Shuffle functionality in Shortcuts app for Apple Music is broken

Question

Shuffle functionality in Shortcuts app for Apple Music is broken

I tried using an Apple Music shortcut which included the shuffle function, only to find out that shuffle is completely broken when used with the shortcuts app on Mac. I've restarted the music app. I've restarted my computer. I've restarted the Shortcuts app. Shuffle absolutely does not work when selected in the shortcuts menu. The same shortcut works normally on iOS, and when synced through iCloud to my Mac, attempting to run it will bring up the menu in the picture.

After reselecting the music, it plays the music, but shuffle does not work. And since iCloud sync is turned on, it will also break the shuffle functionality in iOS. I've turned off iCloud sync in shortcuts on my Mac to the avoid the issue of the shortcut breaking on my iPhone, but it still does not work on my Mac. It worked a while ago, and I have not edited any shortcuts recently. Even deleting and manually attempting to re-create the shortcut does not seem to have shuffle work. Even with shuffle selected to "songs", it will always start with the same song and move down the line, no matter if I choose the music source as artist or playlist. Except artist will have a different starting song then playlist.

Any solutions would be appreciated. Thank you.

I'm running macOS Tahoe 26.1.

MacBook Pro (M3 Pro, 2023)

Posted on Nov 22, 2025 9:57 PM

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Answer 1

TheLittles

Level 10

202,669 points

Nov 23, 2025 2:39 AM in response to GreenMatrixTech257

"Shuffle functionality in Shortcuts app for Apple Music is broken: [...]After reselecting the music, it plays the music, but shuffle does not work. And since iCloud sync is turned on, it will also break the shuffle functionality in iOS. I've turned off iCloud sync in shortcuts on my Mac to the avoid the issue of the shortcut breaking on my iPhone, but it still does not work on my Mac. [...]Any solutions would be appreciated. Thank you. I'm running macOS Tahoe 26.1."

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Report Back if this Does the Fix:

Perform a New Sign In: Essentially, it is a matter of signing out of your Apple Account in Music and then signing back in. After signing back in, the error might instantaneously vanish, and you'd will be able to play your audio files, once more. Here are the instructions to do so, in depth:

Locate: the message
Go to: Account menu
Select: Sign Out
Go to: Account menu
Select: Sign In
Click: Play

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Answer 2

dialabrain

Level 10

135,311 points

Nov 23, 2025 1:39 AM in response to GreenMatrixTech257

You can send Apple a bug report from the feedback page.

Feedback - macOS - Apple

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Answer 3

Nov 23, 2025 9:29 PM in response to TheLittles

"and you'd will be able to play your audio files, once more"

The audio still played before I found this problem.

I tried logging out and back into music, to no avail.

After further experimentation, running the faulty shortcut from the shortcut app seems to bug the small shuffle button on the media player section.

It WILL shuffle the songs, BUT it will shuffle per album. As an example, it will shuffle all the songs in one album, before moving to the next album in the playlist and shuffling that one. It's not truly shuffling all songs in the playlist. I have multiple albums in this playlist. Hitting the big shuffle button will fix the issue with the small shuffle button, as will double clicking the problem playlist from the list of playlists on the left, and reenabling the small shuffle button.

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