Web: "We're having trouble playing audio on this device" Error

[deanbkr30]

I've been getting the message attached below for the past couple of days. I'm using a laptop, Windows 11, Brave browser, the ad blockers are turned off for Pandora and yet nothing seems to work. The Pandora app on my phone works, it's using the same wifi, router and modem. How do I fix this?

[MusicFan57575]

this worked for me with Chrome

Turn off the ad blocker

You can change your settings to allow ads on all sites.

1. On your computer, open Chrome.
2. At the top right, select More Settings.
3. Select Privacy and security Site settings.
4. Under “Content,” select Additional content settings Intrusive ads.
5. Under “Default behavior,” select Any site you visit can show any ad to you.

[awalter182000]

I have attempted all troubleshooting options on the Pandora site and none of them have solved my technical problem. I am currently using a desktop (chrome browser) to play Pandora and this message keeps appearing.

"We're having trouble playing audio on this device. We can't load media right now. This is commonly caused by overzealous ad blockers or privacy extensions. Please check that your browser extensions are not blocking our audio and refresh the page. If you continue to see this error you should contact support".

My job has a technical support department and they have verified any site or network troubleshooting and concluded that it was  a Pandora account related issue. Someone with a different Pandora account was able to play using my computer with no pop-up message as mentioned above. 

I tried multiple ways to contact Pandora directly and the site makes it extremely challenging to contact customer support by placing multiple roundabout links. I have been a premium Pandora member for many years and would rather get this issue resolved than cancel my membership entirely. I am dissatisfied with Pandora's extremely limited accessibility to direct customer support. 

[MariaPandora]

Hi @awalter182000, welcome to the community!

To keep things in order, I moved your post here: Web: "We're having trouble playing audio on this device" Error

You may want to check some of the suggestions made here to see if there's something else you can try that you haven't yet.

If you already tried everything suggested in this thread, can you tell me more about what's happening? Are you seeing the message the moment you log in or are you able to log in and then the message appears? Also, are you listening from a Mac or Windows computer?

Let us know.

[Kramskry]

I have been having this issue with Pandora using Firefox for over a year. Just yesterday I switched to the Pandora app on Windows (downloaded through the Window's Store), and I just had the problem pop up again. The app was working fine all day yesterday and for around the first hour of use this morning and then it occurred. I do not have any privacy apps installed on my desktop except for standard Windows Firewall.

I switched to the app because I even after turning off all popup blockers, tracker blockers (duckduckgo), and allowing all permissions for pandora in Firefox setting it would still occur on the web browser. Sometimes multiple times within a couple songs span and sometimes it would play for hours before occurring and reoccurring.

[AdamPandora]

@Kramskry Please try turning off your Windows Firewall temporarily to see if that resolves the issue.

If the error continues to pop up, can you please try power cycling your modem/router?

Let me know how it goes.

[Kramskry]

The problem that arises from the firewall solution is this problem is not consistent as to when it happens and how often. I am not going to turn my firewall off to wait and see if the issue occurs or not. That is a security issue that Pandora is not worth, know what I mean? I would be open to attempting port forwarding, if you could give me information on which port Pandora operates through. I have added Pandora to firewall list to allow it to communicate through Windows Defender Firewall.

Regarding power cycling my modem, I have cycled my modem numerous times for various reasons (even within the last two weeks), and the problem persists. I do concede since the last power cycle I was only operating through the website, and not the Windows app, but would power cycling be a permanent fix to this issue? I do not find it an acceptable solution to restart my modem each time this error occurs with Pandora.

[Kramskry]

Coming back to this, I decided to try turning off my Windows Firewall to see what would happen. After a few trials, I found the playback error was not occurring with Pandora anymore. This tells me Windows Firewall is in fact the culprit for blocking Pandora. I have done some googling, but have not found any solutions to this. Can I please get guidance?

[Kramskry]

Ok, so I looked into the issue of Pandora not playing myself, and adjusted settings in Windows Firewall. So far, I have not had any issues with playback on the Pandora Windows app since doing this. this was done in Windows 10. My steps are as follows:

1) Open Firewall & Network Protection (use search or control panel)

2) Click on "Advanced Settings"

3) Click on "Inbound Rules"

3) Find Pandora in the list double click to open

4) In General tab under Action select "Allow the connection"

5) Repeat Step 4 for any Pandora instances listed under "Inbound Rules"

If you have the app you may need to add it (I did). Do this as follows:

1) Click on "New Rule" on the right side of the Inbound Rules page

2) Under Rule Type choose "Program"

3) Under Program choose "This program path" and select the .exe file for Pandora. For me this was located in C:/Program Files/WindowsApps/. Also, I had two Pandora folders each with an .exe and I added both, as I was unsure which was which.

4) Under Action choose "Allow the connection"

5) Under Profile I chose all three "Domain, Private, Public" as I am on a home PC and do not venture outside of my own network with this. If you are on a laptop you may want to leave "public" unchecked. Not totally sure about this

6)Set the name like Pandora

7)Hit finish

Hopefully this will solve your issues. I have not tried it yet on the browser version (I use Firefox). I will do that and report back. Hopefully it works.

[Kramskry]

Well, I had an error with it this morning shortly after posting my solution. Now, I am not sure....