iOS: Random Album Radio plays whole albums in random order, loading each next album lazily

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -11,3 +11,4 @@
 2026-10-28 iOS: stem playlists refresh their track metadata from Plex on each library load. Playlist covers can be changed from the playlist menu.
 2026-10-28 iOS: Downloads 3-dots menu gets View Queue (waiting, downloading, failed, done).
 2026-10-28 iOS: Library screen can be reordered (Reorder button). Library Radio and Random Album Radio shuffle the whole library.
+2026-10-28 iOS: Random Album Radio plays whole albums in track order, albums in random order across the library, loading the next album as one finishes.

ios/Stemify/Playback/PlaybackManager.swift

@@ -201,7 +201,41 @@ final class PlaybackManager: StemEngineListener, @unchecked Sendable {
         messageListeners[id] = f
         return id
     }
-    private func changed() { listeners.values.forEach { $0() } }
+    private func changed() {
+        listeners.values.forEach { $0() }
+        topUpRadio()
+    }
+
+    /// Album radio: every album in the library in random order, each played whole and in track order.
+    /// Only the next album is fetched, once the queue is nearly played out.
+    @ObservationIgnored private var radioDeck: [Album]?
+    @ObservationIgnored private var radioBusy = false
+
+    func startAlbumRadio() async throws {
+        var deck = try await plex.albums().shuffled()
+        var first: [Track] = []
+        while first.isEmpty, !deck.isEmpty { first = (try? await plex.albumTracks(deck.removeLast().ratingKey)) ?? [] }
+        if first.isEmpty { return }
+        playTracks(first)
+        radioDeck = deck
+    }
+
+    private func topUpRadio() {
+        guard radioDeck != nil, !radioBusy, queue.count - index < 3 else { return }
+        radioBusy = true
+        Task { @MainActor in
+            defer { radioBusy = false }
+            while var deck = radioDeck, !deck.isEmpty {
+                let album = deck.removeLast()
+                radioDeck = deck
+                if let t = try? await plex.albumTracks(album.ratingKey), !t.isEmpty, radioDeck != nil {
+                    addToQueue(t)
+                    return
+                }
+            }
+            if radioDeck != nil, let all = try? await plex.albums(), !all.isEmpty { radioDeck = all.shuffled() }
+        }
+    }
 
     func positionMs() -> Int64 {
         let snap = engine.snapshot
@@ -229,6 +263,7 @@ final class PlaybackManager: StemEngineListener, @unchecked Sendable {
 
     func playTracks(_ tracks: [Track], mixes: [[String: StemSetting]]? = nil, start: Int = 0, shuffle doShuffle: Bool = false) {
         if tracks.isEmpty { return }
+        radioDeck = nil
         let items = items(tracks, mixes)
         if doShuffle {
             unshuffled = items

ios/Stemify/UI/Screens/LibraryScreens.swift

@@ -79,14 +79,12 @@ struct LibraryHome: View {
             }
             if ready {
                 SectionTitle(title: "Stations")
-                let stations: [(String, String, () async throws -> [Track])] = [
+                let stations: [(String, String, () async throws -> Void)] = [
-                    ("dot.radiowaves.left.and.right", "Library Radio", { try await g.plex.allTracksShuffled() }),
+                    ("dot.radiowaves.left.and.right", "Library Radio", {
-                    ("square.stack", "Random Album Radio", {
+                        let list = try await g.plex.allTracksShuffled()
-                        // Whole albums in random order, across the entire library.
+                        if !list.isEmpty { g.playback.playTracks(list) }
-                        var out: [Track] = []
-                        for a in try await g.plex.albums().shuffled() { out += try await g.plex.albumTracks(a.ratingKey) }
-                        return out
                     }),
+                    ("square.stack", "Random Album Radio", { try await g.playback.startAlbumRadio() }),
                 ]
                 let shown = ordered(stations) { $0.1 }
                 ForEach(shown, id: \.1) { st in
@@ -126,12 +124,10 @@ struct LibraryHome: View {
     }
 
     /// Starts a station: its songs play in the order given (albums stay whole).
-    private func play(_ load: @escaping () async throws -> [Track]) {
+    private func play(_ start: @escaping () async throws -> Void) {
         Task {
-            do {
+            do { try await start() }
-                let list = try await load()
+            catch { ui.overlays.hud("Couldn't start station", "exclamationmark.triangle") }
-                if list.isEmpty { ui.overlays.hud("Nothing to play", "music.note") } else { g.playback.playTracks(list) }
-            } catch { ui.overlays.hud("Couldn't start station", "exclamationmark.triangle") }
         }
     }
 }