Podcasts skip forward and/or backward when streaming

Bug report
1

App version: x.y.z (state whether from Google Play/F-Droid/Custom built APK)
3.6.1f
I believe from F-Droid

Android version: 5.x (Please mention if you are using a custom rom!)
11
not a custom ROM, but it is rooted

Device model:
Google Pixel 3a XL

Expected behaviour:
A podcast smoothly plays from beginning to end.

Current behaviour:
Erratically, but not that rarely, when streaming (usually on mobile, but I’ve also seen on WiFi) sometimes a podcast will skip a number of seconds or maybe even a couple of minutes earlier in the track or later in the track.
Importantly, this also seems to mess up the time marker, so the podcast will then end before it thinks it’s over or it will stop abruptly near but not at the end and go to the next item in the list.

I believe this may be related to another bug report I filed “AntennaPod incorrectly believes that a podcast is completed” It seems like there is some kind of lack of synchronization between the audio files or streamed stuff and the timeline that AntennaPod is using internally?

First occurred: (e.g. about x days/weeks ago)
Many months ago, this has been going on for months or years.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. This
  2. Then that
  3. Then this
  4. Etc.

Environment: (Settings you have changed (e.g. Auto Download). “Unusual” devices you use (e.g. Bluetooth headphones). Did you select another media player?)

Stacktrace/Logcat:

[if available]
1 Like
2

I wanted to post in support of this. I have a Samsung S23 Ultra … all normal, no root, no custom, nothing special about it and I am experiencing this as well on podcasts I listen to. I used to experience this on Spotify when I used that thing but they did fix it, and I’ve replayed episodes that have skipped on AntennaPod on Spotify and its been fine there.

3

I have this same issue on pixel 7 pro. Going to switch to another podcast app now because this is happening multiple times every episode.

4

Jason and Jake,
As a practical matter, FYI if you otherwise like using the app a “workaround” is to download the episodes in their entirety vs. streaming them, but it’s annoying to have to pre-load the media and it also takes up a lot of space you have to clear.

5

Agreed. I usually download episodes and have never seen this skipping-around behavior (except for some small skips that seem to be related to ad insertions by the podcast hosts).

I strongly recommend enabling the “Delete after playing” option if you routinely download episodes and don’t plan to listen to episodes more than once.

2 Likes
6

Well unfortunately you also can’t trust AntennaPod to reliably know when an episode is over - see my other bug report " AntennaPod incorrectly believes that a podcast has completed"
There seem to be significant bugs in the internal timekeeping for playing files.

7

I get the same error, and it’s not unique to AP as I used to see it on podcast republic. The common theme seems to be podcasts that have dynamic advertising in them (ie. An ad server inserts ads that are relevant to your geographic area based on your IP address). Unfortunately I haven’t found a workaround that doesn’t involve downloading, which I don’t want to do.

1 Like
8

Hi,
I was going to open a thread to talk about this bug, so I’ll try to give more information here.

I’ve seen this happen on several phones, from android 9 to android 14, with AntennaPod from Google Play Store and F-Droid, and when streaming with wifi and mobile data.
I don’t remember the error happening with downloaded episodes, though I usually stream them.

This has happens with feeds from multiple sources. For me, it always goes backwards and repeats a few seconds, maybe 10 to 20, non even a full minute.

I hope this can help solve the issue, which is quite annoying.