diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 73fcfa4e7..6eda2de03 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ ver 0.21.9 (not yet released)
 * Android
   - fix crash on ARMv7
   - request storage permission on Android 6+
+* fix spurious "single" mode bug
 
 ver 0.21.8 (2019/04/23)
 * input
diff --git a/src/player/Thread.cxx b/src/player/Thread.cxx
index 81271a142..7d81011f6 100644
--- a/src/player/Thread.cxx
+++ b/src/player/Thread.cxx
@@ -1058,6 +1058,16 @@ Player::Run() noexcept
 
 			SongBorder();
 		} else if (dc.IsIdle()) {
+			if (queued)
+				/* the decoder has just stopped,
+				   between the two IsIdle() checks,
+				   probably while UnlockCheckOutputs()
+				   left the mutex unlocked; to restart
+				   the decoder instead of stopping
+				   playback completely, let's re-enter
+				   this loop */
+				continue;
+
 			/* check the size of the pipe again, because
 			   the decoder thread may have added something
 			   since we last checked */