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Android 13: App freezes and becomes unresponsive

TheBison
Underground

Randomly won't advance to next song and locks up

Both my wife and I have experienced a problem in the last few days, where Pandora gets to the end of a song, but then the app locks up. We experienced it when playing through Bluetooth, once connected to  my headphones and a couple of times, to our car.

After Pandora locked up, I could play via Bluetooth to the car from the music app on my phone and it had no problem at the end of the track.

Given that the last update was over a week ago and the problems first showed up on Saturday, I surmise that the back end has changed and there is some problem communicating between the app and Pandora's servers. Furthermore, I'll take a guess that the back end software is confused about the subscription status of the app (both my wife and I have Pandora Plus subscriptions).

There are comments in the Google Play Store that indicate that other people are seeing the same or similar problems.

Our phones are both Google Pixel phones, running the latest version of the Pandora app.

Moderator Edit: Edited title for clarity

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1 Solution

Accepted Solutions

AlyssaPandora
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hey there, @Kadina13. 👋

Thanks for reporting your experience, and sorry for any frustration this has caused.

Could you share your device details? I'd like to share this feedback with our engineering team as others are also encountering this issue.

It's helpful to know the following: 

  • Model:
  • Carrier: T-Mobile
  • Android version (Settings > About Phone):
  • Pandora version (Go to Profile, then select Settings. Scroll to the bottom of the screen for the version number): 
  • Does this happen when connected to cellular data and WiFi?
  • How is your smartphone connected to your car? (Bluetooth, USB, Aux)
    • Is your vehicle equipped with Android Auto or Apple CarPlay?
  • Have you experienced this issue only when in the car, or also when listening on your phone outside the car?

Let me know. 🎧


Use your mobile device only when conditions allow and as permitted by applicable law.*

Alyssa | Community Manager
Let's talk music in Community Chat
Share yours here: Q: What's your favorite anthem by a female artist that inspires you?
Check out this month's newsletter: The Listener Lounge: March 2024

View solution in original post

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21 Replies

AdamPandora
Community Manager
Community Manager

@TheBison I'd be happy to help with any questions you have, but I will need additional information to do so.

Can you explain your issue a bit further?

What exactly do you mean when you say the app locks up?

The more details you're able to provide, the better equipped I'll be to help.

I look forward to hearing back.

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TheBison
Underground

The problem is that the app will play a couple of songs and then stop advancing to the next song.

By "locks up", I mean that the app becomes unresponsive. It takes a few minutes to recover and respond again.

My wife has experienced this with two different cars, connected via Bluetooth. I have experienced it when using my Bluetooth headphones.

We have two separate paid Pandora accounts.

Reviewing the Play Store ratings and reviews, I find this comment which sounds very similar to what I am experiencing:

"I've been using Pandora for years. It always works fine until last week. Now, the app freezes up every 10 to 15 min. When it freezes up, I can't even access the profile/account page in the app. I have read through and tried every single troubleshooting step on the Pandora help page for Android. Twice! I've also uninstalled and reinstalled the app twice. The Pandora app seems unable to communicate with the Pandora streaming site intermittently. It does work in offline mode, but not streaming. :"

Moderator Edit: Merged posts

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AdamPandora
Community Manager
Community Manager

Thanks for following up and clarifying that with me, @TheBison.

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

When updating the OS on Android devices, the battery optimization on all apps may be automatically turned back on by default. This can cause performance issues or interfere with playback when the Pandora app is in the background.

If you haven't already done so, please try the following steps to see if they help:

  • Open your device Settings
  • Tap Apps
  • Scroll down to find Pandora
  • Select Battery
  • On the Battery page tap Unrestricted.

Let me know how it goes.

TheBison
Underground

I have already changed the battery setting to unrestricted. In addition, I deselected the option to "Pause app activity if unused". Finally, I deleted all data for the app and logged in again.

Note that the problem is worse on my wife's phone. She has her own account: if you can search email addresses, hers email address has the same domain name as mine (it's a personal domain name, so there should only be 2 accounts in that domain)

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AlyssaPandora
Community Manager
Community Manager

Thanks for providing those details, @TheBison.

We're on the same page as my last recommendation would be to clear the app data. Those steps here: Android Troubleshooting

It sounds like you tried those and the issue still persists. I will need report your specific issue over to our engineering team. I'll need a few more details to share with them as indicated below. 

Additional Details:

  • Are you noticing any error messages when this occurs? If so, what exactly does it say?
  • What is the model of your Pixel?
  • Which wireless carrier are you two using?
  • Android version (Settings > About Phone):

I understand how frustrating this can be, and appreciate you sticking with us during this process. 🎧

 

Alyssa | Community Manager
Let's talk music in Community Chat
Share yours here: Q: What's your favorite anthem by a female artist that inspires you?
Check out this month's newsletter: The Listener Lounge: March 2024
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TheBison
Underground

No error messages.

Pixel 5a

T-Mobile

Android version 13. Security update February 5, 2023. Google Play System Update was November 2022, but it has now been updated to February 1, 2023. We will see if that makes a difference.

App version: 2303.1

 

AlyssaPandora
Community Manager
Community Manager

Thanks for providing those details, @TheBison.

I've gone ahead and shared this additional information on your behalf. 🎧

Alyssa | Community Manager
Let's talk music in Community Chat
Share yours here: Q: What's your favorite anthem by a female artist that inspires you?
Check out this month's newsletter: The Listener Lounge: March 2024
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TheBison
Underground

It appears that my phone (Pixel 4a with 5G) is working properly now. My wife continues to experience problems playing Pandora on her Pixel 5a.

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AlyssaPandora
Community Manager
Community Manager

Appreciate the update, @TheBison. I can add this info to the ticket. Please check your private messages (on the Pandora Community) in a few minutes so that I can gather the correct email address for your wife. 👍

Alyssa | Community Manager
Let's talk music in Community Chat
Share yours here: Q: What's your favorite anthem by a female artist that inspires you?
Check out this month's newsletter: The Listener Lounge: March 2024
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TheBison
Underground

I want to add that the problem seems to only exist when playing through Bluetooth. When plugged into speakers, it seems to work fine.

TheBison
Underground

Another factor that may be affecting this is the handover from WiFi to Cell network (T-Mobile). We realized that in the cases that my wife is experiencing the app playing only one song, she has just departed from home or work, and her phone was on WiFi, but obviously, is out of range of WiFI quickly and the phone switches to T-Mobile cell network.

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AlyssaPandora
Community Manager
Community Manager

Thank you for clarifying that info, @TheBison. I will add this additional info to the ticket with our engineering team for you. 🤝

Alyssa | Community Manager
Let's talk music in Community Chat
Share yours here: Q: What's your favorite anthem by a female artist that inspires you?
Check out this month's newsletter: The Listener Lounge: March 2024
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Kadina13
Local Performer

My husband and I have been having this same exact issue for the past 1-2 weeks! We also have T-mobile and at first was wondering if it was the service coverage as when I try to connect in my car an error message comes up "No network available" but then eventually connects and when it does and I try to skip a song then it freezes. We checked and our battery settings for the app is set to unrestricted. It is very frustrating to pay for a service when we can't even use it and my husband is almost to the point of cancelling our subscription. 

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AlyssaPandora
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hey there, @Kadina13. 👋

Thanks for reporting your experience, and sorry for any frustration this has caused.

Could you share your device details? I'd like to share this feedback with our engineering team as others are also encountering this issue.

It's helpful to know the following: 

  • Model:
  • Carrier: T-Mobile
  • Android version (Settings > About Phone):
  • Pandora version (Go to Profile, then select Settings. Scroll to the bottom of the screen for the version number): 
  • Does this happen when connected to cellular data and WiFi?
  • How is your smartphone connected to your car? (Bluetooth, USB, Aux)
    • Is your vehicle equipped with Android Auto or Apple CarPlay?
  • Have you experienced this issue only when in the car, or also when listening on your phone outside the car?

Let me know. 🎧


Use your mobile device only when conditions allow and as permitted by applicable law.*

Alyssa | Community Manager
Let's talk music in Community Chat
Share yours here: Q: What's your favorite anthem by a female artist that inspires you?
Check out this month's newsletter: The Listener Lounge: March 2024
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TheBison
Underground

I forced my wife's phone to the cell network and disabled the "adaptive connectivity" so that it did not re-enable WiFI and it appears that it successfully played more than one song. So I think it's related to going out of range of WiFI and switching to cell network.

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AlyssaPandora
Community Manager
Community Manager

@TheBison Good info to share - I'll add this to the ticket. 👍

Alyssa | Community Manager
Let's talk music in Community Chat
Share yours here: Q: What's your favorite anthem by a female artist that inspires you?
Check out this month's newsletter: The Listener Lounge: March 2024
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TheBison
Underground

The problem seems to have gone away in the last couple of days. I turned WiFi back on and the problem hasn't happened again.

AlyssaPandora
Community Manager
Community Manager

This is great news,  @TheBison. Thank you for the continued updates about the issue. Sounds like you're back to listening without any issues. In the meantime, I'll still keep that ticket open for our engineering team to investigate in case others run into similar issues. 

Hope you have a great weekend! 🎧

Alyssa | Community Manager
Let's talk music in Community Chat
Share yours here: Q: What's your favorite anthem by a female artist that inspires you?
Check out this month's newsletter: The Listener Lounge: March 2024
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Xm1111
Local Performer

Pandora has gone to **ahem**. Fix the issues already. I'm not paying for headaches, I'm paying for a service and as a customer I want a quality product. If not, then give me my money back. 

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