I don’t think this is a new bug, but in the most recent betas, I am unable to load the list of Artists from either of my music libaries, or any playlists unless they are very small. Trying to load artists or a longer playlist results in the spinning orange wheel forever.
In its current state, Plex is almost unusable in Android auto. The only way I can get anything to play is to specifically make very small playlists, as nothing else will load.
plex-log-Paradox52525.zip (340.8 KB)
Welcome
I’m aware of the other thread, but it has gone exactly nowhere in 6+ months. I was hoping maybe I could get some attention for it here, as Plex in Android Auto is completely unusable in this state (I cannot even do something as simple as select any media to play).
There was one post indicating that the issue is actually in the AA Google library, but no one from the Plex side has confirmed if the issue has been reported to Google and how/if users can contact Google about the status of the issue.
There is also a workaround, which is to revert to a much older version of the Android Plex app that is able to display long lists without issue. I wanted to help beta test, but I stream music in the car, so I can’t really test if I need to stick with an old version just to have any access to my music at all.
Was trying to reproduce this but I actually bumped into this other issue where all my music libraries are reported as empty when browsed by Artist:
Unsure if it’s the same problem being reported here (doesn’t seem to be the case?) but I guess we’ll need to deal with this one first. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Yes… in chronological order this is the last issue…
You answered yourself … if an old version of Plex works with the current version of AA how can be an issue in Google library?
I’m not 100% sure on the issue cause, but if the details in the other thread are correct, the bug is actually in the latest version of the Google AA library. The older version of Plex works because it is using an older version of the AA library, from before the bug was introduced.
My suggestion was that maybe the current version of Plex should revert to the older (pre-bug) version of the AA library until the issue is corrected on the Google side (assuming all of this is actually correct in the first place). This would get basis AA functionality working again without Plex users having to disable updates and manually install an old APK.
I am seeing this behavior now too in the latest beta. This is a different issue though. Previously I would get an orange loading ring that would just spin forever. This would happen for any content lists that had a large amount of entries, but shorter lists would load. As an example, I could load the list of playlists (I only have ~5 playlists), but if I click into a playlist with too many songs, that would hang on the loading ring.
In the current beta I’m seeing the same issue as you, but I see it everywhere - I can’t load the Artists list, but I can’t load Playlists or Recently Played/Added either. In any list I get a very quick loading wheel, but then “No Items”.
Please let me know if you’d like logs, or if there are any specific test cases I should try.
Let me understand … if AA requires updated libraries why do old ones work?
And the other apps that work regularly have updated libraries or not?
All I can tell you is that version 7.10.0.8875 of Plex works fine with AA, and all versions after that have issues. I can confirm this because I have tested it personally.
I don’t know if the thing about the AA library is correct - it’s something that people were discussing on the other thread. I don’t know how to check if Plex is using an AA library, what version it is, or why/when it was changed.
In fact … and after 6 months the developers should give answers
I’m getting exactly this, also after reinstalling both Android Auto and the Plex applications on the phone. Before it would happen sporadically and only with very long lists (e.g. Artists lists).
Now none of the 4 menu items (Playlists, Recently Played, Recently Added, Artists) work anymore. It just shows the orange loading ring and then the “No items” message.
This essentially makes this Beta Plex version completely useless in Android Auto. I’ve reverted to the regular Plex version to have at least a minimum functionality.
If you want to keep the latest beta, there is a very basic workaround you can use: open the regular Plex app on your phone before connecting it to your car and start playing a playlist/artist from there. When you connect your phone to your car and launch AA, it will carry over what you are playing in the regular Plex app. The display and navigation controls will then work fine in AA, but you will not be able to make any changes to your play selection.
We’re aware of the issue where large music libraries don’t work well with Android Auto (infinite spinner) and we’re working actively towards getting it fixed (sorry it’s taking so long).
In the meantime we also identified this additional regression in which content would show as “empty” when it actually wasn’t, and that should be fixed already in our latest beta (7.22.0.12627) which was just released today.
I also remember that the song paused at the exit from AA is not resumed when returning to AA
I can confirm that with the latest beta I no longer have the “empty” issue. I can see and play shorter content lists now like I could before.
Thanks for confirming that the infinite load issue with longer list is being worked on. Please let me know if there is anything I can help with (tests or logs).
Even this workaround can be problematic since AA is not always aware of media being played by the Plex app. I have detailed this bug in the following post: [BUG] Android Auto missing Plex tile on Home screen - #2 by anon18523487.
Additionally, the “long list” issue is made worse by the fact that the Plex menu in AA is broken. It is not organized correctly and it is leading to lists (artists, albums, etc.) that are not filtered by the selected music library. I’ve documented this in the following thread: [Bug] Plex menu in Android Auto is wrong - #2.
If the latest AA API really has limits with regard to list length, the the option to either PLAY or SHUFFLE all the items in the list (even though we are not seeing those items).
It is not unreasonable that google would place a limit on the number of items allows in a list to be presented in AA since the whole point of AA is to make simple navigation to accomplish a small set of tasks (like play music) without taking the drivers attention away from driving. A long list would violate that principle.
The ability to play or shuffle a list without having to navigate in to the list content is a very good idea. This is a very reasonable suggestion and something I’d like to see anyway even if it weren’t a fix for an issue. It would be a great stopgap until the large list issue can be fixed.
It wouldn’t be a total fix though (I have more than 500 artists in each of my two music libraries, so right now I cannot play by artist at all in AA). If AA can’t support lists of more than 500, then some type of pagination and/or search functionality will be necessary. A few thoughts would be:
I like you idea of browsing by first letter/number. Perhaps this is the best fall back when/where ever there are more items than a list allows. This in addition to always giving the PLAY ALL and SHUFFLE ALL options at the top would be great!
I suppose it is possible that even a “starts with” filter could exceed the limit too, but that should be rare, and we should still be left with the option to PLAY ALL or SUFFLE ALL from there.
