Global random - How to get it working

scrEAm

Hi all,

I'm running v0.3-beta on a Raspberry Pi 3 and I've been trying to get the following setup working: a random/shuffle play of my music which is stored on a NAS in multiple folders (genre grouping; Music/Rock - Music/Jazz - etc.).
- I've mounted the network location, after which the subfolders (genre folders) get listed with their content.
- I'm able to queue the songs or folders and have them be played, but loading too many songs in the queue has proven limited and slows the application down.
- I've discovered the Global random feature, but don't seem to be able to get it working as I interpret it should work.

I think what I'm looking for is using the Global random feature, but I'd like clarity on how to set it up properly:
- Can it work with a network mount with subfolders and would it take songs from the different subfolders, or can it only work with one folder from which it randomly picks a song?
- Should I start with an empty queue to get it working?
- Are songs picked up by the Global random function, added to the queue and then removed?
- Does the Global random function stay active, also after reboots?
- Can the setup be done so that the music starts playing automatically when the Raspberry Pi is powered up, removing the need to open up the GUI/app?

Thanks in advance for your support.

janui

Hi scrEAm,

scrEAm wrote...I've been trying to get the following setup working: a random/shuffle play of my music which is stored on a NAS...

In the version which you are using random play is not implemented very well, a working version was introduced in 0.4b (see here: #4434 and this was further developed in 0.5b (see here: #6532
This is how it works in 0.5b:
You switch global random play on in the Settings UI. It will then automatically add a random track selected from your complete music collection to the queue and play it after the last track in the queue has finished or the queue is empty.
This function will not do anything if you switch on the queue random play function on in the main player UI. When this is switched on the current contents of the queue will be played randomly forever and it will never reach a situation where the last track in the queue finishes.
As an alternative to global random play you can create playlists, save them and use them as a random play source. In the playlist management UI you can select a playlist to be the source for the random play function. After selecting it works the same way as the global random play, but now limits the selection to the selected playlist.
Switching a playlist random play to another playlist is done by selecting another playlist in the playlist management UI. To switch back to global random play use the reset function in the Settings UI.
Normally global or playlist random play will continue adding songs indefinitely to the queue. A maximum of 16384 songs can be stored in the queue, after that it just stops working. You can choose to switch on the MPD 'consume' feature which will remove songs from the queue after they have been played. To switch it on use this in your browser URL:

http://runeaudio.local/command/?cmd=consume 1

And to switch it off:

http://runeaudio.local/command/?cmd=consume 0

You can also choose to increase the maximum number of songs which can be stored in the queue, see here for details: #35715
By switching on the autoplay function in the Settings UI RuneAudio will automatically start playing the track which was playing at shutdown. If autoplay is off and random play is on a new random track will be added and played at start-up.
The random play, autostart settings and the current playlist are saved after a reboot.
janui