Strange behavior in Android Auto

[ghosty]

I think this might have been introduced recently...

1) Let's say I would like to shuffle or play all the tracks from a certain folder, which includes just subfolders with tracks (no tracks in the folder itself). I go to the Folders Hierarchy and choose the folder. Now I have two buttons, which work as expected. When I press "Shuffle" it shuffles all the tracks in the folder and begins to play. When I press "Play", it starts to play the first track in the first subfolder.

2) Now when I try to do the same in Android Auto, I can see only subfolders and the "Shuffle" button (no "Play"). When I press "Shuffle", it shuffles tracks from some other folder. So it begins to play some tracks, which are not in the selected folder. So there is no way to play the tracks from a selected folder in Android Auto.

Build: 901-uni [901009-dfc20075]

Redmi 7 Note, MIUI Global 11.0.9 (Android 9)

Edited June 16, 2021 by ghosty

[andrewilley]

The Android Auto interface is less comprehensive than the main PA one. You might be better selecting the play mode on the phone, before connecting your device. You ought to be able to start a subfolder playing in AA though, and choose the Shuffle Songs mode.

Andre

[ghosty]

1 hour ago, andrewilley said:

The Android Auto interface is less comprehensive than the main PA one.

I'd say it must be less comprehensive. However, when we are left with only one button ('Shuffle' without 'Play'), which does not work as expected, this might seem to be extremely incomprehensive)

[andrewilley]

To play, just select a song. No need for a special button.

Andre

[ghosty]

6 minutes ago, andrewilley said:

To play, just select a song. No need for a special button.

 

That is why I said there may often be only subfolders within a selected folder (no tracks). In such cases there is nothing to tap on except the 'Shuffle' button. 

[andrewilley]

Still the same solution, which is my normal way of starting Poweramp playback, I never use the Play icon at the top of the phone screen (although I do sometimes use the Shuffle one). Just open the subfolder and select the song you want to start playing. As long as you have Repeat mode set to 'Advance Category' (which is the default) PA will carry on playing the next subfolders/etc in order. 

Andre

[ghosty]

10 minutes ago, andrewilley said:

Still the same solution, which is my normal way of starting Poweramp playback, I never use the Play icon at the top of the phone screen (although I do sometimes use the Shuffle one). Just open the subfolder and select the song you want to start playing. As long as you have Repeat mode set to 'Advance Category' (which is the default) PA will carry on playing the next subfolders/etc in order. 

Hmm... That is not quite obvious and intuitive, but thank you anyway))

Still the 'Shuffle' button behavior within Android Auto seems buggy to me.

Edited June 15, 2021 by ghosty

[andrewilley]

I tend to use Folders mode rather than Folders Hierarchy, but I assume that AA shuffling within Folders Hierarchy works in the same way that it does when playing in the main app. That means that a random subfolder is picked first, and all of its songs are played in shuffled order. Then a new random subfolder is chosen and that too is played in shuffled order, etc. If you instead want ALL songs from ALL of the subfolders to be completely jumbled in any order (without any subfolder grouping), enable PA Settings > Library > Lists > Shuffle All Songs in Folder Hierarchy.

Andre

[andrewilley]

A similar Android Auto bug was just reported in another thread, which seems easier to replicate across various flatter Categories. I think it's likely to be related to this report too.

Andre