Album Playlists

[r5yk5 11]

I'm not sure whether this is by design or not but I have discovered (accidentally)that if I make a playlist of absolute paths to albums, without the final audio file, in my library, on my Linux server
eg

/mnt/Music/Artist/Album
/mnt/Music/Another_Artist/Different_Album

I get an album playlist that works on every device I've tried including android auto. I love this feature.

 

The trouble is, when I click the album to play, it starts on a random track within the album then plays the rest of the album, in sequence, to the end. So all the tracks before the first one that plays are missed. At home this is easy to right click or long press, choose "Go to Item", right click or long press, chose "Go to Album" then choose play. It's not so easy when out and about or in the car.

Is there any chance you can take a quick look at this and see if you can get the whole album to play start to finish in this situation?

Many thanks 

Edited June 23, 2025 by r5yk5
formatting

[Luke 42077]

HI there, can you please provide a specific example?

How to Report a Problem

Thanks !

 

[r5yk5 11]

Hi Luke

I'm not sure if this is a "problem", it's more of a feature request but anyway

I make a playlist on my server called Albums.m3u

/mnt/Music/Music/Pop Rock/Pop N Rock/Jackson Browne/Late for the Sky
/mnt/Music/Music/Pop Rock/Pop N Rock/Chromatics/Kill for Love
/mnt/Music/Music/Pop Rock/Pop N Rock/Roy Orbison/The Original Sound (Remastered, Repress, 70th Anniversary)
/mnt/Music/Music/Roots/Jazz/Adam_Baldych_Vincent_Courtois_Rogier_Telderman/Clouds
/mnt/Music/Music/Pop Rock/Pop N Rock/R.E.M/Out of Time
/mnt/Music/Music/Pop Rock/Pop N Rock/Rusted Root/Remember
/mnt/Music/Music/Pop Rock/Pop N Rock/Lana Del Rey/Ultraviolence
/mnt/Music/Music/Classical Music/Classical/John_Williams_Wiener_Philharmoniker_Anne-Sophie_Mutter/John_Williams_in_Vienna_standard_edition_
/mnt/Music/Music/Classical Music/Vocal/Anett_Fritsch/Mozart_Arien
/mnt/Music/Music/Classical Music/Vocal/Les_Itinerantes/Voyages_d_Hiver_Noels_Du_Monde_A_Cappella_
/mnt/Music/Music/Roots/Blues/R.L. Burnside/A Ass Pocket of Whiskey
/mnt/Music/Music/Pop Rock/Prog Rock/Rush/A Farewell to Kings (2015 remaster)
/mnt/Music/Music/Classical Music/Chamber Music/Trio_Dali/Mendelssohn_Trios
/mnt/Music/Music/Mixed/New Age/Amethystium/Odonata
/mnt/Music/Music/Pop Rock/Pop N Rock/The Spencer Davis Group/The Second Album
/mnt/Music/Music/Pop Rock/Hard Rock/Kiss/Smashes, Thrashes & Hits
/mnt/Music/Music/Pop Rock/Alternative/Belle & Sebastian/The Boy With the Arab Strap
/mnt/Music/Music/Classical Music/Classical/Anne-Sophie_Mutter_John_Williams_Los_Angeles_Recording_Arts_Orches/Across_the_Stars_Deluxe_Edition_
/mnt/Music/Music/Roots/Country/Jeannie C. Riley/Harper Valley P.T.A
/mnt/Music/Music/Roots/World Music/Femi_Kuti/Femi_Kuti

It's like a normal playlist but the path stops at the album.

Emby recognises it as a playlist and it looks like the first picture on my android app

If I click on the 5th item down, the album Out of Time by REM,  it plays the album but starts at the 5th song "End Game" as in the 2nd picture.

It then continues through tracks 6-11 and then finishes. The album in my file system looks like this

Quote

1-01 Radio Song.flac
1-02 Losing My Religion.flac
1-03 Low.flac
1-04 Near Wild Heaven.flac
1-05 Endgame.flac
1-06 Shiny Happy People.flac
1-07 Belong.flac
1-08 Half a World Away.flac
1-09 Texarcana.flac
1-10 Country Feedback.flac
1-11 Me in Honey.flac
album.nfo
folder.jpg

If I click on a different album in the list it will start that album on a different track number 2 or 9 or sometimes 1.

I'd like it to start on track 1 every time if that's something that can be done plese.

Edited June 23, 2025 by r5yk5

[Luke 42077]

OK the playlists need to contain paths to media files, not albums. I'm surprised you got this to work at all. If you can correct this, then it should function as you are intending.

[r5yk5 11]

12 hours ago, Luke said:

OK the playlists need to contain paths to media files, not albums. I'm surprised you got this to work at all. If you can correct this, then it should function as you are intending.

I know that playlists should have the full paths but I like that this works. I very rarely know what I want to listen to but I usually like to listen to full albums. So 95% of the time I will choose music via the album page sorted by random. But there is no option to sort by random in android auto.

 

Since I accidentally discovered that these lists work I've set up a script that lists all my albums shuffled each hour. This means that in the car I get a random list of all my albums that I can click to play safely rather than always AC/DC and never ZZ Top.

 

If it's not supposed to work then, at least, please don't "fix" it.

[r5yk5 11]

On 28/06/2025 at 11:05, r5yk5 said:

If it's not supposed to work then, at least, please don't "fix" it.

You fixed it

[Luke 42077]

Apologies for the disruption.

[r5yk5 11]

How about adding a "Random Albums" feature to Android Auto as a possibility for future releases?

That's what I used to use it for. 

Not play a random album but show me a list of 20 random albums to choose from.......if you see what I mean.