Smart Playlists work fine on PC, but not selecting truly random songs on iphone

So I've created a smart playlist that (after applying rules) selects 200 random songs from my library. On the apple music app on my PC, this works great.


On my iphone, the playlist shows up, selects songs with the correct rules, and live updates fine, but it selects songs from the same album with a noticibly higher frequency.


Here's a comparison...


Songs on playlist on PC, from three different albums:

(No more than 4 songs from the same album, frequency still seems higher than it should given I have about 500 albums in my library, but not too strange given the rules I have applied)





How here are songs from those same three albums from the playlist as it appears on my iphone:

(Up to 11 songs from same album, increased frequency continues through playlist despite still being capped at 200 songs)




So essentially, the playlist is giving me much less variety on my iphone than on my PC.


My PC and iphone sync perfectly fine, and the libraries are identical on both devices, so I don't know what is causing this on my phone. The playlist rules are pictured below in case they might be the issue.




iPhone 14 Pro

Posted on Jun 4, 2025 3:13 AM

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Smart Playlists work fine on PC, but not selecting truly random songs on iphone

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