Server Version#:1.20.1.3252
Player Version#:8.12.2.22756
Hi!
The Android app is, sorry for the use of the word, but nothing else can cover it, horrible.
The easiest thing to do is to just copy my review from the Play Store as, even though it’s kind of old now, all of it is still applicable:
For a paid app, this is horrible. And it’s the app that’s horrible, Plex in general is working fine for me, for example in a browser on a desktop computer. The app often crashes or locks up and asks to either wait or force stop it. It often also just stops responding in an anticipated way and effectively locks up, requiring a force stop through the settings. The worst part of it? It SOOOOO often just simply stops playing music mid way through a song. If you’re quick enough you can open up the app, press pause and play and it will continue. If you’re too late, it will start the song from the beginning. It usually does that on a bad connection, but it has OFTEN done this for me sitting on a table with a strong WiFi signal, so it is the app that is at fault. Want to go back to the previous song? Be prepared to press back ~10 times as the player will skip back to the next song in the list, the one you were trying to skip back from. Even though it does show the previous song, it automagically displays and starts playing the next one again. Android 11 and the notification shade player controls? In ~30 hours of phone uptime I currently have 3 players from Plex with only the last one (first one in the list) actually displaying playback controls with the other two just cards showing me a random song that was played last before the app decided the playback controls aren’t relevant anymore? Pressing on any dead playback control just throws me to the app with the song that’s actually on the playlist. And it IS the app as NONE of these issues happen with the browser app on a computer. The performance of Plex over there is flawless. Plex overall is awesome as it enables me to chromecast things to the TV from my server without any fancy apps, devices or anything, with the much nicer control interface to actually search for the content (the phone) compared to a TV remote. And then you just fling it over. It enables me to listen to my music basically anywhere. But these issues with the Android app are aggravating. ADDITION: Just to add regarding the Android issues, this morning I had my phone on the table in my garage with me running around outside the house. So the phone was stationary, did not have the WiFi signal impeded (and it was full) or anything similar that could cause connection issues, yet playback of music stopped TWICE in half an hour. And this never happens when listening via browser on a computer. It’s the app. And you have to open it up (relatively quickly) to resume playback, so it appears there’s an issue with the app being killed in the background. Yet other apps (MP3 player, podcast player, etc.) work without a problem.
To add to all oft he points, I have noticed two different bugs as well in the past two days:
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skipping back to the previous song actually makes the next one in the playlist play. Skipping back again makes the next one play again → skipping from X to X-1 makes you jump to X+1. Trying to skip back to X makes you jump to X+2. (In the review it just doesn’t want to go back, in the new error mode it actually actively goes forward as well).
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Pressing a song in the playlist (to get around the skipping issues) makes the next one play most of the times. So pressing X, X+1 plays.
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Besides the playback controls in the notification shade of Android, letting the phone to lock and unlocking it, the player is playing music but showing a ‘Play’ button, not a ‘Pause’ button. Pressing it makes the already playing song start over again.
The playback stopping randomly issue is of course still present, as are other issues with the notification shade controls. Regarding the info in my quoted review, I have now tested the playback issues on two different computers in two different locations with strong WiFi. In both cases the phone laying on the table stops playback mid-song with the PC never experiencing any problems. Plus the fact that opening up the app quickly enough restores playback. The app simply stops functioning, it’s not connection related.
I was asking on Reddit if PlexAmp is any better, but the replies were very mixed. I don’t have a big wish to pay additional subscriptions when the existing (paid for) app is this bad and the other one doesn’t have stellar reviews…
