Help Music playback randomly stops

Deleted User · Jul 1, 2011

There have been similar (but not identical) threads in various forums on this but I want to create one that covers this issue very specifically.

* After starting music playback on either the stock Android music player or any other (Winamp, Poweramp, UberMusic, etc. etc.) it will - totally at random - stop/pause.
* I have observed this to occur on a number of occasions when the phone network is switching between H+ and 3G, however I've also observed it happening when there is no indication of the network switching
* Clicking the headphone button again to 'un-pause' gets it playing again (or unlocking the phone and clicking play on the media player)

1. Is anyone else experiencing this?
2. What have your solutions been to the problem, if any?

RostokMcSpoons · Jul 4, 2011

Yup, I'm getting it too. I came across this thread in search of an answer.

I've just got a Sammy Galaxy S2. I thought it was perhaps the Gmail Push notifications, but I've switched them off, and it's happened when no new mail has come in.

Maybe it's a rogue widget or app. I've got the Gauge Battery Widget running, and it said in the installation instructions to remove Task Killer... which it said would also improve system stability. But as I think it's useful and I'm using it I ignored that.

Edit: Other forum posts seem to lay the blame at the music player scanning for new media. I can't say I've seen any sign of that, but maybe it's stopped by the time I've unlocked the screen.
And the suggestion is that a firmware update *may* fix it.

Oh, I've just re-read the original post, and realised the 3G / 2G switch may be applying to me - I'm in a basement office where mobile reception is very poor. It could easily be tipping between the two modes. Arrghh

Deleted User · Jul 4, 2011

It does seem to happen when the network switches, but it also happens on other occasions, too. It really annoys me since this is my primary music player. This almost annoys me as much as the measly 4hrs audio playback and the unreliable headphone button response. E.g. double click to skip a track and half the time it will either do nothing, pause, or pause and then quickly play again. On occasion it will actually skip track, like it's meant to.

Stuff like this should be sorted before it's released on such an expensive product. If this is indicative of Android in general I'll be tempted to return to iOS once they release iOS 5. 40hrs+ playback plus a completely reliable headphone button response is starting to sound mighty good right now.

RostokMcSpoons · Jul 5, 2011

It's happened in iPlayer too.

Damn, it's annoying!

Deleted User · Jul 5, 2011

Yep. Also happens if you are listening to a podcast, or any other type of audio as far as I can tell. Since I use it for music/podcast playback so much this is really starting to do my head in.

I also wish it had gapless playback but it's not supported natively in Android so it has to be manually buffered by the app doing it (PowerAmp is the only app I'm aware of that does this convincingly).

RostokMcSpoons · Jul 6, 2011

macca__macca said:
Yep. Also happens if you are listening to a podcast, or any other type of audio as far as I can tell. Since I use it for music/podcast playback so much this is really starting to do my head in.

We could try updating firmware? My phone says I'm on:
Android: 2.3.3
Baseband: I9100XXKE4
Kernel: 2.6.35.7-I9100XWKE7-CL215725 root@DELL103 #2
Build: GINGERBREAD.XWKE7

But I'm an Android noob, so I'd rather not mess with this unless I have to

And... I spoke to the guys in the Phones4U where I got my phone. They've not heard of this problem. They have offered to swap my phone. I guess I ought to try that first.

edit: Just found a thread on the xda-developers forum that says Google Listen might be the problem: I'm using that for my podcast subscriptions so perhaps there's some truth in it. I've posted asking if anyone can confirm that.

Xda thread

I also wish it had gapless playback but it's not supported natively in Android so it has to be manually buffered by the app doing it (PowerAmp is the only app I'm aware of that does this convincingly).

Ah, I'm interested in gapless playback (some of my most favourite albums are live) so that's handy to know - thanks.

Deleted User · Jul 6, 2011

I uninstalled Google Listen and tried other popular podcatchers to no avail. ymmv. Good luck, I've listed my GS2 on ebay now as I can't deal with this bug plus the very poor battery life when playing back audio. Everything else about the phone is amazing, but these are deal breakers for me because I use my phone heavily for music throughout the day.

jo157 · Jul 6, 2011

Hi its was doing the same with me and sending me nuts. Was told to switch to fight mode and this does help.

RostokMcSpoons · Jul 6, 2011

"Fight mode"... I think you must use your phone differently from me

Ok, changing to Flight Mode might be all right for listening to MP3's, but as something I like doing is listening to streaming content over iPlayer, and it's stopped in that too, it's not really an acceptable fix for me.

I followed a link (via xda) to a PowerAMP forum thread, and it does seem this problem afflicts many different phones (thought the main poster is suffering from short temporary pauses rather than the song going into 'proper' pause in the way we're getting).

I must admit Macca's ebaying of his SG2 did (very briefly) make me consider swapping mine for a Sensation, but it seems it might well be an Android bug, not something hardware specific, so there's not much appeal to that. (I think the only non-Android alternative is an iPhone 4. And I don't want to be in thrall to His Jobsness)

sidslim · Jul 6, 2011

This really annoying me to. I've had my phone for a week, and I love it, but the music player keeps switching itself off. It seems to be when it completely loses the signal - the no signal indication appears - but it may well be simply switching from 3g to 2g.

But what makes it worse is that the native app doesn't seem to have a setting to resume the last played track. Am I being a moron and missing some simple button/setting, or should I look for an alternative app? I could live with interruptions, but having to keep selecting which track to play is bloody annoying.

RostokMcSpoons · Jul 7, 2011

sidslim said:
This really annoying me to. I've had my phone for a week, and I love it, but the music player keeps switching itself off. It seems to be when it completely loses the signal - the no signal indication appears - but it may well be simply switching from 3g to 2g.

But what makes it worse is that the native app doesn't seem to have a setting to resume the last played track. Am I being a moron and missing some simple button/setting, or should I look for an alternative app? I could live with interruptions, but having to keep selecting which track to play is bloody annoying.

That's different behaviour than what I'm getting - my track just goes into Pause mode, I just click on play and it resumes from where it stopped. It's better than it stopping altogether, but it's still bloody annoying!

I did listen to a bit of music yesterday, maybe a couple of hours, and it didn't hang... but I may just have been "lucky".

Edit:
My luck ran out after 5 minutes of listening today.
The plot thickens: it coincided with an email coming in on my gmail account. I've got status bar notifications turned off, but Social Hub is on one of my desktops, along with a gmail widget and they do show the unread email count.
I notice I've got two gamil accounts in my list, one with a 'P' in a star. Presumably this indicates a 'Push' account? Maybe I need to try killing the Social Hub?

Edit2:
I called in at my local O2 store, and the 'Guru' expressed surprise when he saw my two gmail accounts in the accounts list. He suggested a Factory Reset. I'll try that tonight, once I've backed up my contacts.

iynCognito · Jul 7, 2011

I must say I use the phone extensively to listen to music and have never had the issue. I listen for at least an hour on my drive to work with no pauses. My phone switches from 3g to h to g to no signal and the music doesn't stop. I am currently using mort player and have frozen the stock music app using titanium backup but I don't remember having any issue with the stock player either (besides a slightly inconsistent response to the headset controls).

Perhaps you could try mort? Make it the default player and to respond to headset controls even when not active.

RostokMcSpoons · Jul 12, 2011

Oh dear.

I've done a factory reset. That didn't fix it (but I do now show just the one Gmail account, and although there's no 'P' in a star on it, it still seems to get emails sent to it in real-time)

So I've gone to Phones4U and got a new replacement phone. I've put back on most of the apps I had before, but I've not opened the Social Hub (though it's still running as a servive)

And it's just gone into pause again. When I received a Gmail.

Maybe it's the Gmail Unread Count widget I'm using? I'll take it off and see if that helps.

iynCognito: I may well try another player app, but the first thing P4U's tech guy was ask me if I was using something else - I bet if I'd said 'Yes' he'd have had me uninstall it.

I'm not using the supplied headset - I've heard the sound quality ain't up to much, and the button doesn't work consistently, so I didn't bother. I'm using JVC Marshmallow in-ear phones. I will maybe try a different set, but I've had the player pause without them being plugged in.

Edit: The gmail widget has been de-installed. Still pausing (occasionally).

jaspinal · Jan 10, 2012

Just to add my two-penneth to this issue as I too am suffering the same random pausing problem with my S2. This is my experience thus far. I noticed the problem with the native music player, so installed WinAmp and got exactly the same problems.

I have tried turning flight mode on, this made no difference and I experienced pausing when in this mode. I never notice the 'media scanning' warning when the pausing happens. I have tried sending myself an email to my Gmail account from my work PC whilst listening to music, the delivery of this email did NOT pause the music so it's not that.

I've also heard Google Listen podcast player could be the problem, so I've un installed that and have noticed a pause YET and have been listening to music for two hours. Will report back findings. Anyone got any other suggestions?

jaspinal · Jan 13, 2012

Google Listen is causing the problem for me. I uninstalled it and no longer get the problem of the music randomly pausing.

uin · Apr 24, 2012

Same problem here by the sounds of it.

Many players (including stock, Last.FM, BloomFM) will stop playing at (apparently) random times.

Very annoying when cycling through London!

The network switch could make sense, as reception in London is poor at the best of times, & I'm constantly switched between WCDMA & GSM.

I'll try forcing it to WCDMA in network settings on my next ride (hope it doesn't spoil my streaming!).

Peloquin-uk · Apr 24, 2012

This may sound stupid but are you carrying the phone around when it happens?
I ask this because i noticed the other day that if the phone tilted slightly face down it turned music off.
That's a setting for shutting it up quick when it rings or something.

boojangles · Jun 7, 2012

Check to see if you have "Chrome to Phone" installed. I saw on another forum that someone suggested removing this. I did and it solved my problem for now at least.

I could reproduce my issue by starting music in Google Music or PowerAMP and then turn on flight mode. Once it entered into flight mode the music would stop. I could then start the music again and turn flight mode off and the music would stop once it obtained a signal. With Chrome to Phone uninstalled the music did not stop. Hope this helps someone.

capguy · Jul 12, 2012

You guys on this forum are geniuses! I was struggling with this issue and it was driving me nuts. How in the heck did you figure it out? Although I was not able to uninstall Google play as it came pre-installed with ice cream sandwich, I was able to disable it and that seems to have done the trick. Many thanks! What a wonderful forum.

fray2200 · Jul 31, 2012

I've recently started to experience this as well. I don't have Google listen on my phone, I've tried a music player that isn't stock and looked through the running apps/processes and am not sure which I can turn off without breaking something else. I've also looked thru all my settings for something that is likely to be the culprit. To no avail. It definitely seems to be related to the network changing or notifications coming in but it's not consistent. It's quite frustrating. Has anyone found another fix for this issue?

vbartro · Aug 3, 2012

All,

I'm having the exact same issue, with Samsung Galaxy SIII. Surprisingly enough, it seems to happen at very specific LOCATIONS (on my way back from work!!).
I'm brand new with Android, so I'm not sure I understood everything which was said above.
Some people mentioned removing Google Listen, but it is not installed on my galaxy. I have google+, gmail, google play movie and google play store. I will force stop them all and see if it chnages anything.
BTW, the behaviour I m having on the SIII is a bit different from yours : it does stop the audio (whatever app I'm using, music or podcast) and the phone seems to reboot (black screen for a few seconds, then screen comes back to life, unlocked, top right icons start to appear one after the other...).

I'll report back tomorrow.
But, yes, I fully agree with the ones who put the phone on eBay...

vbartro · Aug 3, 2012

I forced stop all the google applications on my SIII. And I did not face any podcast interruption! Could these google apps be the problem? How can this be????

floydmcg · Sep 26, 2012

i've been having the same problem for over a month now... not sure what triggered it. every app that plays music, streaming and local music, (with the exception of SomaFM), pauses randomly, sometimes more often than other times. I haven't figured out why yet.

Just this morning, my music was pausing every few minutes. I realized the app 2x battery was switched on, which I have it set to shut down the mobile network when the screen turns off. That was obvious, but it made me wonder if it could affect the music playback even when it was switched off. I uninstalled it and will report back if things improve.

Other than apps messing with the playback, I was wondering if it was a possibility that it was a hardware issue with the headphone jack, since most apps stop playback when the headphones are disconnected.

EDIT: It still randomly stops

vbartro · Sep 26, 2012

This used to happen to me even when the headphones were not being disconnected.
I've been so annoyed and disappointed with the SIII that I've been almost happy when it got stolen...

floydmcg · Oct 19, 2012

Not sure what I did... probably nothing, but the problem has stopped, permanently I hope. My audio hasn't paused in days now. I am guessing it was some app that was causing the problem and has since fixed itself. I am releived as this was very frustrating.:smokingsomb:

Help Music playback randomly stops

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