Why Doesn't My iPhone Actually Shuffle My Songs When I Set it to "Shuffle?"

Do a hard reboot of your phone:

(In rapid succession)

1. Volume up 2. volume down 3. Right side power button (LONG hold, 10-15 seconds)

Keep holding the power button down as the screen changes a few times. Release it when the white Apple logo appears.

R1 Will that really work?

R1 I held the right side power button for a minute and the phone just displayed a changing color border around the screen before finally disappearing. The Apple logo never appeared.

Oh, well. We'll see if that does anything.

R1 here. Yes it really works. But it’s 3 buttons, clicked in the correct order .. and the last one is held for what feels like a long time.

R4 Doesn't work for me.

r3, you've activated Siri doing that.

Are these 20-30 songs tagged as favorites?

R6 No. That's why I can't figure out all my songs aren't shuffling.

Try making a new identical-contents playlist and swapping them out, see if it was a glitch with that one playlist.

Probably isn’t. In which case, check again that you have the latest system software in general and the latest Apple Music.

I feel like Spotify has the exact same problem with "shitty shuffling."

It's maddening.

In the "old days" when we just had iPods, when you set them to "shuffle," they actually shuffled the songs. On Apple Music, there's a flaw in shuffling.

I love me some "Star Love in the Night," but I don't need to hear Cheryl Lynn every single damn time I put in my earbuds.

r2 One way to find out...

It's important to note that Apple Music's shuffle algorithm isn't entirely random. It considers your listening habits, meaning that if you skip certain songs frequently, Apple Music will learn not to play those as often. The more you listen to specific tracks, the more likely they are to show up during shuffle. So, if you're hearing the same songs, it might be because Apple Music is adjusting to what it thinks you love.

I wish that were the case, but I never skip songs and it still doesn't shuffle properly.