So many issues with Plex/Android player

[traycerb]

Server Version#: 1.24.3.5033
Player Version#: Android 8.23.1.28053

I listen to a lot of audiobooks and I’d been using a 10 year old Windows program to sync my iTunes playlists/tracks to my Android and using Smart Audio Player to play them.

It works, but it doesn’t stream, so I bought a lifetime pass and was hoping Plex would help with that, but yeah, it’s no good.

But maybe I’m overlooking something? I’m running on a Synology NAS via a Docker. As of now, I only have 1 library in Plex, marked as a Music library, serving all of my audiobooks. Here are the issues I have:

1) Playback speed doesn’t always show up
Sometimes some tracks don’t offer playback speed. I listen at 1.25-1.7x so 1x is painful.

Some show the playback speed option just fine. Both are mp3s.

2) sometimes it doesn’t always remember position

I have the appropriate checkbox selected, but sometimes tracks still don’t offer to resume or not. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. That first track up in #1 above has that issue. It’s a long single track (500 MB), not sure if that has anything to do with it, but either way, it’s a bug.

3. Home screen offers no “Continue watching” row

I know there’s been much debate (or, in fact, little debate, and much valid criticism) about the merging of On Deck and Continue Watching, but somehow, I don’t have either. Not on my web version, not on my Android player.

4. Manual seeking is clunky.

If the track is paused, and you manually seek, it doesn’t update the time in the track where you are relocating. This is minor, but totally inconsistent. Also if you have a long track, you’ll be jumping by huge chunks with each micromovement of your thumb.

5. Player is slow to react

I notice this most when pressing the 10 sec back button, I can’t press it repeatedly. There’s always a delay. And this is on downloaded files.

Similarly, when trying to manually seek, there’s always a bit of a delay when trying to grab the player position/seek marker, and when it actually starts responding.

6. Could use more jump back/forward settings.
This is more of a feature request than an issue, but there should be multiple buttons for forward/back. Forward and back should each have one small jump (+/- 15 seconds) button, and one large jump (+/- 1 min) button, preferably user-configurable.

7. Have a large button, small artwork mode
The artwork (which I don’t interact with) is huge, but the settings buttons are so small. How does this make any sense? Either decrease the size, or have the buttons overlay the artwork

8. No ability to access downloaded files

I wouldn’t care about all of the above issues with Plex’s terrible audiobook support if I could use it just to sync the files but then use my own player (Smart Audiobook Player, which is light years better), but Plex squirrels the downloaded files in a way inaccessible to any other programs, unless rooted.

I know there have been Android restrictions about sandboxing apps and storage, but I don’t have this issue with other apps, which leads me to believe this is a choice as opposed to a constraint.

Anyway, I spent more on Plex than I ever did on Windows or Office (student discounts) because I just wanted things to be easy, but yeah, it’s the worst app for audiobooks (except for all the others).

[ranger671]

Traycerb, I feel your pain. I am a long time Smart Audiobook player fan, but have been using plex for years for video purposes. I have recently moved from Smart to Plexamp (the audio specific utility they have recently provided). Though the product isn’t perfect, it does address some of your issues. Unfortunately, pauses are going to be annoying. They fade out and in when pausing without backing up. Though this might be fine for music, I am hoping for more config controls going forward. The important piece is that after moving from the plex app to plexamp I have had ALMOST no issues with losing it’s place in your book. I also tend to use single large audiobook files and can completely understand your frustration with scanning behavior. That being said, with the app better at going back to where it is supposed to, I’ve had much less of a need to search through a book. I hope that more audiobook fans speaking up will encourage them to investigate some of these issues. If they would open source their apps, I would be happy to assist. Anyway, I encourage you to try plexamp and to continue to voice your concerns on this forum. Maybe together we can get through to the developers.

[traycerb]

@ranger671

plexamp

I appreciate the reply, didn’t know about plexamp, will try it out.

For such a mature project, often times it strikes me as quite amateur in many ways, the UI, response to bugs, priorities, etc.

I’m not sure how to report bugs to them, beyond watching or commenting on prior threads. It seems like a lot sink into oblivion if 3 months pass by and the thread auto-closes.

[traycerb]

I just tried it out, it’s a lot better. We’ll see if it remembers the playback position.

It could still benefit from the short/long jumps, and also the Car Mode is missing the jumps altogether.