Hi @02ebz06 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

Thank you - I've marked this thread as a feature request and it will be seen by the relevant teams for consideration. Keep the ideas coming!

Not really a feature request, just asking for it to be returned, otherwise the phone app is useless to me.

Hi @02ebz06 

I think it might be a feature request in this case. Looking at my own library, I see the Play and Shuffle buttons when there are playable audio files in the currently viewed folder - this makes sense. You are asking for Play and Shuffle buttons to appear in parent folders that do not contain playable files, but whose sub-folders do. As this would require a recursive evaluation of all the files in all the sub-folders, rather than simply seeing if there is at least one playable file in the current folder, I think if it was intended to work that way, it would have been programmed-in already.

It is of course largely semantic whether it is a feature request or not - you want it back, and I will relay that sentiment! I just wanted to set some expectations - I think it is currently working as was intended.

I just now turned on my old tablet that still has the old version of the Sonos S2 app and saw that it did indeed used to be the way you describe, though, so it’s not an entirely unreasonable ask!

In the meantime - and if it’s an option for you - I recommend opening the Desktop Controller on a Windows PC or Mac and using it to queue all the items in one of your main folders, then saving the resulting queue as a playlist - that playlist will then be visible in the Favourites section of the smartphone app. Repeat for each main folder, and you can then shuffle the wanted playlist at your leisure. If you add more music to these folders, however, you will need to manually update the playlist(s). You can find the Desktop Controller on our downloads page.

I hope this helps.

That is pretty much what I do now.  Open up the windows program and hit the shuffle from there.

Top Level with all sub folders has it, if you want to shuffle ever song in all categories.

In a specific category has it.  Which is what I use.

And in a specific artist has it.  Which makes no sense to me.

I am also waiting for the "shuffle a folder"  in my music library to return. Similarly, I organize all my owned music mp3s into artist folders that sit within genre folders that I then want to to shuffle: jazz, rock, pop etc. Previously this capability existed. I am waiting for this feature before upgrading to the new app as this is the feature I use the most. Android user here. 

@Corry P   I think you have to agree with me that it made no sense to remove “shuffle” from and upper folder where there could be thousands of songs below, but keep in an artist folder where you would have from 1 to maybe a couple dozen songs.

If you want to listen to one artist, why would you shuffle ?

I just don’t understand the logic that applied here for the update.

Hi @02ebz06 

I’m not sure that it’s me that you need to agree with you - it makes no difference whether I find it logical or not. I am a lowly community moderator.

It’s not so much that we removed that feature - we completely rewrote the app, and that part didn’t quite make it in, for whatever reason.

Whether or not it will return is probably down to the difference in the way the new app works - if it is workable with the new UI structure, I don’t see why it wouldn’t be added. I don’t have that information one way or the other, however.

You can’t imagine a situation where a user might want to listen to all tracks by a particular artist, but not in album order? I sure can.

There are other applications that can play your music to your Sonos system - anything that uses DLNA or UPnP, really. I recently found out that MediaMonkey will play to Sonos devices, though the free version only allows 30 minutes (a personal recommendation only and Sonos cannot be held liable for any damages that may occur as a result of using third-party software). Windows Media Player may also do so, but I have not personally verified this. Plex is another option, though again, I think you need the paid version to play to Sonos devices from the Plex app.

I hope this helps.