On new Poweramp, how do I get a playlist to play forever?

[FrankH]

I HATE the new version! When viewing the playlist there is a "sort" icon that would cycle through multiple options. In the new release, it appears to do nothing! HELP!

[maxmp]

To play list forever - on main screen set repeat icon to Repeat list.

To (re)sort playlist, use (while in target playlist) header menu / Re-sort.

If by playlist you mean just any album, folder, etc. category, to sort it use header menu / List Options.

[FrankH]

What is "main" screen? On playlist screen there is a sort icon near the top. When I momentarily press it something comes up at the bottom of the screen about shuffling songs but the sort icon at the top remaims unchanged. In the old player the sort icon would go thru a series of options. It looks like a bug to me. I have pixel 2 has that been tested?

Edited December 17, 2018 by FrankH
Typo

[andrewilley]

In the Library view of your required Playlist, just tap the Play icon - or choose any song within that Playlist and tap on it to start playing from that song onward.

Then in the main player screen (i.e. the one you see while your music is playing, with cover artwork and play/pause/etc controls) make sure that the 'Repeat' icon (the second one in from the right, just under the artwork area) is set to restart the current list when it is finished (tap it until it shows as "Repeat List", or "Jump to first song in a list"). That mode will then remain selected unless you select a different repeat mode, so in future all you'll need to do is find a Playlist and tap on any song within it to start listening.

Andre

[FrankH]

Finally, I got it to work. Thanks, but it shouldn't be this hard.

The problem is that there is a shuffle icon out at the level where I see the entire (single) playlist, but that icon seems to be in the state of not shuffling, but when you press it, at the bottom of the page you momentarily see a "shuffle all songs and categories" version of the shuffle icon, that then (too) quickly disappeared -- leaving the icon at the top in the same no shuffle state. That is wrong, confusing, and looks like a bug. 

You should NOT have to start playing an individual song of a playlist to get to see the controls (repeat and shuffle) that determine how the playlist is played. Those controls should be at the level where I can see the entire playlist I will play.

Tell me why I shouldn't go to the Google play store and give a bad review to V3 for this half baked, confusing, user interface design. Seriously, tell me why I shouldn't give a bad review? About the only reason that would convince me would be a promise that this would be fixed in a week. Tell me what I should do...

[andrewilley]

20 hours ago, FrankH said:

Tell me why I shouldn't go to the Google play store and give a bad review to V3 for this half baked, confusing, user interface design

Because that part is the same as it's always been, there have been no changes to the general operation of tapping a song title to start playback - most music apps work that way - not to how the Repeat and Shuffle icons work within the player screen (again, they are pretty conventional icon controls in many music apps - although PA's are admittedly quite a lot more powerful than most). I guess the only major difference is that the Play and Shuffle icon items were previously hidden away in a context submenu, and the dev moved them to the top of the list page to make them more easily accessible. Maybe he should have just left them hidden?

Andre

[FrankH]

Thanks Andre, I've calmed down a bit now. I was still very frustrated when I wrote that last note. I apologise for my threats of a down vote.

But can you please tell me what the shuffle icon is doing out at the level of the playlist where you can see all the songs? Tapping it does not cycle through a sequence of shuffle states (which is what I expected based on V2). It is always just in the two intertwined arrow state. Every time you tap it, at the  bottom of the page you momentarily see a "shuffle all songs and  categories" version of the shuffle icon, that then quickly disappeared -- leaving the icon at the top in the same the two intertwined arrow shuffle state. 

Is that a bug? If not, please explain that to me...

[andrewilley]

1 hour ago, FrankH said:

Tapping it does not cycle through a sequence of shuffle states (which is what I expected based on V2).

V2 never had an icon at the top of the songs list, only one in the pop-up context menu, and it did not offer any choices of the type of shuffle.

Max has already indicated that the shuffle methodoloy from that point still needs some work (especially when selecting a grouping level with sub-levels, such as a Folder or an Artist) so personally I'd suggest just sticking to the old method of tap on a song to play and then adjust the Shuffle mode in the player screen if necessary. 

Andre

[FrankH]

7 hours ago, andrewilley said:

...still needs some work...

Why do you say "still needs some work" instead of "is a bug"?

[andrewilley]

19 minutes ago, FrankH said:

Why do you say "still needs some work" instead of "is a bug"?

Because it is a feature that still needs some work, not a bug. That's how Max designed it to work, however a number of users have asked for some of the Shuffle options to be change back to being more similar to the old v2 method.

Andre

[FrankH]

A feature that doesn't work is a bug. If this feature did something useful now, it could be kept and improved later. But this current implementation does nothing at all, even though it looks like it is doing something since it momentarily displays a different icon. This is a bug!

Remove the deceptive icon until the code is written that makes it work.

This bug is what got me so frustrated that I was minutes from leaving a bad review on play store.

[maxmp]

Sorry, but this is not a bug. There are two playback buttons in each header, Shuffle and Play. Shuffle starts playing the target list in shuffle mode, Play starts simple playback from first track.
In v2 those was in per-playlist menu.

 

[andrewilley]

On 12/19/2018 at 10:54 AM, FrankH said:

But this current implementation does nothing at all, even though it looks like it is doing something since it momentarily displays a different icon.

Tapping the Shuffle icon at the top of a library view list plays the currently displayed list in shuffled mode, while tapping the Play icon plays it in regular order. That's how those features are meant to work, and also how they have always worked (although they both used to be hidden away within a long-press menu). If that functionality is not working for you, please explain what does happen.

You have asked for a new feature, i.e. the ability to long-press on the Shuffle icon at the top of a list to choose different shuffle modes. That is a feature request, not a bug, and will be treated as such - and as I said before, Max has already said he plans on doing some work on adding new options there at some point. For now, you can still change the selected shuffle mode within the player screen once the first song starts playing.

Andre

[MarsOrBust]

On 12/17/2018 at 6:15 AM, andrewilley said:

In the Library view of your required Playlist, just tap the Play icon - or choose any song within that Playlist and tap on it to start playing from that song onward.

Then in the main player screen (i.e. the one you see while your music is playing, with cover artwork and play/pause/etc controls) make sure that the 'Repeat' icon (the second one in from the right, just under the artwork area) is set to restart the current list when it is finished (tap it until it shows as "Repeat List", or "Jump to first song in a list"). That mode will then remain selected unless you select a different repeat mode, so in future all you'll need to do is find a Playlist and tap on any song within it to start listening.

Andre

Did the interface change? I don't understand how to repeat a play list? 

The repeat button shows:

* Repeat off 

* Repeat category 

* Repeat song 

* Single song 

Repeat category DOES NOT repeat the play list. 

I know that I'm dumb because something this simple should be really easy to do but I still don't understand how to do it? 

[andrewilley]

Repeat Category should repeat whatever category (folder/album/artist/playlist/etc) that you are currently listening to.

So if you start listening to a song from any given Playlist, choosing 'Repeat Category' in the player screen should then cause that same Playlist to repeat forever. So if there are 40 tracks in a Playlist, the track counter should go up from 1/40 until it gets to 40/40, then back to 1/40 again.

If you want to make sure you are listening in Playlist mode, tap the metadata line at the bottom of the player screen until it shows the category type - e.g. "PLAYLISTS 5/40".

Andre

[Marvin Martian]

Well, here it is 2023, and I am having exactly the same problem.  Try to repeat a Playlist, choose "Repeat Category"... and at the end of the playlist, Poweramp goes into "playing all songs" mode. I've tried turning off Shuffle, to no effect.  I even tried putting the same Playlist into the Queue multiple times, but then if I have Shuffle turned on, the same song sometimes comes up repeatedly.

As MarsOrBust said, surely there is some easy way to do this.  I would guess that one of the other settings I've chosen is blocking the Repeat Playlist function?

Using Poweramp build-957-bundle-play [957004-fc6ea6fb] - Full Version - 64 bit

Installed on a Galaxy Tab A8 - SM-X200

* * * * *
(Later...)

Oh, nevermind.  I failed to read your reply carefully, andrewilly.  The key to the solution to this problem is where you say "make sure you are listening in Playlist mode".  I found instructions elsewhere on this forum that say to do that:

Go to Playlists in the Library

Open the desired Playlist in Library Mode

Select the "Play" icon at the top.

* * * * *

I was going to "Playlists" in the Library, using the "Select" button at the top there, and then putting that selection into the Queue to get it to play. 

Now I know better!

Edited June 26, 2023 by Marvin Martian
'bot merged replies without indicating a separation between them

[andrewilley]

@Marvin Martian It seems to be Queue Questions day today.

Yes, if you add all the songs from a Playlist into the temporary Queue, they will get played as individual songs until the Queue is finished, at which point regular playback will resume.

You can change that functionality by the way, to make PA stay in the Queue (and also Repeat if required) using PA Settings=>Library=>Queue=>On Queue End > 'Stay in Queue / Repeat Queue'. You can also make the Queue respect the Shuffle icon setting by turning off PA Settings=>Library=>Queue=>Ignore Shuffle.  

But as you've discovered, it would be much better to simply play the Playlist directly, no need to involve the Queue at all.

Andre