Desktop: Pandora Stops Working When Ads Appear

[ImaPepper]

I've used Pandora Free for years but recently when ads begin, it freezes up and stops working entirely instead of playing the ads.  I've tried Chrome, FF, Explorer, Edge, and Brave and it seems to happen on all.  I can live with ads, but with this now happening I'm near to seeking alternatives to beloved Pandora.... Help! 

[TannerPandora · Accepted solution]

Hi @ImaPepper thanks for posting and sorry to hear this. 

I've asked that our User Support team enable a trace on your account to help determine what may be happening.

While this trace is enabled would you mind attempting to use Pandora and replicate this issue, I'd like to see if we can gather some info. 

Thanks!

---

Hi @ImaPepper! I've been talking to an engineer and I'd like to follow up with a few questions:

1. Can you clarify what you mean by freeze.
   1. Does the ad freeze and not play?
   2. Does playback not resume after the ad ends?
   3. Do you need to press play or refresh the web page for playback to resume?
2. Do you have any ad blocker software on your computer that may be preventing playback?

Thanks again!

[ImaPepper]

Sorry to be slow to get back.. I did start using Pandora earlier and continued to experience the same problem on the browsers I used but I did not complete cycling thru all before I got sidetracked... This evening I've been back on using Brave.  So far it's gone thru 2 sets of ads without freezing up.   

To answer your questions more specifically_

1. When ads start to play, they attempt to play then stop in the middle, then begin again, then stop etc.  A 15 second ad, if it even completes playing could take a minute or more to complete playing.  Then once that occurs, Pandora will never then cycle back to the music.  It will just stop completely .  Most of the time, I can reload pandora.com and it will begin again and if I'm lucky, it will continue playing until the next set of ads  I guess htat answers your #2 question as well - NO playback does not resume.

3.  I try using on the browsers I have mentioned specifically because of the same question you have asked... Some have ad blockers and others, by design, do not so I can discover easily without changing my settings whether or not an ad blocker might be the cause.... Right now, I believe Edge, Brave and Explorer do not ahve ad blockers and FF and Chrome do.....  Prior to this problem arising this past week or two, I normally use Brave to listen primarily because of the no adblocker  complication.... Incidentally, another suspected problem you should know is that I am on Hughesnet Gen5 satellite which of course is very slow in this age but i have no alternative.  Also I've been on Hughesnet long before this problem arose.....  Hope this helps...  Even moreso, I hope you've already made some adjustments because Pandora on Brave has been working smoothly this evening....   Thanks

2. 

[TannerPandora]

No problem @ImaPepper! Appreciate you following up with more details. 

I'm going to pass this on to the engineer I was talking with yesterday. We still have the trace enabled so please continue to use Pandora as much as you can, we'll see if we can pick up more info on what might be happening!

Thanks for your patience in the meantime. 

[ImaPepper]

OK... FYI Pandora on Brave stopped working again once I hit the "Are You Still Listening/" time.....   At that point, after no return to music after pressing yes, the simple resolution was to start over from the original login page... We'll see if this repeats now...

[TannerPandora]

Thanks @ImaPepper. I've updated my report with your latest experience. 

I'm not too familiar with Brave, but I do know it has an automatic ad blocker. Could you turn this off for Pandora or turn this off in general to test the playback experience? 

I'd like to test out and see if any changes occur. Thanks!

[ImaPepper]

@TannerPandora  Given you're not too familiar with Brave and I don't see how to do what you suggest there, why don't I just experiment with a more familiar browser like Edge......  In Edge I see under Privacy and services there's an area called "tracking prevention."   I presently have that set at "Balanced."  Do you want to experiment with chaning that?? OR, more importantly, do you know a way in Edge to permanently turn off add blocking specifically for Pandora????  I'm willing to do that if you know how..  Please guide me thru and we'll see if it makes a difference. 

[ImaPepper]

FYI - 12:40 PM Sunday - Using Edge, it happened again - was doing fine up until I hit the "Are you still listening" time.   After pressing "yes," one ad started to cycle, never completed and Pandora froze and would not continue at all....

[AlyssaPandora]

@ImaPepper Thanks so much for providing those helpful details.

Could you try whitelisting Pandora on your Edge browser to see if this helps?

You can find the steps to do that here.

Let us know if you continue to run into issues. 🎧

[ImaPepper]

Alyssa - But here's the problem - To the best of my knowledge, I have Edge almost totally stripped down and have no adblock of any kind.... That would be verified by going to Extensions directly, not "Settings and More"/Extensions, since "Setttings and More" does not exist on my Edge, just "Settings,"  and seeing only 2 extensions listed and neither is any form of an adblocker

[AlyssaPandora]

@ImaPepper Thanks for your reply. I really appreciate you taking the time to provide all of this helpful information. I have a couple of questions for you.

• You mentioned earlier that some of the ads attempt to play and stop in the middle. Are you noticing this with one particular ad? Is it the same advertisement each time this happens?
• Also, have you tried using the Desktop app on your computer? This may be a good alternative until we can figure out what is happening.
  • If you're interested, you can find out how to install the desktop app here.

Let me know, and again thank you for sticking with me during this process. 👍

[ImaPepper]

@AlyssaPandora  Well, I think your comment about sticking with you during this process should be reversed and it should be me saying thank you....Thank you....  However, trying to get the App thru Microsoft Store just reminded me of why I try to use as few apps as possible on my laptop.   When I tried to download Pandora, I discovered the Store automatically attempted to start downloading a zillion other apps I don't need such as X-Box stuff before it put P in the queue.  When I figured that out, I stopped everything from downloading and started to try downloading P alone, but at one time during the process I saw the file was supposed to be something like 401 mb and then the Store started downloading one of 98mb size, so that once again got me angry at the process of doing something thru MS Store....Couple all this with being on Hughesnet where I have limited monthly data, I will not try this again until after 2 AM when my bandwidth limits are not anywhere near as much limited... Grrrrrrrrrrr.... I also have a pending Windows update now that needs doing too...KB4556799.  Problem continues @ Edge....  I have not noticed it to be associated with a single particular ad, now only when the "Are You Still Listening" tap comes up and I press yes and it starts ads

[AlyssaPandora]

@ImaPepper I've gone ahead and escalated your case to an email support case so that we can run a diagnostic test. 

Someone will be in touch via email soon and you can send over the results by clicking on the diagnostic link from Pandora Support. Once we have this info, I can report this over to engineering. 

Thanks for your patience throughout this process! 

[ImaPepper]

First attempt to send report from Edge failed. I should have taken a screenshot of results but didn't think of it until too late... Then successfully completed and sent a test from Brave, then went back to Edge and this time completed and sent results... More and more I'm sensing the problem probably has more to do with Hughesnet and the sensed deterioration in an already slow ISP due to the pandemic than anything else.. I hope test results show you something!

[AlyssaPandora]

@ImaPepper Thanks so much for your patience during this process. I'm checking in with our device team regarding your issue. I appreciate you taking the time to send over your diagnostic for your computer.

In the meantime, I will also be reporting to our engineering team to see if they have any suggestions as well. Since we've been in contact, I will follow up with you regarding your issue directly via email.

Thanks again for reporting this! 

[ImaPepper]

To summarize for anyone else reading this thread, I did manage to download the app for PC from Microsoft STore and started using that.  At first, I thought this was the needed panacea as it worked so smoothly avoiding the problems I was experiencing on numerous browsers.... HOWEVER, I made the mistake of attempting to skip a song and the problems began.  An ad for Consumer Cellular came up, it played and then P just stopped working....I tried shutting it down and reconnecting but then P app would not connect again when I could connect to P Edge.... I eventually got P app open again, but the problem was repeatable so we're still trying to figure out what's going wrong and why... for the record, Alyssa and Pandora have been super great in helping work thru this and the conversations are now taking place via direct email....  MANY THANKS  for the efforts... I'll post again once we're solved and I have every confidence that will happen thanks to P Support.... 

[AlyssaPandora]

Our engineering team is still investigating this for you.

Always glad to be of help, @ImaPepper. 👍

[DJennerit]

Got to walk over to the laptop and hit play. Then the add plays. 2 songs maybe 3 and it stops again. Also my laptop is typing 2 nn for some reason. So my screen name needs to be changed it is DJennerit

[TannerPandora]

Hey @DJennerit! Thanks for posting. 

Can you let me know the make and model of your laptop? Also, are you listening on the web? If so, can you let me know the browser you're using?

In the meantime, I'll DM you about your username. Thanks!

[DJennerit]

The username is correct. I am using MacBook Pro, chrome. I logged out and back in, seems to be working correctly now.