Autoplay turned off, but still happens
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Although I have turned off autoplay, it is still in effect. Does anyone know of a way to stop auto play from happening? Or is this just a software glitch that needs to be fixed?
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Hi @lingualect! Some users have mixed up the “Auto add to up next” setting with the “Autoplay” setting, so the first thing to do is to double-check that the “Autoplay” setting at the bottom of the “General” settings page is turned off.
If that’s off, and you’re still seeing episodes that you have not added to your Up Next queue played automatically, then that does sound like a bug. Are these episodes you are playing from a podcast, a filter, or from some other list?
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I greatly appreciate your response. It is with 100% certainty that I can tell you that autoplay is turned off in my app, yet when I use the app, it automatically (annoyingly) advances to the next podcast every time. Under filters, I have something called new releases. This is the only place that I listen from. Sounds like a bug, yet it appears the developers are unaware of it.
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@lingualect If you’re playing episodes from ‘New Releases’ filter and they are added to your Up Next Queue, it is intended for the episodes to play one after the other.
To play just one episode and then stop playback, you can use the ‘Sleep Timer’ to play until the end of the episode. If we’re misunderstanding anything, please let us know.
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I have the same issue. It is super annoying. I don’t want to set a timer, I just want Pocket cast to stop playing when my podcast is done.
It think what it is doing is continuing any podcast I didn’t finish. So if I listen to 3 podcasts and end them all in the last minute (when host is saying goodbye) and then listen to a fourth podcast all the way through, Pocketcast will then play the last few mins of ALL three podcasts I ended.
Or if I only listened to 5 mins of a podcast episode and decided I didn’t like it, Pocketcast will automatically start that episode up again.PLEASE FIX THIS. Your app is almost unuseable.
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@dlogneb I think this is a misunderstanding of the ‘Autoplay’ setting in the app. The AutoPlay option refers to Pocket Casts automatically playing new episodes when your Up Next queue is empty.
If your Up Next queue has episodes (which sounds like your case), then Pocket Casts will, by default, keep playing the episodes in the queue. So, if you stopped listening to an episode in the past but did not archive or remove it, it will still be in the queue, which means it will be played again.
In a case like this, you can refer to the steps outlined here: https://support.pocketcasts.com/knowledge-base/up-next-continuous-playback/#htoc-how-can-i-prevent-the-next-episode-from-automatically-starting-after-i-finish-playing-one-episode-in-pocket-casts
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Well it’s strange to call it “auto play” when it’s actually “auto add” – so regardless of any other changes I think it would be smart to change the name of the feature. Searching for a solution I found numerous other people who thought turning “auto play” off would mean than nothing will automatically play.
So is there no way to turn off my “up next queue”? That’s what I want to do. It’s a feature that is of no use to me. I looked at the link you sent and it didn’t have any advice on turning off the queue. In my settings I see I can limit it to “10 episodes”. Why not add “0 episodes” or “off” ? -
Well it’s strange to call it “auto play” when it’s actually “auto add” – so regardless of any other changes I think it would be smart to change the name of the feature. Searching for a solution I found numerous other people who thought turning “auto play” off would mean than nothing will automatically play.
Apologies for any confusion, @dlogneb! Autoplay doesn’t “add” episodes anywhere. It’s just meant to keep playing episodes from a list.
I get what you’re saying about the name, however! And I’ve made sure to share that feedback with the developers.
So is there no way to turn off my “up next queue”? That’s what I want to do. It’s a feature that is of no use to me. I looked at the link you sent and it didn’t have any advice on turning off the queue. In my settings I see I can limit it to “10 episodes”. Why not add “0 episodes” or “off” ?
There isn’t a setting to turn off continuous playback from the Up Next queue. We do have an open feature request for that, and I made sure to add a vote for it on your behalf. For now, you can use the Sleep Timer workaround mentioned here.
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To quote you: “The AutoPlay option refers to Pocket Casts automatically adding new episodes when your Up Next queue is empty.”
This isn’t true. I have AutoPlay off and yet when a podcast ends it starts playing some old episode I stopped previously from another podcast. I feel like your team feels your settings aren’t confusing, but they are very very confusing.
The thing that mystifies me is why would you create an app that just keeps playing an playing by default? I’ve fallen asleep sometimes and woken up 8 hours later and Pocketcast is STILL PLAYING because, I’m guessing, it has cued up everything I listened to but didn’t complete for years???? It’s a bit baffling honestly. -
Hi @dlogneb!
Thanks for getting back to us. I’ve altered my message to change ‘adding’ to ‘playing’ since that might be a better word to describe how the AutoPlay feature works.
The thing that mystifies me is why would you create an app that just keeps playing an playing by default? I’ve fallen asleep sometimes and woken up 8 hours later and Pocketcast is STILL PLAYING because, I’m guessing, it has cued up everything I listened to but didn’t complete for years???? It’s a bit baffling honestly.
This definitely does not sound like it is due to the ‘Autoplay’ setting but rather due to the Up Next queue having older episodes.
I would recommend you use the ‘Clear Queue’ button, as explained here: https://support.pocketcasts.com/knowledge-base/playing-episodes-and-managing-your-queue-ios/#up-next
This will remove any older episodes that might still be in your queue.
In the future, you can also use the ‘mark as played’ or ‘archive’ buttons when wanting to stop listening to an episode, to ensure that it does not remain in your Up Next queue if not completed.
I feel like your team feels your settings aren’t confusing, but they are very very confusing.
I can imagine that these settings can be confusing if you have not used Pocket Casts before. We are working on improving on these areas so that such issues aren’t so common in the future.
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I’ve cleared the queue. Thank you.
You keep saying things like “you don’t understand how Pocketcast works”. I strongly suggest you think about that viewpoint. I listen to music on my phone, I watch YouTube, Netflix, I listen to ebooks and I listen to lectures – all of these on different apps than Pocketcast.
All of these other apps have an “autoplay” feature than when you turn it off the app does NOT PLAY ANYTHING AUTOMATICALLY.
You were right, I had 80 podcasts in my “up next” queue – but the question remains, “WHY???” I didn’t put them there, I had “autoplay” turned off. Why is pocketcast cueing up ancient episodes I only half listened to?
Your app has a very functional layout, but your insistence that the use wants things to start playing automatically is baffling to me. Sure, some users want autoplay, but I’d bet most users want NOT AUTOPLAY. -
@dlogneb one of the most popular features of Pocket Casts is the Up Next queue: https://support.pocketcasts.com/knowledge-base/up-next-continuous-playback/
This allows for continuous playback, and is a separate feature from the ‘AutoPlay’ setting.
You were right, I had 80 podcasts in my “up next” queue – but the question remains, “WHY???” I didn’t put them there, I had “autoplay” turned off. Why is pocketcast cueing up ancient episodes I only half listened to?
This happens since many users want to return to an episode at a later stage. Using the ‘Mark as Played’ button when you want to stop listening to an episode will ensure that it does not cause the episode to remain in the Up Next queue.
We understand that this can be confusing and appreciate your feedback.
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Hi! I would kindly ask you to add another vote to the feature request to stop automatically playing queued episodes. I love the Up Next feature. I love that episodes are added to it, when I start playing one from other places. I love that it keeps episodes that are not finished. I just don’t want to have the next episode start automatically but only if I hit play again.
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Adding to the many requests that you add the basic and ubiquitous functionality to turn off auto play. It’s incredibly annoying to not be able to stop auto playing which is why all apps offer it. I’m downloading and testing a few players. Yours has a great layout and everything else is wonderful but the lack of this one basic function is so annoying that I’ll never switch to yours or pay for premium. Nobody wants a player to mindlessly go through their queue and then have to find and salvage episodes that shouldn’t be marked as played or archived. Why would you not listen to your users?? This is such an easy fix!
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I too am very annoyed with autoplay. I’ve been using Pocketcasts for years. It’s the only podcast player I’ve use. I like the functionality of it, so no need to use another. Until recently. Two days ago.
The autoplay only recently (2 days ago) started happening on my app. It NEVER used to autoplay and I have not changed any settings. There are episodes that I listen and don’t finish, that I want to get back to later – at a time of my choosing. I do not want to mark it played or to archive it, because I do eventually want to finish listening to it.
Something definitly has changed with the app, we are not all making this up. I hope this is a glitch that will be fixed. In the meantime I need to find another podcast player because this bug is super frustrating.
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@evasbrunner we’d like to get to the bottom of this.
Can you let us know:
- Your Pocket Casts app version
- Your phone model and OS version
- Any steps we should follow to replicate
We will then be able to investigate this further, as we have not had success replicating such an issue so far.
The behaviour described in this thread earlier is intended, as unfinished episodes will remain in the Up Next queue and start playing if your queue ends up landing on them again. We have not changed the way this works recently.
The Sleep Timer can also be used to stop an episode at the end without continuously playing.
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I’m trying to see what Pocket Cast app version I have. I looked in “Settings” and there is no “About”.
My iphone is 13Pro.
I don’t know what to say about how to replicate the problem, as the problem very recently and suddenly started without me changing any settings. As I explained, once an episode finishes playing another random unfinished podcast episode begins to play. There is nothing I did to create this, so nothing I can explain to replicate.
Thanks for looking into this!
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Thanks for sharing that with us. You can view your Pocket Casts version via Profile > Settings > About. Can you confirm which version you are on?
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