I'm having a consistent buffering/playback issue with Pandora on my iPhone.
Device: iPhone 16 Pro
iOS: 26.6.1
Pandora version: 2608.1
Pandora works normally immediately after I completely delete and reinstall the app. However, I can consistently reproduce the problem this way:
Play Pandora normally.
Stop the music and completely close Pandora by swiping the app away.
Open another app such as TikTok, Instagram, or ESPN and play video/audio.
Reopen Pandora and try to play music.
Pandora then buffers indefinitely or sometimes appears to be playing but produces no sound.
One important test: If I close Pandora, open ESPN but do not play a video, and then reopen Pandora, it works. If I close Pandora and then play a video in ESPN before reopening Pandora, Pandora stops working.
The problem happens on both Wi-Fi and cellular.
I have already tried force closing Pandora, restarting the iPhone, confirming Background App Refresh and Cellular Data are on, confirming Low Power Mode is off, disabling VPN, removing offline stations, offloading and reinstalling Pandora, and confirming the iPhone speaker is selected for audio output.
Apple Music plays normally on the same iPhone.
The only thing that consistently restores Pandora is completely deleting the app and reinstalling it. Once another app plays audio or video after Pandora has been fully closed, the problem returns.
Is this a known issue with Pandora 2608.1 and iOS 26.6.1? I'm happy to provide additional information or diagnostics if that would help your engineering team.
