Remember playback positions in tracks

[Vampyr]

I have always liked Poweramp V2, and beta test v3 but my only gripe has been track position.  Example I have several hundred videos on my device and via MX player pro it remembers every video and the position (time within each video), so that if I change to another video and then even 1 month later go back to that video it remembers right down the the second where I was ( if I choose resume).   When I got my current device even when I had only 5 songs on my phone and switched songs and then went back just one song guess what...song starts again from beginning.  I download podcasts and when the podcast is 2 hours or more this is EXTREMELY irritating.  Will this be addressed in Final V3?  Please.

[andrewilley]

I keep asking the same (I too listen to a lot of long-format audio material) but so far Max has indicated that he doesn't plan to add much by way of more features until the release version of v3 with its new user interface is complete. Hopefully then he'll be able to look over the feature requests from the past four years and start addressing things that users have asked for.

Andre

[Vampyr]

Thanks Andre for the info.

[JimiJones]

What about now?

 

Thanks in advance

[andrewilley]

45 minutes ago, JimiJones said:

What about now?

Sorry, what are you asking? The feature requested in this thread is now implemented in Poweramp if that's what you are asking.

Andre

[Dzondzon]

I listen to many audio books that are not split into chapters. As it stands now the player only "remembers" up to 60 minutes of the track.  It would be great to not have to try to find the previously played end point

[andrewilley]

5 hours ago, Dzondzon said:

I listen to many audio books that are not split into chapters. As it stands now the player only "remembers" up to 60 minutes of the track.  It would be great to not have to try to find the previously played end point

It should remember the position however long the track is, as long as it's over the defined threshold. I have several 2-3 hour podcasts, and the position is remembered fine. With very long tracks the return point can sometimes be a little inaccurate though, missing the exact saved point by perhaps 30 seconds, which I put down to seek issues in very large compressed files.

Andre

[Dzondzon]

Thanks for the reply. I still experience the problem. The file is a 128mps mp3. Maybe I should reinstall the program

[andrewilley]

You could try a Full Rescan first.

So you are saying that you have an MP3 file that is longer than 60 minutes, but no matter how far into the track you get, returning to it later always returns to the one-hour position?

Andre

[Dzondzon]

It will "remember" up to 60 minutes. After it plays past that it will return to zero on next opening of the file. The file is about 5 hours and 45 minutes.. I will rescan and see if that helps

On 4/5/2019 at 1:06 PM, andrewilley said:

You could try a Full Rescan first.

So you are saying that you have an MP3 file that is longer than 60 minutes, but no matter how far into the track you get, returning to it later always returns to the one-hour position?

Andre

 

[andrewilley]

The longest thing I have on my phone is 3h26', and PA remembers the position right up to the end if I go away and listen to something else in the meantime and then come back to it later. I'm wondering if there is some problem with the encoding of your files maybe?

However when working with very long files, the absolute seek accuracy can sometimes slip a bit. For example, in the above case if I listen up to 3:20:00 and I then pause and exit PA, when I return to the app later it is paused at something like 3:21:23 instead. The same sort of seek inaccuracy applies when restoring the playback position of a previously-played long track (it still works, but it's a little offset from where it should be).

The long track that I'm testing with is http://traffic.libsyn.com/alohomora/Alohomora_Cursed_Child_NYC_Earth_One_and_Earth_Two.mp3 in case you want to try it, or if @maxmp wants to look into the seek position accuracy problem.

Andre

[pthurmes]

Hey, I have a related question. I only use PA for music- no podcasts or movies. So I definitely do NOT want songs starting where they left off. I can't tell you how annoying it is to be listening to an album -with no free hands to correct it - and have one of the songs start 5 seconds from the end, just because that happens to be the place I stopped listening to that song a month ago.

I found where to change plug/BT connection behavior, but no mention of a way to reset to start of every track when you exit the track. 

[andrewilley]

PA only remembers track progress positions if you tell it to - and then only if the song length is greater than a user-defined duration. To change the options, see Settings > Library > Store/Restore Per-Track Progress.

For the second question, use Settings > Headset/Bluetooth and enable Resume on Wired Headset and/or Bluetooth. 

Andre

[pthurmes]

Thanks Andre! I thought i had looked at all options. This option is better than I'd hoped for, because I do sometimes listen to audio books. 

[andrewilley]

36 minutes ago, pthurmes said:

This option is better than I'd hoped for, because I do sometimes listen to audio books. 

Which is what it is intended for, when you may not want to listen to all two hours of an audiobook or podcast in one go, but plan to return to it later. As you say, a bit pointless for a 3 minute song though.

Andre

[w3wilkes]

4 hours ago, andrewilley said:

PA only remembers track progress positions if you tell it to - and then only if the song length is greater than a user-defined duration. To change the options, see Settings > Library > Store/Restore Per-Track Progress.

I believe this must not work for the Queue. I have this setting disabled. If I'm playing music from the Queue over BT in the car and shut the car off it stops the player at the point it was at where BT is disconnected. I then get back in the car, the phone reconnects and begins right where it left off. I have Resume on Bluetooth enabled. This is also true for wired headset. I have Resume on Wired Headset disabled, but if I reconnect the headset and hit play it picks right up where it left off.

[andrewilley]

The currently-playing track position should always be remembered whenever you pause/exit the player and then resume it later. Playback should carry on where you left off. That is basic functionality, and nothing to do with remembering previously-played (long) tracks, which is an optional feature.

Andre

[Dzondzon]

16 hours ago, andrewilley said:

The currently-playing track position should always be remembered whenever you pause/exit the player and then resume it later. Playback should carry on where you left off. That is basic functionality, and nothing to do with remembering previously-played (long) tracks, which is an optional feature.

Andre

I recently discovered the slider control under the menu item "remember position" There is no explained instruction as to proper setting for this control. I have tried it at zero and at 60 minutes. It seems that counter intuitively, the zero setting is the one that works. Another question. If the app is closed completely (not just left as a background) would this turn off the app's ability to return to the previous file position when re-initiated?

[andrewilley]

1 hour ago, Dzondzon said:

I recently discovered the slider control under the menu item "remember position" There is no explained instruction as to proper setting for this control.

That slider ONLY affects how Poweramp remembers the 'last-played' position for longer tracks - so for example if you come back to a podcast or audiobook sometime later, Poweramp will have remembered where you got to so you can start listening again from where you left off. The slider simply defines what you consider should be regarded as a 'long' track - so it doesn't permanently remember your listening position of two or three minute songs for example. If you set that slider to zero, the last-played position of every song in your library will get permanently remembered. I set mine to 20 minutes, as I have no regular songs that are longer than that, and all of my podcasts are in the 25+ minutes region.

However those settings do not affect Poweramp remembering the position of your currently-playing song when you pause it. That is automatic, so if you pause a song and exit Poweramp (or even reboot your phone) it should come back to the same paused song when you next run Poweramp. That is regardless of whether you have the long-track position memory feature enabled or not.

Andre

[pthurmes]

Wonderful - perfect! I want to resume - at the correct place in any-length track - on pause/disconnect, but that resume position should be stored only until another track is played.

[blaubär]

3 hours ago, Dzondzon said:

I recently discovered the slider control under the menu item "remember position" There is no explained instruction as to proper setting for this control. I have tried it at zero and at 60 minutes. It seems that counter intuitively, the zero setting is the one that works. Another question. If the app is closed completely (not just left as a background) would this turn off the app's ability to return to the previous file position when re-initiated?

The slider "Track Duration ..." says below "At least ...". That means : this works for tracks that are AT LEAST that long. Set it to 60 min, and the last position in a track that is 59 min long won't be remembered. For longer tracks it will be remembered.

This position is remembered permanently in the database and won't be affected by a closing, complete or otherwise, of the application.

[andrewilley]

1 hour ago, pthurmes said:

I want to resume - at the correct place in any-length track - on pause/disconnect, but that resume position should be stored only until another track is played.

Yes, that's how PA works by default. The current track and its playback position are remembered even if you exit the app, close it, or even reboot your phone. This has been standard form day one, and has nothing to do with the relatively new option to permanently save the position of longer tracks and return to them some time late (even if you've played other music in the meantime).

Andre

[erik83]

On 4/8/2019 at 10:12 PM, andrewilley said:

The current track and its playback position are remembered even if you exit the app, close it, or even reboot your phone. 

I have a tablet with a USB Mass storage device attached to it containing the music files. In this scenario it does not remember track position. As soon as I move the files to internal memory of the device the track positions _are_ remembered. I'm not sure if I should post this in the feature request section or if it should be a bug report. I found this post and thought it might be a suitable place to comment. If I should open a new topic or move it elsewhere, please let me know.

ps: fwiw I'm on build 826

[blaubär]

37 minutes ago, erik83 said:

I have a tablet with a USB Mass storage device attached to it containing the music files. In this scenario it does not remember track position. 

Yes, we've had that in the past. It seems that on your device it looks for Poweramp as if the storage had been removed and a new storage added. Search these forums, perhaps there had been a workaround.

[erik83]

The closest I've found is this thread https://forum.powerampapp.com/topic/15623-pa-does-not-remember-the-position-of-the-track-when-turn-it-off/?tab=comments#comment-64657

while a very similar situation (my car's head unit is android based, I just called it a tablet for convenience), this user had no track position remembered at all. Mine is not remembered only when using USB storage. I'm eager to learn where the last position data is stored if anyone knows. I have a feeling that perhaps there's a relationship between the USB interface initializing late and Poweramp trying to read data that isn't available yet.