Request for feedback: Shuffle

It doesn't matter if I use pause from my iPhone or PCs either; works the same way. 

I have just read John M's post and find it amazing (and worrying) that he does not at least touch on or even mention that a colleague (Ben) is working on the shuffle issue! I'm sorry, I just don't get it! Does John know Ben? Does left hand know what right hand is doing? Will we get a working shuffle? Who knows?
Totally agree - left hand acknowledging there is an issue and 'listening to our views', right hand arguing case. How about a united response from Sonos? Ben?..... Any comment?

I have just read John M's post and find it amazing (and worrying) that he does not at least touch on or even mention that a colleague (Ben) is working on the shuffle issue! I'm sorry, I just don't get it! Does John know Ben? Does left hand know what right hand is doing? Will we get a working shuffle? Who knows?
Hi guys,

Yes - I know Ben, and that we're working on the improvements to shuffle, as Ben said.  In the mean time, I thought it would be helpful to clear up some shuffle misconceptions in the thread and explain how shuffle on Sonos works at present.  

wow 
@John M - this is flat out false:

"The way shuffle works on Sonos is that hitting shuffle will randomly order all the tracks you have in the queue. Each track will play once, in that shuffled order, and then at the end playback will stop."

I have just read John M's post and find it amazing (and worrying) that he does not at least touch on or even mention that a colleague (Ben) is working on the shuffle issue! I'm sorry, I just don't get it! Does John know Ben? Does left hand know what right hand is doing? Will we get a working shuffle? Who knows?
Hi John Shuffle doesn't work the way you describe for me. Sonos always opens my playlist of 5,000 songs at the first track (alphabetically), regardless of where I got to the day before. That's annoying for a start If I then hit play, the shuffle then goes through all the tracks in seemingly random order. However, this order is predetermined somehow and is the same EVERY time. So I have to scroll down to a different track each time and then hit play. Ed

wow 
@Scott

Thanks for the reply.  When you add your playlist to the queue with shuffle on (repeat off) and then start playing, Sonos has a shuffled ordering of those tracks and will play each one of them once before reaching the end.  Playing / pausing those tracks will not affect the ordering of the shuffled queue.

What can affect the ordering is toggling shuffle on and off, clearing the queue and then adding that playlist back, or using the replace queue option for that playlist (which is a one-click clear and add function).  Each of those things will generate a new shuffled order, including tracks that have already been played.

If you occasionally listen to queues other than that 7388 track playlist and then re-add it, that would explain the repeats.  If you have an alarm setup for this playlist every day, that would do the same thing (alarms always clear the queue).  Does any of that sound likely?

We hear from the comments in this thread that the way shuffle works isn't intuitive. I'm sure that's obvious just from how long it takes to me explain it.  We're working to make shuffle make sense while you're using it. 

wow 
@Scott

Thanks for the reply.  When you add your playlist to the queue with shuffle on (repeat off) and then start playing, Sonos has a shuffled ordering of those tracks and will play each one of them once before reaching the end.  Playing / pausing those tracks will not affect the ordering of the shuffled queue.

What can affect the ordering is toggling shuffle on and off, clearing the queue and then adding that playlist back, or using the replace queue option for that playlist (which is a one-click clear and add function).  Each of those things will generate a new shuffled order, including tracks that have already been played.

If you occasionally listen to queues other than that 7388 track playlist and then re-add it, that would explain the repeats.  If you have an alarm setup for this playlist every day, that would do the same thing (alarms always clear the queue).  Does any of that sound likely?

We hear from the comments in this thread that the way shuffle works isn't intuitive. I'm sure that's obvious just from how long it takes to me explain it.  We're working to make shuffle make sense while you're using it. 

wow 
The only thing I may do is take a specific track and say "Play Now" from Favorites - but maybe only every other week.

I have just read John M's post and find it amazing (and worrying) that he does not at least touch on or even mention that a colleague (Ben) is working on the shuffle issue! I'm sorry, I just don't get it! Does John know Ben? Does left hand know what right hand is doing? Will we get a working shuffle? Who knows?
Hi Edward, I'm thinking about why this would be the case, and I'd venture a guess that you don't often clear the queue.  

What's non-intuitive about Sonos shuffle is that it isn't a random play mode.  When turned on, it shuffles the queue into a new, random order.  That order isn't reflected in the queue itself, but it's there.  You'll notice this if you skip / reverse a few times as you don't get a random track each time, you get the same tracks in a randomized order.  That's also why you notice the same order each and every time.

What this means is that if you always start the queue with the same track, you'll always get the same order until you 're-shuffle'.  You can do that by clearing the queue, or by toggling the shuffle button off and on.    

I have just read John M's post and find it amazing (and worrying) that he does not at least touch on or even mention that a colleague (Ben) is working on the shuffle issue! I'm sorry, I just don't get it! Does John know Ben? Does left hand know what right hand is doing? Will we get a working shuffle? Who knows?
John - when can we expect a sonos upgrade? Where are we with development ?