The simple fix that brought my Spotify DJ back to life

The simple fix that brought my Spotify DJ back to life Credit: Lucas Gouveia / Android Police | Roman Samborskyi / Shutterstock By  Mark Jansen Published 10 minutes ago Mark has almost a decade of experience reporting on mobile technology, working previously with Digital Trends. Taking a less-than-direct route to technology writing, Mark began his Android journey while studying for a BA in Ancient & Medieval History at university. But since then, he's cast his eyes firmly on the future, with a deep love for anything that bleeps or bloops. Outside of Android tech of all types, Mark loves to hike, play video games, build small plastic men that cost far too much, and spend time with his two daughters. Sign in to your Android Police account Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap

While I have a number of thoughts about the efficacy of AI as a whole efficacy of AI as a whole, I will admit to being a big fan of Spotify's DJ.

I love its dumb little voice, the awful jokes it tells about wind in your hair, and I love it when the DJ finds great songs I would never have found myself.

Yes, I know it's just an algorithm with an AI voice stapled on it, but it turns out that's exactly what I wanted in my life.

So imagine my horror when my DJ broke.

Instead of playing a mix of songs it knows I love and stuff it thinks I might, it just started playing the same tracks and playlists.

Was it a problem with Spotify itself? Am I simply that predictable? Did listening to too much of the K-Pop Demon Hunters soundtrack finally kill it off?

Thankfully, no. It's a common problem, and it's easy to fix.

What's the problem?

Spotify can be repetitive, and part of that comes down to how we use it.

Who hasn't stumbled across a song, only to then play it over and over again until we're sick of it? So it makes sense our Spotify algorithm would assume we wanted to hear that song again and again.

Credit: Sony

But this wasn't the problem I was having. No, I had extreme repetition, and only from the AI-powered DJ.

I asked the DJ to start playing, and it started by playing songs I've enjoyed recently. Fantastic, love it, great start.

Later, I came back and started the DJ again, and it played the same songs again. Exactly the same, in the same order.

The next category was the exact same, with the exact same songs, in the exact same song.

At this point, I assumed my DJ just needed a break, but the next day, it was still doing the same thing. And the day after that.

It's a very annoying problem. But thankfully, it's very easy to fix. Here's how.

The fix is easy

Close

All you need to do to fix this problem is tap one button in your Spotify settings. That said, you do need to tap a few more things to get there, so pay attention.

1. Open the Spotify app on your phone.
2. Tap your face in the upper-left of the screen.
3. Choose Data-saving and offline.
4. Scroll down to the Storage section, and tap Clear cache.

This only clears the cache of songs and data Spotify keeps around to keep your experience smooth — and nothing's smoother than knowing exactly what your DJ is going to play every time you open it.

It won't clear your downloaded songs, so don't worry about losing anything valuable.

Make sure to repeat it on all your devices

The steps above will clear out the problem on the device you've done it on — but be aware it will need to be repeated on any other devices you use Spotify on.

I needed to clear the cache on both my Pixel 10 Pro and my PC, because I found my phone still had the repetition problem, even though it had been fixed on my PC.

If you want to clear your cache on the PC client, the method is similar, but slightly different.

1. Open Spotify.
2. Click your picture in the upper-right corner, then choose Settings.
3. You don't need to find any subcategories here. Scroll down until you see the Clear cache button.
4. Click it, and you're good.

This should fix the problem on your PC, too.

Spotify's DJ is AI integration done right

Spotify's DJ has been, for me, the best new feature Spotify has launched for a number of years.

I personally feel that Spotify should be used for songs, and songs only, so the introduction of audiobooks and podcasts into my Spotify app was a horror beyond horrors as far as I was concerned.

So when the DJ was pushed out into an often cruel world, I was quick to gather it into my arms and shield it from harm. And sure, it's not perfect, and sometimes recommends me stuff that I've never been into. But the DJ gets it right more than it gets it wrong.

It remains to be seen how (or even, if) AI will define the future. But, for my money, features like the Spotify DJ, which puts a human voice on an otherwise faceless algorithm, are the right way to use AI.

Make our R2D2s, our Delemains, and avoid making any HALs, and we'll fix them when they fail. Because we humans are silly like that. Give me more like the DJ, and I'll be happy.

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