Shuffle not very random after upgrade to 4.9.1.80

[mard 1]

After upgrading my Emby server to 4.9.1.80 (from 4.8.11.0), I've noticed the shuffle feature is not as random as it was in the past.

For example:
I have a large music collection and often enjoy hearing good variety of songs. So I navigate to Music -> Songs and then select Shuffle. In the past a playlist would generated with songs from across my collection. However, since upgrading it appears to only select songs from the "top" of the Songs list. So without filtering or sorting I only get songs with titles starting a number through "H". However, if I sort by title in reverse alphabetical order and select Shuffle, the playlist only contains songs with titles starting with "Z" and "Y".

Is this feature degradation expected?

[MoutonNoir 0]

I have the same problem, that's definitely not normal. Already reported it here : 

I'm happy to see that i'm not alone...

[visproduction 315]

I thought there might be a coding bug that limits the shuffle from working and posted the .js code for someone to look at a year ago.  I have no idea if this is causing the problem.  Did anyone review this posting?
https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/131166-shuffling-a-large-playlist-wont-select-songs-later-in-the-playlist/#comment-1377282

 

[Luke 42077]

Hi, we are looking into it. Thanks.

[mard 1]

Is there anything I can do to help @Luke?

I really would like this issue resolved; so I am willing to do many things (even creating PRs) to make progress towards a solution.

[user24 312]

I've just been having a look at this and have found the following (taking this step-by-step):

In the Songs menu tab the Songs can be sorted by any preferred order (I have 120k+), e.g by Title, Year, Album Artist, Random, etc... ascending, descending...

• Selecting Play will create a playlist of the first 300 sorted Songs and play them in order.
• Selecting Shuffle will create a playlist of these same first 300 sorted Songs and play them randomly.

An example is sorting my Songs Z-A by Album Artist. 

All the 120k+ can still be scrolled through, but now firstly showing my 360 "ZZ Top" Songs (e.g. all of my ZZ Top Album Artist Songs)

• Selecting Play gives an ordered playlist of 300 "ZZ Top" Songs (as expected)
• Selecting Shuffle gives a random playlist of only 300 "ZZ Top" songs (instead of 300 random songs from the whole 120k+).

Therefore this seems that Emby is first loading in 300 Songs from the sorted order and then performing Play or Shuffle on that 300.

So everyone who experiences this, will get difference results depending upon the sort order chosen and how many Songs are in their library. Either way Shuffle is no longer Random for all Songs.

To further demonstrate - I saved a test "Play" playlist and a corresponding test "Shuffle" playlist after randomly sorting my Songs. Both of these test playlists have the exact same run time of 20hr51min.... hmmm.... When both saved playlists are sorted by title the Songs in each playlist are identical!!!

Therefore Emby is likely first shuffling the selected sort, rather than the expected 'shuffle all' and then playing these first 300 songs when the Shuffle button is pressed.

The way now get a good random selection (as far as I can figure out) is to first sort all songs by random and then either play or shuffle as a second step. Shuffle from any other sort order will not be a truly random selection from a whole library (though this will still be the first 300 sorted songs).

Hopefully this is not too confusing to follow and I have explained clearly enough? and will help resolve the problem?

Edited January 6 by user24

[Luke 42077]

Hi, we are working on improving this. Thanks.