Poweramp disappears after Android Auto Update, and more

[TWL999]

Hello,

this message was similar sent through email via Poweramp app.

I had to switch to a new Android device, hardware damage. 
The observations are new, I didn't find any hint while reading through your forum, and searching the internet.
First of all the required details, following the instructions in your forum
Poweramp Version:
build-939-bundle-play [939004-333c8a71]
Device Model:
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra
Android Version: 12
 
1)  Recently there was an update of Android Auto being installed.
Afterwards, Poweramp did not show up as before under "Android Auto / Customize launcher"
I had suspected, Poweramp would no longer run in my car, but luckily I was wrong.
While connected with Android Auto, Poweramp show up in the list "Customize launcher", and disappears again after disconnecting from the car

2) Android Auto question
Question, perhaps a bug, perhaps not?
When used in Android Auto, does there exist for Poweramp the option to "Fast Forward", "Rewind",   and if so where are they hidden under Settings?

3) Playlist issue (general issue, not just Android Auto)
Now, the new device is working, but under "Playlists" I have double entries of each album of the designated music folder.
Previously this was no issue, now it is.
The "Playlists" show side by side a non-playlist folder and a playlist folder. That means that the non playlist folder doesn't show *.m3u in the name of the album, but the folder correctly shown in the playlist category does.
Currently each album is shown two time under "Playlists"

Please kindly instruct

 

[andrewilley]

2) Android Auto doesn't allow for long-press screen functions like FFwd/Rewind. However if you have steering wheel controls, they may support long-press for that (mine does for example).

3) Are the double entries only of the names of the lists in the Playlists category, or are you seeing songs twice within one list? You may have imported internal versions of lists, and also have file-based copies (with the M3U/8 extensions).

Andre

[TWL999]

1 hour ago, andrewilley said:

2) Android Auto doesn't allow for long-press screen functions like FFwd/Rewind. However if you have steering wheel controls, they may support long-press for that (mine does for example).

3) Are the double entries only of the names of the lists in the Playlists category, or are you seeing songs twice within one list? You may have imported internal versions of lists, and also have file-based copies (with the M3U/8 extensions).

Andre

Hello,

thanks for your reply.

1) I didn't know it is possible to install Android Auto from others sources than Play. 

Recently, there was an Auto Update through Play. Afterwards the symptoms mentioned started; since then they persist. 

2) I am using the steering wheel control, in my case only next/previous tracks is possible, not FFwd/Rewnd

3) I did not import any list. One folder in the Playlist Category shows *.m3u extension in the name, the other doesn't show *.m3u or anything.

Funnily, if the *.m3u is deleted from the storage location, only one folder is reflected in the Playlist category of Poweramp.

The default folder for music has only one folder for each album.

Perhaps somewhere a setting is checked which category of files are reflected under the Playlist category. Perhaps a setting of Poweramp, I am not aware of.

Also, I am not aware, that anything apart from the *.m3u/8 category could be reflected or played from within the Playlist category. I thought this category is exclusively for *.m3u.

Confusing, hopefully there is a solution

Thanks

[andrewilley]

1) Max was talking about Poweramp updates that have been installed directly from downloaded (APK) update files, not the AA installation.

2) Sorry, that's up to how your device and its steering wheel controls work. With my own headunit, long-pressing on the + or - buttons on the steering wheel generate KEYCODE_MEDIA_FAST_FORWARD or KEYCODE_MEDIA_REWIND events (a BUTTON_DOWN event on starting, and a closing BUTTON_UP event when you release the control). If these button events are being created by your headunit, they can be seen in PA's log which can be found in PA Settings=>Headset/Bluetooth=>Last Processed Commands.

3) I'm a bit confused as to what you are asking, you seem to be using the terms Folder and Playlist almost interchangeably, when they are completely different things. A folder is a system container, located on your device's storage or an SD Card, which can hold various files and/or more subfolders. A playlist is a simple flat list of assorted song files (no folders) that should be played in some particular order; the songs themselves could be anywhere in your music library.

There are two types of playlist used in Poweramp, and you can have a mixture of both:

Internal: These are created when you use the '+Playlist' button after choosing some songs in one of the library category views, and you can name or rename these playlists as you wish. This type of playlist is created within PA's internal database, and it has no external physical file representation at all (unless you later Export it to a .M3U8 file).

External/File-based: These playlists are scanned in from .M3U, .M3U8, .PLS, etc files that may be found on your device's storage. They show in the Playlists category as their full filename, including the .M3U/etc extender.

If you export an internal playlist to a backup file, and then place that file in a location that PA can scan, you will see two copies of the list in the Playlists library category - the original internal database version, and the newly scanned file.

Playlists are described in a bit more detail in:

Andre

[TWL999]

5 hours ago, andrewilley said:

1) Max was talking about Poweramp updates that have been installed directly from downloaded (APK) update files, not the AA installation.

2) Sorry, that's up to how your device and its steering wheel controls work. With my own headunit, long-pressing on the + or - buttons on the steering wheel generate KEYCODE_MEDIA_FAST_FORWARD or KEYCODE_MEDIA_REWIND events (a BUTTON_DOWN event on starting, and a closing BUTTON_UP event when you release the control). If these button events are being created by your headunit, they can be seen in PA's log which can be found in PA Settings=>Headset/Bluetooth=>Last Processed Commands.

3) I'm a bit confused as to what you are asking, you seem to be using the terms Folder and Playlist almost interchangeably, when they are completely different things. A folder is a system container, located on your device's storage or an SD Card, which can hold various files and/or more subfolders. A playlist is a simple flat list of assorted song files (no folders) that should be played in some particular order; the songs themselves could be anywhere in your music library.

There are two types of playlist used in Poweramp, and you can have a mixture of both:

Internal: These are created when you use the '+Playlist' button after choosing some songs in one of the library category views, and you can name or rename these playlists as you wish. This type of playlist is created within PA's internal database, and it has no external physical file representation at all (unless you later Export it to a .M3U8 file).

External/File-based: These playlists are scanned in from .M3U, .M3U8, .PLS, etc files that may be found on your device's storage. They show in the Playlists category as their full filename, including the .M3U/etc extender.

If you export an internal playlist to a backup file, and then place that file in a location that PA can scan, you will see two copies of the list in the Playlists library category - the original internal database version, and the newly scanned file.

Playlists are described in a bit more detail in:

Andre

Thank you for your helpful and detailed reply!

1) All clear, then perhaps I ran into a bug....

2) At the location mentioned:

PA Settings=>Headset/Bluetooth=>Last Processed Commands

there is nothing, the location is empty.

3)  Sorry for the confusion.

I was referring to a playlist generated outside of PA, prior to copying audio files to the location on a SD card (Internal Storage/Music for example)

You referred to these as External/File-based.

I did NOT export an internal playlist, but simply copied the audio files from PC to their location, as I did before with the older device.

With the older device I only had one entry for each album under playlists.

Somehow perhaps I might have done something wrong in the settings related to playlists, as to what is reflected in the playlist category.

What irritates me, is that when in one folder inside of the location which PA scans, I delete an *m3u file, only one album is reflected in the Playlist category afterwards, not two as before.

I thought that the playlist category was there to reflect only *m3u related files, so that nothing with no *.m3u relation would be reflected there.

Perhaps PA is creating now by default for every folder at the scannable location an internal Playlist file, a possibility you mentioned above????

 

[andrewilley]

2) If Last Processed Commands is empty, then Poweramp has not been sent any commands from your headunit controls.

3) The Playlists category doesn't have anything to do with Albums or Folders. There are no entries for any particular albums or folders in the Playlists category, only for lists of songs (which could of course all come from one album if that's how you created them, or they could be a completely random selection of songs across multiple locations). PA does not create Playlists on its own, it just shows you the titles of any M3U files that it found in your music folders. If you delete one of those files, the corresponding item will disappear from the category view. If you see more than one entry for the same .M3U filename, that would most likely be because there are several files with the same name located in different places on your storage. Have a look with a File Explorer app and search for .M3U in case you have any duplicates anywhere.

Andre

[TWL999]

22 hours ago, andrewilley said:

2) If Last Processed Commands is empty, then Poweramp has not been sent any commands from your headunit controls.

3) The Playlists category doesn't have anything to do with Albums or Folders. There are no entries for any particular albums or folders in the Playlists category, only for lists of songs (which could of course all come from one album if that's how you created them, or they could be a completely random selection of songs across multiple locations). PA does not create Playlists on its own, it just shows you the titles of any M3U files that it found in your music folders. If you delete one of those files, the corresponding item will disappear from the category view. If you see more than one entry for the same .M3U filename, that would most likely be because there are several files with the same name located in different places on your storage. Have a look with a File Explorer app and search for .M3U in case you have any duplicates anywhere.

Andre

Hello,

thanks for your reply.

1) I guess this point has been noticed by Max, hopefully will be fixed

2) Thanks for helping me understand

3) I checked, searching through the filesystem for duplicates. Only found only single entries of each album / m3u files.

In the next step, I deleted all audio files from my device, restarted and copied all audio files back to their location. 

PA rescanned all files of the designated directory, same as before.

Double entries under playlists....

 

AddOn question:

a) I have a question to issue with the profile here, some checkboxes don't seem to produce any effect, etc. where to post, to whom to tell?

b) questions about PA EQ have to be posted in the Forum under the EQ section, right? 

[andrewilley]

4 minutes ago, TWL999 said:

Only found only single entries of each album / m3u files.

....

Double entries under playlists....

Again, albums have nothing to do with M3U Playlist files, so I'm not sure what you by the above. If you have an M3U file that was created when you ripped a CD into separate MP3 files (which would have their own tag data) and all that it contains is pointers to all the tracks within that album, it is redundant and probably should be deleted.

Could you post a screenshot of what you are seeing in the Playlists category? I assume a FULL Rescan (in PA Settings=>Library) does not resolve this problem if removing all your music files (so PA shows zero songs) and then copying them all back again does not help.

For your add-on questions, please open new threads in the appropriate places - e.g. the General Chatter subforum.

Andre

[TWL999]

3 hours ago, andrewilley said:

Again, albums have nothing to do with M3U Playlist files, so I'm not sure what you by the above. If you have an M3U file that was created when you ripped a CD into separate MP3 files (which would have their own tag data) and all that it contains is pointers to all the tracks within that album, it is redundant and probably should be deleted.

Could you post a screenshot of what you are seeing in the Playlists category? I assume a FULL Rescan (in PA Settings=>Library) does not resolve this problem if removing all your music files (so PA shows zero songs) and then copying them all back again does not help.

For your add-on questions, please open new threads in the appropriate places - e.g. the General Chatter subforum.

Andre

Full Rescan done, same as before.

I attach a screenshot taken from the Playlist category.

Guess this will make the issue clear.

Thank for the hint where to post the other issues.

[MotleyG]

4 hours ago, TWL999 said:

Full Rescan done, same as before.

I attach a screenshot taken from the Playlist category.

Guess this will make the issue clear.

Thank for the hint where to post the other issues.

It would help to see the full names. You can pinch to zoom in and out of these lists. But from the one pair ark_ryl - rides, one looks like the actual file, the other is a playlist. Is it possible you have created a playlist for each track?

[andrewilley]

This line is showing one file-based Playlist (the .m3u one) and one internally created playlist (the one without the extender). The Compact List display format would show this more clearly than tiles though.

A clean install should remove all of the internal database-based playlist (wherever they came from) as long as you don't then restore them via Import Settings or allow Google Play to restore the app settings upon re-install. The easiest way to ensure they are fully gone would be to clear Poweamp's App Data via Android Settings=>Apps though, and then reset your music folders and access permissions again from scratch, which will let the library re-populate using just the found file-based playlists. If you've got a lot of settings you want to retain, you can use Export Settings/Data before resetting, and afterwards choose just the elements you want to restore via Import Settings/Data.

Andre

[TWL999]

11 hours ago, andrewilley said:

This line is showing one file-based Playlist (the .m3u one) and one internally created playlist (the one without the extender). The Compact List display format would show this more clearly than tiles though.

A clean install should remove all of the internal database-based playlist (wherever they came from) as long as you don't then restore them via Import Settings or allow Google Play to restore the app settings upon re-install. The easiest way to ensure they are fully gone would be to clear Poweamp's App Data via Android Settings=>Apps though, and then reset your music folders and access permissions again from scratch, which will let the library re-populate using just the found file-based playlists. If you've got a lot of settings you want to retain, you can use Export Settings/Data before resetting, and afterwards choose just the elements you want to restore via Import Settings/Data.

Andre

thanks for your reply,

will it also work on a device which is not rooted? Well, mine is not!

[andrewilley]

@TWL999 No one suggested rooting anything, PA runs fine on non-rooted devices.

Andre

[TWL999]

Thank you for clarifying.

Once done as above mentioned, I will report back

[TWL999]

Hello,

I applied as instructed, uninstalled via Settings/Apps, restarted the device, installed via Play.

I did NOT backup/restore my previous settings.

Surprise, it worked! Now, under Playlists I only have one entry for each folder/ album containing a playlist file.

The settings previously made I have to try to remember.

Thank you very much!

[andrewilley]

You can restore all of your other settings from your backup, just untick 'Playlists' in the Import dialog box.

Andre

[TWL999]

Thank you

but this is obsolete now, since the app is reinstalled, without any backup prior.

However, I have some other GOOD new:

for whichever reason, the initial issue for this posting chain is no longer, it is gone!

After following your instructions and restarting, checking PA for duplicates., etc., PA appeared again in the list under

"Android Auto / Customize launcher".

Thanks to your answers all issues have been solved!

Thank you