Amazon Fire Tablet: "Waiting for Connection" Error

[bkelly13]

We purchased an Amazon Fire tablet, 8 inch, and use it only for music.  It worked well for over two years then we moved.  The WiFi connection was changed, and we have internet access.  For example, cnn.com shows the news just fine.  When we try to start pandora, it displays the pulsating P for a while then opens a small dialog with the text:

Waiting for connection. Try again? 

It has two buttons, CANCEL and RETRY.

While writing this, Pandora is playing over my laptop so a connection is possible.

There is no information at all as to the problem.  We don't use tablets much at all so please be patient and explicit with your replies.

Thank you for your time.

mod edit: changed title for clarity

[AlyssaPandora]

Hi there, @bkelly13. 👋

Sorry for any problems you're experiencing. I'm happy to help you troubleshoot and you walk you through the process.

First, I'd recommend that you restart your Fire tablet. To do that:

• Press and hold the power button for two to three seconds until you see the message "Do you want to shut down your Fire?" Tap OK.
• After the device has completely turned off, press the power button for two to three seconds to turn your Fire tablet back on.
• Try the Pandora app again.

If you continue to have trouble:

• Swipe down from the top of the screen and tap Settings and then Apps & Games.
• Select Manage All Applications and then All.
• Clear your data for the Pandora application.
• Then launch the Pandora app again.

Hope this helps! Let me know how it goes. 🎧

[bkelly13]

Sorry for the delay, could not get back to this until now.

Power cycled a few times.  Left off overnight and returned to this, no progress.

Viewed CNN.com, it updated.  Type in pandora.com in the URL and get the Cancel Retry dialog.

Swipe down to get a dialog, result was nothing like anticipated.  There is a brightness bar with six icons below that.  One looks like “Airplane mode” and another like a sleep mode.  At the bottom is the options for “Manage Notifications” and “CLEAR ALL.”  The latter returns me to the Pandora screen which does not connect.

Found my way back to Settings.  There is no “Apps and Games” but there is “Apps and Notifications”

Go there and there is no “All”

There is “Amazon App Settings” so open that.  There is nothing like “All” or something to clear all data.  Go to Pandora App to find a top level title of “Show Notifications”

Open it to see some alerts.  Turn on all alerts. Backup to the top level of Apps for Pandora.  There is an UNINSTALL and FORCE STOP.  There is a list of items:

Notifications:  On

Permissions: No permissions granted

Storage: 427 MB used in internal storage

Data usage: 12.4 GB used since Mar 9

And some more general stuff that does not appear to be Pandora related.

Did the force stop and went back to Pandora.  Same thing, cannot connect.

What should I try now?

Reminder:  This tablet worked for a couple of years and stopped when we moved.  The network has changed and it has not worked on this new network.  I can use the tablet to view sites such as CNN.COM, but still have concerns about network problems.

[AlyssaPandora]

@bkelly13 Thanks for the follow up. 

Could you provide a few more details about how you're listening?

• Android version (Settings > About Phone):
• Pandora App version:
  • If you can open Pandora, go to Profile, then select Settings. Scroll to the bottom of the screen for the version number.
  • If you can't open Pandora: from Android Home screen > Android Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > Find Pandora
• Are you able to capture a screenshot or picture of the error message when you launch the Pandora app on your tablet?

Thanks for your help with this. 🎧

[bkelly13 · Accepted solution]

On this Amazon Fire table, the instructions could not be followed as described.

The Pandora app was removed and re-installed, and it now working.

I have a message to the Pandora team.

The error message was of no help.  It stated:

…………….

Waiting for connection. Try again:

CANCEL  RETRY

……………

It provides no usable information.  For example:  Does the app have an internet connection?  Can it contact the Pandora web site?  Is the account valid?  Show that account name.  Is the password accepted? 

The Pandora team can come up with additional items that would be helpful to the user.  Please improve your message.

[AdamPandora]

@bkelly13 Glad to hear things are back up and running again.

If this continues to be an issue down the line, please make sure to reach back out to us and let us know.

Thanks for listening!

[Victorianhouse]

 I have followed all the above have 604mbps storage still cannot download Pandora

[AlyssaPandora]

Hi there, @Victorianhouse. 👋

Sorry to hear that you're having trouble. 

Do you already have the Pandora app downloaded on your device, and when you launch the app, you get the "Waiting for Connection" error?

Or, are you having trouble downloading Pandora? If so, what is the exact error message.

Could you please send me some more information about your device?

• Model + Generation (Fire Tablet 7):
• System version*:
• Are you connected to Wi-Fi or 3G when this is happening?
• Have you identified any other patterns or notable information?

*To find the system version, swipe down from the top of your screen and select More. From there, select Device, then About, and view the System Version.

Let me know. 🎧

[gt46l]

I've been trying to resolve this issue for the last week, reading every post I can and finally found this thread and decided to post here. Pandora stopped working about a week and a half ago on my Fire tablet.  I've had it a couple years and never had an issue until now.  FIRST I tried updating to 2204.1.  That did not help.  Next I cleared cache and data.  That did not help.  Then I uninstalled Pandora and reinstalled.  None of those things worked.  Finally I tried a full factory reset on my Fire tablet and installed Pandora from fresh.  Still doesn't work.  Just says "Waiting for connection"  retry or cancel.  I have Pandora on my phone and it plays fine on it on the same wifi network. 

I think we've all tried enough of these reset procedures now on different devices to prove its clearly not a device or carrier issue.  I believe its an issue with the app.  Can we get a status update on what research Pandora is doing on the engineering side to resolve this issue? 

• Model:  Amazon Fire HD 10 (9th gen)
• Android version: Amazon Fire
• Build number: 0017884837764
• Pandora version:2204.1
• Wifi only

[Kkimmy513]

I'm having the same problem I'm in my Amazon fire tablet. Help!!!!

[AlyssaPandora]

Hi there, @Kkimmy513. 👋

Thanks for your post. 

Could you please send me some more information about your device?

• Model + Generation (Fire Tablet 7):
• System version*:
• Are you connected to Wi-Fi or 3G when this is happening?
• Have you identified any other patterns or notable information?

*To find the system version, swipe down from the top of your screen and select More. From there, select Device, then About, and view the System Version.

[AlyssaPandora]

Hi, @gt46l. 👋

Thanks so much for reporting this, and sorry for the continued trouble. 

I have shared this with our engineering team on your behalf. At this time, I do not have an ETA or a status update. However, I can confirm that I have shared this your feedback on internal ticket. We appreciate your patience during this process. 🎧

[gt46l]

Alyssa, Even if you don't have a "status" or an ETA, your engineering team should have a clue by now what the problem is being that it is a recurring issue for months/years.  Your executives have probably already weighed whether to release that information to the community and I'm guessing that is a NO, but I for one do not appreciate that.  It will make me leave for another service FASTER than actually telling me the truth, even if it is embarrassing to Pandora. Companies make bad decisions some times, but the best disinfectant is sunlight.  Lets get some information out to the community like a service bulletin through email explaining the technical issue and a big apology from Pandora ASAP.  Sitting on this longer is not in your best interests.

[gt46l]

I saw that 2205 was just released and it had a specific install process it required.  I followed it, uninstalling Pandora first, then installing the update from fresh.  Ran Pandora but got the same message "waiting for connection".  I tried uninstalling and clearing cache/storage, etc.  No help.  After that fiasco on Saturday, I decided to switch to a competitor and just spent an hour migrating my playlists.  Clearly you guys have made some seriously bad decisions and can't find your way out of them, either in a technical sense, or through thoughtful community communication.  All your app needs to do is play music, and it can't do that.  Good luck finding some executives that can do their job correctly in the future, but I've decided to close this account.

[Cmgooley]

Got a message that the Pandora app was updated. It has not worked ever since..

[AdamPandora]

@Cmgooley Could you tell me a bit more about what is happening?

1. To clarify, are you also seeing the "Waiting for Connection" error message? If you are seeing a different error message, what does it say?
2. Can you provide me with a screenshot of what you're seeing?

Thanks for working with me on this.

[Cmgooley]

On my Amazon Kindle Fire HD 10 (11th generation), when I touch the Pandora
Icon, the P pulsates several times and displays the message "Waiting for
connection. Try again? This does not happen on my older Kindle Fire HD 8,
the Pandora App works correctly.



Charles

[AdamPandora]

Thanks for following up, @Cmgooley.

I've enabled a trace on your account to help us better understand what's happening.

For this trace to be useful, we'll need you to run through our troubleshooting steps:

First, I'd recommend that you restart your Fire tablet. To do that:

1. Press and hold the power button for two to three seconds until you see the message "Do you want to shut down your Fire?" Tap OK.
2. After the device has completely turned off, press the power button for two to three seconds to turn your Fire tablet back on.
3. Try the Pandora app again.

If you continue to have trouble:

1. Swipe down from the top of the screen and tap Settings and then Apps & Games.
2. Select Manage All Applications and then All.
3. Clear your data for the Pandora application.
4. Then launch the Pandora app again.

Hope this helps! Let me know how it goes.

[DavidQ]

I've had this issue for the month since I changed internet providers and I just discovered this thread through a Google search. 

It obviously has something to do with the switch in internet carriers.  I've tried everything listed here and the only thing that works is uninstalling/reinstalling the Pandora app but this only works for a short time before it begins doing the same "connection error" thing again.

I can access Pandora through the browser but it fails to advance songs, so basically, still useless.  I've begun using my Youtube music account for tablet entertainment now.  Not even sure it's a Pandora problem, to be honest.

[AdamPandora]

@DavidQ Can you please send me a screenshot of the error message you're seeing?

(Please note you won't be able to attach images via email - you will need to open this Community link in a web browser in order to provide attachments)

Thanks for working with me on this.