This problem is effecting my account again. I will limit this post to the interaction of an iOS and iPadOS streaming music via AirPlay to an iPod. I am making that limitation as I have seen some different behavior (still not working as designed) when streaming via AirPlay to other devices. I may post more on that after I do more testing. My account first had this issue some short time before 03-24-2022 (the day I reported the issue, starting this thread). The issue stopped effecting my account on or shortly before 09-07-2022, and there was no indication as to what resolved the issue for me. The issue returned for me on or shortly before 01-28-2023. So I was impacted between 5 and 6 months, and then everything was working as desired for 4 or 5 months (as my use of this is not consistent, it is possible that this is a 6 months working, 6 months broken situation). My current understanding: 1. The issue does not affect all iOS users at the same time. I have been in the ‘good’ state while others are in the ‘bad’ state. 2. The issue follows specific users, not specific devices, OS levels, or Pandora versions. 3. When a user is in the ‘bad’ state, they are consistently in the ‘bad’ state.When a user is in the ‘good’ state, they are consistently in the ‘good’ state. The problem is not intermittent when it is present, but a user can move between the states for months at a time. I am running Pandora version 2212.1 on iOS 16.3. ... View more

I have noticed a pattern in reports to this issue. It seems to me that the issue comes in 'waves' of reports of both the start of the problem, and of resolution to the problem. One possible reason for this would be some sort of load balancing of users against back end servers, with one (or more) of the servers having a problem that results in the silence after the commercial. As I noted (before my system started working again), the airplay target still reports that it is playing an add, even though the iOS reports that it is playing a song. If it is the case that some back end, load balanced component has an issue, it could be that the issue is sending some sort of 'end' notification to the airplay target. It would be interesting to know if those that are currently suffering from this issue have any back-end servers or components in common. ... View more

Looks like this is also working correctly now from my iPad (15.6.1) running Pandora (2208.2) while AirPlay streaming to my HomePod. So this looks to be totally resolved for me. Again, thank you to all that worked on fixing this issue. ... View more

I have also done a quick test on my iPhone 12 running iOS 15.6.1 and Pandora 2208.2 streaming to an Apple TV via AirPlay, and for music played as desired after the add finished. I will test more when I have access to my home set up, but I wanted to put an early thank you to the Pandora team that has been working on this issue. I hope that alexatn sees an improvement soon. ... View more

My understanding is that all paid accounts do not have adds, and so this would not be an issue that they would ever see. As far as I have been able to tell, this issue seems to impact all users of the add supported tier, although we did have one person comment on this thread in a way that implied that there were NOT seeing this issue on their account. But they did not follow up on questions. ... View more

Apple has released a new firmware version for the iPod (15.5.1). I have tested against this new version, and the problem is still present. ... View more

@AlyssaPandora I certainly do not intend to come across as frustrated in my posts here, and I apologize if I have. I am simply attempting to stay engaged with the issue, and continue to look for clues that may help the engineering team. I understand that they must be very busy, and that the add-supported version of Pandora is not likely to be as prioritized as issues that are impacting customers who have a paid subscription. You never know when some little tidbit will be the thing that catches someones eye and helps them realize what the root cause of the issue is :). ... View more

Pandora had another update to the app earlier this month. I have confirmed that the issue this thread is about is still present in the version 2205.1. ... View more

Another clue: When the issue happens (silence over airplay when there should be music), if I ask Siri on my iPhone "What is playing" I get back information that matches what the Pandora app on the phone says should be playing. But if I ask Siri on my HomePod (my Airplay target) it says "This is Advertisement by . Your station will be right back") ... View more

@Cwilder Can you confirm that: 1. You are using the commercial supported ("free") version of Pandora 2. You are using the standard iOS app for your streaming (a version number here might help) 3. You are able to stream your audio to a AirPlay2 device (which one would be interesting) 4. That your system plays audio over AirPlay2, a commercial plays, and then music continues to play over AirPlay2 after the commercial.  If that is the case, then it sounds like you are the first person to report the absence of this issue, and it might be valuable to the eng. staff to be able to compare a known good trace to a known failure trace. ... View more

This issue continue to look like it impacts all iPhone and iPad users. Not surprising, as the code base for an iPhone and iPad app should be extremely similar. The Mac does not have this issue, which is also not surprising, as the code is probably very different. But I have discovered that the Pandora App for the Apple TV does NOT have this issue. If you sent an Apple TV to stream its audio via AirPlay to a separate device (an iPod in my case), the issue of audio dropping after a commercial is NOT seen. I found this surprising, as the code base for the Apple TV app should be very similar to the iPhone and iPad. It may be that there is something that the group responsible for the Apple TV application can share with the iPhone and iPad team. ... View more

I understand that the engineering team needs to prioritize the work by the impact that it has on the community. I think that this issue is more widespread than the few dozen of us that have reported the problem on this thread and several other (now closed) threads on this site. I have recently had the opportunity to test two other accounts to see if this problem existed on them. Both accounts showed the exact same behavior, even when using a different phone than what I have tested. If others on this form have the ability to test ‘random’ other accounts, I think that reporting the results here would help the Pandora team understand the scope of the issue. Or, if someone can find a single account that does NOT show this issue, then that would likely be helpful for the engineering team to compare to the accounts we have provided them that DO show the issue.   For now, I think that if the folks interacting with the ticket have the ability to update the scope of impacted users to be “All iOS add supported users” or whatever the closest grouping is (if you make use of scope of impact), it would be helpful. In addition, the following update could be provided to the engineering team: Members of the community have tested accounts other than their own to see if this might be a universal issue. So far, 100% of the tests show the issue of audio not working properly after an add plays. The initial report expanded testing is of a small sample size, and the community has been asked to increase testing. The current   hypothesis is that this issue affects all iOS and iPad OS system using the add supported version of Pandora. All recent versions of the OS and Pandora application seem to be impacted. The community is interested to know if the engineering team has reproduced this bug on their own, or if they continue to needed community feedback. ... View more

A small bit of help for people having this issue while streaming to a HomePod or Apple TV: As this problem only comes up if you are streaming the data via AirPlay, you can avoid the issue by having Pandora play directly from your HomePod or AppleTV, both of which have the ability to do so. The AppleTV is relatively simple, as you can download the Pandora App directly from the App Store. The HomePod is a bit more subtle, as you don't have a user interface to interact with. But basically you have to follow the instructions noted here: https://help.pandora.com/s/article/Pandora-on-Apple-HomePod?language=en_US Once that is done, you can use Siri on your HomePod as noted in that article "Hey Siri, play Oh Land Radio on Pandora" and the audio will play without the 'silent after commercials' issue. I was hopeful that this might also work with handoff from the phone to HomePod, but my testing shows that that still uses AirPlay, and that the problem persists. ... View more

Another small tidbit to add: It seems that the issues pattern is 'in play' regardless of when one starts using airplay. This morning, I started Pandora on a station, and let it play out of my iPhone's speakers. It went through a song or two, then played an add through the iPhone speaker. Right after the add played, I set the iPhone to use Airplay, and no audio was present. After a few songs showed as playing (with no audio from the airplay device), a new song was audible from the speaker, and then an add played, and then the audio was no longer heard. The pattern seems to be: 1. An add (or two) plays at normal volume over airplay or iPhone/iPad speakers.  2. The next song or two will play at normal volume through the iPhone speakers, but will have 0 volume if played over airplay. 3. The song before an add will play at normal volume over airplay or iPhone speakers.  4. Go to step 1. ... View more

My configuration remains the same, other than I have updated my iPhone to 15.4.1 I had some time today, so I took down a log of my mornings audio interruptions for Pandora streaming over Airplay. This may be of use to the eng. team. All times are in Pacific Daylight Time. Log Starts. ~10:10 AM — Session starts and 2 songs play. 10:18 AM — Add finishes and music is no longer audible over airplay a single song plays and no commercial comes up. 10:23 AM — The music starts again at the start of a song (~ 8 minute track). 10:31 AM — A commercial played. 10:32 AM — The commercial finishes, and the audio is not audible for the 2 songs that follow, and no commercial comes up. 10:39 AM — The next song starts with audio working properly. 10:45 AM — A commercial played. 10:45 AM — The commercial finishes, 1.5 songs play with no audio coming out of the airplay device. 10:50 AM — I pause the audio to take care of some tasks 10:59 AM — I re-attach my player to the airplay device and resume the paused song. The audio starts in the middle of the song, and plays as expected (audible). Two additional songs play without issue. 11:08 AM — Two commercials played. 11:09 AM — The commercial finishes, the next song starts, but again no audio is heard over the airplay speaker. Log ends. ... View more

I can confirm that my secondary device (an iPad Air 2 (Model NGHY2LL/A) running OS 15.4) also suffers from this issue. I tested it in the thought of trying out the Pandora iOS Beta program as a test. But it is not clear if basic tier users are allowed in. I tried to get in, but the site currently said that the program is not accepting any new testers. At any rate, I have Testflight installed, so if the eng. team need someone to test a build, I would be happy to do so. ... View more

I have followed the trouble shooting steps, and the problem continues. It looks like you may want to add me to the trace, here is the info you seem to need for that: iPhone 12 (Model MGFX3LL/A) Carrier: T-Mobile (but the phone is on WiFi). iOS version: 15.4 Pandora version: 2202.1 I do not have any add blockers on my phone. I mention this as it ‘feels’ like this is some attempt by the Pandora app to work around an add blocker (i.e. adjusting volume around the commercial section). After being added to the trace, I will record a specific time that I see the issue to compare to your logs. ... View more