Pocketcasts on Android Automotive (AAOS) does not sync reliably.
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I recently got a Volvo XC60, which uses AAOS, so I have been using the pocketcasts app on there. What I have found is that the AAOS app almost never syncs to the current podcast and position of the episode. It just starts playing whatever was playing last. I regularly listen to podcasts on my phone too, so the syncing is one of the most important features. The phone app is great about syncing to where the car got to, but not the other way around. I even sometimes see a spinning icon over the play/pause button area that looks like it’s syncing, but it doesn’t. The car has an always-on LTE connection, so it shouldn’t be a data issue.
My suggestion would be to have the AAOS app always attempt to get the podcast and position from the account sync before starting to play. I would much rather wait a few seconds to start than to have it play the wrong thing and have to manually go get it to the right place.
This is annoying enough that I am considering switching to the Google podcasts app, and I’d really rather not do that.
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Hi @alex202cb99b701! The app should always try to refresh when it starts up. I’d be curious to hear what happens if you wait for a minute or two before starting playback. Obviously, that’s not a long-term solution, but it would be interesting to see if is syncing, just not quickly enough.
You can also manually trigger a refresh in Android Auto by going to the ⚙️ and then tapping on “Refresh now”, and see when the refresh completes.
I actually struggled with a similar issue on my phone where I would listen to podcasts on my computer and then go to my car and try to continue listening on my phone. I would encounter the same thing you noticed: playback would just pick up where my phone was last playing without getting the lastest playback position from the computer.
After a bit of investigation, I found out that the problem was that the app would load on my phone and try to sync as my phone was switching from my home’s wifi to my cellular connection and, for that reason, the sync would be delayed just long enough so it would not be done before playback started. Maybe you’re seeing something similar.
My suggestion would be to have the AAOS app always attempt to get the podcast and position from the account sync before starting to play. I would much rather wait a few seconds to start than to have it play the wrong thing and have to manually go get it to the right place.
That’s an interesting idea. Delaying playback for a few seconds if we detect that there is a network connection and sync hasn’t been completed for some reason might be a way to improve this. Thanks for the suggestion.
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Thanks for the reply and the pointer to the Refresh Now option. I had not found that before.
However, what I’ve seen is that almost every time I turn on the car, if I go to that menu, it says a refresh is in progress and after roughly one minute, it says “Refresh Failed”. Refreshing again does exactly the same thing. But, and I haven’t tested this fully, if I start the car and it’s on a different app and then I switch to pocket casts, it seems to refresh much more reliably. Perhaps there’s some issue in starting the refresh first thing when the system boots up?
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However, what I’ve seen is that almost every time I turn on the car, if I go to that menu, it says a refresh is in progress and after roughly one minute, it says “Refresh Failed”. Refreshing again does exactly the same thing.
Just to clarify, when you attempt a manual refresh again, does it complete successfully or does it fail as the initial refresh did?
But, and I haven’t tested this fully, if I start the car and it’s on a different app and then I switch to pocket casts, it seems to refresh much more reliably. Perhaps there’s some issue in starting the refresh first thing when the system boots up?
Do you find that there are issues refreshing or loading data in other apps when you first start the car or does this only occur within Pocket Casts?
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Trying a manual refresh again has exactly the same type of failure. After about a minute, it says refresh failed.
Unfortunately, I don’t really use other apps that require refreshing state in the same way. Spotify also doesn’t bring up what I have been playing on my phone, but it doesn’t look like its trying to sync like that. Would you have a recommendation for another app to try with?
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Could you look at the logs and let us know of any errors you see? Unfortunately, there might not be a way to copy the logs from Android Automotive, so you’ll have to either transcribe it or take a photo.
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You can follow these steps to view the logs:
- Tap the Settings cogwheel
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and tap “About”
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and tap “Help & Feedback”
- Tap the back arrow
- Tap “Logs”
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Hi alex202cb99b701 & staff-fran, have there been any updates or fixes for this? I have the same issues.
I use the AAOS version in my Volvo XC60 and iOS on my iPhone. I start a podcast in the car and want to pick up where I left off on my iPhone, and 99% of the time it seems as though the iPhone does not receive the sync point from the AAOS. I even go in and manually refresh in the volvo before turning it off, and then manually refresh on the iOS before starting. and the episode will show as though it has never been started.
Running the latest versions on both.
Thanks
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Honestly, for short daily trips I gave up on the AAOS app and I just use bluetooth from my phone. It ensures I’m always at the right spot. I wish I could use the car app, but it just screws up way too often.
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Thanks for the feedback, @alex202cb99b701 and @andy120118!
We do have a report opened to have this issue investigated further. It does seem to be specific to Automotive, but we’re seeing what can be done about it.
If we get more reports from other users, it will likely be looked into sooner.
That said, using a workaround like Bluetooth or Android Auto might be a good idea in the meantime.
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Hi @staff-joey8, love using your app, but same problem for me using AAOS in a Volvo XC40. Any updates in this regard? Thanks!
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Hi @staff-joey8. I’m having a similar problem. Moved to PocketCasts from Overcast for just this use-case, so would be great to have resolved.
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Hi @zk8wkxjqvh and @bluepolystyreneman 👋
Thanks for your feedback. I can confirm your reports have been added to the report. We don’t have any updates yet, but you can keep an eye on the report here.
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Hi @staff-joey8,
This is a problem that I have been experiencing for a while where the first refresh does not seem to succeed but manually triggering a refresh a second or a third time seems to succeed.
I’m on the same platform on a 2023 Volvo C40 with Android Automotive.
When I start the car I have made sure that the LTE connection is active before resuming Pocketcasts but it still appears to timeout on the first refresh. My current thought is the network connection is not fully active at the time but I don’t know if there is a way to get connectivity logs on Android Automotive.
Additionally there are times where the sync succeeds but the playback position doesn’t seem to sync to the proper point in the episode. For example if I am fifteen minutes in to an episode, the player will sync but then start at the beginning of the episode.
I’ve linked pictures of the logs from today. The logs around 0647 are when I first got in the car, 0700 is when I got to work, and 1442 is when I got in the car at work to leave for home.
If I can provide any more information please let me know.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/unHjtZ8jKRuqxQU78
Thanks!
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Thank you so much for the detailed description of your experience and the photos of your logs! I’ve shared them with my team and we’ll look into this further to find ways we might be able to improve the refresh process here for you.
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I think I’m seeing the exact same problem in a Polestar 2. If the source of the issue is still unclear and additional logs might help to clear things up, please let me know, I’m happy to provide them.
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Thanks for the offer, @cqtd5n677v! We’ll email you if the developers need additional logs.
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Any news about this issue? I’ve seen there have been updates to the app recently, but I don’t think they addressed this. The AAOS app remembers its own last playback position, but it doesn’t sync to my actual last position (or even the last played podcast) from the phone or desktop. If there was at least a manual “sync button” in the settings that you could push before starting playback, that could help. Or, like the OP said, always sync before playing anything, even if it causes some delay when starting up.
Reliable cross device/platform syncing is the number one Pocket Casts feature that convinced me it’s worth the hefty price, so without it the usefullness of the app is severely limited to me. -
@cqtd5n677v I can confirm that we have filed a bug report for this matter. We don’t have an update on this as yet, but we hope to have it addressed in the future.
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