Whe I ask Cortana to Shuffle My Music why does it only play samples of songs?

[Windows Central Question]

Asking Cortana to "Shuffle My Music" Plays a lot of Junk

If I say to Cortana, "Shuffle my music", then a lot of the songs that are played are very short samples of songs I used to have on one of the music services that was available previously. I do not want Cortana to play those incomplete songs anymore. Is there any way to refresh the list and add the songs that will actually play properly?

Thanks!

 

[ven07]

Re: Asking Cortana to "Shuffle My Music" Plays a lot of Junk

Hard resetting the device and restoring it from a backup that pre-dates your previous app might work.

Try turning Cortana off, soft reset and then turn her back on, check if that helps first

 

[Agathor222]

I tried the soft reset instructions. No help.
I do not want to do a hard reset because I've put too much work into customization and personalization on this phone. Sorry

Maybe I should add some more info...

The Music App provided with Windows 8(.1?) might be what's causing the issue. I put all my music onto it, then I removed most of it because my tastes changed. I'm thinking the cloud-based server that keeps track of what music I "own" thinks I still own these songs, so it gives me sample tracks on my phone. I've looked through every folder and menu to try and find where it might store the list, but they ONLY play when I tell Cortana to "Shuffle my music". One of these windows 8(.1?) connected cross-platform music apps (xbox music, Music) must be keeping track somewhere and messing up my Cortana experience.

I hope this clears something up!

 

[jmshub]

Hi Agathor. Welcome and thanks for joining.

When you go into your music app, are you still seeing these albums in your library?

 

[Agathor222]

Nope! Here's a rundown of what I did to try and find them.
[On phone]
Opening the built-in Music app (Xbox music, I guess)
Going through everything in the following:
Artists, albums, songs, genres, playlists, radio.
Findings: NONE of the songs that I get the "preview" of when telling cortana to "shuffle my music".
[On PC]
Open the Music app made by Microsoft (xbox music, i guess)
once again, going through EVERY list of songs that it provides.
findings: NONE of the songs that I get the "preview" of on my phone.
[Connecting phone to PC]
I open the phone in file explorer.
I go through EACH folder in the phone, especially the MUSIC super folder.
STILL none of the "preview" songs.
[CONCLUSION]
I cannot find the albums, artists, tracks, or any other references to these songs on my phone, on the PC, or in the phone's storage.
Thus, there must be a cloud service, possibly run by XBOX music, that remembers me having these songs in the past.
[FLASHBACK]
I had once got the premium subscription for XBOBX music, thinking that it would be a flawless system and allow me to have all my music available on all my devices. I ripped a bunch of my CD's to my computer and added the music to the service. It didn't work as planned, so I ended the subscription.

I'm worried that I will have to try and find a way to access the XBOX music cloud library, which probably would need a subscription. I will check if they have such access immediately after posting this reply.
Thanks for the replies so far!

 

[Agathor222]

Following up the research I did on their site...

I found a Live Chat option. I talked with a representative from Microsoft's XBOX Music department.
They told me that my issue was caused because I formally had an XBOX Music subscription which was cancelled. The songs I'm hearing are ones it wants to stream but cannot because I ended my subscription. To fix this, I had to open my Music app on the phone, tap the 3 dots in the corner and open settings, then turn off streaming music. I asked Cortana to "Shuffle my music" again, and it worked perfectly!

This issue is now resolved, but I hope the answer can be used by anyone else who views this page.

 

[Montpbm]

Re: Asking Cortana to "Shuffle My Music" Plays a lot of Junk

At least yours play something, mines play nothing.