How to open all files in a folder and play on shuffle?

[David4321]

I've just installed VLC for Android 3.1.2 (by Videolabs), I think this is the real version. I've been messing with it for a while now, and I can't figure out how to use it in the way I intend. When I use VLC on computer, it's very easy to load the player with the contents of a folder, and set it to play on shuffle. How do I do this on Android?

Firstly, I have not seen a shuffle button that is available from the play screen. I've tried this just with playing files, and with a playlist I created. I don't usually use playlists, but I made one thinking that more controls might be visible that way. I don't want to sort by artist or albums, I need to play the files in a folder, or from a playlist. (by the way, is there an easy way to create playlist of all files in a folder without selecting them one by one?)

Here's a screenshot from the internet of what I was expecting to see, with controls more similar to the desktop version:


Here's my screenshot of what I'm seeing on my phone:


Why don't I see the controls? Am I doing something wrong?

Can someone walk me step by step on how I can play the files from a directory or a playlist, with controls for shuffle, repeat, next, and back available?

Thank you!

[Crazed_by_Penguins]

Hi, David! You're not actually doing anything wrong, you're just missing a step. So, once you've started playing the songs from a directory or playlist (like in your second picture), you would want to tap on the area at the bottom showing the currently playing song. That will give you the interface shown in your first picture, at which point you can tap the "shuffle" button at the bottom left.

To answer your other question about creating playlists, the easiest way to do that seems to be starting from this point (having started playing all the files, and accessing the interface of your first picture). At this point, you would tap on the menu button at the top right, and then choose the "Save Playlist" button.

[David4321]

Hey, that's great, thank you!

One thing though, I can create a playlist the way you said once the desired files are loaded and playing, but I still can't find a way to load all files from a folder without scrolling down and tapping each one. I can add the whole folder from directory view, but then the player just displays the folder name as one object, not the list of contained files. Is there any easier way to select and add the entire contents of a directory as tracks to play?

[Crazed_by_Penguins]

If you're trying to play just one folder (with no subfolders, and not trying to add on to a set of already loaded files), then the orange play button on the bottom right of the file list will do what you want (note your second photo in your first post). Otherwise, it seems that it will indeed load the folder as one object. However, once it tries to play that, it seems that it will automatically expand it to show all the files.

Note to the devs: While this doesn't seem to be an issue if shuffle is disabled, shuffle operation will end up choosing a folder at random (assuming it doesn't choose a file from an already expanded folder) and will then play the first song of that folder (instead of a random song from it). Thus, after one or more folders have been expanded, any that have not will have a smaller chance of being played (and of course the fact that the first file from that folder will always be the first to be played once that folder is expanded). As such, I believe this behavior should be changed to expand the folder to all it's files as soon as it's loaded, rather than waiting until it's selected to be played.