Desktop App: Sound Keeps Cutting Out

[kittle]

Recently i found the desktop app sound keeps cutting in and out while playing songs.

Other music files play fine.  Games play fine, Movies play fine.  Im on a desktop so there is no battery or power-save settings to worry about.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

mod edit: changed title for clarity

[saluqi]

The latest update to the Windows 10 app changed the look of the app, but also made the streaming much, much worse. I have a high speed internet connection, and I am connected to it via network cable, not wifi. This new version of the app stops and resumes very frequently. The old app *never* did this on this same PC. This is *not* Pandora asking if I am still listening. It just stops in the middle of a song, and then resumes a couple of seconds later, as if I were on a low speed or crappy wifi connection.

[AdamPandora]

@saluqi Welcome to the community!

I recommend running through the troubleshooting steps listed on this page. The steps for Windows app specifically can be found at the bottom of that article.

Let me know if you continue to experience issues with this. 

[TheDrewster]

The Pandora App from the Microsoft Store in Windows 10 Pro randomly stops playing audio.

I am forced to skip the song or close and reopen Pandora to get audio working again.

Song length does not matter. Pandora will play a song, then silence on the next song, I advance to the next song and sound resumes. This is extremely annoying and needs to be addressed and fixed. I have used Pandora for music for years now and this problem is a recurring thing. It will get fixed one patch and broken another patch.

The updates seem almost as bad as Windows 10 updates which is not a good thing.

mod edit: changed title for clarity

[AlyssaPandora]

Hey there, @TheDrewster. 👋

Sorry to hear that you're having trouble. I completely understand your frustration.

I’ve enabled a trace on your Pandora account to help us better understand what’s happening. Please run through our troubleshooting steps while the trace is enabled. This will be extremely helpful, in case we have to report this over to our engineering team.

++

First, try resetting the Pandora app from the Help menu (not to worry, we'll keep track of your profile and collection for you). Press Alt on your keyboard to bring up a menu options at the top of the page, then select Help and Reset App Data.

If you're still having issues, try uninstalling and reinstalling using the following steps:

1. Locate Pandora in your Start Menu, and right-click to reveal an additional menu. Select Uninstall from the dropdown menu. From there, select Pandora from the list and confirm by selecting Uninstall once more.
2. Next, find our app in the Windows Store on your device. Search for Pandora in the upper right corner and click or tap Get to re-install.

Please note that downloading any application on your devices requires a Microsoft account and password, and it may be a different email address and password than those on your Pandora account.

Also, we do not support Pandora on unofficial OS releases, like preview or developer builds. We only support Pandora on configurations that we have fully tested, so as to ensure the application will work correctly and not cause any problems with functions of the device.

Let me know how it goes and whether the sound issue persists. 🎧

[AlyssaPandora]

Hey there, @kittle. 👋

Thanks so much for reporting your experience.

Let's try running through the troubleshooting steps for the Pandora app on your Windows Desktop computer.

Feel free to let me know how it goes by responding directly on this thread. 🎧

[kittle]

Hi @AlyssaPandora 

Thanks for the response.

I actually started the Pandora app from a fresh install.  I was using the really OLD Pandora One flash-based player when the sound started cutting out.  After verifying it was not my hardware, I followed the troubleshooting steps by simply installing the windows app for the very first time on my PC.

Within seconds of starting to play a song it cut out again.

I wondered if it was possibly the stream or my network.  so i tried the web based player.  That worked fine.  So something is amiss with the windows app.

[AlyssaPandora]

@kittle Thanks so much for letting me know. That information is very helpful.

I'd like to report this issue to our engineers for further investigation.

Could you help by providing a little more info?

1. Make and model of your device;
2. Mode: Desktop
3. Network (Wi-Fi or 3G/4G/LTE);
4. Pandora version (under Pandora Settings on the bottom left);
5. Windows version & build;
6. Are there any error messages? If so, what do they say?
7. Are you able to stream Pandora normally through a web browser like Chrome or Firefox? Yes.

Also, are you running a Preview Build of Windows? If so, are you in the fast ring or slow ring?

++

Lastly, could you clarify a bit when you mention cutting out?

When you're listening, is it skipping? Is there distortion? 

Does the timer stop, and does it keep going but no sound?

Do you need to hit play again to resume playing your music on the desktop app?

Sorry for the multiple questions, just trying to get a better understanding so I can report this accurately to our engineering team. Thanks again for your help with this. 🎧

[kittle]

Hi Alyssa

The cutting in/out has improved overnite, but its still present.  my PC stays turned on at nite -- no sleep mode due to running Folding at home.

To answer your questions:
1) My PC is a custom-built gaming system from Puget Systems ( https://www.pugetsystems.com/genesis.php )
3) Network:  cable modem service from comcast via LAN cable (no wi-fi)
4) pandora version --  15.0.3.0 (from app settings under windows start menu)  there is no settings icon inside the windows desktop app
5) there are no messages, warning, error or other.

I am running the standard retail version of windows 10.  No preview or beta versions.

I use chrome as my browser.  I have not tried any other browsers - and streaming works fine over chrome.

by cutting out - the sound stops, and then resumes a short time later but the audio has skipped ahead.  the duration ofthe skip can be anywhere from milliseconds to about 1 second.  (when I see it) - the app is still running fine. theres no visible freeze, and the sound will resume playing on its own.

Frequently I will have a game running at the same time (usually full-screen).  the game sounds continue but the music stops.  however I still get skips while not running games -- like today while I am working from home.

Hope this helps.

[AlyssaPandora]

@kittle Thanks so much for sticking with me on this. I'll be reporting this to our engineering team to investigate further.

Appreciate your patience while they look into this. 🎧

[AlyssaPandora]

@kittle A couple more questions for our engineering team.

Does this happen after a period of time or immediately when listening, and does it happen on all songs?

Do you notice this occurring on a particular station or all stations?

[kittle]

the cutting out seems random.

I can go for a while with nothing, and then it will cut out 4-5 times in the same song.

Then said same song will play again (thats a different issue), and it will be fine.

I mainly listen to 1 station:  https://www.pandora.com/station/play/134720982319205667

So i cant comment on other stations lately, but on the Pandora One flash player, it happened on all stations.

On a separate issue (pass this on to your web team)  - whenever I click on the reply link from your notification email, i get a 500 error from your website.  it usually takes 3-4 tries for this page to finally show up.

[AlyssaPandora]

Thank you, @kittle. 👍

I've updated the ticket with the info you've provided. I will check in with the Community team about the reply issue from the notification issue.

Are you able to provide a screenshot of what happens when you click reply? If not, no worries. I'd like to share it with our Community manager to investigate. 

[kittle]

Well the "Reply" is working now.  so somebody in the web team fixed the problem.

I was able to click the email link, then the reply button and then enter this post.

[AlyssaPandora]

Awesome! Thanks so much for letting me know about that. 👍

[descenter2000]

I'm having this problem. 

The link does not contain trouble shooting that I could find at the bottom on the page. 

[AdamPandora · Accepted solution]

@descenter2000 I moved your post to this thread since it sounds like there have been new reports of this issue: app sound keeps cutting out

I updated the link in my previous reply with the correct one - can you now please try running through the troubleshooting steps for the Pandora app on your Windows Desktop computer?

Let me know how it goes.

[blackXred]

  In March 2024, there appears to be no Help menu.  🙂  Still searching for an answer for this problem with songs stopping in the middle of nowhere.  [EDIT:  I just reread your post and saw the part about holding ALT to find the menu.  [Why isn't that there by default???  This is the first I've seen anything about it.  Beat your UI folks about the head with an ugly stick.  Repeatedly!!!  😄  Thank you.  That in itself is likely to be quite helpful.  /EDIT] 

  As well as to why the screen will go solid blue (like the old Windows crash screen!!!  🙂 and there's nothing to do but restart it and hope it works right again.  Which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.

  What the ___ happened to the Pandora Windows app???

  I recently came back to Pandora after a long absence.  Back in the late '90s (I think), I loved it, particularly for learning new music that I might like..  I'm now _much_ less enamored.  Problems like this where songs just stop in the middle of nowhere [which it JUST did -- AGAIN! -- as I'm typing this], not being able to skip around in a song (other than restarting it), and the paradigm shifting radically in a negative direction (when starting to play from a song, it no longer seems so match songs with similar characteristics but instead will give me more cultural(?) connectors. e.g., start w/ Fleetwood Mac's _Oh Well_ or _Black Magic Woman_; and the next thing you know, it's playing f***ing Foreigner or some other mid-'70s **ahem** that was on the air at the same time as the Buckingham/Nicks-era F.Mac, who have little similarity with the Peter Green era. )

  My best guess at this point is that Pandora completely refocused to phone apps and the computer apps are an afterthought ported over from the phone apps.  That's _extremely_ disappointing.  I may switch to another service because of these issues.  And I LOVED Pandora back then -- thought it was awesome!  I want to like it again.