HEOS App: Payback stops, pauses, is unplayable

[milkman76]

Hello - 20+ year Pandora user here. Ive never had issues connecting to or playing back Pandora media on... almost any computer in that time. 

We bought a Marantz series 30 and SACD30n pair with HEOS a couple years ago. On this HEOS system, we play Tidal, we used to play spotify, local media files, and internet radio without any issues. 

About a year ago, Pandora began stuttering, stopping playback, refusing to change stations, etc, on HEOS. We reset the entire device out of frustration, and Pandora began playing ok again. 2 weeks later, its back to skipping, stopping, unplayable. HEOS/Marantz are almost impossible to get in touch with anymore...

Can anyone please help me understand why this is happening? No other streaming (over bluetooth or wireless) has any issue like this on this HEOS box. Only Pandora. (I didnt see HEOS as a tag, so I couldnt tag this)

[milkman76]

This issue is ruining our ability to play Pandora on our main stereo, and I am becoming quite frustrated with this, given the amount of money we pay Pandora monthly for this service, and for *how long* Ive been doing so. We have reset our HEOS device to factory defaults in attempts to fix this, but only Pandora has the issue. No other streaming services have this trouble.  

Is this forum monitored by customer service, or is there a better way to get support? If we cant get this working very soon, we will cancel and use our own media, as we did before Pandora existed. 

[MariaPandora]

Hi @milkman76 , thanks for posting.

Sorry for the continued trouble. To help, I've removed the device association from your account. This will automatically sign you out once this change takes effect. Please be patient as this may not happen instantaneously.

Next, click here to select steps specific to your device in order to set up Pandora once more.

If you do not see your device listed, click here for general activation steps.

Let me know if this helps.

[milkman76]

2-3 weeks ago I reset our HEOS device to factory defaults... and set up Pandora on the freshly wiped device. You want me to remove / restore Pandora on that device again? 

[MariaPandora]

Hi @milkman76 ,

We checked your devices but the last HEOS device that was linked was linked on 2023, so we removed these HEOS devices from our end to make sure they are fully unlinked and so you can try to link them again.

Please let me know how it goes.

[milkman76]

Not sure what just happened, but I tried to reply but the "accept as solution" button was where the "reply" button should be. When I clicked "NOT solution" it erased everything. 

The first time I signed into Pandora on my HEOS device was 2023. Since then I have fully reset the device, as Ive mentioned a couple times, once in the last couple weeks. The "link" between my systems and Pandora is a stored hash that contains identifying info about my hosts, network, etc, so the link is in Pandora's control, no? Im a 35+ year net/sysadmin, so this is part of my job. 

I will sign into Pandora again and reply back to this thread to confirm. I assume the "un-linking" was done earlier and I will be doing a good test. 

[milkman76]

Pandora on my HEOS device is playing normally again, as it did the last time we reset it. 

I will update this thread if/when it starts again. It took 2 weeks for the issue to come back last time...

[milkman76 · Accepted solution]

It has been 2 weeks now, and no skipping so far. Perhaps resetting the server side token was the solution. I will reply to this thread if this happens again. Thank you for your time. 

[TannerPandora]

Glad to hear it, @milkman76! I’m happy to hear you’re back to listening. 🎶

Hopefully, you won't have this issue again (or any issue 🤞) in the near future. Feel free to start a new thread though. The cause may be different, and starting fresh is sometimes the best approach.

Thanks for being part of community and have a great Thursday! 

[milkman76]

This problem is happening again. I shouldnt start a new thread because this is the SAME issue, as always. Playback continues normally for a few weeks, then the issues begin again. Playback randomly stops, will not start again. Some days it plays fine, some days it does not. No other service connected to our HEOS device, including local file server playback, has any stuttering or playback issues of any kind. Its only Pandora. 

[TannerPandora]

Hi @milkman76 

Thanks for sticking with us on this! Sorry for the continued trouble listening to Pandora on your HEOS/Marantz, I can understand how frustrating it is to see the same issue keep coming back.

I’d like to gather a few additional details about your experience so we can take a closer look at what’s happening:

• The next time playback stops, can you share the date and time (as close as possible) that it occurred?
• Does this seem to happen with one specific station, or across multiple/all stations?
• When playback stops, what exactly are you experiencing—does it pause and refuse to resume?
• Do you see any kind of error message? If so, can you share exactly what it says?

Thanks for your help with these details, and for your continued patience.

[milkman76]

It happens on all stations.

Playback will often stop/start once or twice, then stops entirely. The screen will show pandora attempting to playback the current station. 

We didnt get a chance to test today (3/23) because we werent near the HEOS device. The very next time this happens we will 1) record time/date and 2) try to identify any other info on the HEOS display to do with pandora. 

I fully monitor my LAN/WAN connections here and we have dozens of other devices, laptops, PCs online 24/7. My own workstation plays Pandora via the browser without any trouble, and all other devices (android tablets, phones, TVs, chromecasts) have no trouble. Its only HEOS. 

[TannerPandora]

Hi @milkman76 , thank you for the detailed follow-up! I really appreciate you taking the time to track this and share what you’re seeing.

The details you’re planning to capture next time (time/date and what’s showing on the HEOS display) will be very helpful. When you do have a chance to test again, would you also be able to grab a quick photo or screenshot of what you’re seeing on the HEOS app or display when playback stops?

That visual can be helpful and give us greater insight. Thanks again for your help with this.

[milkman76]

All day today, 3/24 from around 8am until 5pm, no dropouts or problems. We will keep testing.

When this happens next, we will definitely get a picture of the HEOS display and post it here. Thank you for your replies!

[milkman76]

This is very intermittent. So far we have not had additional issues since making the above post, which is frustrating. This always seems to come back after a few weeks, so I will continue... to update this thread as we have additional info. 

I dont know if I should make ANOTHER thread for this, but the Pandora app inside our HEOS system is also telling us we are "out of skips" right now but we pay for the premium family plan with unlimited skips. 

[TannerPandora]

Hi. @milkman76! 

Thanks for the update! I definitely understand where you're coming from, been there myself, and it can make things tricky to pin down. Thanks for sticking with us!

No need to start a new thread for the “out of skips” message, we can keep everything together here so it’s easier to track. I’m going to do a bit of digging on that from my side and will follow up as soon as I have more information.

In the meantime, feel free to share any patterns or details you notice. Thanks again!

[milkman76]

This was one of my family members' accounts -- I had her verify she was using our family login, which she did, to ensure she had not logged into a free account by mistake. Its our family account, and it just told her again "you have run out of skips for this hour". 

[TannerPandora]

Hi @milkman76 

I was able to locate the specific Pandora account associated with your Family subscription, and everything on the account subscription itself looks correct from our side.

I did notice that the last connection between Pandora and both the Samsung device and the Denon HEOS system appears to be from 2022. Because of that, it’s possible those devices are holding onto an older or inactive session.

To help rule that out, I’m going to remove the Pandora connection from the Denon HEOS system, once logged out, please sign back in with a fresh login.

I also recommend uninstalling and reinstalling the Pandora app on the Samsung device. Please note that this will remove any offline content, so anything saved for offline listening will need to be downloaded again.

Once everything is reconnected, please try reproducing the issue and let me know if you’re still seeing the “out of skips” message.

Thanks!

[milkman76]

Ok -- we will log in again and try this again shortly. Thanks for your reply. 

2022?? That was when we first purchased this Marantz SACD 30N. We have reset the entire unit to defaults twice in that time, including just the other day, at the start of this thread when you asked me to do this after "resetting my connection on your end". Would resetting the account again help with this? This was literally the 1st thing we did a couple weeks ago. Should we do this again? 

The other person (my partner) doesnt use pandora on her samsung device. She uses the HEOS app directly to control the pandora instance within it. Same with my device -- I have pandora installed on it but I dont play pandora from the app most of the time. Im retiring all smartphones in our house anyway, so very soon we will not even have any 'devices' that use 'apps' because the entire ecosystem is toxic and dangerous. Ill be using the web, or using our HEOS device, and that is all.

[TannerPandora]

Hi @milkman76 

Hope you had a nice weekend! I don’t blame you for your thoughts on devices and apps, sit can definitely spiral quickly. I’ve found that doing a bit of a device detox can be really helpful, and I try to be mindful about putting devices away when I can.

As far as creating a new connection with Pandora, that’s typically a great place to start with any third-party integration. It helps clear out any old cached data and establishes a fresh connection. Sometimes—though not always—that can resolve behaviors like the one you described.

I also took a look at the three Pandora accounts associated with your family plan. Only one currently shows a connection to the HEOS app (along with an Android device), while the other two are only connected to Android devices. I’m assuming the account with the HEOS connection is the one experiencing the issue?