[Android] Subsonic stops after ~30 minutes

[Chronic]

Since I switched phones from HTC Desire to Samsung Galaxy S2, I've been having problems with my Subsonic app.

After about 30 minutes of listening Subsonic just stops. It doesn't just pause, it pretty much seems to shut down (or at least the play-button disappears from the notification bar).

This happens every time.

I have the latest (stable) Subsonic on both the phone and on my server.

[GJ51]

Looks like a phone issue. You might try uninstalling Subsonic on the phone, givie it a reboot and reinstall the latest version from the market. This is the first time I've seen this behavior reported. Let us know if a reinstall helps.

[Chronic]

Reinstalled Subsonic on my phone this morning and today on my way back from work it happened again...

[colorfulbliss]

Exact same problem here. Motorola Droid(A855), Android 2.2.2. Thirty minutes seems to be about the same time frame for me as well. I use my Droid and Subsonic while riding on my scooter. The phone is kept under the seat and headphones are plugged in. Around 30 minutes after hitting play, the music just stops. When you open up Subsonic, the song you were listening to is still on screen, but you have to hit the play button to get it going again. At first I thought it was the headphone jack connection because music on the Droid stops when you unplug the jack, but it also occurs when playing through the phone's speaker. Also, the music being played is from a playlist and all the songs on the list are previously downloaded and saved to phone. Have not been able to correlate problem with any other program running. On the last try, I made sure no other apps were started, and no phone calls, texts or e-mails came in during the process. To my knowledge, this problem hasn't occurred when I'm using the interface after a song or two or three, only seems to happen when screen is shut off and phone is untouched for the 30 minute timespan. If you have any further questions or if you'd like me to try anything let me know. I'd be happy to be of any help I can be. Both Subsonic and the Droid app are awesome!!!!

[Chronic]

Glad I'm not the only one with this problem.
Even if Subsonic was cheap, this is a showstopping bug for me and makes me regret donating.

[colorfulbliss]

No regrets here! Just a bug that needs resolved

@Chronic: Are you playing from a playlist of previously downloaded and saved to phone music?

[Chronic]

I think I've had the bug doing both but I'm not 100% certain. Most of the time I stream stuff I haven't downloaded previously.

[alphawave7]

I *think* this is the android OS, simply killing off processes. I've had this issue across all sorts of music apps (LastFM, Pandora,etc.) where after some given timespan, the app I was enjoying simply dies. I've had it across G1, Nexus One, and now Sensation, and across ROM's..Eclair,Froyo,Gingerbread,Cyanogen7, and even Honeycomb. I suspect the OS thinks the app is idle, even when it's streaming.

[GJ51]

Not to ask too obvious a question, but is there a possibility that the server is going to sleep after 30 min.?

[Chronic]

Naah, the server never goes to sleep. Not even the harddrives are set to spin down.

[colorfulbliss]

@GJ51 I don't think it's a server issue because this will happen when only playing songs saved on phone. No server access necessary. To test I loaded up 30 songs on a playlist and put the phone in airplane mode(radios off). The music continues to play without server communication...its just that the music gets killed after 30 mins or so with the screen off.

[colorfulbliss]

OK, trying to narrow this down. Here's where I'm at: Load up playlist, press play, put phone in airplane mode (to avoid phone calls and messages), turn screen off - music plays for precisely 30 minutes and stops. Turn screen on, widget shows the song that was last playing (if it had crashed, it would be blank so this isn't a crash), press play on the widget and the song that stopped playing begins playing at the beginning and will continue to play through the playlist for another 30 minutes and then stop.

Next test - I'm going to go grab my car mount which will keep the screen on and retest as above.

[colorfulbliss]

Follow up: Situation was the same in the car dock, even with the screen on. After 30 minutes the music shuts off. But I did come up with a workaround! I bought Tasker (https://market.android.com/details?id=n ... rch_result) from the market, created a "timer widget" that, when active, double-toggles the media pause button once every 25 minutes. Works like a charm! Tested it today at work. Loaded up a playlist and let it run in my pocket for 5 hours. It never missed a beat except for when it does the toggle. I purposely have the timer set for 3 seconds between the pause toggles just so I know it is doing its job. I will now reset that to a few milliseconds so it isn't noticeable. Also, after 9 hours off of the charger, 5 hours of which Subsonic was playing music, a couple of brief phone calls and a few text message replies, I came home with 70% charge left in the battery! Not too shabby!

My next question is - can something be put into the Subsonic app to address this issue? Perhaps something that is a menu option for those of us with android models that suffer this problem? Something is needed to keep the OS from killing the music after 30 minutes. I'm assuming this is only an issue on certain phone models, but it is a big issue for those of us who are listening to music for long periods of time without easy access to the phone to restart it. Even something so simple as a subroutine that double toggles the pause button after a certain time span. Although my little workaround seems to do the job, I doubt highly that the general public wants to learn how to use Tasker just to keep the music going!!! I would love to hear other's thoughts on this.

[Chronic]

This problem doesn't seem to have been addressed in the 3.0 build of the Android app. I'm using 3.0.1. Really disappointing.

[kermit22]

Make sure that Google Listen isn't installed/running on your phone. Since it's inception it has been known to interfere with playing audio and it happens at even intervals like you are describing.