Server Version#: 4.35.1
Player Version#: 8.1.2.18135
I set up my podcasts and have been listening to them. I use Galaxy Buds for earbuds and a double-tap on them tells other media players to skip forward x seconds. Some players (e.g. BeyondPod) allow you to set the amount of time to skip forward or backward (triple-tap on the buds). To my surprise, the Plex Player on my Android (S10+ running 9.0) skips forward not 30 or 10 seconds but to the next podcast episode. I guess it’s following the lead of players like Google Play Music where skip forward would normally mean next song.
For podcasts, it is much more useful to skip forward x seconds, not to the next podcast. This is a show stopper for me as far as using Plex to consolidate my media apps. I often wish to repeat the last few seconds as perhaps I didn’t catch what was said properly and skipping forward past commercials is a must-have. Being able to configure the amount of time to skip forward or backward is also useful and a per-show basis as many of the podcasts that I listen to in Leo Laporte’s network have long rambling commercials embedded in the podcast.
Another nice feature is the ability to specify how much of the beginning or end of a podcast you want to skip as many shows have long intros and outros that you’ve heard a million times already.
Finally, as I frequently listen to podcasts in my car through Android Auto and I saw that Plex is supported on Android Auto! Turns out the same skip forward/backward skips forward and backward episodes rather than x seconds. Ugh! The car has a nice set of buttons for FF/REW right on the steering wheel and I’d really like it if it honored a FF/REW of seconds rather than whole episodes.
Also tried the new Plexamp, which has promise as it supports some form of skipping forward/backward by seconds instead of whole episodes but alas it doesn’t seem to support Android Auto!
Is there any way to configure this with the current app?
Come on guys! How hard is this to do? I’ve checked and the Plex mobile app has buttons for FF and REW but they are hard coded at only 10 seconds forward or backward. However the problem remains that double tapping my Galaxy Buds causes the playing podcast episode to advance all the way to the end of the episode instead of 10 seconds. Same thing in Android Auto. Please, please allow me to configure FF/REW to not go to the end or beginning of the episode but instead forward or backward 10 seconds. Bonus points if I can configure the 10 seconds!
I’m having the same issue.
I’ve just migrated from pocket casts and in the car I just press the next button on the wheel to skip 30 seconds so I never have to listen to adverts. However in Plex it just skips the entire episode even if it’s 3 hours long!
Looks like Plex is still no good for podcasts with basic things like this. Very disappointed.
The real shame is that if you use the app from the phone itself it does have to skip forward/rewind buttons, they just aren’t wired as the default for the FF/REW buttons in the car or in my Galaxy buds. That’s all that would need to change. Basically:
if (player == podcast) {
set default FF/REW to skip forward/backward x seconds
} else {
set default FF/REW to skip forward/backward to next track
}
Additionally, it would be nice if in the settings you could set the amount of FF and REW. I tend to like 30 seconds as ads are often 30 seconds or a minute so a quick tap or two on the steering wheel gets me past the ad.
Another thing I’ve been noticing is not just on podcasts but on music too. Google killed Google Play Music recently and YouTube music is crap so I really want to get over to using just Plex for my music. The basic problem I see is that Plex doesn’t handle downloaded music gracefully. I had used the Plex app while at home on WiFi to download all of my music to the Plex app. But when I go to use it I do not find the music under Jupiter Music (Jupiter is my Plex server). It says there is nothing there. I have to go to some Downloads & Sync section to see my downloaded music. Plex should operate more like the old Google Play Music app. You could set it to “Downloaded Only” and when you go into the music section only songs that you downloaded would be present. If Downloaded Only were not toggled on then you’d see all of your music libraries would be seen. If the song you selected were not downloaded locally, then GPM would try to stream it. Otherwise, it would just play the locally downloaded song. This is good for driving where you are in areas and lack a signal. Set it to Downloaded Only (I have all songs downloaded anyway) and music just plays without interruptions where you have no signal.
But the Plex app seems to trip up on the network frequently as it seems to try to check in with the server, times out, and then shows you what it knows about locally. IOW it seems to assume that you have a connection already and tries that first. It should instead present what it knows about locally and fill in things from the network where is can in the background.
I’d really, REALLY, like to get this working and I’m thinking that perhaps I can help. How does one contribute to the app? I mean can I get the code for this locally and attempt to make fixes to contribute to the Plex team?
I’ve re-opened this topic. I am not aware of specifics but there have been reports if BT buttons not working as expected. Let me find out what the app expects then we can discuss if it’s correct or not.
I believe the expectation is that Plex is more used for music (+ Movies, TV, etc) but not thought of as a podcast player. A lot of music players wire the FF/REW buttons be it on Galaxy Buds or the steering wheel of my car as go to the next song or rewind to the start of this song.
For podcasts, however, this is not as appropriate because if you are in the middle of a 2 hour and a commercial comes up that you wish to skip you hit the FF button and wham you are taken to the next podcast episode. Having to go back to the beginning of the podcast episode you were listening to then scrubbing back an hour in to get back to where you were at… while driving… is dangerous, to say the least!
Since the Plex app on the phone differentiates between Music and Podcasts (at least in the Downloads section) it should be easy to wire the FF/REW buttons to FF/REW say 30 seconds instead of going to the next episode when playing a podcast. Even better if the user can configure the number of seconds forward as well as backward. The Plex app has buttons for 30 seconds forward and only 10 seconds rewind. I’d prefer 30 and 30.
And while the Plex app has these buttons it’s safer for me to use the FF/REW buttons already on my car’s steering wheel. And/or double or triple tapping my Galaxy Buds without having to locate, unlock and get the Plex app up so I can tap those buttons. And I know the Plex app for Android Auto, which I use also has these buttons 1) I’m most often on the maps screen navigating, and 2) one of the buttons is in the overflow menu on the AA screen so that’s yet another tap. It’s best to wire the FF/REW for podcasts to 30 secs forward or backward.
This question has come up before. We have the same situation with the notification window. The Plex player shows controls but only skip prev/next, not FF/REW. I believe this is actually controlled by the OS depending on what type of media is playing. By media I mean, music or video. I don’t know if a distinction can be made for different types of music.
As other podcast players (e.g. BeyondPod) have the BT controls set to skip FF/REW by a configurable amount of seconds I don’t think this is controlled by the OS. Perhaps there is a setting or hint to the OS that this media player plays music or this media player plays podcasts that Plex would need to toggle between?
I’ve seen, at times, a Plex player on the lock screen. Other times it’s not there. When unlocked and Plex is playing something I see a media player in the notification shade. The lock screen media player has next/prev buttons while the notification shade media player has FF/REW options.
Over on AA, the player shows the 10-second REW button, then the Play and Next episode buttons. There is then a 3 dot menu that when tapped reveals some more controls. The 30 second FF button is there. This is less than ideal as the “damn commercial! Skip forward 30 seconds” button is a much more frequently used and desired button than the “what was that? 10-second” REW button. The new AA has a small set of media controller buttons at the bottom of the map screen. This is extremely useful as most people navigate with the maps screen but still want to occasionally manipulate the current media player to say pause or skip content. It is these buttons that when playing music with say YouTube Music cause the player to skip to the next song while when using something like BeyondPod causes the player to FF/REW by seconds. Again, what I’d like to see is that these buttons, as well as my steering wheel buttons and Galaxy Buds, are smart enough to know (or configurable enough to configure) to FF/REW by seconds rather than episodes when playing podcasts.
