Playback skips backwards randomly
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@hambutty1 and @jssilver can you let us know if downloading an episode helps? Previously we’ve found this happens when streaming episodes, and it would be helpful to know if this is the case for you.
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I tried downloading my podcasts and thankfully I haven’t experienced any jumping at all, thank you.
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The download work. But if I want to use streaming (for example Apple Car o Android Auto), the problem exist.
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Thank you for letting us know @shadowm81 and @hambutty1. Our development team are investigating the issues right now, and this information helps rule out other issues quite a bit.
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I am experiencing a similar problem, here’s a description I put in another thread:
Playback skips forward or backwards 10-60 seconds about once per episode:
Seems to be no pattern to it. Will typically happen once per episode where it will jump forward or backwards 10-60 seconds and then keep on playing normally. If I rewind the stream it will skip at the same point by the same amount. If I kill the app, clear the cache and play the same spot again it will play fine.
Listening on a Pixel 7.
I’ve seen suggestions on downloading episodes, so I’ll give that a try.
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@jeremyp969, thanks for sharing that with us. Generally, if the issue is happening due to Dynamic Ads being inserted by the author, then downloading the episode should fix the issue. When downloaded, the ads can’t change, meaning the duration of the episode is unaffected.
We are continually looking into ways to optimize the way this works when streaming.Let us know what you find :)
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Hi there, @shadowm81, @53jl, @nwhdkk6b7t & @7gywhng7k6 we are working on a new fix for the skipping playback issues and we are interested to know if you are interested on testing the beta build for it?
If yes, we can invite you to the beta test group in Testflight in order for us to share a build with you folks to see if the issue is fixed.
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I feel like this issue has recently gotten worse for live streaming of podcasts (the last couple of weeks?), it seems pretty frequent to me, I don’t recall this being much of an issue previously. I am now downloading episodes to see if that works. If there’s a beta group I’d be interested.
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This has also been happening for me for many years, but the last month or so it has gotten much much worse. I used to be able to count on it happening once or twice an episode but now it’s happening four or five times, and it not only skips backwards but then it will also skip forward so that there are portions of the episode that I can’t hear at all. This is starting to get unusable.
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I’ve been a pocket cast app user for several years, and I prefer your user interface over any other app. But the skipping is very annoying. It happens with every episode of any podcast I listen to, at least once but often twice per episode, whether I do it in one playback or pause and come back. Please address it so I don’t have to leave. It can’t be bc of dynamic ads bc it doesn’t happen on other apps.
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We’ve been releasing updates to our apps that we have hoped will address this. Since things still aren’t working for you, please, let us know a bit more information so we can better pinpoint what we’re missing in resolving this.
If you can, let us know the following about when the skipping occurs:
- What device you use Pocket Casts on
- The device’s operating system and version
- The Pocket version installed
- What general geographical area/location you are in
- The podcast episode that experienced the issue. Tap the “share” icon to get a link for us
Many thanks for any information you can share! We’re also very tired of this issue and would love to have it taken care of once and for all :-)
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I’m also having this issue on every episode I listen to. It used to just be skipping back 5-10 seconds, but now I’m having instances where it’s also skipping forward and missing portions of the podcast.
1. Pixel 8
2. Android 14
3. Pocket Casts version 7.65 (9242)
4. Dallas, TX
5. Every Heavyweight episode from seasons 1-3 -
Hi @kylevanwagner! We just released an update to the Android app that has several bug fixes and performance improvements. Please update Pocket Casts to version 7.66 on the Play Store.
Let us know how that goes!
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I’m having this problem, too. I moved from Google Podcasts, and there it really only happened on I Heart podcasts, which I always assumed had something to do with their ads. But now it’s happening on Pocket Casts, every podcast, even ones without ads. It just happened during this episode of History on Trial: https://pca.st/episode/3b67c80f-4d64-40b4-b3aa-961fe564671f
But, as I said, it has also happened on podcasts without ads at all, such as Maintenance Phase (https://pca.st/podcast/19c9e960-efdd-0138-e80b-0acc26574db2)
- Galaxy S24
- Android 14
- Pocket Casts version 7.66 (9245)
- New Orleans, LA
- As above
My experience has mostly been skipping backwards (usually about a full minute), but in this episode of History on Trial it skipped forward (maybe 15 seconds? hard to judge).
I stream all of my podcasts but I’ll try downloading some to see if that helps. People in this thread seem to have had mixed results.
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I’ve been using Pocket Casts since 2018 and it’s only in the last 2 weeks that this has started happening to me.
I’ll be listening to a podcast when suddenly the playback skips back 5-10 seconds and I’m hearing the speaker repeat the sentence they just said or it jumps ahead and I miss something they said.
This happens on both downloaded podcasts and streamed podcasts and I don’t know how dynamic ads work, but it’s not happening anywhere near when an ad is playing – it happens mid-sentence, while the person on the podcast is talking.
- Lenovo Yoga Smart Tab tablet
- Android Version 10
- Pocket Casts version 7.66 (9245)
- Oakland, California
- Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me https://pca.st/episode/f9a1ba50-3bb3-4176-a150-b780dfad4b37 It happened twice during this episode – once where it went backward and I could not reproduce it, and once when it went forward (at the 48:20 minute mark) that I was able to reproduce several times.
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I am experiencing this on multiple different podcasts but this is the only episode I can remember of late
- Pixel 6a
- Android 14
- Pocketcasts version 7.66
- Northeast US
- https://pca.st/episode/3c798f84-ad7a-4b62-b9ec-7362f057fc96
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@chezminou, @jennypollack5, @mirandanero, we appreciate your report! Our team is currently still working on this to find a more permanent solution. Stay tuned!
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STILL not working. Still leaping backwards randomly. In fact, it’s worse than ever. Just listened to an episode of “The Horror Show” and it happened EVERY SINGLE TIME after they would take a commercial break, but randomly. This is getting really old. You guys have been aware of this problem for AGES now, and STILL haven’t fixed it. Downloading every episode is not a solution.
I know you say it has to do with “dynamic ads”. Okay, great. So you know what is causing the problem. So fix it. None of the other podcast apps have this issue (despite also having dynamic ads inserted), so maybe try harder than just shrugging and saying “Uhhh I dunno. Try downloading the episodes I guess?”
also…. You seem to also be the only podcast app that doesn’t have the option to rate and review podcasts. Why?
Pocket Casts Forum 