Android: Automatic Switch to Offline Mode Lags

[billgrove]

I am on the 30 day trial of Pandora.  I have a daily drive of 30 minutes each way to work.  Approximately 15 minutes of that drive has very little or no cellular reception.  I have found that Pandora is VERY slow to switch to offline mode (5-10 minutes).  I'll sit in silence waiting for it to switch and don't know what to do to make it faster. If it can't play a song from my cellular data, I would assume it would switch to offline immediately, but that doesn't seem to be the case.  As long as it sees there is a data connection (no matter how weak) it seems to want to keep trying and trying to play live instead of switch to offline.  Anyone else have this issue and/or have a solution? Thank you.

mod edit: changed title for clarity

[AlyssaPandora]

Hi there, @billgrove. 👋

Thanks for bringing this up, and sorry to hear that you're experiencing a lag when you lose connection. 

Do any error messages pop up when you lose connection?

In the meantime, I’ve enabled a trace on your account to help us better understand what’s happening, and in case we need to share this with our engineering team. For this trace to be useful, we’ll need you to run through our basic troubleshooting steps* once more: Android Troubleshooting

*Pandora Premium and Premium Family listeners may need to re-download some of their offline content after this. Pandora Plus users, however, should receive that offline content again automatically. If you have any trouble with your offline stations after this, please let us know.

[billgrove]

Thank you so much for your prompt reply!  I had both high quality audio on and off when I was diagnosing it myself.  I don't have any battery savers turned on and it's actually on a wireless charging cradle in my car, so that wouldn't normally apply.  Happy to clear the cache for the app as well.  But thank you for putting on the trace.  Hopefully that will get you the info you need.  Seems to be an issue in your algorithm deciding when to switch.  Seems to be based on "If there is no data connection, switch to offline mode" and not "If there isn't enough data to stream, switch to offline mode".  I would suggest that if the app is unable to cache the first 30 seconds or so of the song, then switch to offline mode (and cache the next song before completion of the previous song).

[AlyssaPandora]

Yes, @billgrove. The 5-10 minute time frame seems like a long lag before it switches over to offline completely. 

Let me know how the troubleshooting steps work out, and if this issue pops up again when you're on your daily drive.

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

[billgrove]

Drove home last night, same problem, many gaps, longest was about 4
minutes. This morning not as many gaps, more like 30 seconds, but it may
have been in offline mode longer. Not sure.

[AlyssaPandora]

@billgrove Thanks for getting back to me with that information. I appreciate you sticking with me on this. I'd like to share your experience with our engineering team.

I'd like to report your issue to our engineering team. Can you send over a bit more info about your device?

• Model:
• Carrier:
• Android version (Settings > About Phone):
• Build number (Settings > About Phone):
• Android Security Patch Level, if noted on your device (Settings > About Phone):
• Pandora version (If you can open Pandora, go to Profile, then select Settings. Scroll to the bottom of the screen for the version number):

Thanks again for your help with this. 🤝

[billgrove]

Is there a way to update the algorithm so that if the app is unable to start a song (for whatever reason) after 10 seconds, it auto-switches to offline mode?  My daily drive has VERY weak cell signal along an area for about 10 miles, but there is still cell signal, so I guess the app THINKS it will be able to stream when I know it can't.  So it tries and tries for about a minute before it finally gives up and switches to offline mode.  I would think that would be a pretty simple programming change, but would make my life easier!  🙂 

[AdamPandora]

@billgrove It looks like you've contacted us about this before, so I moved your new message back to your original thread: Android: Automatic Switch to Offline Mode Lags

The app should automatically switch over to Offline Mode as soon as you run out of cell service.

Since it has been a while since @AlyssaPandora was last helping you with this, I went ahead and enabled a trace on your account so we can get a better understanding of what is happening again.

For this trace to be useful, can you please attempt to run through these troubleshooting steps once more: Troubleshooting for Android Devices

If you continue to experience issues after completing those steps, can you please send over a bit more info about your device? That way I can escalate your feedback over to our engineering team so they can further investigate.

I'll need you to send:

• Model:
• Carrier:
• Android version (Settings > About Phone):
• Build number (Settings > About Phone):
• Android Security Patch Level, if noted on your device (Settings > About Phone):
• Pandora version (If you can open Pandora, go to Profile, then select Settings. Scroll to the bottom of the screen for the version number):

Thanks for the help with all of this! 

[billgrove]

Thank you for reaching out and I apologize for the late reply.  I have used this on 4 different cars now, all with the exact same issue.  If there is ANY cell signal at all, even if it's not enough to start a song, Pandora keeps trying and trying to start the song before deciding to switch to offline mode.  It seems to be that in the algorithm says "If any contact is made with the server and any data is received, keep trying" where, in my opinion, it should be based more on time like "If the song is unable to start in 10 seconds, no matter what the reason, switch to offline mode and continue to try the download.  When a full song download is complete, switch back over" or something to that effect.

I have also used 3 different phones on the 4 different cars, all with the same result.