Bluetooth issues [#11416, #11417]

[rusty]

mcow,rivorson,

Thanks--the issue has been re-opened.

-Rusty

[mcow]

Issue 1) If the tablet is dark or if MMA is not visible, I have problems with not being able to start the track: the head unit displays "BTA PAUSE" (PAUSE is blinking) and even if I press the unit's play/pause button, it won't start: the PAUSE indicator clears for a bit while it tries, but it gives up and PAUSE blinks again. This is easily fixed by pressing Play in MMA, but that's not safe while driving.

Issue 2) Even following "best practice" as above, I sometimes encounter a symptom where the music starts playing, but when I hit the power button, it stops, and I have to power back on, unlock, and press Play again. I've only seen this when resuming play of a track that's advance some short amount of time into the track, and the play position usually resets to 0:00 when it suddenly stops. This may also be related to restarting MMA after using the tablet for something else.

I don't remember the last time I saw either of these two symptoms.

Issue 3) NEW! -- MMA appears to be playing, but no sound. What led to this, yesterday: In the house, testing something, I started and then paused an on-device track. Then I sync'd, moving five or six albums off and another five or six albums on. Then I went out to the car and followed "best practice" as above, but while the head unit showed normal ("BTA" without "PAUSE") and MMA's scrub-bar was advancing, there was no sound. I paused and restarted, turned off and on the car stereo, advanced to the next track, selected other tracks: I could not get it to play. Finally restarted the Tab, and then it was able to play. I wonder if this might have been caused by the play having started thru the device speakers, then switching to a BT connection.

I have seen this less frequently with 185. Last weekend, with 185, I had a case where the problem occurred and I could not get it to play again without shutting off the car.

The basic inaudible-play symptom happened again earlier tonight. I turned the tablet on to select a new playlist before the BT connection was established; tapping a track made MMA "play" with no sound. Head unit display was "BTA - PAUSE". And I simply pulled down the MMA notification and Stop, then restarted, and it played as soon as I hit Play. All of those details are different from the original report.

[rusty]

Thanks for the update.

The occasional failure to initiate playback should be resolved in the next build at:
http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=11416

Thanks.

-Rusty

[mcow]

The occasional failure to initiate playback should be resolved in the next build at:
http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=11416

No, this happened again; I just sent a log: 8BGZNUIHMI

I don't know if this makes any sense, but it seems to me that every time I've encountered this symptom, the sequence was: Pause playback; turn car off; leave tablet in car; return to car, turn stereo on. When I have taken the tablet out with me and then brought it back, it seems to be better behaved. Maybe the BT radio doesn't turn off when the car is shut down?

[Peke]

Hmmm have you tried to scan for BT devices with other device than one connected and of you see Car Stereo than BT is not disabled.

Also I can't replicate your Problem, actually I hate when Navigation announces over MMA playing

[mcow]

Hmmm have you tried to scan for BT devices with other device than one connected and of you see Car Stereo than BT is not disabled.

Also I can't replicate your Problem, actually I hate when Navigation announces over MMA playing

Is this addressed to me? I don't understand what's being asked here. I don't have any other bluetooth device. I don't have any navigation system.

[nohitter151]

Hmmm have you tried to scan for BT devices with other device than one connected and of you see Car Stereo than BT is not disabled.

Also I can't replicate your Problem, actually I hate when Navigation announces over MMA playing

Is this addressed to me? I don't understand what's being asked here. I don't have any other bluetooth device. I don't have any navigation system.

Appears to be in reply to rivorsons post.

[rivorson]

Sorry for the late reply.

When the problem occurred I was still able to play, pause, and skip tracks using the car's media controls and verified by the car's display and MMA. It was definitely still connected, there just wasn't any sound from MMA. I even received a text message and the ringtone played through the car's speakers, but no music. I later managed to get MMA's sound back by disconnecting and reconnecting the car's bluetooth.

I think the same problem occurred again a couple of days ago when playback was interrupted by a phone call in the car, but unfortunately I wasn't able to check if MMA was still trying to play or send a debug log. At the very least MMA wasn't responding to media controls (neither the car's controls nor Android's lock screen player) after the phone call.

[Peke]

If you can replicate send debug Logs.

Few days ago I managed to help one user when he recorded video with one phone while testing MMA on other phone and Car BT Showing exactly where the problem was.

EDIT for clarification: His phone was registered but not active and MMA didn't responded to commands due the fact that BT headphones were active device. so as soon as he disconnected BT headphones MMA started to respond.

[rivorson]

I had the no-sound bug again today while I was driving. Once again I wasn't able to submit the debug log as I couldn't pull over but I did manage to test a little further. I managed to open the YouTube app and play a random video. It seemed to start playing with no sound and then the sound kicked in a few seconds later. That could have just been due to a bad internet connection as I couldn't see if the video was playing, but it does look like this may be an Android issue and nothing to do with MMA. I have downloaded another media app so that I can verify this the next time it happens.

The problem I did still have was that when I returned the MMA with the sound, the podcast I was playing had not been bookmarked when it stopped. It started playing from the bookmark that I had left earlier in the day. I'm going to try to replicate this after my commute tomorrow so that I can submit a debug log.

[rivorson]

I've found that the no-sound issue was a problem with the car in my case. When it happens to me I can fix it by switching to playing from CD then back to bluetooth without having to disconnect the phone.

mcow, perhaps the same is true when this happens to you. Can you switch to a CD or radio and then back to bluetooth next time it happens?

[mcow]

rivorson, you may be right. I was recently playing a CD in the car, and it seemed to me the MM inaudible-playing problem was worse during that time.

Last night, using MMA build 222, I switched the car stereo from CD to tablet and couldn't get the tablet to play at all, despite turning the stereo on and off, switching between CD and BT, and stopping MM, all several times.

At one point, I noticed that I pressed the MMA Stop button in the notification area, the notification disappeared, but then popped back up again. I couldn't make it exit; I couldn't turn it off in the Application Settings. I just turned the CD back on and listened to it almost twice thru before I got home.

In this case, unlike my earlier report, Google Play could not play audibly to BT either.

[gekoenig]

I have noticed this as well with my cars, seems intermmittent but mostly when the BT initially connects. The phone and car will connect and the music will start playing on the phone rather than through the car stereo. I have found that hitting the play/pause button on the car stereo somehow wakes it up and the audio comes on.

[mcow]

Starting with 226, I've been having more difficulty getting BT audio working.

During the day at work, I screen out office chatter with a recording of crashing waves; I play this thru the Samsung player (and keep that track out of my MediaMonkey library). Yesterday (w/ 226 installed) I got in the car, waited a minute, then turned on the car stereo -- I heard the crashing waves. In the tablet, I paused the Samsung player, opened MMA, pressed play. I got no sound; the scrubber bar was not progressing like it has in other problems described upthread. I tried numerous tricks to get MMA to play: stopped the player from the Ongoing control and then restarted, switched the car unit between CD and BT: this got nowhere. I submitted a log, altho I'm not sure if it got transmitted because I had no wifi at the time: 7BUL1F4MT0

I'm now updated to 228, so I'll see if behavior improves.

[mcow]

I'm now updated to 228, so I'll see if behavior improves.

Hm. I had no problem with build 228 failing to output to the BT audio. I did encounter a new problematic symptom.

Got to my destination, waited until the end of a track, turned off the car stereo and then the car, tossed the tablet in the glove compartment, went out on my errand. When I got back to the car, I could hear music playing: MM had continued playing the album, for five more tracks, and switched to the tablet's speakers. It might have done that right away and I didn't notice because the next song started quietly. I was able to quickly reconnect to BT and restart from the point of interruption.

When I got home, I again turned off the car stereo but didn't turn off the car for fifteen or twenty seconds. MM definitely stopped at this point.