Indeed.
When the problem started I went to the library and every Artist that was being shoved down my throat in a shuffle had Popular Tracks. I’m no Rocket Surgeon, but that lit a light bulb over my head.
When the removal of the Popular Tracks cured the problem - another light bulb fired up.
Koinkidinks?
Maybe?
I have to say no.
I have to.
Logic demands it.
Hold on. So you are saying that when you shuffle your entire library, if an artist has popular tracks listed, you get those tracks from that artist first. Can you provide some screenshots? I can’t reproduce this. I have popular tracks enabled. This is a test library I use so very little has been played to impact the priority of the list.
My library.
First artist with popular tracks.
Hit shuffle from the library page then call up the play queue. That artist isn’t even in that first page.
Stop playback, hit shuffle again. I get a totally random list.
I would also disagree to this statement. I didn’t have the popular tracks option enabled, but somehow a handful of songs were labeled as popular. Those same 5 tracks came up first during a shuffle 100% of the time. After I unmarked them as popular, (Plex Dance), they no longer come up first in the shuffle.
And before I removed and re-added them to my library, their play counts were neither higher nor lower than any other song in my library. There is no reason those 5 songs should have come up 100% of the time first. The only difference with those songs, were that they were labeled as “Popular”.
I tried it every different way possible. Popular tracks, and high rated tracks, always came up first., 100% of the time. Tried it from an Android platform and a Windows platform. Maybe it’s a platform issue?
Eureka. It floats.
Not for Blues - It’s fixed (devoid of Popular Tracks).
I’m running back and forth to the Vet today - if someone can’t come up with some - I’ll do some later when I Test ‘Rock’ or ‘Jazz’.
I have Popular Tracks disabled.
If I shuffle just 1 artist, then I do see that the popular tracks are being pushed to the top. I’ll need to check if that’s intended at the artist level.
Also, in my test, the first song that came up was Coldplay’s Midnight. Checking Coldplay, that song is not on the popular list either. So I can’t reproduce getting popular tracks to be higher than other songs at the library level.
I was shuffling my entire library, 35,000+ songs. Same 5 songs came up first every single time. Once I skipped passed those songs, everything was random again. I’ll try to reproduce it, but I am scared to turn on the popular track option.
I am NOT using Plex Music.
I am using Local Metadata.
I have Popular Tracks Disabled.
My Blues Library has 39 Artists in it - 3 or 4 of those had Popular Tracks when the trouble started. The Artist with Popular tracks was shoved down my throat and the tracks didn’t necessarily come from the Popular Track list.
Forcing the pick forward enough times to get it out of it’s mind bending selection rut - fixed the issue temporarily.
Removing ALL Popular Tracks from ALL Artists in That Library cured the problem permanently.
For Blues.
I’m back later - I’ll work in another library.
You guys created plenty of Popular Tracks before I could turn it off so the other two libraries have plenty.
Don’t do it.
The bug is dependent on you having some - but resist the temptation to let Plex destroy your Music Library again. <—if you have it fixed.
I have two infected libraries already.
They are smaller - by design.
I’ll do it later.
You might be onto something here. When I tried a shuffle from the Roku, Plex designated Popular tracks consistently showed up first. Re-shuffling the existing playlist or starting over with a new list again brought up 5 or 6 popular tracks first, but never the same ones as before. After that, it appeared random again.
In any event, if I was playing cards with someone, and after the deck was shuffled and a new hand was dealt, the “best” cards showed up more often, I might suggest that there was some cheating going on.
Just saying - shuffle should mean “random” not best first. 
It should not matter since the shuffle is done by PMS. I just tried on Android and I’m still getting random results.
interesting thread/bug.
in the mean time, if you want true shuffle, see @ [TIP] [MUSIC] --- how to create an autoplaylist with random sort
Back from the Vet… less teeth, a bit drunk, but Happy, so he says… Now then…
The Jazz Library has been fixed - it was small.
Into the Rock Library:
I have marked down the Artists with the Popular Tracks.
Start Shuffle on Roku
Steely Dan - has Popular Tracks
Red Hot Chili Peppers - has Popular Tracks
Joe Satriani - has Popular Tracks
Steely Dan - back for another go - Popular Tracks
Sting - has Popular Tracks
Robin Trower - Popular Tracks
Joe Satriani - Come Back Joe! - no problem - Popular Tracks
Led Zeppelin - Popular Tracks
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Return Engagement - Popular Tracks
Jeff Beck - Popular Tracks
Led Zeppelin - Popular Tracks
Joe Satriani - He’s bald, you know… - Popular Tracks
about this time without Faith No More, Jane's Addiction, Pink Floyd, Aerosmith, AC/DC, Gary Moore (Blues Crossover), etc - I start having chemical withdrawal symptoms
Robert Palmer - Sneakin’ Sally (for play 98,002) - Popular Tracks
Steely ‘Test Your Speakers’ Dan - Popular Tracks
Led ‘that thing will never fly’ Zeppelin - Popular Tracks
Robin ‘saw you Rock a Richmond dive bar’ Trower - Popular Tracks
Sting - Popular Tracks
( I am having to crank the volume up often during this test)
(11 is a good level - it’s 1 more than 10)
13 Artists of 40 have Popular Tracks.
Call me crazy, but so far NONE with no Popular Tracks.
Looks like a 100% Popular Track selection to me.
I can re-produce it at will, 24 hours a day 7 days a week. In fact, I can’t NOT make it happen.
Time to break it out.
28 skips required to ‘break the grip’.
Shuffle Continuing:
Humble Pie - No Popular Tracks
Joe Satriani - Popular Tracks
Steely Dan - Popular Tracks
Not sure what’s happening now. I do have a lot of what ‘might’ be randomly selected.
I’m done - I think that says all that needs saying really.
I had true shuffle until recently - I have true shuffle again in the Blues and Jazz Library - Plex insists I listen to Popular Tracks in the Rock Library - that hasn’t been De-Plexed.
Never made a playlist in my life - and don’t plan to.
(I’m gonna be as stubborn about this - as you are about (2020)…lol)
Here’s something y’all could try, particularly for music:
Edit the https://support.plex.tv/articles/201105343-advanced-hidden-server-settings/
create a new item, if not already listed: RadioDaysSinceLastPlayed
Assign it a numerical value for how many days a track in a playlist or radio will be sorted in the bottom of the list, after it has been already played
default value: 2
You might wanna extend that period if you only listen to music every 3 days or so.
This might not help much, if you only have a few tracks from a certain artist.
Rule of thumb: The larger the collection, the more effective this will be.
That’s interesting.
I cured the problem by Plex Dancing those popular tracks right out of my hair.
Normal/Random Shuffle Restored.
Another hour replacing Artist Thumbs/Bios and the mission will be complete - made easier by a random shuffle in the background.
so yeah, I keep getting the same like 30 songs at the top of the shuffle list and it’s getting a little old. can this get fixed?
Have you not read this thread?
Do you work for Plex?
No, but there’s at least one employee still convinced it isn’t happening, so…
Good Luck
or
Start removing Popular Tracks.
Shuffle has been restored at my house.
Just an FYI that the new server version in the beta channel (v 1.19.1.2589), which was just released, has a new option under Settings > Library
Turning this off appears to correct the repeating tracks issues when shuffling. I have executed half a dozen shuffles and the same tracks are not showing up the same on any of these runs.
Edit: previously I did have the same 3-4 tracks each time I shuffled (which was probably some remaining “popular” tracks) and when skipping them then I had a proper shuffle.
