Server Version#: 1.23.2.4656-85f0adf5b
Player Version#: 8.18.1.25719 (1d75c2cc)
Good Evening,
I have recently switched to Plex (w/ Plexpass) as the sole solution for entertainment; movies, music, podcasts. There are some minor enhancements that could benefit the Plex Player app on Android. The following items are mostly focused on the Podcast module.
#1 - Prevent App from Reloading when not Active
Problem: The application doesn’t always remember the last screen when multitasking on the phone. The player appears to reload as if it were never opened even when switching it back as the “active window”.
Request: Remember the last screen when the window is not active.
#2 - Prevent App from Reloading All Podcasts on Events
Problem: The application reloads the entire Podcasts list when actions are taken on an episode say, “mark as played”, or when the app is made an active window again. Your place in the list is also lost forcing you to navigate back down from the top.
Request: Refresh the specific episode the action was taken on versus refreshing the entire Podcast list.
#3 - Mini Player not showing in Notifications/Locked Screen
Problem: This could be user error however the mini player is not showing up in the Notifications/slide-down pane as well as the Lock Screen anymore.
Request: Be able to control the media player with the mini-player while the phone is locked or while the app is not an active window while multitasking.
#4 - Controlling Media Player with Bluetooth Radio
Problem: This also started occurring around problem #3 above. Bluetooth devices appear to control the application (Pause, Play, Next, Previous, etc.) when the application is first opened and active. All controls must be done within the application once the window is no longer active.
Request: Restore stability with being able to control the media player with a connected Bluetooth speaker/device.
#5 - App doesn’t keep track of Podcast progress
Problem: The application loses the spot of the episode being played when the window hasn’t been active for a period of time. A generic timeout-related error will sometimes display when this occurs. The app will lose the place of the progress made in the episode and start it over.
Request: Keep better track of episode progress regardless of window state.
#6 - App doesn’t Calculate Actual Start and End of Episode
Problem: I have noticed on several Podcasts that the app doesn’t appear to read the length of an episode correctly. I cannot find a pattern to this behavior.
Request: Read file metadata to correctly display start and end.
3 - I see the player in notifications and the lock screen. Are you using Android 11? That does things differently and the app hasn’t been optimized for it.
4 - This should work. Would need details to look.
5 - Podcast progress is sent by the client back to Plex to keep track. If the app somehow loses connection to Plex, then the progress isn’t updated. Have you checked that your device isn’t losing internet connection when this happens?
6 - What do you mean start and end times? The app should show the duration of the episode and the playback should show that same duration. The duration shown before playing is rounded off so it might be a little different from the duration shown while playing. If the duration is wrong, or doesn’t match during playback, I’ll need specific examples to look into.
Regarding #4, I have a TON of issues with Plex in my car. Bluetooth controls tend not to work. Songs will play in the playlist, but not send the track info so the head unit just says “no information” or “unavailable”. Opening the app again will show the previous song playing, then if I hit skip, it correctly updates to the current song that’s playing.
It didn’t used to be like this, Bluetooth used to be a bit more reliable. It just seems like the connection is really lazy. It doesn’t want to send info to the car, the next / previous commands don’t seem to come back to the app, and the app itself has trouble keeping up with the currently playing tracks.
Thank you very much for the responses to all my points.
#3 - I am using Android 11 with the April 1st, '21 security update.
#4 - I am not looking for anything perfect when it comes to BT connectivity however things have become very unstable with streaming audio via Plex. I use an Avaya B109 Speaker Phone; everything is flawless upon the initial connection then it appears the Plex app loses control functionality with the speakerphone (pause/play). The controls do not work again unless I close the app and reopen it. The controls do not work if I simply reestablish the Bluetooth connection after being paused for say 5 minutes. The Bluetooth connection needs to be re-established for audio to come through the speaker again if paused for a while or if I walk out of range. Some of this could inherently be the phone and Bluetooth device not working well together and the Plex issues are a symptom of a larger problem. I could try a different app for testing if needed.
#5 is a minor and infrequent nusence but will keep an eye out for network connectivity issues if/when it occurs.
#6 is just an odd observation not affecting performance. It seems to occur randomly however have noticed it with “Dark Air w/ Terry Carnation” and Bigfoot Wilderness podcasts. Yeah, Yeah, I am a Squatch nerd.
