Pocketcasts on Android Automotive (AAOS) does not sync reliably.
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Could you confirm if the workaround I shared earlier helps? Here is what I suggested:
Automotive does restrict us quite a bit, but one temporary workaround we have found is to pause the episode before turning off the car so that AAOS does not attempt to restart it.
The pause workaround does not work on the Honda Civic. Logs indicate the Honda app sends a play intent to PocketCast on start up. If it has been over an hour since it was paused you should probably perform a blocking sync. Though further logs indicate sync failure due to network connection, which seems incorrect.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Vd81i6q71mpHpfo78
I think I’ll have to pause and open a different app, like YouTube Music, before turning off my car so it doesn’t send you the Play intent. -
So I think I figured something out. After update to 7.81a go into settings – system – storage – music sound – pocketcasts on Aaos. Clear cache. Now everything seems to work for me. Hope it keeps working 😁
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Jumping in on this thread as I started a new one with the same issue. It looks like staff has plenty of reports. @jampeuppgard those settings you cleared were just in the system and not actually in the pockecasts app?
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It’s the pocketcasts app cache that I cleared. If you follow the the steps you will find the pocketcasts app and in it there’s a clear cache button
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HI there @damonp7a74ea8514! Thanks for testing the option to clear cache. I have notified our team to let them know this is not working in all cases.
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I have noticed that if I listen on the PC or phone and move to another episode that the vehicle app will eventually jump at least tot he correct episode. I have to manually sync the vehicle app though.
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@damonp7a74ea8514 If you do a manual refresh from your phone’s Profile tab before connecting to Android Automotive, does Android Automotive eventually start on the correct episode?
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Now I back to sync failed and it does not resync until you do it manually. And then the last thing you listen to will be at the start of the episode. Will work for me a few times after I clear cache but the its back to the same loop
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@staff-cara I haven’t ever seen it do it on it’s own. I have to manually sync on the android automotive. Once the initial sync fails it doesn’t seem to try to resync fast enough.
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is there no way for PC to check if 4G/LTE connection is up before trying to sync? I think that’s the problem now. I noticed It sync correctly manually now most of the time
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I’m absolutely convinced that it’s all due to the connection not being up before the sync attempt. I have now tested and adding multiple podcasts to my queue. I had an 20 min long episode playing and had started and stopped my car about 4 times throughout the day… the new episodes in queue never showed until the 20 min episode ended. This is because each startup sync failed and the only time it tried to re-sync was when that episode ended.
A delay on the sync needs to be added to wait for connection. also I would suggest a pause on startup until sync happens.
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I have to agree that this seems very much like it’s attempting to sync before the connection is up. This is what I think is happening:
- Turn on car
- Start sync
- Play current podcast at whatever position was last left off in the vehicle
- Internet connection comes up
- Sync times out
- Pocketcasts continues on its merry way.
- Sync state back up to cloud, putting an old podcast/position back on top of the queue.
What it should do is:
- Turn on car
- Wait for/verify internet connection is up
- Sync state
- Play current podcast/position as specified in the synced state.
I would so much rather not have it play at startup and actually be correct, rather than start the wrong thing and never be correct.
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yes seems correct. It times out the you have to manually sync or if you change pod and go back to the previous pod it will be either starting from scratch or just continuing from when you left the car, not caring about that you kept on listening while not in the car.
I gave up on mine and just plugged in a android auto dongle I had laying around. That works as intended but then again why wouldn’t it as it’s playing from the phone and not the car.
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I also noticed that it seems to not even attempt a sync while driving. I tested by adding some new episodes to my queue. I could make 4 or 5 trips or more by starting the car and driving somewhere and the new episodes would never add until I manually synced with the car in park.
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@damonp7a74ea8514 @jampeuppgard Thanks for the additional information. I’ve passed these updates on to our engineers and marked this thread as Not Resolved again.
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