Request for feedback: Shuffle

I only have 1 requirement:
A different random order of the songs is created each time I turn on random, or create a new queue. So if I turn random off and then on again, Sonos creates a new random order.  I would also expect Sonos to play the entire queue before playing a song a second time.  I personally don't care if Sonos generates a new random order when playing the queue again.

Two desired features:

1. Be able to ask that either albums or songs be randomized.  For albums, Sonos would generate a new random order of the albums in the queue, but then play all the songs in an album in order.  The randomized song method would be equivalent to the current offering (with a new random order of course).

2. Show the queue in the order the songs will be played.  Currently the list is in the order added to the queue, and not the order the songs will be played it.  Others might prefer the current display.  Since I know Sonos doesn't want to make the interface complex, I would suggest a poll for which way the queue should be displayed.

Thanks for asking

Ben, 1 question. Why do you not have the "Official Rep" title like all the other Sonos employees? It certainly would add more weight to your question.

Anyway, I think User500327 above sums it up the best.  New random order each time you play a list or press the random icon, shuffle albums, and (not as important to me) show the queue in the order it plays.

Ben, 1 question. Why do you not have the "Official Rep" title like all the other Sonos employees? It certainly would add more weight to your question.

Anyway, I think User500327 above sums it up the best.  New random order each time you play a list or press the random icon, shuffle albums, and (not as important to me) show the queue in the order it plays.


He's actually a spy for Denon HEOS and he's here to steal our ideas! I think shuffle should play the same song forever with no option to stop it.

Ben, 1 question. Why do you not have the "Official Rep" title like all the other Sonos employees? It certainly would add more weight to your question.

Anyway, I think User500327 above sums it up the best.  New random order each time you play a list or press the random icon, shuffle albums, and (not as important to me) show the queue in the order it plays.


While Ben is a Sonos employee, his account wasn’t flagged as such. We’ve changed his account to reflect that. Thanks for keeping an eye out.

To avoid confusion, we’re also going to direct the existing threads on this topic, here.

"shuffle play" is exactly what it sounds like - the playlist is shuffled, just like a deck of cards.  a playlist should NOT play in a random order, that could allow the same song to be repeated forever (although highly improbable).  the playlist is your deck of cards...  it should be shuffled in a RANDOM ORDER, and shuffled randomly EVERY TIME shuffle is selected.

Also, it should be possible listen to however much of one's shuffled music as one desires in one 'sitting' and be able to return to it, the next day or whenever, and continue from where one left off.

It should play song in a random order. I have noticed when you uave a few speakers grouped and you ungroup them the 'main' one remains where you were in the queue but the others revert back to the first song played when the queue was loaded and will play through them again in the same order. This is what I would like to have happen. When I go to load the queue ,for example from one of my Amazon playlists, I would like to be able to choose "shuffle and play" or something like that and it would load that play list into the queue in a totally random order. I would be able to see the queue in the order in which it will play so I can see the upcoming songs and the ones that have previously played. It would continue playing in that order until it gets to the end of the queue and then loop back around. If at that point I want a different order I can go back to my Amazon list and choose to "shuffle and play" again. This os how listening on Amazon's player works. That to me is "shuffle". Random is different. In Random one song is selected randomly from the entire queue. Then another song is randomly selected. The first song could theoreticaly be selected again since each time every song has an equal probability of being selected.

I know this is asking a lot but beyond the shuffle's functional features already requested previously, would it be possible to roll this update into the 4.3 controller also? Thanks.

Would also be great to have a way to re-shuffle an already shuffled queue on command.  WMP used to have this feature when I used it years ago, and it was a nice feature to just randomize a queue if you added a few additional tracks to it.

Hi Ben,

It is great to hear that Sonos are now looking at this.  Please keep us informed of progress.

1.  If I have a queue of songs I would expect there to be a 'master' randomise button so that the queue gets properly randomised each time the button is pressed.  By random I mean that a song is played at random and then is not played again until the whole queue has been played.

2.  If I add songs to the queue while it is playing in a random order then I would not expect the whole queue to be re-randomised automatically.  Otherwise, you could easily hear the same songs multiple times if songs are added while the queue is playing.

3.  Tied in with this.  It would be essential to have some kind of sort functionality on the view of the queue.  I should really be able to click and see the randomised queue in play order and I should also be able to sort by title/artist so that I can weed out duplicates.

4.  When saving a randomised queue of music it would be great to be able to 'save' the position of where you have played up to even it was a simple marker or similar.  This is similar to Dave's post above.

I'll keep thinking and add any more I think of.  Feel free to post back if you need any further detail.

Stuart