[Update: Fixed] YouTube shuffle feature hasn't worked properly with longer playlists for quite some time, no official fix yet

New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…

Original story (published on October 30, 2020) follows:

The broken YouTube shuffle is one of those rare bugs that span over a over a long period of time, and yet are neither addressed nor fixed by the developers.

Users have been ineffectively complaining about this issue on various platforms for years, but await a fix to this day.

I was listening to a playlist on shuffle and it would constantly go back to this one specific song. Even if I listened to the entire video, it repeats that same exact one, if I switched to a different video, when that one finished, it goes back to the specific one, being the 2nd video in the list.

Not sure what’s going on here but it simply doesn’t work unless Shuffle is Off. And I’ve noticed shuffle isn’t entirely random and will play the same song multiple times in the loop.
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I despise this feature so much, I have a playlist with over 2,000 songs and it shuffles and repeats through the same 20-30 videos. Why not have an option to turn this off and have a real shuffle? Because this clearly intended for some reason.
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As apparent from the above comments, the YouTube shuffle algorithms don’t seem to work properly with longer playlists.

There are two issues with YouTube’s playlist shuffling. It either cycles between the same 20-30 songs over and over again, even though there are a lot more songs on the playlist, or it repeatedly goes back to play the same one song.

It is unclear as to why or how YouTube has messed up a thing as simple as a shuffling algorithm. Given the number of complaints over the years and Google’s adamancy to not fix it, perhaps, it is some kind of feature.

Even if that is true, Google still needs to make amends as soon as possible. If they cannot do that, then they should at least address the issue given the huge number of complaints, and the fact that they continue to pour in.

The only known addressal till date is by a “Google Employee” on the YouTube forums:

Hi Everyone,

Many thanks for the feedback. We will make sure that it is passed along to our teams.

Have a great day,
Assiya
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However, this comment is over an year old and the complaints have since only continued to pour in. This clearly shows that the issue has not been fixed yet.

Currently, there is only one workaround available. However, this was reported to be working ages ago, and there is no guarantee that it would work now. You may try your luck by visiting this link.

The only thing the users facing this bug can do for now is wait for a fix. The issue may have been present since ages but don’t lose hope! You can still bombard the official YouTube forums and demand a fix over here.

Alternatively, you may also leave your comments on the already opened threads mentioned above.

That being said, let us know in the comments below if you are aware of another workaround for the YouTube shuffle broken issue.

Also be sure to check out the YouTube watch history bug, which too has been stretched for pretty long.

01:14 pm (IST): The issue seems to have been fixed now as per Team YouTube on Twitter. Let us know in the comments if that truly is the case.

Thanks for the tag – we’re aware of the issue on playlist not shuffling and it is now fixed. If you haven’t yet, you can clear the cache and cookies before signing back in. Restarting the app/browser usually helps too. Let us know how it goes.
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