Help Music player skipping... cause?

[mallinj]

About every 2 mins, the music player pauses for a second of silence and then resumes.

I have a 16 GB MicroSD that I bought at MicroCenter a long while back. It's branded MicroCenter but made by Ricoh. In any event, I put 9 GB of MP3s on it last night by just copying them to the MicroSD (after a full format, not a quick format).

Now, I would fault the card but, it plays fine in my Blackberry without skips. Any solution here? Would it make a difference if I formatted the card in Linux instead of Windows or something like that?

 

[jbirgenheier]

What class is the card? Perhaps it's too slow...

 

[mallinj]

What class is the card? Perhaps it's too slow...

It's Class 6. I'm befuddled. I might try to use a 2 gig card just to see if it skips on that card too.

 

[jwm2]

Try moving the music to the internal storage. The speed of the card makes no difference, that is the write speed not the read speed.

 

[RedCamaroZSS]

Is this through headphones or external speaker? I was having skipping playback using an aux cable. It turned out to be the cable.

 

[mallinj]

Is this through headphones or external speaker? I was having skipping playback using an aux cable. It turned out to be the cable.

I'm sending it by Bluetooth to an FM transmitter [Motorola T505]. Worked great on the 'berry. I'll figure this out.. I'll try the internal storage later tonight.

 

[mallinj]

Moved most of my tunes to the internal storage... they play without skips through the speaker. If I encounter problems with the T505 in the car, then there's likely a problem with the bluetooth implementation for music streaming. Has anyone here streamed music by bluetooth without skips?

 

[rmd1066]

I was having the same issue with an aux cable which had worked for everything else. The other issue was that the voice dialer would come up when I put the aux cable in. I called the CSR at verizon and she offered a new phone, but every store is out of stock (according to the CSR). So I guess I'll be waiting to get the new one to see if this was a bad phone or just a bug????

 

[jwm2]

I had that issue on my bluetooth headset with the droid eris, but i've not used bluetooth on my incredible. Try a different music player, like tunewiki or btunes. That may solve the problem.

 

[rmlavin315]

I just bought a new Bluetooth set to use with this phone and it works fine. I listened to it for several hours Saturday with no skips. It's a Sony HBH-DS980; however, I was just playing with my Motorola HT820 Bluetooth headphones on my computer and thought I'd connect to the DI and listen to music, and I got skiping. I thought maybe it was because it was still connected to the PC so I turned off BT on the PC and this didn't fix the problem. Then I thought maybe i was because the phone was close to needing a charge (9%) so I put it on the charger. I'll let you know what happens after it's all charged up.

 

[rmlavin315]

The phone is all charged up and is playing fine with the Motorola HT820's.

 

[tluv00]

For some reason the music player is not playing any of the music files my Droid played. Do the two devices support different formats? I am using the native music players.

 

[rmlavin315]

I'm not sure about what profiles or playback formats the Motorola supports, but I'm pretty sure that any music file you played on your Motorola should play on your Incredible. Profiles have to do with things like music integration (A2DP), voice integration (Hands Free), and Formats has all about the codec (WMA, MP3, ACC). All of those formats are pretty standard, so I'm sure if they played on the Motorola they should play in the DI.

 

[mallinj]

I'm not sure about what profiles or playback formats the Motorola supports, but I'm pretty sure that any music file you played on your Motorola should play on your Incredible. Profiles have to do with things like music integration (A2DP), voice integration (Hands Free), and Formats has all about the codec (WMA, MP3, ACC). All of those formats are pretty standard, so I'm sure if they played on the Motorola they should play in the DI.

I went from Blackberry to Incredible... different OSs.

I can inconclusive results so far. When I started out my morning drive, I got some skips. But after about 5 minutes, I had about 15 minutes of uninterrupted music. So, maybe moving to the internal memory was a solution but I can't explain the first 5 minutes of the morning commute.

Anyone else here using a Moto T505 with the Incredible? Any problems?

 

[incredibad]

My music is skipping like crazy with the native player. I have the music(less tha 1gb) on the sd using wired head phones, initially it would work while holding the phone but as I attempt to place it into the holder, it would fast forward through the songs and skip to other songs at the same time. Freaky, I say. If I pause then play, it will go back to normal but then this time even though I'm holding the phone it'll go back to fast forwarding through the songs while skipping to other songs.

I have the player set to random and repeat but it doesn't seem to really randomize the songs as it would play the same song 3-5 songs later. Complete crap this player is. Going to move my music to the phone, hope that helps.

 

[redlegend]

My music is skipping like crazy with the native player. I have the music(less tha 1gb) on the sd using wired head phones, initially it would work while holding the phone but as I attempt to place it into the holder, it would fast forward through the songs and skip to other songs at the same time. Freaky, I say. If I pause then play, it will go back to normal but then this time even though I'm holding the phone it'll go back to fast forwarding through the songs while skipping to other songs.

I have the player set to random and repeat but it doesn't seem to really randomize the songs as it would play the same song 3-5 songs later. Complete crap this player is. Going to move my music to the phone, hope that helps.

I can echo that. When using the HTC Music player, I created a playlist, hit play, turned off the screen and put it in my pocket which is when it starts to skip all over the place. I'm trying to play the files from my SD card. If I'm holding the phone in my hand and steady it plays OK. I was starting to wonder if the HTC app has some sort of motion control? But I don't see any settings, I'm lost.

 

[cane2477]

Guys, this seems to be a valid issue that will need correcting. Here is my experience so far. If i play music using the built in speaker, it plays fine, no issues at all. If I plug in an aux cord, or head phones to the headphones jack, the player flips out and skips songs, pauses, fast forwards, etc...only when the phone is moved. It seems the accelerometer triggers this. If you leave the phone perfectly still, there is no issues at all. This also happens when playing music from an app, such as Slacker radio. Same issues, so I do not believe it is the player itself, but the hardware or operating system.

In addition to the skipping, the voice dialer randomly turns on and "listens". Anyone else verify this experience? Sounds like we have a major bug here. If you have not tried your phone with headphones, try it now and post up your experiences with it. This is the only issue I have had with my phone so far.

 

[Frogybloop]

I can confirm this as a problem as well. While listening to music through the stock music player, songs randomly begin to skip randomly around, and occasionally the voice dialing screen will pop up and say "listening". I haven't been able to figure out yet what is setting this off, it seems to be while the phone is moving, but I may have seen it happen while the phone was sitting still. Seems like the headphone icon at the top switches between a pair of headphones and a full on headset (with mic), so maybe the hardware is having trouble telling between headphones and a headset and is glitching out the software because of this. Anyway, just a guess. I will contact verizon and see what I can find out. Anyone else have any news?

 

[incredibad]

In addition to the skipping, the voice dialer randomly turns on and "listens". Anyone else verify this experience? Sounds like we have a major bug here. If you have not tried your phone with headphones, try it now and post up your experiences with it. This is the only issue I have had with my phone so far.

I would also see voice command come up every so often while in the music player. Maybe its because I'm using regular wired headset, not one with a mic built in?

So I moved my music to the on board memory yesterday after the post and it worked well. Had the phone in and out of the holdster with no issue.

btw Software# 1.22.605.2 Baseband# 1.00.03.04.06

This morning I have a update notice so I ran it. Everything was still fine throughout my commute to work until I step off the train then the player stops. No skips/fast forward this time, its just paused/stopped. Freaky electrical field conspiracy theory? I press play again, put it back in the holdster and it works for half a block then it pause/stops again. Take it out to press play again, this time I'm just holding it and plays all the way to my office until I tell it to stop. MORE WEIRDNESS!!!!!!!

 

[mallinj]

Ok, I've been troubleshooting this. I tried a bunch of stuff and concluded that the skipping has something to do with motion of the phone while streaming music by bluetooth. Perhaps the accelerometer is too close to the bluetooth xmitter? In any event, maybe an app to temporarily disable the accelerometer, if that's possible, would solve the problem?

 

[Frogybloop]

I've also been trouble shooting this a little bit. But lets just make sure we're all on the same page. Im plugging into either a set of headphones, or a set of powered desktop speakers. When I plug the phone in, either a picture of a set of headphones, or a picture of a full on headset (headphones with mic attached) appears in my status bar at the top (to denote that something has been plugged in). When just the headphones show up, things seem to work fine. However, If the headset shows up and I press play in the HTC music player, the music begins to fast forward or skip songs, and occasionally it will bring up the voice dial screen and sometimes call a random contact in my contact list. The music never actually plays and instead just constantly skips around to different tracks or within the song. I haven't been able to get the accelerometer to affect anything, but that doesn't mean it isn't happening. I'll be talking with a Verizon tech later today to try and get more info. We talked earlier and he seemed to think it was a very isolated issue with just me, which is why im trying to gauge from here if a larger amount of other people are having similar issues. Chime in Android Peeps!

 

[nate.kelmes]

I too can confirm that I am having troubles with listening to the Incredible with headphones while the phone is in my pocket. It is fine when holding the phone in my hand or when its in my car dock. I was mowing my lawn today and attempting to listen to Pandora. I plugged my headphones in and noticed that the headphone with a mic icon showed up on my status bar. When I start Pandora and then shut my screen off and place it in my pocket Pandora goes NUTS. Skips, pauses, etc. Then the voice dialer comes up and is listening and then dials my last dialed contact. I called my wife 10 times in about 2 minutes...

I was hoping I would find others here that was having the same problem as me. Has anyone looked to see how we can set the headphone option so that it doesn't show a mic icon when headphones are plugged in? I was going to scour the 200 page user guide tomorrow to see if there is any help there.

Other than that what else should we do? This is obviously more than just an 'isolated' problem. I haven't tried this before the software update I received this morning. Is this a problem due to the upddate? Or has this been happening before the update?

 

[cane2477]

Here is some more of my experience with the problem and my own theories...

I have a case on my phone, like most people. There is a cutout for the headphone jack. I have several different cables for headphones, car use, etc... A few of these cables have a wider base, and the case on the phone does not allow the cable to 'snap' firmly into the headphone jack. When it is not pushed all the way in or not a very tight connection, the headphone icon with mic shows up, I get the voice dialer, random skipping, etc... When I plug in a thinner connector that snaps in firmly, I get no mic icon, just normal headphones, and perfect functionality.

I used a pair of side cutters, trimmed the rubber on the cables that had a fatter end and did not fit securely into the jack. Once I trimmed them, i plugged them back in, this time they fit firmly into the jack. No issues whatsoever. I shook the phone, everything but drop it, could not get the problem to repeat. I then tried another fat cable that didn't fit that great, and sure enough, problems. I trimmed that cable, it now fits perfectly, and guess what, no issues!

This fix has seemed to solve my issues, and I would be curious to know if anyone else tries it, if it helps.

Seems the key here, at least for me, is that the male end of the headphones/aux cable must fit tightly against the phone, and your case might be preventing that from happening. When it's not snug, it toggles between headphones and microphone. Good luck, and if anyone else has another fix that might help, post it up!

 

[nate.kelmes]

Cane -- that is interesting. I'm currently testing out a few theories myself. Your theory of the wider headphone jack could definately be possible. I'm using a set of DJ style headphones that have a 1/8" jack on the end of them. While the jack housing is rather wide it tapers down at the actual jack and is rather skinny. With my particular jack it clearly does not have any restriction when it comes to plugging it into the phone.

Having said all of that a few things i've noticed are...

1) when I plugged in my DJ style headphones in a few minutes ago to begin testing I noticed when I plugged them in the first time the headphone icon came on and then a few seconds later the microphone icon was added in. I think the way it knows it's a microphone headset as opposed to standard headphones is the rings on the jack itself. If you look at a headset/mic combo you will see three rings that comprise your jack. Regular headphones just have two rings. If the phone senses a third jack it will put it in headset mode. So my theory on this is if the phone senses that you have plugged in a headset/mic combo as opposed to regular headphones then take it out and re-seat. You probably dont want to use excessive force when re-seating, but try that a few times. I re-seated my headphones twice and Pandora has been going strong for about 20 minutes now.

2) When the phone senses that a headset/mic combo has been plugged in the slightest movement or sound will trigger the voice dialer. Even placing your palm on the top of the phone over the two sensors have triggered the phone dialer for me. But again, this is only in headset/mic mode.

Sorry I dont have more information for you right now.

Is there any way to disable voice dialer? Could be a temporary way to alleviate the problem until either this is determined a bug and a fix is implemented or we figure out how to live with the phone's finickiness.

 

[nate.kelmes]

Okay. I've had pandora running for almost an hour now with my headphones plugged in. For nearly an hour i've had the headphone icon stay put. No mic icon came on. So i decided to try a little test. I jiggled the headphone jack ever so slightly and just barely lifted it out of the jack. It caused pandora to stop and the mic icon came on and instantly the voice dialer kicked in.

I know it's not hard evidence but I'm thinking it definitely has to do with the headset/mic vs. standard headphones theory. can some of you others give this a shot too and see if you find the same result? With enough people we might be able to find a bug... now whether we can get HTC to pay attention i'm not so sure.