If you shuffle your Apple Music library and keep hearing the same songs, you are not alone. Many subscribers feel that shuffle favors a small group of tracks even when their library holds thousands of songs.
Two settings can make shuffle feel stuck, and a free Apple Shortcut gives you a way to hear songs you have not played lately.
Check Repeat and AutoPlay Before You Blame Shuffle
Shuffle and Repeat are separate buttons, and both can be on at once. If Repeat is on, a short queue loops, which makes it feel as if shuffle keeps picking the same songs.
- Open the Music app and start playing a song.
- Tap the MiniPlayer to open the Now Playing screen.
- Tap the Playing Next button.
- Make sure Shuffle is on and Repeat is off. Double-tap Repeat if it is set to repeat a single song.
The Shuffle and Repeat buttons become inactive when AutoPlay is on, and you cannot shuffle the songs in the AutoPlay queue. Turn AutoPlay off if the Shuffle button looks grayed out.
A Shortcut Plays Songs You Have Not Heard in the Last 7 Days
Instead of relying on the built-in shuffle, this shortcut builds a queue of songs you have not played in the last seven days. You hear tracks that have been sitting untouched in your library and not the same recent favorites.
- Open the “Not Played in 7 Days” Apple Shortcut on your iPhone. You can find it here.
- Add the shortcut to your device, and review its actions before you run it.
- Run the shortcut whenever you want a fresh listening session.
- The shortcut finds songs in your library that were not played during the past seven days and creates a playback queue.
You can add the shortcut to your Home Screen, Lock Screen, widgets, or Control Center, or launch it with Siri.
The Shortcut Can Also Work on a Single Playlist
A modified version lets you choose a specific playlist before it builds the queue. That helps when you have large playlists and want to avoid hearing the same tracks.
To point a shortcut at one playlist, add the Play Music action and choose the playlist inside it.
- Open the Shortcuts app and add the Play Music action to your shortcut.
- Tap the Music field in the action to open the media picker.
- Go to Library, tap Playlists and pick the playlist you want.
The playlist version searches more deeply and may take slightly longer to run. For the best results, the songs should be added to your Apple Music library, since the shortcut works from your library and not from songs that only exist inside playlists.
You Can Change the 7-Day Limit or Add Filters
After you add the shortcut, you can edit it and change the time period to whatever you prefer. A few ideas:
- Change it to 14 days or 30 days.
- Create separate shortcuts for different playlists.
- Add filters for artists, genres, or play counts.
Random Playback Often Does Not Feel Random
Part of the reason shuffle feels repetitive is that truly random playback does not feel random to people. When favorite songs, frequently played tracks, or recently added music come up a few times in a row, the pattern is easy to notice.
Whether the cause is the algorithm, your listening habits, or simple probability, a queue that leaves out recently played songs is an easy way to break the cycle.
On a Mac, a Smart Playlist Does a Similar Job
In the Music app on a Mac, you can choose File > New > Smart Playlist and set rules based on how recently or how often a song was played. Save it, then play it with shuffle on.
More in our Apple Music coverage: how to reduce Apple Music storage on iPhone, how to use lyrics translation in Apple Music, and how to use AutoMix in Apple Music.
