Player shuffle state misleading [#21688][#21761][#21762]

[Sam_H]

With the new shuffle behaviour their are cases where the shuffle state of the player is misleading. As an example;

1. Start with player shuffle enabled.
2. Select playlist and Play now.

In this case the playlist plays in a non-shuffled state as requested but the player shuffle state remains true. This means that if the user wants to shuffle the playlist at this point they need to press the shuffle button twice. The first press giving the warning '...unable to unshuffle due to edits...' and the second performing the shuffle.

I'd prefer that in the case that the playlist is edited in a way that does not allow unshuffling that the shuffle state is set to false. This would make the shuffle button more responsive. If required the warning could be given when the playlist is modified.

With this the shuffle states would instead be;

• true - now playing has been shuffled and it is possible to unshuffle
• false - now playing has not been shuffled or can not be unshuffled

As an extension to this when playing a playlist shuffled, specifically when the now playing list is cleared, the tracks could be added to the now playing list in order and then the shuffle state set. This would make is possible to unshuffle the playlist with the shuffle button.

[railfan-eric]

I'm noticing this the last few months. i have it on shuffle and change playlist and then wonder why it's playing everything in order. i have to turn shuffle off and back on again. this is weird behavior. I don't have that problem with Poweramp on my android phone.

[Lowlander]

Please retry with the latest MediaMonkey 2024.2 beta. Do you still experience the issue?

[Sam_H]

I see no change to the behaviour reported above for 2024.2.0.3162

[Lowlander]

We're tracking this issue here: https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=21688

[Ludek]

FYI: It is fixed in 3163: https://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewt ... 86639&sd=d

[Sam_H]

The specific case I was talking about has not been changed.

[rusty]

Hi Sam,

We fixed the original issue as we'd understood it.

But I'm unable to replicate the remaining problem, though I'm not understanding the exact steps to replicate. Can you share a screencast of this? (https://screenrec.com is useful for this).

Thanks!

-Rusty

[Sam_H]

I have uploaded a screencast

The player shuffle state is enabled and then "play normally" is selected for an album. The album is now set to be played in order as requested by the user.

The issue I see is that the player state indicates that shuffle is enabled but the album is playing in order. A consequence of this is that if the user wants to shuffle the playlist the shuffle button would need to be pressed twice. The first press sets the player shuffle to off and does not change the playing order. A second press to re-enable player shuffle is required which will then shuffle the now playing list as expected.

A similar behaviour is seen when selecting "play shuffled" when the player shuffle is false.

[Peke]

Hi,
Quick Question:
Based on screen cast you sent if you select all tracks from Album in list -> Right click -> Played Shuffled -> Play Now do you get desired behavior?

[Sam_H]

I see the same behaviour in that case. I assume what is happening is that the tracks get added to the now playing list in the order that you select, i.e. shuffled or normal order, ignoring the shuffle state of the player.

[Peke]

I see the same behaviour in that case. I assume what is happening is that the tracks get added to the now playing list in the order that you select, i.e. shuffled or normal order, ignoring the shuffle state of the player.

I do not understand (totally confused), for me you have full control of behavior how MM will add tracks to Now Playing eg. shuffled/Mixed/next mixed/... and it really depends on how you add it to playlist. This also corresponds to your settings to your default play now in options.

See video at https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/430fpt0o ... 72hlc&dl=0 and can you point what do you think it is wrong and you think we should change?

[Sam_H]

It is the behaviour of toggling the player shuffle option that I mean, i.e. setting app.player.shufflePlaylist via the api.

Adding tracks to the now playing works as expected as you show. However, you can see from the shuffle icon that app.player.shufflePlaylist=true throughout your video. When you select play normally at 0:15 the album will play in order as requested but the shuffle state remains true.

[Peke]

Hi,
You are right there is a bug but not in Play Normally Against Shuffle but PLAY NORMALLY/PLAY SHUFFLED do not fully disclose that they are dependent "Play Now" Default Action setting and in Each Type Playback Rules which adds big confusion in Now playing and Player shuffle on/off behavior and why I saw it differently.

This means that beside you are right that Shuffle should be turned off after executing play normally with clear list setting [#21761] it showed that ⋮ menu is not consistent with other respected Play album context menus [#21762] eg. This is not single bug but rather two bugs.

https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=21761
https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=21762

To test my theory and added bugs please setup Default Play now action and Music Playback rules like in pictures above and you will observe different behavior eg. For Play Now actions Select "Play Selected files only".

[Sam_H]

FYI my settings under Player-Playback rules-Music matched the picture other than crossfade gap. At the Player level I had "Clear list & play selected only" set but otherwise the same.

This means that beside you are right that Shuffle should be turned off after executing play normally with clear list setting

I think the inverse should also be the case and shuffle enabled when selecting play shuffled when clearing list. Additionally in this case the tracks could be added to the now playing list in order and then have the list shuffled. This would allow toggling of the shuffle off to unshuffle the list.

I think the complication here is that with the new shuffle implementation the shuffle state is controlling two seperate things;
1- Default behaviour when adding items to now playing
2- Shuffling/unshuffling of the now playing list
This complicates the logic and leads to these edge cases. For 1 it's probably preferable to not change the shuffle state unless directly requested by the user. Whereas for 2 this should change based on the state of the now playing list.