I’ve been playing my Plex thru Roku, but recently I setup a system in my RV for bluetooth connectivity between a receiver and Android devices for playing music. I’ve tried 3 different android devices, 2 smartphones (HTC & Samsung), and a Lenovo tablet. All 3 devices will play music for a short while, then just stop. I’ve looked for settings, even tried modifying a few settings, but nothing works. They play for a few songs, then just stop.
Another problem is when I access the queue on these devices. If I click on a song in the queue, it plays the next song after that song. WEIRD!! If I click on the song before the song I want to play, it usually plays the song I click, not the song after - DOUBLE WEIRD!!
Is Plex not made to run on android or something?? I’ve been running Plex for years on Roku and it runs flawlessly. But on android it’s nothing but problems! Any suggestions?
Is the screen on your device turning off? Some devices have very strict power saving features that it stops Plex from continuing to work when the screen goes off.
Yes it does turn off, but I discounted that as a possible cause because the screen goes blank in 1 minute or less, yet Plex will play for 10 minutes before stopping. I’ll try turning that off and see if it still does it. However, if that’s the only fix, it makes the android devices problematic. The screen sucks the battery power down very fast.
Right, it doesn’t happen exactly when the screen turns off. Some devices don’t go into sleep mode until after a certain amount of time. Like I said, check for any power saving features on your device such as turning off WiFi, stopping downloads, deep sleep, etc.
Okay, here’s what I figured out. The smartphones were no good for testing, because they had a max of 10 mins on the screen. But the Lenovo tablet had a “never go off” setting. It worked, but here’s the thing: it’s really not the screen going out or not. It’s about Plex being the “active” or “front” app.
Initially upon setting the screen to “never”, I went to settings and activated the screen saver, which other than when docked or charging, had to be activated manually. from settings. In that condition (screen saver active, Settings being the active app), Plex stopped after a few songs. Even if I turned off the screen saver and left Settings as the active app, Plex stopped working. It was ONLY when Plex was the active “front” app that it played continuously (I set the brightness down to protect the screen).
Here’s another thing: Just to see, I pulled out an old smartphone (7/8 years old) from the junk drawer, installed Plex and it played continuously even when the screen goes out. So I guess the old phone isn’t so pissy about battery, and keeps Plex active even after the screen goes out.
As for my problems with selecting songs in the queue, I saw in Info that Plex Server is transcoding the songs. Why is that?? Anyway, that’s probably why I’m getting the lag times when selecting songs from the queue, which results in the next queue song being played instead of the one I selected. I also have lag when selecting functions (re-start song, next song, pause, etc) I assume its also the transcoding. Again, why is it transcoding wav files?
Update: I switched to Plexamp on the Lenovo tablet, and the “Android devices stop playing” problem is no more! Plexamp plays continuously and with no stopping problems. It’s a little difficult getting used to the Plexamp player, and I’m still learning, but so far I like it a lot. It has some very cool features! I would recommend switching over to Plexamp if you are looking for more control over your music library.
