[Bug report]Plexamp + Android Auto in Android 11 - cannot play any content

[Paradox52525]

For the past few weeks, Plexamp + Android auto were working great for me connected to my 2019 Crosstrek head unit. Then I got the Android 11 update (Pixel 4).

Since the update, I can no play any type of selection (Playlist, Album, Artist, ect) while in Android Auto and connected to the car’s head unit. After making a selection, Plexamp will show a black screen with a spinning grey wheel and “retrieving your selection” (or something similar), and will never actually play anything. It does not matter if the content is downloaded or remote.

This only happens when Plexamp is connected/controller through Android Auto on the car’s head unit. Additionally, if I open Plexamp and make a selection before connecting the phone to my car, the selection will continue to play after being connected, and I will be able to make further selections and they will work. To be a little more clear:

Plexamp on its own (Android 11): works fine
Plexamp in Android Auto on phone screen: works fine
Plexamp in Android Auto on car’s screen: cannot play albums, artists, or playlists (infinite loading)
Plexamp in Android Auto on car’s screen if I manually start Plexamp and play something before connecting it to the car: works fine

[wwwizzarrdry]

I’ve had issues with Plex Android Auto for a very long time now. I always get the infinite loading which fails to play.

I also can’t search artists or albums. I can only choose from predefined playlists or recently played. But these options don’t work anyway.

There seems to be a bug with very large playlists as well, as they completely fail to load. A small playlist will occasionally load the tracks, at least, even if it fails to play any audio.

When I rented a car in Portugal it had AA built into the head unit and I could play music from my US based server just fine. It also allowed searching Artists, albums and tracks.

Plex Music in general needs a lot of attention. They just relied too heavily on the expensive Gracenote API and now that they can’t afford it, the music experience has gone down the drain. The music section looks and feels about 10 years behind the curve and knowing Plex, it’ll likely stay this way indefinitely.