Auto-DJ should add tracks on other events [#7293]

[Mizery_Made]

In my use of the Auto-DJ feature, there's something that bugs me about it. That is how... "lazy" the feature is, if you will. The docs state that the feature "automatically adds tracks to the Now Playing queue when there are a limited number of tracks remaining." However that is only true during one event, when a track first begins to play. That leaves a few circumstances where fewer tracks than configured are present, yet nothing is added, despite an action being performed by the user that some may expect to carry out the 'automatic addition of tracks [...] when there are a limited number of tracks remaining.'

A few actions that I personally feel should fire off the Auto-DJ routine are: 1) When the feature is first enabled. If I have only one or two tracks in the Now Playing list (or maybe even none?) and I enable a feature that is supposed to "automatically add tracks," I would certainly expect it to... you know, automatically add tracks. 2) I would also expect it to see that a track was removed ("Eh, I'm not really in the mood to hear the girlfriend's Miley Cyrus at the moment, when Auto-DJ just queued up some Linkin Park *removes Miley*") and then fill the spot left by the removed track with another random track.

That's just my opinion, as I've found it really weird that nothing happens with those two events. There may be some other events that may benefit from firing off this feature (to make the feature appear more attentive) such as Pausing/Un-pausing a track (as opposed to only playing). Might be tricky to implement some of these other triggers though, I suppose, as events may not be there already for the feature to monitor. I wouldn't know, I'm not a developer or scripter and am solely looking at this from a user perspective.

Then again, maybe I'm in the minority... or all alone(?!)... on this one.

EDIT: A little note regarding "1)", or rather a little story on how I came to the realization that it would be nice. I generally have Auto-DJ going and playing my entire library (well, a playlist which filters out some things like "Bombs" and "Duplicates"). However when it comes time to give a new album a listen, I like to disable the feature (so that only that album remains in the NP list) as I listen through the album and hand out ratings for the tracks. Once I'm done with my ratings and such (which is generally about half-way through the last track), I'll switch Auto-DJ on since I'm all but finished with the new album.

The track finishes up playing, but I may still be busy with Auto-Organizing the album or something else. So... MM is left just sitting there, playing nothing, despite me having enabled a feature to automatically add some random tracks. Once in that situation, I either have to re-play the last track (even if only for a few seconds before skipping to a freshly added random track; cause boy... some albums just don't close on a good note, haha) or go find a random track in the library to kick-start Auto-DJ (but hey, that's what Auto-DJ is supposed to do! You see?).

Sure, not everyone goes through the same process as me, and it may not even be the best approach. But everyone is different and so their approach (and expectations) can be different. Just sharing my 'discovery' of this "limitation."

[Dreadlau]

I completely agree with you.

Auto-DJ should always add tracks.

This is especially annoying:

So... MM is left just sitting there, playing nothing, despite me having enabled a feature to automatically add some random tracks.

This really shouldn't happen!

And

1) When the feature is first enabled. If I have only one or two tracks in the Now Playing list (or maybe even none?) and I enable a feature that is supposed to "automatically add tracks," I would certainly expect it to... you know, automatically add tracks.

and

2) I would also expect it to see that a track was removed ("Eh, I'm not really in the mood to hear the girlfriend's Miley Cyrus at the moment, when Auto-DJ just queued up some Linkin Park *removes Miley*") and then fill the spot left by the removed track with another random track.

would be nice to have too.

I really hope your post echo to the developers.
You very clearly described what has always been bugging me with this feature.

[Onweerwolf]

I agree as well! Auto-DJ is excellent but there is a lot of room from improvement still.

[Mizery_Made]

I started out submitting this to Mantis as a feature request for review, however in typing it up, I actually decided to label it as a bug. Reason being, both scenarios can leave playback stopped without Auto-DJ adding tracks. That (in my opinion) fails to accord with the features specs. Tracked as: 7293: Auto-DJ can fail in certain scenarios/should add tracks on other events

[Dreadlau]

Thank you for the ticket.