Speakers stopped doing shuffle play of Spotify songs in a playlist at the press of a preset button

[kinky]

Hello!

I have a SoundTouch 20 and a SoundTouch 10 speaker and a Spotify Premium account. Up until an update they got around November/December 2019, both speakers would start playing a random song of a Spotify playlist every time I'd press one of the 6 preset buttons (regardless of the playlist). If I pressed the same button again, they'd just reload the same playlist and play a random track from it. Then they'd continue playing a random track on that playlist. I absolutely loved that, as it gave me independence from my phone to control the speakers.

Ever since said update, now whenever I press one of the six preset buttons, the speakers will always play the first song on that playlist and continue to play the remaining songs in order. If I press the same button, sometimes nothing happens, other times the same playlist will reload (like before), but the same first track is played, followed by the same tracks, in order. There's no random/shuffle play anymore. For that to happen, I have to reach out for my phone and either open Spotify there or the SoundTouch app and click the shuffle icon for the speakers to start shuffling songs. This defeats the purpose of having preset buttons for Spotify playlists, since one of the things that made me chose Bose over Sonos was the fact that I could just hit a preset button and the speaker would randomly play a song from a Spotify playlist. Now I always have to get my phone to do that, rendering the buttons near useless for Spotify (unless I want to listen to the exactly same songs over and over again, in order, which I don't).

I've tried resetting the speakers and re-adding the Spotify playlists (with the shuffle option enabled on the app) to the presets, but still no shuffle play. Coincidence or not, this happened since the November/December 2019 firmware update, and the recent February 2020 update didn't bring any changes to this disappointing behaviour. Is there any way I can get my SoundTouch speakers to play a random song every time I hit one of the preset buttons, like before?

[Silla]

I'm experiencing the same behaviour, tested on Saturday.

Brgds, Silla

[rubenruvalcaba]

I'm experiencing exactly the same problem. I think it's a must have option otherwise the presets are useless it's boring to hear every time the same songs in the same order, or have to reach a phone to change the order.

Hope we can have a response from Bose guys, I'm pretty sure there is a workaround

[Keith_L]

Hi All,

Thank you for posting and joining us in the community.

So this is a rather interesting situation you guys have encountered here. I've been giving this some testing with my SoundTouch speakers and I am able to have the preset Spotify playlists shuffle from the preset button, so it is interesting that this is no longer working for you.

One thing I did notice during my testing though, is Spotify remembered the last setting it used for shuffle. So, if I started a preset, enabled shuffle, then turned the speaker off waited a while and opened either the same playlist or a new playlist then it would shuffle again for me. However, if at any point I used Spotify on any device, the speaker or my phone, etc and I turned shuffle off this was remembered. The preset would then play the playlist in order from the first track when I next used it. 

Have either of you been using Spotify on other devices as well as your SoundTouch speakers? If you do and turn shuffle on or off there, it would carry over to the preset playlists as well.

If you can both give this a test yourselves and let me know if you also see this behavior, that would be really helpful!

@kinky, resetting the speakers and re-adding the Spotify account are both great troubleshooting steps for this, so thank you for trying that! @rubenruvalcaba, I know it hasn't worked for kinky this time, but can I ask you to please try this and see what happens with your speakers?

I look forward to hearing back from you both.

[kinky]

Thank you, @Keith_L, for taking your time to address this issue. Unfortunately, I don't think your suggestion will serve as a proper solution, since I have the shuffle option enabled on Spotify all the time (I actually don't like to listen to songs in order, even if they're from a brand new album I've never listened to before).

I did a little experiment a few weeks ago. I pressed a preset button on my SoundTouch speaker and it would start to play a Spotify playlist in order. I would then go to Spotify on my phone and confirmed the shuffle option was off (remember that I always keep it on, so it was on the last time I used Spotify elsewhere). I turned shuffle on, let it play a few songs like that and then turned off the SoundTouch speaker. I cleared Spotify from my phone's memory (so that it wouldn't be running in the foreground). I connected my phone to a different, bluetooth only speaker (I have several of those), pressed the play button there and Spotify would start automatically on my phone, with shuffle ON. I turned off that speaker, cleared Spotify from my phone's memory and, after a few minutes, pressed a preset button on the SoundTouch Speaker, again. The assigned playlist would start playing songs in order. I opened Spotify and the shuffle option was OFF.

The bottom line: every time I listen to music on other speakers or headphones or anything other than a SoundTouch speaker, shuffle is ALWAYS ON. Every time I press a button on a SoundTouch speaker, shuffle is ALWAYS OFF. I never touch the shuffle icon on Spotify, except to enable the shuffle option when pressing a button on a SoundTouch speaker.

I remind you that ever since I bought both my SoundTouch speakers up until the last firmware update of 2019, they would both play a random song every single time I'd press a preset button.

[rubenruvalcaba]

Hi Keith, thank you for your promptly response.

I just tried as you said, setting the shuffle, then turn it off and on, and it does keep the shuffle mode. Even though pressing the button doesn't change the play mode (it would be a nice feature), but for me it's enough as long as it keeps the last playing mode used.

Regards

[kinky]

So, last week I tried, once again (for kicks) to remove Spotify from the SoundTouch services and add it back again. What is the difference, now? Well, now the speakers still play playlist songs in order, but every time I press the same button again, nothing happens (it doesn't reload the playlist like before). Also, I did a "fun" experiment... I pressed one of the preset buttons on my SoundTouch 20 and it started playing songs in order (as expected, sadly). I opened Spotify and turned the shuffle option ON. I Turn off the SoundTouch 20 but keep the Spotify app open on my phone (with the shuffle option ON). I press a preset button on my SoundTouch 10 and it starts playing songs in order. I check Spotify on my phone and the shuffle icon was turned OFF.

As far as I see it, it's the speakers themselves that are turning the shuffle option OFF (or at least disabling it by default). Isn't there really any way to fix this? It's so incredibly annoying for speakers of this price tag (particularly when they didn't show this behaviour a few months back).

[Keith_L]

Hi All,

Thank you for the updates!

@rubenruvalcaba, I'm glad to hear your speakers are working correctly with Spotify. Adding the ability to change playback modes with a button press is certainly an interesting one. I'm not sure if this feature is something that could be added, but I will be sure to pass it along to our development team for consideration.

@kinky, Don't worry that was not meant to be the solution, I just wanted to check whether your speakers were behaving as intended or doing something different. As yours do not seem to be, there are some more troubleshooting steps to get this resolved. Thank you for the information on exactly how this is behaving at the moment.

Given the troubleshooting you have tried already, the next thing I would recommend doing is a reboot of your router, just to test whether this is affecting the information being sent to the speakers over your network in some way. To do this, you would just need to disconnect it from power for 30 seconds, then plug it back in and allow it to reboot and reconnect.

It would also be worth factory resetting one of your speakers and setting it back up again from scratch as a test. To do this, press and hold the 1 and  Vol - buttons together for 10 seconds (on the 20 you will see a countdown on the screen, the 10 all the LEDs will blink white when complete). Once this is completed, use the SoundTouch app to set it back up onto your Wi-Fi and test. If this is successful then repeat the process with your other speaker.

Let me know how you get on.

[kinky]

Thank you, once again, @Keith_L. Sadly, I have to inform that I followed your instructions, only to arrive at the exact same behaviour as usual. I turned off my router for a whole minute (I've already turned it off a few times in the last months, but I still decided to follow your instructions, regardless). Then I did a factory reset of my SoundTouch 10 and it was a hassle to add it again on the SoundTouch app (I always have to connect the SoundTouch speakers with a USB cable to my PC for that, using my cellphone it just tries to connect forever to the speakers). But I did it all, as advised, and both my SoundTouch 10 and 20 are still not shuffling Spotify tracks when I press one of their buttons.
This is terribly frustrating, always having to pick up my phone just to hit that shuffle icon on Spotify.