Shuffle lets you hear your music in a random order, whether that's a queue you've already built, a single playlist, or your entire library. This guide explains the two ways to shuffle in Roon and Roon ARC, how each one behaves, and where to find it. It also covers how shuffle works together with Loop and Roon Radio.

Understanding the Two Ways to Shuffle

Roon has two shuffle features, built for different situations. They're separate features, and they behave differently, so knowing which one you're using explains most of what you'll see.

Queue shuffle

Use queue shuffle when you've already built a queue and want to hear it in a different order. You turn it on with the Shuffle button, and while it's on, the music you haven't reached yet plays in random order. Shuffle stays on as you add more music, until you turn it off or start something new with Play now. If you're new to the queue, see The Queue.

Shuffle Play

Use Shuffle Play when you want to start listening to a playlist, tag, or your whole library in random order, in one step. Pressing Shuffle adds the music to your queue already randomized and starts playing it. It's a one-time action rather than a mode that stays on.

How Roon makes shuffle feel random

Pure randomness often doesn't feel random. Two songs from the same album back to back, or a track you heard yesterday, can seem like a glitch. Roon's shuffle avoids playing tracks from the same album or artist back to back, and it favors music you haven't heard in a while. This works everywhere you shuffle in Roon: in the browsers, on playlist pages, and with the Shuffle button in the queue.

Shuffling Your Queue

Turning Shuffle on

Shuffle isn't available for Live Radio stations, because there's no queue to shuffle.

In Roon

1. Open the queue by clicking the queue icon in the bottom bar, or by clicking the currently playing song.
2. Click the Shuffle button at the top of the queue, next to the Loop button.

While Shuffle is on, a small Shuffle icon appears next to the track time in the bottom bar.

In Roon ARC

Tap the Shuffle toggle on the Now Playing screen. The queue list in Roon ARC doesn't have its own Shuffle button.

Turning on Shuffle in Roon ARC doesn't affect your Roon zones, and turning it on in Roon doesn't affect Roon ARC. That's because the two apps keep separate queues: Roon ARC has its own queue and plays music on your phone. A shuffle you start in Roon ARC can't be continued on a desktop. For more on how the two apps work together, see the ARC FAQ.

What happens to upcoming and played tracks

Shuffle only reorders the music you haven't reached yet. The current track keeps playing, and tracks you've already heard stay where they are. The new order is picked as soon as you press the button, so you'll see the queue rearrange right away.

Turning Shuffle off

When you turn Shuffle off, the music you haven't reached yet goes back to its original order. Tracks you heard while Shuffle was on stay in the played part of the queue, in the order you heard them.

Example

You shuffle an album and hear tracks 1, 3, and 6. Then you turn Shuffle off. The queue now reads 1, 3, 6, followed by 2, 4, 5, 7, and the rest in order.

If you turn Shuffle back on, you get a new random order. A previous shuffle order can't be restored.

Adding music with Add next

Add next works as usual while Shuffle is on. The music you add plays right after the current track, and playback then continues in the shuffled order.

When Shuffle turns off automatically

Shuffle stays on when you add music with Add next or Queue, and when you close and reopen the Roon app. It turns off when you:

• Start new music with Play now
• Start radio
• Restart Roon Server

In Roon, each zone has its own Shuffle setting. When you transfer playback to another zone, the queue and its Shuffle setting move with it (see Zone).

Using Shuffle Play

How Shuffle Play adds music to your queue

When you press Shuffle on a playlist or collection, Roon adds its music to the queue in random order and starts playing it. Your queue isn't erased. Playback jumps to the shuffled music, and what was there before stays in the played part of the queue.

Music from different albums is mixed together, so shuffling several albums interleaves their tracks instead of playing one album after another. Multi-movement classical works are the exception: a performance with several movements moves to a random position as a whole, so its movements aren't split up or reordered. This applies to queue shuffle as well.

Shuffling large playlists and libraries

Each Shuffle press adds a limited number of tracks. When you shuffle something very large, like a long playlist or your whole library, Roon picks tracks from the entire collection at random. Every track has a chance of being chosen, not just the ones at the beginning.

How much gets added depends on the app:

• Roon adds several thousand tracks.
• Roon ARC adds a few hundred.

This means shuffling a large library in Roon ARC gives a much shorter run than in Roon. When the run finishes, press Shuffle again to add another random selection.

How Shuffle Play differs from queue shuffle

Shuffle Play randomizes the music once, as it's added. It doesn't use the queue's Shuffle option, and if Shuffle was on, it turns it off. That's why the Shuffle button goes dark after you press Shuffle on a playlist.

This is expected behavior. Because Shuffle is off, music you add to the queue afterward plays in normal order at the end, not mixed into the shuffle.

Where to Find Shuffle

Shuffle in Roon

By default, Roon shows Shuffle on:

• Playlists and mixes
• Tags and labels, where it's the only play option
• Library browsing screens: Albums, Artists, Tracks, Composers, Compositions, Folders, and Genres, including when filtered with Focus

By default, Shuffle isn't shown on:

• Album pages, which show Play now, Add next, Queue, and Start radio
• Artist and composer pages, which show Play now and Start radio

On an artist page, Play now and Shuffle do different things:

• Play now starts Roon Radio built around that artist's best music, including music that isn't in your library. The Roon Radio section of the queue shows "Playing [artist name]."
• Shuffle plays only that artist's music from your library, in random order. Because it uses your library, Shuffle isn't offered for artists who aren't in your library. It's also hidden by default, so add it with Play actions (below).

Adding Shuffle to album or artist pages

You can add Shuffle to album and artist pages using Play actions:

1. Go to Settings > Play actions.
2. Next to the content type you want, like Albums or Composers and artists, click Customize (or Edit, if you've changed it before).
3. Turn on Shuffle.
4. Optional: drag Shuffle to the top of the list to make it the one-click action.

Play actions settings are saved separately on each device. Turning on Shuffle for albums on your desktop won't add it on your phone or tablet.

Shuffling several items at once

Select multiple albums, playlists, artists, or tags, then press Shuffle, and all their music is shuffled together. If you're new to selecting in Roon, see FAQ: How do I select songs or albums? What can I do?

Shuffle isn't offered when you've selected individual tracks. To shuffle a set of tracks, add them to the queue and turn on Shuffle.

Shuffle in Roon ARC

Roon ARC offers Shuffle in these places:

• Playlists, mixes, and folders: a Shuffle button on the screen.
• Albums, Tracks, and Downloads browsers: "Shuffle all" in the "..." menu.
• Now Playing: the Shuffle toggle.
• CarPlay and Android Auto: a Shuffle row at the top of the Albums list, Downloads, and each playlist.

Shuffle isn't available on individual album, artist, tag, genre, or composition pages in Roon ARC. To shuffle albums, use "Shuffle all" in the Albums browser. Roon ARC also doesn't have a Play actions setting, so these buttons can't be customized.

Shuffle, Loop, and Roon Radio

Shuffle and Loop

When you loop the queue, it repeats in the same shuffled order each time through rather than reshuffling. For a new order, turn Shuffle off and back on.

When you loop the current song, that track repeats, and pressing Next still moves on in the shuffled order. For more on Loop, see FAQ: Where's the loop button?

Shuffle and Roon Radio

When the queue ends, Roon Radio keeps the music going, whether or not Shuffle is on. This only happens when Roon Radio is turned on at the bottom of the queue. To learn more, see FAQ: What's Radio and how does it work?

Loop and Roon Radio don't run together. With either Loop mode on, Roon Radio doesn't start when the queue ends. If Radio isn't starting, please check whether Loop is turned on in the queue.

Starting Radio yourself turns off Shuffle and Loop for that zone.

If you have ideas for how shuffle could work better for you, please share them in Feature Suggestions.