Android: Persistent player notification / Background activity when app is closed

[Phantomstormy]

Hello,

I've had a similar problem a few weeks ago (Pandora unpausing when I didn't ask it to), but it didn't happen as often as others commented above. However, I think it stopped on its own but with with a new problem in its place. When I have Pandora closed, a notification saying, "Unknown by Unknown" pops up on my notification screen and I cannot get rid of it. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app, and it still persists. How may I solve both of these problems should the both continue?

Thank you for your time.

Moderator Edit: Changing title for clarity

[vanguard08]

So... has there been any reported resolution? I'm having the same issue reported. I want to end my listening session and close out Pandora, then 1-2 seconds later the Unknown by Unknown pops up. I don't actually care if it's running in the background, just get this annoying notification off my phone... please and thank you.

[AlyssaPandora]

Hi there, @vanguard08. 👋

Your feedback means a lot to us, thank you for taking the time to report this. We've shared the reports from this thread with our tech team. 

At this time, there are no new updates; the last update was posted here.

Thank you for your patience as we navigate this process. 🎧

[Jj5645]

That works but the notification comes back after starting pandora again. 

Having same issue.  Just started today. Samsung s23 Android phone, launch from car already disabled, persistent notification from Pandora saying Unknown song by unknown artist over a black background. If I open Pandora to play music, the notification displays the correct information, and then it goes away once I close Pandora. Two or three seconds later, the notification comes back, with the Unknown message. I can remove the notification but it comes back when I start pandora and then choose app again. 

mod edit: merged comments

[AlyssaPandora]

Hi, @Jj5645. 👋

Thank you for posting your experience, and sorry for the continued trouble with this.

Unfortunately, there are no new updates for this issue but the last update was posted here.

In the meantime, I've shared your direct feedback with our engineering team regarding your experience with this notification. If you notice anything else, please don't hesitate to let me know. 🎧

[LadySilence]

Replying here so I can follow the new thread: I was in the other thread with Pandora actually launching itself when it wasn't running at all, including immediately after reboot, and playing music randomly. That bug got fixed with the latest update, but the Pandora notification randomly resurrecting itself (again, without the app running in the background) and sits with two panels: one is "unknown", the other loads my latest Pandora station and waits for me to press play. Which is a lot better than just playing without my say -so, but I am tired of constantly having to dismiss the notification.

[Bprob]

Issues should not be closed. Problem still exists. I updated to the current version and Pandora still starts but not playing. I don't want it to auto-start unless I choose it to auto start for Android Auto. Give ME the option! This is still a problem and I'm considering moving to another provider.

Thanks!

[onewhitescott]

Oh, so only half the problem is solved Pandora? You just confirmed your engineers were not inconsiderate in making a product that turns on randomly and users will see a persistent player notification appearing when the app is turned off, you just confirmed your engineers were incompetent in creating such a monster.  Will it take another month to fix the notification issue?

[CTXRP]

Pandora app has started playing music at 10:30pm the last 3 nights waking me up. Need resolution. 

[TannerPandora]

Hi @CTXRP Thanks for posting your experience.

We are aware of this issue and have received confirmation that this issue of Pandora playing when your Android restarts has been resolved with the latest release of 2308.1.1.

Can you confirm that you're mobile device is on the latest version of 2308.1.1.

If you are on version 2308.1.1 can you tell me know some additional details about your device:

• Make and model of your phone
• Android version

Thanks for the help!

[mmarshall76]

@TannerPandora I think the issue with Pandora waking people up is one I identified years ago that someone in support told me would be fixed but never happened.  Hear me out on this because it actually pretty easy to replicate on Android.

TLDR; The problem is that the premium session timeout length is too long. You should have 15 minutes of uninterrupted listening within 20 minutes but instead it is 15 minutes within 4 hours.

The problem is caused by a paused Pandora premium session (when you watch an ad to play the song you want on demand). Let's say when you start a Pandora premium session you get 15 minutes of on demand listening. If you listen to 15 minutes of on demand music there's no issue. When you reach your 15 minutes of on demand listening, the premium session ends, and Pandora returns to whatever station you were listening to before the premium session and automatically starts playing that station again.

The problem is if you PAUSE the session and never actually compete your 15 minutes (or whatever the time is) of on demand listening. What happens is that the Pandora premium session stays open for HOURS.  Eventually after a few hours the premium session ultimately does times out and it does what it is supposed to do after a session ends...it returns back to the station it was playing before the premium session started and automatically starts playing music again!

For example, I'm listening to the DMB station and then before bed my kids ask to hear a specific song. I start a premium session, watch the ad, play one or two songs in my premium session, and pause the third song and say it is time for bed. I never hit my 15 minutes of listening and the session stays open.  Hours later, while I'm sleeping now, the session eventually times out and Pandora does what it is supposed to do after a premium session ends...it returns me back to the DMB station I was listening to before the premium session started and automatically starts playing the DMB station again... except now it is in the middle of the night and I'm sleeping!!!

I'm pretty sure this is a fix you could implement in 60 seconds assuming there's already a maximum timeout variable in the app code.  I think there is being that it does eventually timeout...albeit hours later! 

Good luck @TannerPandora !

[TannerPandora]

Hi @mmarshall76!

Thank you for your thorough and detailed post. I appreciate your careful testing of Premium Access sessions. This is very helpful and I'm happy to pass along your experience to our engineering team for further review. Please let us know of any changes that you experience. Thanks again!

[monkeycsk]

seriously, why would they close the bug when NOT everything has been addressed? what kind of lame excuse is this saying these are two separate bugs.

@onewhitescott 

agreed. their engineers were incompetent. they never heard of the term 'rollback' to the previous working version??

mod edit: merged comments

[JMensch95]

I also have the same thing, it shows up running in background

[CTXRP]

Not sure if that is the same issue. Yesterday pandora randomly started playing out of nowhere about 48 hours since I had previously used the app. 

[AdamPandora]

@CTXRP That issue should have been resolved with the release of Pandora app version 2308.1.1. (Please see this thread for details: (RESOLVED) Android: Pandora Starts Playing After Being Closed)

Can you please confirm if music is actually playing on your device, where sound is coming out of the speakers on your Android phone? 

Or is the issue that the player notification randomly shows on your device, however music isn't actually coming out of your speakers?

If that is the case, we do have a separate thread where users have reported the same experience here: Android: Pandora player notification appears when app is closed

Let me know.

[CTXRP]

The app is up to date. The music is playing from the phone with sound emitting from the phone speakers. When it started last night, it was at least 48 hours after the app had been used and closed.

[Grace012]

• I see others with this issue, saying to go advanced settings, auto play, mine does not have that setting! It starts automatically EVERY time I reboot. I can't get it to stop!   I've reinstalled, empties cache, etc... started a few weeks ago with new phone, driving me insane. Do I switch to Spotify? I have a great thumbnail list I hate to lose, but this is maddening!!!

[mmarshall76]

In addition to my original response about the premium session being paused and timing out I experienced what you're describing as well yesterday. I didn't notice if the app had updated but as of recently Pandora has been starting on my phone automatically after I restart my device. From what I've seen there's no options in the app to stop it from starting the app when the phone is powered up/restarting.  

What I did experience was similar to what you described, where hours after starting my device, when Pandora had started on its own when the device powered on, Pandora just started playing randomly hours later. 

[bencii]

It keeps starting on my Samsung s22. All code is up to date. I'm a free user as I don't use it that much, but I'm about ready to uninstall.

[JStarr]

Hi,

I have updated to the new version and am still finding that Pandora autostarts when I restart my phone. In other words, it is constantly running in the background, draining my battery, unless I remember to shut it down after rebooting. Is there anything I can do to stop this?

Thanks,

UmbrellaRecycler