Poweramp FAQs / Tutorials

[andrewilley]

I've been working on condensing some of the advice that I seem to keep repeating in response to forum questions into slightly more detailed FAQs/ Tutorials.

I will add them to the FAQs section of the site shortly, but here are the first two I've been working on to see if people think this is about the right level of detail, and also whether there are any aspects of how I've phased things which are unclear or might throw newcomers. I've tried to strike a balance between helpfulness, detail, and information overload!

Andre 

[andrewilley]

FAQ: What is the difference between ‘Categories’, ‘Playlists’ and the ‘Queue’.

Poweramp is a very powerful and flexible music player, and as such has a variety of ways to choose how to listen to your music, and in which order you’d like to hear your songs played.

Categories

In Poweramp, the term Category [which in Poweramp v2 used to be referred to as ‘List’, and it still is in a few menus] refers to the overall ‘grouping’ structure which you use to browse your music collection and order your songs. The most common Category choices are things like Albums, Folders, Artists or Playlists, however there are many others available such as Genres, Recently Added Songs, and even All Songs (which creates one very long list of songs).

To choose a Category for browsing your music collection, tap on the ‘four-squares’ icon in the lower-left-hand corner of the Poweramp screen, which will take you to the main Library overview screen. Choose your preferred Category from the list by tapping on it - perhaps that might be Albums or Folders. You can then continue to browse down through your music collection arranged by that Category until you get to an actual list of Songs. Tap on any song title to commence playback from that song onward - or just tap on the Play icon (‘triangle’) near the top of any list to commence playback from the beginning of the displayed list.

You can adjust the sorting order (which affects both your browsing and playback order) by tapping on the menu icon (‘three-dots’) at the upper-right and choosing List Options. Each Category type can be assigned its own independent sorting order and view style, as can the Song lists. For example, when using Albums mode you might prefer to see a large grid of album-cover images, arranged by the year of release. Alternatively, when browsing using Folders mode you might want a more compact text-based view, sorted by the directory path. And at the Songs level, you might wish to arrange Albums by Track Number, but sort your Folders based on the individual Filenames.

Note: Using List Options at the top Library View allows you to ‘declutter’ the Library screen by selecting which Categories you wish to see displayed, hiding anything you don’t currently plan to use. You can always restore hidden items later if you find you want them.

Queue

During playback, you may find you’d like to temporarily pause and interrupt your normal album/folder/etc session in order to listen to some specific track (or tracks). This can be done without losing your place in your regular playback category by using Poweramp’s Queue feature.

First, find the additional songs(s) that you wish to listen to - either by browsing through one of the Library Categories, or by using the Search feature. Long-press on your chosen song title (or titles, using multi-selection tick-boxes) and tap on Add to Queue (shown as a ‘>> Queue’ icon). Note: you can also use Add to Queue from any Category view to add whole albums/folders/etc in one go.

By default, the Queue will commence playback after the currently playing song has finished, and then all of your queued items will be played in the order that they were added. If you’d like your queued songs to start playing as soon as you add them, you can enable that via Settings > Library > Queue > Start Playing Queue Immediately.

Once all of the queued songs are finished, Poweramp will automatically return you to normal playback exactly where you left off, although that behaviour can also be adjusted using Settings > Library > Queue > On Queue End.

It is possible to subsequently adjust the contents, and the playback order, of the Queue by using Library > Queue and long-pressing on any song title in the Queue. The options are somewhat more limited compared to other view types as the Queue is not designed to be a regular playback category, merely a temporary interruption to normal playback.

Playlists

Playlists are a special Category in their own right, and each one consists of a list of songs (which must already be present in your Music Library) which should be played in a pre-defined order. Playlists are somewhat similar to the Queue, except that they are more permanent and are considered to be a regular playback category rather than just a temporary interruption.

Playlists can be created internally within Poweramp by long-pressing on any Song title(s) when browsing through the Categories, or from Search results, and selecting Add to Playlist (‘+ Playlist’ icon) in exactly the same way that you add songs to the Queue. You can add new songs to an existing Playlist, or start a fresh one and give it a new name.

It is also possible to add the contents of a whole Category entry in one go – such as by long-pressing on (for example) an album title or folder name and choosing Add to Playlist. You can even save the current Queue into a permanent Playlist by multi-selecting all of the songs in the Library > Queue view and choosing Add to Playlist.

You can re-order or remove songs by long-pressing while viewing any Playlist via the Library > Playlists, or use Menu (the ‘three-dots’ icon) > List Options for more choices.

File-based Playlists (such as .M3U files)

In addition to the above ‘internally-created’ Playlists (which are stored in a database within the app, and thus may be lost if you uninstall example) you can also use external File-based Playlists. Playlist files, at their simplest, just contain a series of lines of plain text which give the filename for each song, plus its associated directory path.

External Playlist files normally have an extension of .M3U or .M3U8, and are shown as such in the Library > Playlists view. Note: There is no difference between the information content of these two file types, however .M3U8 files are saved using the more advanced UTF-8 text-encoding method and are thus capable of handling more complex/international characters in filenames.

Exporting Internal Playlists (for backup)

As stated above, internally created playlists are saved in a local database so are subject to loss if you uninstall the app or remove the original song files for example. For this reason it is possible to export/backup all of your internal playlists as permanent physical file copies using Settings > Library > Playlists > Export Poweramp Playlists. These are saved as .M3U8 files, by default in the /Playlists/ folder on your device’s internal storage. You can copy these backed-up files to another device or use them in other apps.

Note: There is no need to take any specific action to re-import file-based playlists, all you need to do is ensure they are placed in a location that Poweramp has been configured to scan for music content – i.e. any storage location that is ticked in Settings > Library > Music Folders. Poweramp should notice and automatically load any new .M3U or .M3U8 files during its next scan, or you can force a scan using the Rescan or Full Rescan options. As long as the songs in a playlist file are already present in Poweramp’s overall music library, you can see the populated content via the Library > Playlists view.

[andrewilley]

FAQ: How to use ‘Repeat’ and ‘Shuffle’ in Poweramp

Note: In the following discussion, Category refers the currently selected playback mode (i.e. the Library view from which you originally started playback) and so could mean, for example, the current Album, Folder, Artist, Playlist, etc. The original (unshuffled) playback order for each Category view and/or Songs list can be adjusted by going to the relevant Library view and tapping Menu (the ‘three-dots’ icon) > List Options.

Repeat

While music is playing, you can choose how Poweramp should behave at the end of each Song or Category by tapping on the Repeat icon, which is the second icon in on the lower-right-hand corner of the album art area. Long-pressing on the Repeat icon shows you a full list of options.

Repeat can be cycled through the following modes:

Stop on the Last Song in the List/Category (aka Repeat Off):  All of the Songs within the current Category will be played, then Poweramp will stop playback. Useful if you just want to listen to one entire album for example.

Jump to the First Song in the List/Category (aka Repeat List/Category):  All of the Songs within the current Category will be played, then Poweramp will go back and play the same Category again - for example to repeat the current album forever.

Jump to the Next List/Category (aka Advance List/Category): All of the Songs within the current Category will be played, after which Poweramp will move on to the beginning of the next Category, and so on. When all of the Categories have been played, playback will commence once again from the first Category - basically a continuous repeat of your entire music collection.

Repeat Selected Song (aka Repeat Song): The current Song will be repeated forever.

Shuffle

While music is playing, the Shuffle mode can be enabled and cycled through its various options by tapping on the Shuffle icon located in the lower-right-hand corner of the album art area. Long-pressing on the Shuffle icon shows you a full list of options.

Shuffle can be cycled through the following modes:

Off: Play the contents of the current Category in its assigned Song order. Then (depending on how the Repeat mode is set) move on to the next Category in order and play its contents in order, and so on. Basically, just play everything from start to finish according to the preassigned sorting order for the current Category choice.

Shuffle All Available Songs: Completely randomised playback of all available Songs from any Category - anything at all could be played next.

Shuffle Just Songs (Categories will remain in Order): The Songs in the current Category will be played in randomised order, and then (depending on how the Repeat mode is set) the next Category in assigned order will be played (also with its tracks randomised) and so on. This allows you to listen to (for example) one whole album of songs in random order, then Poweramp will move on to the next album in order and play its contents in randomised order, etc.

Shuffle Just Categories (Songs will remain in Order): The Songs from a Category will be played in their assigned order, and then (depending on how the Repeat mode is set) a new random Category will be chosen and all of its Songs will be played in assigned order, and so on. This allows you to listen to (for example) an album chosen at random and played from start to finish, then another random album will be played from start to finish, etc. Great for concept albums, stories, audiobooks, classical music, gapless tracks, etc. where you don’t want the individual songs to be muddled up.

Shuffle Songs and Categories: A random Category will be chosen and all of its Songs will be played back in random order, then (depending on how the Repeat mode is set) another random Category will be chosen and all of its Songs played back in random order, and so on. For example, Poweramp would pick an album at random and play all of its Song in random order, then choose another random album and do the same, etc.

Playback will continue until every Song in your music collection has been played, after which Poweramp will either stop or start over again, depending on what Repeat mode has been selected.

[blaubär]

2 hours ago, andrewilley said:

I've been working on condensing some of the advice that I seem to keep repeating in response to forum questions into slightly more detailed FAQs/ Tutorials.

That will be very helpful !

[Nightshade Ghostaltar]

On 5/15/2019 at 6:04 PM, andrewilley said:

I've been working on condensing some of the advice that I seem to keep repeating in response to forum questions into slightly more detailed FAQs/ Tutorials.

I will add them to the FAQs section of the site shortly, but here are the first two I've been working on to see if people think this is about the right level of detail, and also whether there are any aspects of how I've phased things which are unclear or might throw newcomers. I've tried to strike a balance between helpfulness, detail, and information overload!

Andre 

Thanks for this! Bookmarked straight away now!

[Guenni]

I´m using different folders for different music. The main folder has the name “Music”, in this folder  I have different sub folders.  When I start Poweramp in for example folder “Rock” , it plays the songs in randomised order, -that´s as it should be.  But if I finish Poweramp, and then start  Poweramp again, it plays the last song (which was active when I finished) to the end, but then changes into another folder, for example "Pop". Then it plays random all songs of the main folder “Music”. But I would like to stay in the same folder as before (folder “Rock”) and hear the next songs of this folder. I tried already different settings but couldn´t find a solution. I just want to stay in the same folder that I played before, that´s all... In the old version this worked.

 

[farndalebarry]

Excellent.

Very helpful.  Thanks.

[andrewilley]

Maybe other people would like to add their own ideas here too? Using audio output / high-res options might be a useful one.

Andre

[andrewilley]

The above are now added to the Knowledgebase FAQs list.

Andre