VLC won't play mp3 in order, ALWAYS random

[timpdx]

random is off on the playlist, reset preferences, yet every album I play is out of order, like it is stuck in random mode.

Ubuntu 8.10, used VLC for over a year in Windows, but new to Linux. What else can I try?

[Arite]

Close VLC and do a:
rm -rf ~/.config/vlc

Which will delete (as supposed to reset) VLC preferences and cache files.

If you create a playlist does it still play files out of order?

Arite.

[timpdx]

Lets say I just want to select songs on my hard drive. I select an album (id tags are good, winamp and other players play these same files fine on my windoze box) and all the songs in the album, and it just plays in random order.

I ran the command line you posted above. Still plays selected songs in random order. I have no idea why its doing this.

Is there a conflict because there is a winamp playlist in the folder? Most of my CDs were ripped in winamp. But the same problem happens with downloaded mp3s.

[Arite]

How do you select an album? Are you opening a directory/folder? If so, then VLC is probably playing the files in alphabetical order (if you file naming scheme starts with tracknumber then this should still be in the same order, however).

VLC can play playlists (presumably *.m3u if Winamp?) so it is possible it is adding and parsing that too.

Arite.

[timpdx]

I have 15000 songs and they have come from many places over the years. But I am having no luck with VLC with any music, new or old, m3u or not. I looked carefully to see if song titles were being played in alpha order and no, the order was truly random.

Yes, I am just going into an album and selecting all the songs. I probably need Amarok to manage a large collection. I still have always loved VLC, just doesn't work in Linux for me. Thanks much.

[Arite]

Well VLC does have a media library - you can add songs to that and then search using the filter. Providing the random button is off (two straight arrows) the items in the playlist will play in order. You can add columns (such as Album, Artist, Tracknumber) and sort by those accordingly. When adding directories VLC does add non-media file however ATM.

Arite.

[timpdx]

Thanks, will continue playing around with VLC and other players on Ubuntu, still learning the "new" way of doing things.

[pcguy]

Thanks, will continue playing around with VLC and other players on Ubuntu, still learning the "new" way of doing things.

So you can add a URL to a network stream in Media Library and have that automatically show up in the playlist each time VLC is run?

[jcarrio]

It's a very annoying bug!!
Seems that vlc always starts with random order selected, even if disabled in preferences, ignoring the playlist's music order.
If I disable random and then load the playlist, it works fine.

[mickier]

I have two machines which never had this problem until I upgraded to ubuntu 910- (actually one upgrade and one fresh install 9.10). I have a bunch of my movies copied copied up to my hard disk, and, in chapters, and now since 910 ubuntu and vlc, both computers play the chapters in random order... Can't get it to work right..?!

Worked great on ubuntu 904 (vlc)

[DennyHayes]

It does the same thing on Mac computers, plus the sound quality is not good at all, even distorted on many songs. For years I have used a Mac ap called Audion, since I hate iTunes. The problem is that I have an iPhone and need iTunes to backup and transfer files, but every time iTunes does an update it turns off something in Audion, which kills the sound. Audion has not been supported for years, so I can't ask them about the problem. Sometimes the problem with Audion clears up until the next iTunes update. I was hoping that I could maybe use VLC, but as bad as it sounds, it is basically unusable

[theonetruepath]

Windows 7 64-bit, same problem.

After right-clicking a folder and selecting 'Play with VLC' a random track starts playing, I have to press stop in VLC, show the playlist, right-click a track, select 'Sort order' and change to Track Number Ascending, then select the first track and hit play. Not exactly convenient.

[Schtroumpf]

Hi folks,

The topic is a bit old, but remains true...

In fact, when launching VLC to play all mp3 that are in a directory by a right click (on the directory name in a windows explorer) and then "Play with VLC" in the context menu, VLC loads the mp3 list from the file order in the disk, in opposite to the windows explorer that always sorts the files before display. I think it is the same under Linux.
Under windows, you can see that order by opening a console windows in that folder and make a DIR, i think a linux "ls" in the directory should give the same result...

I did not found anything in VLC options to require it to sort file after a load from a folder. Is there one ? How to ask to the VLC Team a such thing ?


Another point : in the windows explorer, the context popup menu have 2 entries :
- "Add to VLC playlist" and
- "Play with VLC"
but both seems to have the same result : the files in the folder are added (in a wrong order) to the playlist.
Is it the same under linux ? Is there an option (even in command line) that would enable to clear the playlist first when "Play with VLC" is used ?

Thank you very much.

The Schtroumpf (= Smurf in EN )

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Uh? It works fine here now with VLC 1.2.

[Schtroumpf]

Uh? It works fine here now with VLC 1.2.

Uh? Current version is 1.1.11, next seems going to 1.1.12 in nightly builds!
If it is another (beta) version, where did you got it ? Is it stable enough to be daily used ?

[Arite]

Get a trunk build (trunk = 1.2.x, branch = 1.1.12). Although this topic is the Linux forum, the latest Win32 builds can be found here:
http://nightlies.videolan.org/build/win32/last/

Arite.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

If you cared to read above, you'd see that this is fixed in VLC 1.2.0, thus obviously not in VLC 1.1.9.

[emiliolio]

I've downloaded VLC 1.2 but I still get the same problem. On install I selected 'delete old preferences' so I presume I'm using default settings. It also starts playing from the last track each time I add something.

[trejder]

Hi all,

I have the same issue, as described, in Winamp and my portable hardware MP3 player, so it seems it is not a VLC problem at all. And looking into Internet seems to be confirming this.

After digging through Internet I found this thread and eleventh post explained everything.

The problem is with file creation date. If you have them messed up (for example, when using buggy FTP client for downloading files over FTP, that for some reason is downloading files in random order, not in alphabetical one), you'll also have some sort of random order in VLC (and any other player) file list. Because this is (as I found out) how Windows is passing file lists to any software requesting them.

To confirm this, check file creation date of your files. Make sure, that this is file creation date, not file last modification date, as many software will allow you to read / modify the last one (modification date) not the first one (file creation date). This is also the reason, why this problem sucks the most, because it is not an easy task to modify file creation date (as it would be easy, if this would be file last modification date problem).

And, yes - again Windows sucks like a hell (though I'm a fanatic Windows user) and again Linux rules. As you have to be a complete moron to implement file ordering based on file creation date (inaccessible, not editable by most users factor) than on file name. But Microsoft and Redmond's morons had showed us for many times and many years, that the simplest, the most obvious solutions are the last one, that the take into account.

Of course, this is when you're using techniques other than drag'n'drop to fill-up your playlist. Because, if you're dragging and dropping files on VLC (don't know if this feature is implemented at all), then another Windows stupidity comes in the first place, maybe even better known. That is, that the file you actually dragged when dragging a large group of files, becomes first on playlist. And files following it becomes following on the list, up until end of your selection and only then files from the beginning of the selection appears. So, for example, if you select files 1 through 9 in Windows Exploerer, but dragging them onto VLC or any other player, you "catch" file number 5, then your player's playlist will add files 5-9 and then 1-4. Stupid like a hell, but again this is 100% sure idiotic Windows fault, not VLC or any other player -- i.e. this is how your player's playlist receives group of files drop order.

I'm currently investigating this issue and possible work-arounds for it. I just wanted to let you know, that since I run into this situation in Winamp and may portable player, then this is 99,99% not VLC related problem.

Cheers,
Trejder

[Schtroumpf]

AMHO, it is a mistake to assume that an OS will give a file list with a specific order. The files must be sorted with the user's prefered criteria before adding them to the play list.
And, out of main subject, it would be great if that user criteria could be saved in the preferences !

Pascal

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

In the case of drag-and-drop, users typically want the file added in the order that they were selected. There is no way for VLC to guess that if the OS does not preserve the order.

Don't mix drag-and-drop with opening directories (then it makes sense to sort).

[trejder]

Pascal: That is a great idea for VLC. But, aside topic, the same behaviour is in Winamp and many portable players, which runs on FAT32, so it seems that many players are depending od OS-sorted file list!

Trejder

[trejder]

In the case of drag-and-drop, users typically want the file added in the order that they were selected. There is no way for VLC to guess that if the OS does not preserve the order.

If you take into consideration, that even in drag-n-drop (under Windows) there is a lot of mess, I would disagree with you and support Pascal's opinion.

If you have files 1-9, select them all, and drag them on a player, "catching" by file no 5, Windows will notice player that files were dragged as 5-9, then 1-4. For me this is another Windows madness and solution that only produces mess around.

So I'm personally for an option (and, if I'm not mistaken Winamp has one such, so VLC could also have): "Order dragged files by".

Cheers,
Trejder

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

I disagree. And in fact, we don't design VLC according to Windows's limitation. There are better OSes out there.

[trejder]

I'm pretty sure that there are better OSes than Windows, and you don't have to tell me this.

But having an option "Sort dragged files by" is completely outside OS discusion. It would be useful IMHO for any user, no matter, what system he or she is using.