"List Position" doesn't work when launched from google assistant

[Rob902903]

I'd like to be able launch Poweramp and resume an audiobook from where I was. 

"Ok google... play <book> with Poweramp" starts at the first track, no matter what I do.

I can get it to remember a position within the first track, but most of the audiobooks have multiple tracks.

Is this just not supposed to work?

 

I tried making the name of the folder different than the tracks so it would be launching the 'folder' proper rather than the track, hopefully thus using the folder option "list position" but it doesn't work.

I tried making a playlist with a different name to set the option on the playlist, that didn't work either.

[andrewilley]

"Play xxx" in Google Assistant launches the music player in its song or album mode, it can't play a folder as far as I know. And within PA, list memory is only supported for Folders and Playlists.

Andre

[Rob902903]

Thank you.   I don't fully understand "album mode" or how google assistant could stop Poweramp from checking whether that album (audiobook in this case) has a bookmark stored in it...

but anyway it sounds like for now, I'm wasting my time just selecting different options.

I think I will just combine each of my audiobooks into one super-long file, since the global "Store/Restore Per Track Progress" option does seem to take effect in this case.  

Podcasts are harder to deal with, since a new separate file rotates in (and an old one rotates out) with each new episode, but I'll just live without launching them from google assistant for the time being.

I appreciate getting an answer.

 

 

[andrewilley]

An 'Album' is a notional collection of a bunch of songs that have the same embedded Album Title tag, and usually the same Album Artist tag too. They get grouped together for easy playing via the Library Category called Albums.

'Folders' are actual directories on your device's storage that can contain files and/or other subfolders. There is not necessarily any artistic link between the contents, but they are generally files that you want to keep together for some other reason - maybe assorted "Show Tunes" for example, or Club/Dance mixes. Poweramp offers the facility for you to save the List Position and/or Track Progress for any specific folder, which is done via 'List Options' in the Library view for that folder. If enabled, the next time you return to that folder and tap the 'Play' icon at the top of the screen, it will resume where you left off. This does not apply to Albums, but only to Folders or Playlists.

As you mention, there is also a global 'Per-Track Progress' feature. This will automatically resume any longer tracks wherever you left off - and you can define the threshold of what is considered "long", e.g. more than 10 minutes. This works however you later choose to play the song - as an Album track, from a Folder, a Playlist, or just from the list of All Songs.

Bookmarks are something completely different by the way. While you are listening to any song, you can long-press on the artwork area and tap 'Bookmark' from the menu. That will save the song and its current playback position so you can return to at any time via the Library Category 'Bookmarks' - a bit like setting it as a favourite for later listening.
 

For voice commands, if you say to Google Assistant "Play xxxx in Poweramp" then it will usually try to find a song with that title and play it in 'All Songs' mode. If you give an artist name, it will try to play all songs by that artist. An album name should result in that album being played, but often it will default to the song of the same title if one exists. There is no facility to ask it to play a folder name.

The commands that Google Assistant supports are listed in https://support.google.com/assistant/answer/7539710 , but trying to force an album or artist rather than a song rarely seems to work for me, to the extent that I find it is generally not reliable enough to bother using except when I'm driving and have no choice.

Andre