# Stupid Kenwood shuffle / random mode...



## rc10mike (Mar 27, 2008)

In my last vehicle (stock HU) I simply plugged in my USB drive with all kinds of folders and songs. I put it to shuffle and every time I pressed "Next" it played a random track from the WHOLE usb drive. It was perfect IMO.

Just installed a Kenwood DDX9906XR in my new car and sadly it appears the Shuffle mode only works within the current folder! On top of that, Im not even 100% sure if its actually playing a random track when I hit "Next".

Has anyone found a solution for this? I love this HU so far but absolutely hate the way it handles music on a USB drive.


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## syc0path (Jan 23, 2013)

It should have multiple shuffle modes, including all files from a given source. Check the manual.

And what do u mean that u'r not sure if it's actually playing a random track? Should be pretty easy to figure out if it plays the next song in order or not. 

I had an issue w/ my Kenwood HU where it would sometimes play songs out of order. It was becuz it would only read the first 10 characters or so of the track name. If the 1st 10 characters were all the same (ie, an album folder w/ a long band name), it would play them in the order they were physically stored on the drive.


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

rc10mike said:


> In my last vehicle (stock HU) I simply plugged in my USB drive with all kinds of folders and songs. I put it to shuffle and every time I pressed "Next" it played a random track from the WHOLE usb drive. It was perfect IMO.
> 
> Just installed a Kenwood DDX9906XR in my new car and sadly it appears the Shuffle mode only works within the current folder! On top of that, Im not even 100% sure if its actually playing a random track when I hit "Next".
> 
> Has anyone found a solution for this? I love this HU so far but absolutely hate the way it handles music on a USB drive.


I had the exact same problem with my DDX9905S that I just installed a couple weeks ago, had to PM ErinH as I know he has the same unit to ask if it was possible. 

Anyway, assuming they work the same, do this... 

Go to Category Mode, choose Song and then hit any to start it playing. Now, hit the shuffle button and it should shuffle everything on the USB. 

The problem with it is that you have to do the same every time you start the vehicle. Weirdly, a couple times after I restart the car, the image and song details will change, but the song playing is on the same album as the one that was previously playing. 

Hopefully that works for you. I need to clean up some of the files on my USB as I think if it is not under the category then it does not get included. I agree though, it is annoying. I came from a tablet that worked perfectly, so getting used to the Kenwood is a bit weird.


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## rc10mike (Mar 27, 2008)

naiku said:


> I had the exact same problem with my DDX9905S that I just installed a couple weeks ago, had to PM ErinH as I know he has the same unit to ask if it was possible.
> 
> Anyway, assuming they work the same, do this...
> 
> ...


Thanks a ton! Im going to try this tomorrow. Still cant believe RANDOM mode is something so poorly made with aftermarket HUs. My Pioneer was just as bad if not worse. If you put it in Shuffle mode, pressing "Next Track" would NOT give you a random track. You had to let the CURRENT song play all the way through, THEN it would play a random track...


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

Good luck. One thing I have noticed is that after you turn the ignition off and back on, the one song will finish playing, the information will update to another random song (track, title, artist etc) but the song playing would actually be the next one on the album from the previous song. 

By the time the second new song starts playing, it typically gets itself sorted out and displays the correct information from a random song.


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## rc10mike (Mar 27, 2008)

naiku said:


> Good luck. One thing I have noticed is that after you turn the ignition off and back on, the one song will finish playing, the information will update to another random song (track, title, artist etc) but the song playing would actually be the next one on the album from the previous song.
> 
> By the time the second new song starts playing, it typically gets itself sorted out and displays the correct information from a random song.


So far your tip is working great. I dont have to reset the settings when I shut off the vehicle. Random has been working fine.

Album art on the other hand has a mind of its own. 90% of the time, it displays Afroman album art (I have one song from him on my entire USB), the other 10% it displays correctly. I dont really care THAT much about album art, but I really hate seeing Afroman for every song lol.


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## MrAli (Jun 5, 2020)

i have a kenwood kmm-bt304 head unit. it has random button on it which when i use, it shuffle all the songs in current folder. to shuffle all the songs in entire usb, i should press and hold that button. maybe your head unit works this way. 

over all, i want to confirm that its random (shuffle) mode does not seems to be real shuffle! i mean, i have around 700 songs in different filders in my usb, and in shuffle mode it plays some songs several times and some song does not play at all. there was times that i drove for continous 7 hours and that seemed that the head unit does not consider all the songs in usb (although all of them are in right playable format). 
i had contact with kenwood support about this issue and they does not give any useful solution.
*any idea?*


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## danny87 (Jun 3, 2020)

MrAli said:


> i have a kenwood kmm-bt304 head unit. it has random button on it which when i use, it shuffle all the songs in current folder. to shuffle all the songs in entire usb, i should press and hold that button. maybe your head unit works this way.
> 
> over all, i want to confirm that its random (shuffle) mode does not seems to be real shuffle! i mean, i have around 700 songs in different filders in my usb, and in shuffle mode it plays some songs several times and some song does not play at all. there was times that i drove for continous 7 hours and that seemed that the head unit does not consider all the songs in usb (although all of them are in right playable format).
> i had contact with kenwood support about this issue and they does not give any useful solution.
> *any idea?*


That's pretty common i think. In all the years i used shuffle on multiple head units, there are some songs that they almost never play. But if i specifically search for it, i can find it and play it just fine. Probably the algorithm.


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## dcc (Sep 22, 2020)

naiku said:


> Good luck. One thing I have noticed is that after you turn the ignition off and back on, the one song will finish playing, the information will update to another random song (track, title, artist etc) but the song playing would actually be the next one on the album from the previous song.
> 
> By the time the second new song starts playing, it typically gets itself sorted out and displays the correct information from a random song.


I just installed a Kenwood Excelon DNX696S that has this issue. I found a solution. Is it a bit of a pain to set up, but it works. On your USB, put each file in its own folder, one mp3 per folder. On my device, I have 390 folders, each folder with 1 mp3.

I reported this problem to Kenwood. I determined that it is a problem in multiple models. Kenwood tech support indicated that I was the only customer to report this issue.


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## rc10mike (Mar 27, 2008)

dcc said:


> I just installed a Kenwood Excelon DNX696S that has this issue. I found a solution. Is it a bit of a pain to set up, but it works. On your USB, put each file in its own folder, one mp3 per folder. On my device, I have 390 folders, each folder with 1 mp3.
> 
> I reported this problem to Kenwood. I determined that it is a problem in multiple models. Kenwood tech support indicated that I was the only customer to report this issue.


I ended up doing what @naiku said. It seems to work for the most part. It doesnt reset when I shut off the car either. What bothers me now is the damn album art not displaying correctly. It usually shows the same Afroman album art for 99% of songs. I even DELETED that song from the stick and the album art still shows!!

I cant believe OEMs got these features right and aftermarket still struggles.


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## dcc (Sep 22, 2020)

rc10mike said:


> I ended up doing what @naiku said. It seems to work for the most part. It doesnt reset when I shut off the car either. What bothers me now is the damn album art not displaying correctly. It usually shows the same Afroman album art for 99% of songs. I even DELETED that song from the stick and the album art still shows!!
> 
> I cant believe OEMs got these features right and aftermarket still struggles.


I do the same thing as naiku as well to randomize for all songs. The solution I provided solves the issue that naiku described. The problem I had (and that naiku has) is that After you turn the unit on and the current song finishes playing, the next song after that does not match the song name displayed. It basically plays the 'wrong song'. The randomizer selects a song to play and displays the name of the intended song, but the audio plays a song from the previous folder/album instead. After it gets past that one song, then the randomizer works correctly.


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

I miss that Kenwood head unit, sold the car it was in back in January and my new car has an OEM head unit I cannot replace. So many things I miss about a good aftermarket unit.... reading a USB drive quickly, as well as reading whatever format I put on it (my current car has issues with MP3's if they are not encoded/tagged just right), Android Auto, Album Art etc.


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## syc0path (Jan 23, 2013)

dcc said:


> I just installed a Kenwood Excelon DNX696S that has this issue. I found a solution. Is it a bit of a pain to set up, but it works. On your USB, put each file in its own folder, one mp3 per folder. On my device, I have 390 folders, each folder with 1 mp3.


I know there's an automated way to do this, like some kind of file naming utility app. Any1 have a recommendation?


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## dcc (Sep 22, 2020)

syc0path said:


> I know there's an automated way to do this, like some kind of file naming utility app. Any1 have a recommendation?


There is not going to be any utility that will perform a function that is this specialized. A good thing to do is to report the problem to Kenwood. Kenwood tech support indicated that I was the only user reporting this issue. This tends to make them think that the problem does not affect anyone else, that nobody else notices it, or that I do not know how to use the unit.

I reported the issue to Kenwood multiple times spanning about 3 months. A number of times they suggested that I return my head unit to them to inspect. It would be nonsensical for me to return my unit for a product software defect, so I have not done that. Finally, I received this response from Kenwood just today (9/24/2020): "I have escalated your file. We will contact you in 2-3 business days.". I have provided a great level of detail to them. The first tier of tech support does not have the technical acumen to recognize a software defect when it is presented. With this latest response from them, perhaps it is finally starting to sink in. Maybe they will finally actually read what I provided and try to understand it. We will see where it goes from here.

For myself, I created a batch file to reorganize my specific music files on my Windows PC. . . .for example, below are commands I used for just 3 files. In total, I had 390 files (for my USB stick) to rearrange.

*mkdir C:\Users\xxx\Desktop\MUSIC\stick_015\A-HA\00000*
*copy C:\Users\xxx\Desktop\MUSIC\stick_014\A-HA\TAKE_ON.MP3 C:\Users\xxx\Desktop\MUSIC\stick_015\A-HA\00000\TAKE_ON.MP3

mkdir C:\Users\xxx\Desktop\MUSIC\stick_015\ACE_OF_BASE\00001
copy C:\Users\xxx\Desktop\MUSIC\stick_014\ACE_OF_BASE\ALL_.MP3 C:\Users\xxx\Desktop\MUSIC\stick_015\ACE_OF_BASE\00001\ALL.MP3

mkdir C:\Users\xxx\Desktop\MUSIC\stick_015\ACE_OF_BASE\00002*
*copy C:\Users\xxx\Desktop\MUSIC\stick_014\ACE_OF_BASE\DANCE.MP3 C:\Users\xxx\Desktop\MUSIC\stick_015\ACE_OF_BASE\00002\DANCE.MP3*

Before I did this I renamed all my files (to remove spaces and some other characters) so my script would work without using quotes, so there is a bit going on for my personal script work.


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## jtrosky (Jul 19, 2019)

I'm not sure if it can do the subdirectory part, but the "Bulk Rename Utility" is an _extremely_ powerful utility that is good for renaming large numbers of files...

Putting each file in it's own directory isn't very practical for large music collections though - I think you'd run into limits on the number of directories. I think I have 20k+ music files on my 256gb thumb drive right now. 

I can't believe that Kenwood can't get something as simple as a shuffle mode working correctly...

Maybe another option is to setup playlists - maybe one per genre of music - maybe shuffle mode works better with playlists.

I've found Music Bee to be an excellent (and 100% free) music library utility. You build your music library on a PC and and it can even sync with USB thumb drives automatically. Can also easily create playlists with it. Very powerful app.


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## dcc (Sep 22, 2020)

I received a callback from Kenwood on this issue, where the track displayed does not match the song playing. This problem is being investigated further. When I have something more concrete to report, I will post it on this thread.


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

I'd be interested to hear what the result is, I noticed the other day that my Volvo OEM head unit does the same on shuffle play. Not every time, but the first song it plays from the USB will often display the correct song name, but the wrong artist. Next time it does it I will try to remember to take a picture. I would guess it might have something to do with the initial reading of tags on the files causing the problem, in that the hardware is unable to read the tag quickly enough from the USB drive in order to display it correctly before the song starts playing. Unfortunately, I am neither smart enough nor have the equipment needed to test such a theory. 

Are you guys using a USB 2.0 or a USB 3.0 flash drive? I wonder if the higher speeds of USB 3.0 would make a difference, assuming that is, that the head unit could read the USB 3.0 faster than 2.0. I can't test this with my car, the OEM head unit only reads USB 2.0 (weirdly though, it will work with a USB hub).


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

Remembered to grab a picture when the OEM head unit in my Volvo acts the same as the Kenwood with regards to showing the incorrect information:










In this case, the correct song is playing, but the incorrect artist is displayed.


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## MikeDC (May 15, 2021)

naiku said:


> I had the exact same problem with my DDX9905S that I just installed a couple weeks ago, had to PM ErinH as I know he has the same unit to ask if it was possible.
> 
> Anyway, assuming they work the same, do this...
> 
> ...


Just read this post from two years ago and it solved my problem on my dmx9707s! Thanks so much!


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## SixIron (May 30, 2021)

I have found after 3 years of having the Kenwood DDX9904 in my car I have always just wanted it to randomly shuffle through my entire collection of songs. I have had the same sorts of issues discussed in this thread, I have gotten it to work by just choosing Song Category mode and hitting the Random Play button, but sometimes it just stops shuffling the songs and it will start playing all songs in one folder. Then I will fiddle with the settings and it start working again. The Kenwood manual is useless to those of us who try to read the english version. How about this idea, would it work better if I just put all my songs in one massive folder i.e. remove the hiearchy of folders? Since I don't play complete albums when I'm driving around listening to music why organize the songs into a artist/album/song type file hiearchy? Any thoughts would be appreciated.


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## jbishop3 (Sep 24, 2021)

Just put a call into Kenwood USA customer care for USB shuffle error once unit is re-powered up. Gentlemen was very helpful.. Said he takes 1000's of calls and this was the first he has heard of the issue. We need everyone to call Kenwood and let them know about this nuance... Hopefully enough people care about this issue and will report it to Kenwood to receive a future fix via firmware upgrade..


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## MikeDC (May 15, 2021)

I FINALLY figured out how to do this and it works and retains access via albums, artists, genres, etc.

1. Make sure your IDtags are updated in your MP3 files for album name, artist/album artist, and genre, and make sure your album art is embedded for each MP3 file.

2. Store ALL of your track (MP3) files into a SINGLE folder (i.e., do not use separate album or artist folders). 

3. Select a single track to play and then hit the shuffle button. All tracks on your USB drive will shuffle.

4. If you have your MP3 files properly tagged, you can still retrieve and play a single album or all artists for a specific genre. The Kenwood music player will read the IDtags and display the albums accordingly.


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