Shuffle naming so complicated

[mite_jan]

This is probably thr worst naming i have seen , categories , just songs etc 

Why not name them something everyone can understand like shuffle folder

 

How do i shuffle just one folder it either keeps shuffling both folders that i have or either doesnt work if i select shuffle categories

[andrewilley]

The problem is that it's only a 'Shuffle Folder' mode if you happen to be listening to Folders in the first place. If you are listening by Album it is a 'Shuffle Album' mode, and so on with Artists, Genres, Years, etc. Hence the use of the general term "Category" to mean whatever library category you are currently listening to.

If you want to shuffle just the current folder (or album etc) start playback from that Library Category and then use the Shuffle icon to enable either the 'Shuffle Songs' or the 'Shuffle Songs and Categories' mode. Both modes will initially do what you want and play the entire contents of the current folder in randomised order, but the difference is what happens after the current folder is finished - in the first case, PA simply moves on to play the next folder in order and randomises the contents of that folder, while in the second case its pick another folder at random to play the contents randomly.  

For more info on Categories, and all the available Shuffle and Repeat modes, please see:

Andre

[John Gunner]

I am new to PA and still on Trial. I have found Repeat and Shuffle difficulty to understand, I'm a beginner on this

I am trying to shuffle my entire collection by randomly playing the album from any category but with the songs played in order

I can shuffle All Songs and then go to the Album containing that Song by long hold on title and then selecting Album which then displays entire album. Go to first track and turn Shuffle Off it plays in track order. I need to repeat this procedure for the next album.

The notes on Repeat and Shuffle indicate that I can play my entire library by shuffling albums from all categories but with tracks in order. I have been unable to do this.

I think it is a combination of the relevant Repeat and Shuffle commands. 

For the sake of my simple mind can someone please advise exactly which combination of Repeat and Shuffle commands I need to set to play all Albums in Shuffle mode but with each album's songs in order. 

Library contains 20 146 songs. Poweramp version 3

Any help greatly appreciated🙏

John

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Fitzian]

I'd appreciate help in setting up the same thing, here.

I can press shuffle in the header when in the album category, which for some reason always(?) defaults to shuffling both CATEGORIES AND SONGS. From now playing I have to then adjust shuffle mode to shuffling CATEGORIES ONLY.

At that point it has already queued and started playback of some album from whatever random song was chosen out of order within it.

I then have to use the 'Pro Buttons' category skip button to have it then start another random album from the beginning, which Poweramp will then play in order, and then shuffle to another album and play in order, etc. etc.

How to remove the extra steps...

Such that I can click shuffle in album category header, and thus play random album from any album artist, in its original track order, and advance to next album and so on?

[mite_jan]

I am glad i am not the only one finding this difficult

for me somehow always shuffles some song from the other album

[andrewilley]

@John Gunner If you start playback from the All Songs category, there is no 'album' grouping level, it's just one huge category. Instead, go to the Albums category and start something playing - just use the Play button at the top of the list to start playback at the beginning, or drill down and select something manually. Then tap the Shuffle icon on the player screen to select the mode 'Shuffle Just Categories'. That will cause Poweramp to pick albums at random, but play the songs within each album in your chosen song sorting order for Albums (usually that would be by Track#, but it's up to you how you've set it).

Assuming you have Pro Buttons enabled in your skins settings, use the << and >> buttons to manually change tracks, or the <<< and >>> buttons to change albums - or just let it play through your whole music collection on its own (make sure Repeat icon is still set to the default 'Advance Category').

 

@Fitzian Yes, the Shuffle icon at the top of category lists is designed to do a full shuffle of both the categories and the songs - i.e. it picks a category (in your case album) at random, then plays all of its contained songs in shuffled sequence. Then it picks another random album and shuffles all of its songs, and so on. Max has future plans to make the category header icons more configurable, but for now that's the way it's meant to work. For finer control, follow the advice above and start playback using the Play icon in the category header (or even choose a specific song) and then adjust the shuffle mode when you are in the player screen.

 

@mite_jan The Poweramp Shuffle and Repeat features are very powerful, but consequently there can be a bit of a learning curve if you want to get the best out of them. The most misunderstood one is 'Advance Category', which really just means 'Play All Categories' - so that when one category (such as an album) finishes, PA will automatically continue playing the next one rather than stopping or repeating, and so on through your whole music collection. For more info, please see:

 

Andre

[John Gunner]

Thanks to everybody who offered suggestions on this. I have found, through experimentation, that to achieve the result I want, shuffle all albums but play songs in album order. Repeat "Advance Category" and Shuffle "Shuffle Categories". That does the trick for me.

I found "Repeat Advance Category" a confusing term since it doesn't really Repeat but rather Continues to play songs within the Category. 

Anyway I've got the result I want and have now purchased the Unlocker to continue enjoying Poweramp beyond the trial

[andrewilley]

Glad you've got your setup working as you wanted now.

4 hours ago, John Gunner said:

I found "Repeat Advance Category" a confusing term since it doesn't really Repeat but rather Continues to play songs within the Category. 

This has been a common area of confusion for new users for a long time. It's a historical throwback to the early days of Poweramp v2, when there were less options for this control. What it indicated was what should happen next after the current song or category list (which could be the current Album, or Folder, or a Playlist, etc) finishes: should it repeat, stop, move on to the next album/folder/playlist, etc. However with newer additions (such as 'play one song') the 'Advance Category' term in particular can get a bit confusing for new users.

For what it's worth, I've been suggesting for some time that the wording of that button would make much more sense if it was re-phrased a bit to be more consistent and logical, something like:

Play One Song
Play Current Category
Play All Categories
Repeat One Song
Repeat Current Category
Repeat All Categories

Additionally, it would be even better if the button (and the Shuffle button beside it) could display wording based on the current playback mode, instead of only using the word 'Category' which often causes confusion. So if you were listening to an Album, the word 'Category' would be dynamically changed to display as:
Play One Song | Play Current Album | Play All Albums | Repeat One Song | Repeat Current Album | Repeat All Albums

Or during Folder playback it would show as:
Play One Song | Play Current Folder | Play All Folders | Repeat One Song | Repeat Current Folder | Repeat All Folders

Or while listening to a Playlist:
Play One Song | Play Current Playlist | Play All Playlists | Repeat One Song | Repeat Current Playlist | Repeat All Playlists

No real code changes to the way Poweramp actually works during playback, just some minor tweaks to the way the buttons are worded. Just my little pipe-dream anyway, maybe Max will find time to look into it sometime?

Andre

[mite_jan]

Doesnt work for me it always shuffles songs from both albums i tried every single option

 

 

[andrewilley]

1 hour ago, mite_jan said:

Doesnt work for me it always shuffles songs from both albums i tried every single option

By "both", do you mean you only have two albums on your phone, perhaps for testing purposes?

Anyway, just start one playing from the Albums list (choose an album, and tap on any song in its list of contents) and in the player screen set the Shuffle icon to 'Shuffle Songs'. That whole album will be played in random order before moving on to the next album after it's done, which will again be played shuffled.

If you want to stop playback completely after that first album is completed, set the Repeat icon to 'Off'.

Andre

[MotleyG]

1 hour ago, mite_jan said:

Doesnt work for me it always shuffles songs from both albums i tried every single option

 

 

When you are browsing your library, do the artists and albums appear in their proper order as expected? I’m curious if there are some tagging issues that are preventing PA from keeping the playback order for you. If you have repeat mode as “Advance Category” and shuffle mode set to “Shuffle Categories” it should play random albums but in proper album order. But this requires the metadata tags to have track numbers, and in multidisc albums to also have the disc numbers tagged as well.

[mite_jan]

So the shuffle categories doesnt shuffle anything it just plays the song names alphabetically (not by artist names)

 

I have one folder 1000 songs and the other one is not sure maybe 200 songs 

Both under main folder named music , flac tracks , using legacy mode to read the usb flashdrive

 

 

 

 

[andrewilley]

You didn't mention Folders in your last few posts, you said Albums.

In which case, start playback from the Folders list, select a song from one of those folders and tap on it to start playback.

With shuffle mode set to 'Songs Only', PA will then shuffle all of the songs in that folder first, before moving on to the next folder.

Albums and Artist names are irrelevant in this case, you simply have 1000 songs in one place and want to hear them randomly.

Andre

[MotleyG]

 

23 minutes ago, mite_jan said:

I have one folder 1000 songs and the other one is not sure maybe 200 songs 

Both under main folder named music , flac tracks , using legacy mode to read the usb flashdrive

While having your files sorted this way isn’t what I would consider ideal, it won’t prevent PA from sorting them into AlbumArtist/Album/TrackNumber in the database if these tags exist. However if the tags aren’t formatted with these, then you won’t get the management capability. Then only the folder and file names will be relevant, since PA will have other way to sort them.

You will be able to select specific folders, and adjust the repeat and shuffle options. But again there would be no further criteria for PA to drill down any further in this case.

[andrewilley]

 

[andrewilley]