Playlist repeating part of last track played instead of advancing

[pat48t]

I have a simple playlist of single audiobook files. That is the files are one long mp3 file instead of a bunch of smaller files.
The symptoms are this:
I have a playlist (created through the add file to playlist function) that consists of a series of audiobooks in single files.
The playlist seems to work fine in that I can play any file in it and resume works correctly if the stream is paused or stopped for any reason or even if the computer is rebooted.
However, if the currently playing book reaches its end it does not play the next book but rather repeats the last 10 minutes or so of the completed book.
This is a new instillation of MM and the computer is also new and has no other duties except MM. It is specifically for MM playback.
This is running Windows 10 and the computer is unable to "upgrade" to Windows 11.

I have disabled most of the Microsoft crap that gets loaded with Windows and the computer is fully updated to the latest Windows 10 updates.

I really only need MM playlists to work correctly and this repeating problem is all that is left for me to be content with my audio playback setup.

Thanks for any ideas.

[Lowlander]

Which Build (Help > About) of MediaMonkey are you using and this affects MP3 files?

[Jim48T]

For some reason I am suddenly unable to use my old account to post to this thread even though it was the one I used to original post using it so I created a new account.

I am using MM 5.0.4.2693
All my audio files are mp3s and about as simple as they can be.

Thanks

[Lowlander]

Please try the latest MediaMonkey 2024 beta build as this issue may already be resolved.

[Jim48T]

I have downloaded and installed the latest build and it is running now.
As manual playback and manual advancing has always worked fine I will have to wait until the current book is finished to see if this is truly fixed.
I will report back when the current operation completes and resolves itself if i do or do not get correct advancing.

Have you ever noticed that failures of software or hardware mostly only happen at the most inconvenient times?

BTW: MM is the best general player for audio I have found but I am an old man (76+ years old) and I do not have the ability to delve deeply into the mysteries of MM. I just want it to work. I wish it were simpler to sync between my computer and my phone and my tablet but the complexities of getting that working eludes me but I have workarounds that suffice.
At least audio is easier to setup and use than video. I use Emby for my video playback and it works great but it does not work well for my audio playback but MediaMonkey fills my audio needs very well. It seems that Emby + MediaMonkey is about as perfect a match as I have found for my media needs.
Thank you!

[Jim48T]

I have just completed another book and i can report a "changed symptom" situation.
Now, when the end of playback is reached the currently playing item repeats. That is it restarts from the beginning. I am going to try a full reboot and restart to see if, maybe, something got stuck in memory that causes the failure to advance.
I will keep this thread watched in case someone has an idea that i might be overlooking.
Thanks

[MattTown]

I have used MMW for a long time and always use the latest Beta builds. I found that MM4 and early versions of 5 did have an occasional problem with the end of tracks repeating by 10 seconds. It has certainly happened to me in the past, but not for more than a year now.

If you are playing audio books then I'm guessing that each of your tracks is hours long. If so, please confirm because that might be a use case that the Devs haven't looked closely at yet.

For the new versions the Devs have put more effort into tracking down memory leaks which affect MM sessions that have long durations, so I'd suggest downloading the latest beta and giving that a go.

If you are happy to jump through some extra hoops then getting the Debug View app and then running the Debug version will be really useful for the Devs if you do continue to get the end-of-track problem.

Cheers
Matt

[Jim48T]

Yes. The tracks I have problems with are all audio books and they are hours long. i have a couple that are in excess of 18 hours long.

I just, yesterday, realized that I have never tagged any of my files as audio books and MM thought the were all music, which they were not.
I have now tagged all my audio books as audio books and I am nearing the end of one so i will soon see if everything I have done has fixed the error. I suspect that it has not but you never know until bugs either happen or don't happen.
I did do a brief test of a music playlist and the short song seem to work fine.

I will, probably, know the current state of this problem later today or tomorrow and i will report back.
I hope this is truly cured as I do not like being concerned as books near their end.

[Jim48T]

I probably need to start a new thread for this as the symptom is VERY different but still similar.

Now, at the end of a track the playlist restarts the played item from the beginning. It is like I have a playlist that are all the same book. I do not see any real difference in the files.
I suspect that it is somehow related to the playlist. i see mention of "auto-play" playlists but, under earlier MM releases I never created an "auto-play" playlist and, again under earlier MM releases, the playlist mostly advanced to the next book after the current one finished. I this ver, 2024.0.0.3020, has just changed something that screws up audiobook playlists.
I wonder if there is a setting somewhere that says "at the end of playback of a item advance and play automagically the next in the list. I have been unable to find such a setting but I do not use MM for anything other than playing audiobooks and i have never investigated the inner mysteries of MediaMonkey.

If anyone knows of such a setting or if I need to create an auto-play playlist (or change the one I have to auto-play) to make this work I will. I just need to know what to do to make my playlist play the next book after one finishes.

I am of failing health and cannot really debug much, I tire very easily, but I just want to have my playlist(s) work correctly.

Thanks for any help.

If there is another app anyone wants to recommend i welcome that as well. Any new app must run on a desktop computer and accept control inputs from the operating system as i use a regular PC remote to control pause/start functionality and I have a number of USB receivers for that. Also it should respond to the spacebar as a stop/start input and never auto-exit.

Again Thanks. At least my books are mostly long so I do not need to sit myself at the keyboard to get advancing very often. No more than once a day and, usually, a good deal more like every two or three days maximum.

[Lowlander]

What is loaded in the Playing? That is what will actually be played. no matter what's on the Playlist.

Also make sure no Repeat is enabled.

[Jim48T]

OK. Thanks. Repeat was set to "1" and I changed it to off. I know i never enabled that setting but I guess it could have been enabled set/reset when I upgraded to the MM beta. However if just happened no matter how it happened the default should be to off. Not "1" and not "all," Never should an intrusive option, like this is, default to any setting that can produce unwanted effects.

I can see a use for "repeat" actions but i do not think having it set to anything but off is proper for any consumer program.
But this may be fixed now. I will not know for sure until the book i just started completes which should be Thursday or Friday. When it does complete I will report back. I did create a minimal playlist of a few music files and that advances normally but music files are generally less than 5 minutes long and audio books are generally over 24-36 hours (I have a couple well over 60 hours) and that gives a lot more time for things to screw up.

Thanks one more time.
It is very nice to have a help board where i actually get help. So many seem now days to be a platform for nothing but criticizing and berating users.
This board and Emby's are the only good help forums i have used in recent time. It is a far cry from Plex's so called help board. All that happens there is users get abused and any post mentioning alternatives gets deleted. I am not talking promoting mentions but rather just simple questions like "If Emby does something why can't Plex" I am real glad I do not have to search for an alternative. The search that resulted in me choosing MediaMonkey was not fun at all and a search for an alternative would be even worse.

[Lowlander]

Repeat is off by default, so somewhere you must have accidentally enabled it.

[Jim48T]

I do not know where or when I enabled it as I did not even know what it was or what it did until you mentioned it but i also know there are two pieces of code that magically gets included in every program:
1. on (random) screw random user;
2. on (random) do something unexpected;

I assume i was bitten by both of those as i was chosen as the random user and enabling repeat was the "something unexpected..
But, regardless, the problem is probably solved and it is not unusual for me to get bitten by one or more of the built in bugs of every program.
I once had a Roku that would freeze after playing any mp4 to about the 1.5 hour mark. It did not freeze for MKVs or any other format it would play but mp4s consistently failed and I had 100s of mp4s. I also had several Rokus and only one had the problem and, when I replaced it with an identical Roku it worked. I sent it to Roku and they could not duplicate the problem but, when I was sent back to me it still failed on every mp4 file.
BTW: I tested using every available playback app and the failures continued. I gave it to a neighbor as she did not have any local files for it to fail on. She streamed only.

One more time, Thanks.

[Jim48T]

Just a final (I hope) note on the resolution of this issue:
After taking all the measures I listed in this thread I can confidently report the issue is resolved. I do not know exactly which was the actual fix but my problem is fixed.
My playlist is advancing correctly and it works as i expect it to.

Thanks for the help.