Play resumes at beginning of track, not where it left off

[Edwardshire]

I am new to this forum, so please forgive me if this question has been asked previously or if I am posting it in the wrong section, but I did not find anything on this exact topic when I searched.  I use PA to play music on my car stereo, using Bluetooth connection between a Galaxy S4 and the Kenwood receiver,.  I have PA set so it resumes playing automatically as soon as Bluetooth connects..  For the first few months that I used it, whenever PA resumed playing shortly after I started my car, I believe it always resumed at the exact point where it left off the last time it was playing.  However, a few months ago, it began usually resuming play at the beginning of the track it was last playing, although it is inconsistent and sometimes picks up exactly where it left off.  This is only a minor annoyance for short tracks, but makes it unusable for playing music that contains long tracks (e.g., some classical music, and anything with lengthy improvisation such as some jazz and Indian music).  On short trips around town, which is how I do most of my driving, I usually do not get to hear more than the first 10 - 15 minutes of a track, because it keeps starting over at the beginning every time, and eventually I get tired of hearing the same segment over and over, and have to skip the remainder of that track altogether.  Is there a way to get it to consistently resume playing at the exact point where it left off, instead of having it frequently revert back to the beginning of the track when play resumes?  I could not find any settings that seem to apply to this problem, so the only thing I would know to try would be to uninstall PA and install the latest version, in the hope that this problem has been resolved in a more recent build than the 2.0.10 build 571 uni (Full Version) that I have.  However, I would prefer not to have to do that if there is an easier solution.  I am baffled as to why it worked fine for months, and then started acting differently, and also why it is not consistent from one time to the next. 

[andrewilley]

Bluetooth is a bit of a quagmire when it comes to reliably saving playback positions, I have the same issue occasionally (although usually it works for me). It's also hard to track down as there are too many different external devices to possibly test all possibilities.

It might be worth working out when the problem is happening, at the point where you stop playback or when you resume it? Try stopping playback using the pause button before you disconnect the Bluetooth link, in case the position is being lost at that point.

But I fully agree with you about the problems of navigating long tracks. If you've got a 90 minute concert, or podcast, or radio show, then trying to get back to a time like 53'50" reliably is not at all easy (and doubly so if you are trying to do it while driving). I've been asking for about four years for something simple like a skip-forward-30-secs and skip-back-10-secs facility (which could be optionally controlled by swiping the album art, as there are already buttons for next/prev track and next/prev album anyway).

Andre

[Edwardshire]

Thank you, Andre, for your prompt reply.  I have tried stopping playback using the pause button before disconnection, but have found that procedure has no effect on saving the playback position.  The next time connection is restored, it usually starts over at the beginning of the track regardless of whether or not I had paused playback immediately before disconnection.  Out of curiosity, one time when connection was first restored, I closely watched the time counter display on the screen of the car stereo receiver (not easy for my eyes, given the miniscule size font), and saw that it momentarily showed where it left off on that particular track (e.g., 01:55), but then changed to 00:00 just before starting to play.  It seems as though it remembers where it left off, but something is telling it (on most occasions, probably about 2/3 of the time) to ignore that playback position and start over at the beginning of the track.  I have not been able to identify any common circumstances or reason why it sometimes (about 1/3 of the time) resumes playback part-way through a track as I want it to.  I am consistently using the same equipment, same playlists (which I created on my desktop computer using MediaMonkey and exported to my phone), same procedure, etc., but it doesn't respond in a consistent manner.  I even wondered whether it could have anything to do with the file-based playlists imported from MediaMonkey, but I ruled that out when I had the same problem occur with a playlist I created in Poweramp.  I talked to some people at the shop that installed my car stereo, who are not familiar with Poweramp, and one of them told me he has had similar problems with Bluetooth even though he uses an iPhone and a different music player and different brand of car stereo than I have.  One of their other technicians said Bluetooth is reliable, especially with a high quality Bluetooth chip such as I have in my Kenwood unit, and the issue is probably related to some setting in Poweramp.  I don't know who is right, but I may have to avoid using Bluetooth to play anything with long tracks.  However, it is annoying even with shorter tracks to have to listen again to the same segment of music I just heard, when Bluetooth reconnects, which happens even if I just stop briefly at a gas station to fill up, keep listening with the ignition on Acc position, and then turn on the ignition to start the car, which causes the car stereo to restart.    

[andrewilley]

Thanks for the update.

(By the way, is your Carriage Return key broken, or is there some issue with the forum software which causes your posts to come out as one long unbroken stream of text? It makes them very hard to read)

Andre