long press doesn't work, how do I set shuffle mode?

[micromothman]

I know shuffle modes are covered in the FAQs and in previous discussions, but the menus outlined in the FAQ simply are not there in my player. Most importantly it seems the "long press" does not work, so I have no way of setting the shuffle mode. This drives me crazy, it keeps reverting to "shuffle songs and categories" no matter what I am trying to do. Is it my phone? I love everything else about Poweramp but this has been driving me crazy enough times that I'm just about done with Poweramp. Can someone please explain?

 

[andrewilley]

Your original message made little sense, you said (your CAPS) "THERE IS NO ICON TO THE LOWER RIGHT TO CHANGE SHUFFLE despite what the FAQ says". Not sure that the re-edited version clears up the issue much either.

The Repeat & Shuffle FAQ/Guide does not say anything about an icon in the lower-right; that would be the three-lines menu icon which has nothing to do with Shuffling. The Guide does say that the Shuffle control on the Player Screen is the right-hand icon in the row beneath the album art area - and there is even a screenshot to identify it.

In case it is still somehow ambiguous, I've highlighted the Player Screen's Shuffle icon again in the image below, which you can tap to cycle through the various options. Or you should be able to long-press on it to see the full pop-up list of options (second image). Exactly how each of the five available modes works is covered in great detail in the FAQ/Guide.

  

Additionally, the Guide goes on to discuss the additional direct Shuffle icon that is available at the top-left of all Category lists. Again, screenshot for clarification:

When you tap on that icon, playback of the currently displayed list will commence, with the songs in random order. The mode used is "Shuffle Songs/Categories". That means that in the above example (i.e. Adele Albums) you would first hear all of the songs in her "25" album played in random order. Only once the "25" album is complete will playback continue on to another randomly chosen Adele album, with all of its songs shuffled too. Note: continuing playback like this will only occur if the Player Screen's 'Repeat' icon is set to 'Advance Category'. If you don't want playback to continue with a new album afterwards, just ensure that the 'Repeat' icon on the Player Screen is set to 'Off' for playback to stop at the end. Or set it to 'Repeat Category' if you'd like to hear the same "25" album reshuffled again continuously.
 

If for some reason you cannot see any of the icons mentioned above, please check PA Settings=>Library=>Lists=>Header Buttons, and also any third-party Skin settings, to ensure you haven't inadvertently hidden them.

Andre

[micromothman]

Thanks for replying, Andre. Sorry for the garbled and then edited message, I am SO frustrated, for the umpteenth time. I'm still totally confused. When you say "I've highlighted the Player Screen's Shuffle icon again in the image below" - I don't see anything that looks remotely like that in my Poweramp. I looked at the menu you mentioned: "PA Settings=>Library=>Lists=>Header Buttons" and everything is enabled.

Here's what my screen looks like:

OK, wait... I set a bunch of things back to factory defaults, restarted the app, and now i actually see the menu you described. WOW. For months  I've had limited menus and no idea why nothing worked right. Somehow I wasn't able to toggle back and forth from limited controls, to full controls. I think this works now, thanks. Though I still don't know exactly what was wrong. 

Greg

[andrewilley]

The screenshot you've just shown is one of the Library views, used for browsing through your music collection, not the main Player Screen.

The Player Screen should be the one you see when you first launch the app. It is not a menu, it's the main app screen, and it should also be shown whenever you tap on a song in a list to start playback:

I guess it's  possible that you have previously set the 'Library' view to be your default opening page, but that's a very deliberate and specific action: Settings=>Look and Feel=>Start at Library.

Oh, and make sure you haven't also accidentally changed Settings=>Library=>Lists=>List Item Click Action away from its default value of "Play Song and go to Player UI".
 

Regardless of settings though, just tap the mini player at the bottom of the screen to go to back to the full Player Screen.
 

For a bit of further reading on how the main Player Screen and the Library Views work, the following two recently-added Guides might help:

Andre

[micromothman]

Thanks, Andre, this has been very helpful. Clearly I was stumbling around not really knowing how things worked in detail. It makes much more sense to me now.

Greg

[andrewilley]

Glad I could help. I'm still not sure how you've managed to use Poweramp for so long without finding yourself at the main Player Screen though! Unless you've dug really deep into the Settings, that should be the first thing you see whenever you launch the app or when you tap on a song to start playback.

@maxmp This thread reminded me, did you get around to tweaking the list header 'Play' and 'Shuffle' icons so they comply with the user's chosen 'List Item Click Action' setting? If by default those buttons behaved in the same way as tapping on a Song Title does (i.e. start playing and go to the Player screen) this issue may have been easier to resolve. Thanks.

Andre