Randonly Playing Tracks

[webtechy]

Hi all,

Hardware: Toshiba Gigabeat MEGF40
Rockbox Version: r16011-080107

My songs are organised into folders (i.e. album name) then into a artist name folder. If I use the database to select a song, it only ever plays tracks fromt he same album. I have tried selecting shuffle and under General Settings > Play back selecting Auto-Change directory to Yes (guessing that's what it would do).

Any help much appreciated.

Regards,

Ben.

[Llorean]

"Auto change directory" only works on Directories... the Database doesn't know or care about directories. A filter could contain files in several directories, or 400 files in the root, and it isn't particularly interested in which once you've started playing them.

To use auto-change you'll need to play in filetree mode.

Shuffle just shuffles your playlist (in the case of Database, unless you make use of the insert function to add more songs later, it's just the list of songs in the filter you selected a track from).

[webtechy]

Sorry, excuse my ignore but how do I:

# Get into filetree mode?
# Add a song to the playlist (I can only select the track to start playing)?

Cheers,

Ben.

[Llorean]

Both of these are in the manual. You agreed to read it, and search in it, before asking questions in our forums. This was the point of the bold line in the agreement while you were registering.

But a clue would be the "Files" option in the main menu, and the "Insert" option in the context menu.

[bascule]

1. Use the 'Files' option from the Main Menu...

2. It's all in the manual:

http://download.rockbox.org/manual/rockbox-gigabeatf/rockbox-buildch4.html#x7-580004.4

[webtechy]

Much appreciated.

[imsjry]

Both of these are in the manual. You agreed to read it, and search in it, before asking questions in our forums.

Unbelievable! Every time I search and find a post that pertains to my question, one of the answers is something nasty like the above. It makes it so frustraiting to find answers on a software forum which I assume is designed to actually help users. If everything was no perfectly answered in the manual, the forum wouldn't be neccessary, no?

[LinusN]

Unbelievable! Every time I search and find a post that pertains to my question, one of the answers is something nasty like the above. It makes it so frustraiting to find answers on a software forum which I assume is designed to actually help users. If everything was no perfectly answered in the manual, the forum wouldn't be neccessary, no?

I agree that some of the replies in this forum are unnecessarily unfriendly sometimes.

However, the sad truth is that if everyone actually read the manual, many threads in this forum would be unnecessary.

The manual is not perfect though. It can be improved, and that's where the user feedback comes in. Sadly, we seldom get any feedback on the manual at all. I wonder why.

[imsjry]

However, the sad truth is that if everyone actually read the manual, many threads in this forum would be unnecessary.

The manual is not perfect though. It can be improved, and that's where the user feedback comes in. Sadly, we seldom get any feedback on the manual at all. I wonder why.

I will give you a for example:

I know that if I actually understood every line of the entire manual, I could maybe figure out how to randomly play ALL the tracks on my player. Let be honest, that question is not easily answered in the manual. It is much easier to post a question to the forum so that people who use the player every day can quickly answer it.  

[Llorean]

Then say "The manual says to do (paraphrasing of the manual's instructions) but I don't understand it."

That way you A) clearly show us you read the manual as you promised us you'd do during registration, and B) make it clear to us  that we can't help you effectively unless we come up with a better way of saying it and C) Show us what part of the manual is weak so that we can improve it.

When you just say "I don't know how to play music randomly" we'll point you at the manual, because it's bloody well in the manual, and we have no way of knowing what part of it you can't understand. Since we wrote the manual, in theory if you don't tell us what bit you don't understand, we'll just end up writing the same thing to you and you'll go on not understanding our personal directions either.

[MarcGuay]

To answer imsjry's question quickly:  

1) Using the database, select a category and choose "all".  This will create a list containing "all" of the music on your player which can then be played in shuffle mode.  

or 2) Add your whole music folder to a playlist in the Files view, turn shuffle on, and play.

And as far as your complaints are concerned, just think of how peeved people who work in customer service are all of the time, answering the same questions over and over again, and getting paid for it.  Now subtract the money.  The best way to learn about Rockbox is to play around with it.

Looking over the Playback section of the manual that part could use some editing/clarification, if I have some time I'll get into it, but if you do read the whole manual carefully, it's true that all of your questions can be answered.  It's difficult to explain options which have multiple consequences, you should try to come up with a better way to word the manual like I just did and watch your brain break in two.