Podcasts skipping back and over content during stream

App version: x.y.z (state whether from Google Play/F-Droid/Custom built APK)
3.4.0 (5f5d744e7) from Google Play

Android version: 5.x (Please mention if you are using a custom rom!)
14

Device model:
Pixel 7

Expected behaviour:
Stream podcasts smoothly.

Current behaviour:
Podcast will skip back and repeat section already heard and skip over content without input from me. It seems like it’s in the episode itself because if I rewind, it happens again in the same location.

First occurred: (e.g. about x days/weeks ago)
About two weeks ago.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. This
  2. Then that
  3. Then this
  4. Etc.
    It would just be listening to a particular podcast. Today listening to Up First 06-06-24 had it occur.

Environment: (Settings you have changed (e.g. Auto Download). “Unusual” devices you use (e.g. Bluetooth headphones). Did you select another media player?)
Haven’t changed any settings recently. Some podcasts are downloaded. Use Apple airpods. I tried podcast episodes on another player and didn’t experience the skipping.

Stacktrace/Logcat:

[if available]
4 Likes

I’m seeing this same behavior and at first it was just annoying but it’s starting to cause me to miss a minute(s) of audio over a podcast. It often seems to be somewhere around advertising breaks but not always. It also seems that it cuts off several second to a minute or more at the end of podcasts.

App version:
3.4.0 (5f5d744e7) from Google Play

Android version:
14

Device model:
Samsung S21 5G

Expected behaviour:
Stream podcasts smoothly.

Current behaviour:
Podcast will skip back and repeat section already heard and skip over content without input. It seems like it’s in the episode itself because if I rewind, it happens again in the same location. Behavior is consistent in episodes and consistently happens with podcasts whether streamed, downloaded.

First occurred: (e.g. about x days/weeks ago)
Some time in May

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Download or stream a podcast
  2. Audio will skip back between 5-20 seconds and continue playing
2 Likes

Just to created an account to say the same thing is happening with me. I really like the app (downloaded as a replacement for Google Podcasts).

App version:
3.4.0

Android version:
12

Device model:
Moto g31(w)

Expected behaviour:
Stream podcasts smoothly.

Current behaviour:
Podcast content will repeat section already heard or skip forward content. The timer doesn’t change so it is not playback jumping around - if I scroll back 10 seconds the same error occurs. This has also led to the end of podcasts being cut off.
I had assume it was poor editing at first but it’s happening across a range of pods.

First occurred: (e.g. about x days/weeks ago)
2 weeks ago.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Stream a podcast
  2. Audio will repeat content or skip forward but the timer will be remain continuous. End of podcast maybe cut off.
1 Like

I have been troubleshooting this for months. I think I have found a work around.
It happened again today. So I re-downloaded the episodes on a known good internet at work - 1GB fiber(I thought my home internet was causing the problem because I am on a 24/7 whole network VPN).
That didn’t work. So I got home and I downloaded each episode one at a time and it seems to have fixed the issue.

So it seems that downloading multiple episodes from different sources is causing the problem.

Also, it doesn’t happen all of the time.

3 Likes

Interesting. I do often queue up 3-5 episodes of various podcasts at a time. I’ll test.

1 Like

I am experiencing this too. With the type of podcasts I listen to it creates a problem. I haven’t changed anything that I do. I did notice someone replied with a workaround based on downloading issues. I do load up my queue all at one time. It’s never been a problem before though. I will give their work around it a try and see if it helps.

The same thing is happening to me. I don’t download any episodes and don’t have a queue so the workaround doesn’t work for me.

1 Like

This happens to me every few days. I’m a Google podcast outcast and this happened occasionally to me with one podcast.
I’m streaming sometimes playing from the queue and sometimes not.

1 Like

This is happening to me too.

I don’t download and I have a long queue but it is happening with new episodes not my repeated episodes in the queue.

For example The Rest Is Entertainment last 2 minutes were silent so had to jump over to Spotify to hear what was missed. Same with All About Agatha which means it is an app issue not a podcast issue.

I listen over WiFi and 4g and it happens with both. It’s a recent issue though.

I like to keep my podcasts and music separate so this is a minor annoyance.

Android 13.

1 Like

Reading the thread makes me suspect this is the podcast hoster doing something unexpected. If speculating freely, one might guess they injecting ads or whatever, and making slightly different choices on which ads to add in an already passed segment, perhaps?

Would anyone of you affected be prepared to out yourselves on the specifics about which RSS feeds (and episodes) this happens with? Maybe also try finding some completely different podcast where listening in the same manner does not trigger the behaviour?

See Player audio randomly stops - but seekbar continues progressing

Carol Howker and I are listening to pods from the same producer (Goalhanger Productions) I am listening to the rest is Politics, Rest is Money and Empire and it has happened to all of them at some stage. The adverts must be inserted at the point of listening as the ads change and are either up to dat eon older casts or sometimes not there at all.

I’m back to report that the workaround is about 90% sucessful. It still happens sporadically but with a lot less frequency. I just delete the episode and redownload it when it does happen and that part of it has been 100% sucessful.

I’ve just streamed 72. Polling Day Special: What happens if Labour fail? from The Rest is Money in its entirety, but couldn’t notice the described behaviour. Including a quote below, rather than repeating the conclusion myself.

Two thoughts I’m having are:

  • Could AntennaPod perhaps check the (full) filesize whenever fetching a segment, reporting if it changes? I don’t know if app already does so, nor whether it would be a reasonable, feasible and good thing to do.
  • Would anyone with a suitable VPN setup be able to try starting to stream “in” one country, and then switching to “be located” somewhere else? Assuming that to be a certain way to trigger getting served by completely different ads, and thus a way to verify whether that might be the culprit.

It might also be an idea for listeners of affected podcasts to reach out to the producers and ask whether they are aware of the issue.

Popping in to say I’m having the same issue in a couple different ways and it’s really annoying. Sometimes it will randomly skip ahead :30 seconds at the same spot, even if I rewind and try listening again. Turned the episode on in a different app and there was no skipping issue. Then sometimes it will randomly rewind :30 seconds or so and replay itself. All of this happens without me touching anything. I thought at first it was only happening when I was listening via Bluetooth in my car or on headphones, but nope, it does it when I just play it on my phone too.

Really hope this gets fixed, I moved to AntennaPod after Google Podcasts went kaput and have overall enjoyed it so far, but these skipping issues are happening more and more frequently. Really don’t want to move platforms again and lose all of my play history, but if it doesn’t get fixed, I don’t know if I can stick with it…

Sad to hear that. Welcome to the forum!

Just to be clear; I understand that you’re all experiencing this issue. I have no reason to doubt it. I have however not yet experienced it. I’m a volunteer trying to help.

Would it perhaps be possible to share which different app this was? Without adding that detail, there’s not really any new information to take into account, learn from, or base any analysis on.

Isn’t open source great? One do not merely need to hope for things to get fixed, one can be an active part in making it happen. If not by writing code, then by reporting back the specifics about what one have tested and be clear on how it differs from or strengthens previous posts in the thread.

Downloading, rather than streaming, episodes has been mentioned a successful workaround. It might be worth trying that. It would also be interesting to have more observations of the issue actually occurring on downloaded episodes, if having fetched multiple episodes in parallell.

I just uploaded a beta release containing the changes that most of you reported having fixed this

“I’m a volunteer trying to help.”

Thank you for the help! It is much appreciated, I’ll try and get google assistant to make a note of the episode and approximate time of the skip and report back (I’m mostly in the car when it happens/notice it happening, sometimes its flawless and I just get a sense of Deja Vu!

G

Not sure if I actually got the beta, Playstore says I am subscribed and I installed an update after subscribing to beta. My version is 3.4.1 (8c2d641ba).

With that said, I just had an end-of-episode issue streaming the episode detailed below.
I noticed the remaining time showed 00:00:00 when playback stopped in the middle of the outro. The timestamp is the correct length of the episode but its obviously incorrect. After downloading while paused seconds before the end, the playback resumed at the previous time code but now the audio matched the time code (last seconds of end theme).

Here are the episode details:

Ologies with Alie Ward: Disability Sociology (DISABILITY PRIDE) with Guinevere Chambers

Webseite der Episode: https://www.stitcher.com

Mediendatei: https://pdst.fm/e/stitcher.simplecastaudio.com/89060b63-e603-4297-b6e8-5a654e50244e/episodes/35da6c15-0439-4d38-b3f0-d07ab2e4b50d/audio/128/default.mp3?aid=rss_feed&awCollectionId=89060b63-e603-4297-b6e8-5a654e50244e&awEpisodeId=35da6c15-0439-4d38-b3f0-d07ab2e4b50d&feed=FO6kxYGj

Came here to say that the same thing is happening to me! I have an LG Thin8 phone. I have noticed it happening in multiple podcasts, including My Favorite Murder, Wine and Crime, and Last Podcast on the Left