It’s been a couple of months since we first discussed the issue of Pandora’s “Recently Played” lists not updating correctly across different platforms, and particularly the frustrating delays experienced with Alexa. While a previous post was marked as a “solution,” it’s important to clarify that this wasn’t a fix, but rather an acknowledgment that Pandora’s engineering teams are aware of the problem and working on it. This issue isn’t truly solved yet.
The core problem, as observed across multiple platforms including Pandora’s official apps, points directly to Pandora’s system itself, likely within the Pandora API. This kind of issue requires intervention from Pandora’s software engineers to properly resolve. Marking the previous post as a “solution” simply indicated that the necessary step – engineering involvement – was underway.
Since then, there have been some updates to the Recently Played lists on various platforms I use, but unfortunately, none accurately reflect my actual listening history. The Pandora mobile app on Android remains the most accurate and up-to-date, while Alexa continues to be the least reliable. This is especially inconvenient because Alexa is the device where having an accurate and current Recently Played list is most crucial for my daily use. The Pandora website and desktop app fall somewhere in between in terms of accuracy and update frequency.
This discrepancy suggests that the problem lies in how frequently these lists are updated, and potentially the source of the data being used for these updates. It appears that the Recently Played lists might be drawing from older “backup data” instead of the most current data available. While data backups are essential, using outdated data across Pandora platforms is far from ideal, especially when more recent data should be readily accessible.
Ideally, all Pandora apps and platforms should be pulling their data from the most up-to-date source. Alternatively, they should be designed to directly update each other’s data sources in real-time, alongside their own updates. This doesn’t seem to be the current operational mode. While I don’t have in-depth knowledge of Pandora’s network infrastructure and data management, the behavior of these apps strongly suggests that Pandora maintains independent datasets for each platform. These datasets don’t appear to synchronize correctly or in a timely manner.
If this assessment is correct, the root of the problem likely resides in the backend code responsible for managing these dataset updates. There might be a technical reason for maintaining separate datasets for each Pandora platform. However, if this is the case, it becomes even more critical to ensure accurate and prompt inter-platform updates.
Hopefully, this further explanation provides helpful insights for the engineering team as they continue to investigate and resolve this persistent issue.
