[onthecouch]

if i cant soon understand how to simply shuffle all songs in the kodi library im going to eat my shorts.i have truly never been this frustrated with something in my whole life i swear. i have to quit kodi for my sanity if nothing is resolved.ive posted elsewhere about this problem but no answers helped. i have now changed over to kodi 16 version.if i click on music, underneath it shows artists albums songs files and library. when i enter any one of those the blade on left says view list, sort by, filter,search and the button party mode is greyed out i dont know how to ungrey it.if i go to music and click on library a list on the left appears with the word playlist near the bottom. clicking this takes me to party mode playlist and then edit playlist.how do i edit this playlist.do anyone of these things take me to the promised land. and also how do i bring up the context menu. thanks a lot

[jjd-uk]

Party Mode only works is you have scanned music files into your Library, from what you've described it sounds you've added your music source so you have access to your files but you haven't yet scanned these files so Kodi reads the contained tags to build the Library see Section 2 at http://kodi.wiki/view/Adding_music_to_the_library

[jjd-uk]

Should also add you don't need a Library to use shuffle, you can also use files node to play a directory of music go to Now Playing then select shuffle from the left blade menu.

[onthecouch]

thanks mate for your response,the way i have collected my music is to audio record spotify straight off there stream in high quality wav format. but doing it this way means theres no metadata attached to each of these songs.all ive done is basically tag these songs with right clicking on each file and just doing a rename for them. so each rihanna song is named by me and then i have just created a normal everyday folder named best of rihanna to put the songs in.kodi has scanned all my music and set up exactly what i have done with my source folders and songs inside each folder.so with no metadata is that the reason i cant shuffle songs.i tried what you said about the blade coming out while music is playing.i pressed the little emblem on the right side of the blade but my songs didnt shuffle. thanks

[jjd-uk]

Yes I don't believe wav tags are standised so these file may not have metadata that can be used to build a Library, however it's perfectly possible to play and shuffle from the File node is you have an organised directory structure in which you music is stored.

First make sure "Play next song automatically" is enabled.



Start playing music from within Files and open side blade menu



Go to far right shuffle icon and select, if shuffle is engaged icon should change to one with a little play symbol on it



To see shuffled playlist, go to current playlist



Within Now Playing shuffle can also be toggled from the side blade menu

[onthecouch]

Thanks very much jjd-uk i appreciate your help.ive found what you have shown me and that helps a bit as i can now shuffle songs in each of my folders. my folders are the best of adele the best of rihanna the best of lionel ritchie and best songs of the 90s etc.what you have explained to me helps me to shuffle all lionel ritchies songs wihin the lionel ritchie folder and thats good but i want to shuffle songs mixed together throughout all of my folders, so maybe my interpretation of shuffling all songs is different to kodis.

[jjd-uk]

Can also be done, highlight parent folder that contains all you music and press play or select context menu and select play, all music under that folder is then queued, then follow above to enter Now Playing and select shuffle.

[onthecouch]

Hi jjd-uk, i didnt have a parent folder just different artists in there own folders.i hope im right making a folder called all music and then putting all the various folders inside the all music folder.when you say highlight the all music folder and then press play,where is the play button.i tried pushing the c button to bring up the context menu in the all music folder but the context menu just says from top to bottom,edit source,make default,remove source,choose thumbnails,scan to library,add to favorites and go to root.no sign of a play button.the only way i see the que and play button is when i bring up the context menu next to each artists individual folder thanks once again

[onthecouch]

Hi again jjd-uk, Great news ive finally mastered it and your a bloody wizard.its not often a brit helps out an aussie in need lol.Thank-you so much for sticking with me. I couldnt bring up anything like queue or start playing by pressing c in the parent folder,but i could do that in each of my folders labelled best of this and thats. so i brought up c in each of the folders and clicked on queue each item. after the folders are all done i clicked on play and then shuffle.it works beautifully.if its possible id like to be able to communicate with you outside of the kodi forums to discuss anything kodi. thanks a lot

[jjd-uk]

I forgot to say that play isn't shown on the context menu when it's the root folder (so any folder you've added as a music source), however you can still use play from a control device, so if you've got a remote or keyboard with media keys, highlight folder and press the devices play button, if you're using a keyboard without media controls the p key will carry out the play action.

As you've already discovered you can also use the q key to queue, where queue is better than the play action is creating a playlist containing the content of only some of your folders, each time you press q on a folder then the content is appended to what has already been added.

So structure like:

Music (root source folder)

-> Artist AAA
-> Artist BBB
-> Artist CCC

If you want to play everything in Music folder then either p for play or q for queue can be used.

If you only want to play Artist AAA and Artist CCC then highlight the Artist AAA folder and press q then highlight Artist CCC folder and press q so this allows selective playback of your folders for the occasions you only want to listen to certain stuff.

[onthecouch]

Hi, id have to say that kodi is not exactly user friendly for beginners. theres been other things ive struggled with as well and beleive it or not im not exactly a dumb person. i think like other things they could simplify this shuffle process. anyway have you heard when kodi 17 might be ready to use. ive seen a video showing the new estuary skin and it looks great. thanks again

[nickr]

I have to say that music is the poor cousin of video in the kodi dev's world. And every user has a different idea of how it should work.

[PatK]

comes down to 'schadenfreude' a feeling of enjoyment that comes from seeing or hearing about the troubles of other people