post we found that Spotify is now allowing free users to control Shuffle playback as needed. As a free user, we were able to play all tested playlists and albums without Shuffle play on both Android and iOS.

Playlists would play in the intended order and the toggle would work regardless of being a free user.

This could be a bug on our end or for the time being, but you might want to keep this in mind going ahead. 

We hope this post helped you turn off Shuffle on Spotify. If you have any more questions feel free to drop them in the comments below.

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