Add Shuffle Option to “Music Assistant: Play media” Action in Home Assistant

[edurenye]

Currently, the "Music Assistant: Play media" action in Home Assistant does not offer an option to enable shuffle playback. This limitation makes it impossible to start music with shuffle enabled through automations.

For example, when I arrive home, I want a specific curated playlist to start playing in shuffle mode so I don't hear the same songs in the same order every day. While the action includes an "Enable radio mode" option, that generates a new playlist, which is not what I want. I want to use my own playlist with shuffle enabled.

As it stands, I have to manually open Music Assistant and enable shuffle after the automation runs, which defeats the purpose of the automation entirely.

Suggested Enhancement: Add a toggle or parameter to the "Music Assistant: Play media" action that allows enabling shuffle mode, similar to how "radio mode" is currently supported.

This would greatly enhance the flexibility and usability of Music Assistant within Home Assistant automations.

[marcelveldt]

You simply need to send the media_player.shuffle_set command, its a dedicated command to enable shuffle on the queue.

Some rough example:

[JoshBurg17]

Okay - so really the only work around now is turn on shuffle in the main automation and then create a second automation to just turn shuffle off later.

Hopefully this is a feature or fix that can be added or adjusted sometime with a future update. Make shuffle based on “play session” or specific queue rather than a nuclear on off for all things on a player at all times.

[OzGav]

It’s not nuclear. There is only one queue per player (or group). It is the same as any other setting. Did you try just adding another action at the end?

[JoshBurg17]

I guess what I meant by “nuclear” is that it sets the shuffle state for that player persistently. For example -

I run my wake music automation that sets shuffle and plays my morning playlist. The living room is playing music shuffled.

hours later I open music assistant and go to play Abbey Road the album and even if I click “replace queue” and play on the living room - it plays that album in a shuffled state, not from track one sequentially.

That’s the challenge / issue. The shuffle state is persistent on that player even if I click “play and clear queue”

[OzGav]

Yes that is the same for any setting such as repeat or volume.

[JoshBurg17]

I mean that makes sense - I’m just saying shuffle feels different than something like volume. I wouldn’t expect volume to reset, but I also wouldn’t expect shuffle to persist.