Database Users

Music player glitch on i9000m... absolutely fed up... solutions?

Hey all,
I typically never register and make my first a complaint/help post, but this problem has been plaguing me ever since I first got my Galaxy S Vibrant from Bell (i9000m) a week ago and now I'm pretty much desperate in looking for a solution, as music listening happens to be a HUGE part of my Smartphone experience. I love the phone with everything else thus far after coming over from iphone 3G and definitely wouldn't want to change the phone just because of this problem... but it's becoming way too persistent for me that I'm actually considering switching back to Apple (even though I don't want to).
Here's the problem: The music player seems absolutely incapable of smooth playback of music for whatever reason. In my ~10 years of music phone experience (I got the first ever mp3 phone released here in Canada - the Samsung Uproar, many years ago actually), this phone is the first to have such problems. Here are some symptoms and settings, music playing on both the stock music player as well as btunes that I downloaded and paid for:
- MP3/AAC files stutter/skip seemingly at random. Not majorly but for half a second or so at different parts of the song. Happens somewhat consistently, every 4 minutes or so, but at random.
- Here's an interesting thing; the ability for FLAC playback is one of the main reasons why I purchased this phone, and so far it's incapable of doing so properly. EACH AND EVERY FLAC song I have stutter/skips at a certain point for 3/4th of a second... and the funny thing is that this seems to occur at exact same point of each song.
- Before any of you question the point, 95% of these are self-ripped FLAC/mp3 files from my own cd's, using EAC. I'm an audiophile and know well how to rip songs properly, so I know this is 100% NOT the problem of the files itself... especially since they play perfectly in every single music player software/mp3 player/cellphone that I've ever used.
- This happens in both stock touchwiz and launcher pro UI that I'm currently using.
- Happens in both stock player and btunes as mentioned earlier. Interesting thing about FLAC files; I mentioned before each files skip at same parts of the song... interestingly the stock player and btunes seem to skip with these files at DIFFERENT parts of the song, yet the part where they stutter/skip is still the same for each player. So for example, Song A would skip on stock player at 3:31 point of the song each time, but that same Song A would skip on btunes at 2:23 point of the song every time...
- I do have beautiful weather widget running, and will test it out soon to see if this is the problem (haven't got around to doing so yet and don't have headphones with me atm)... but even if it is, it would seem appaling to me that a widget and a simple resource-light music player can't coexist... doesn't make sense to me and kind of misses the point of a high end smartphone.
- I'm not going to use Airplane mode as a solution, since this pretty much misses the point of the smartphone as I've said above. Besides, I've tried it already and music STILL stuttered/skipped!
- As I have high end headphones/IEMs such as Audio Technica ESW10JPN and Shure SE530, it's definitely not the headphones, and they work flawlessly in any other player.
- Drag and drop, media player, Kies, you name it... every method of transfer of songs gives the same problem.
- Internal SD card, External SD card... doesn't seem to make a lick of difference either.
- I have the stock JG9 firmware that my phone came with. I would download the new one that is apparently out for my i9000m version (JH2) if Kies ever detects the damn thing (it's never there as an update)...
So any clues on how to solve this annoying problem. As I've said, this is the ONLY problem I've had with my unit (my GPS is fine, and phone runs lag free) and its a darn shame because music playback is a huge part of my smartphone use. Is this likely a firmware problem? Or just a problem with memory use? If I don't have to I'd REALLY rather not root the phone but if that solves it for certain then I'm actually willing to look into it... that's how desperate I am to solve this problem.
I'd appreciate any input in this matter... thanks in advance.

I had the same problem, and pinned it down to one of my widgets hogging all the resources. As soon as I disabled the widget, playback was fine again.

another tip
disable media scan

Tachikoma_kun said:
I had the same problem, and pinned it down to one of my widgets hogging all the resources. As soon as I disabled the widget, playback was fine again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll be trying this out later on, but seems really sad to me for a phone of this calibre in not being able to handle that if this was true...
AllGamer said:
another tip
disable media scan
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just a guess but this would require rooting, won't it?

yes, as you need to install another piece of software to do the trick
but you can always Un-root, if you ever need to send your phone for warranty

K_19 said:
I'll be trying this out later on, but seems really sad to me for a phone of this calibre in not being able to handle that if this was true...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably more bad coding of the free widgets rather than the phone not being capable. I can write a 4 line .vbs script that will cane most PC's and drag them to their knees.

Have you done a factory reset? No problems here, love the music player. I have beautiful home also
Sent from my GT-I9000M using XDA App

mine doesnt skip at all even while using gps.. i would recommend that you check your sd card.. maybe bad or too slow..

that is indeed a posibility.
in older devices low speed SD cards can cause data skip
but now in days most SD cards are pretty fast, so the problem shouldn't be there, yet you'll never know, so that's the posibility

Nah. My external micro SD is a class 6 Sandisk, and I'm sure the internal one isn't all that bad either... comes with the phone after all. Pretty sure it isn't the SD Cards as the problem happens on both. Tried the music player without any widgets running, with the phone connected through headphone jack into AUX of my car for about 6 minutes at lunch... and it actually played pretty smoothly... but I'll have to try that out more extensively later, plus try it with FLAC files as well.
Haven't done a factory reset (apparently it doesn't do much for ppl who's had same problems), but I'll be flashing to the JH2 later on today so I'm guessing that'll be more or less the same thing... hoping that it makes some sort of difference.

Alright, I was able to install JH2 firmware and play around with turning off the widgets and such... and it did not do ANYTHING with the FLAC Playback problems. The same tracks always still skip at the same place in the song, and no FLAC files seems to play 100% smoothly... and the tags are still broken. Turning off the widgets don't stop these glitches. MP3's on the other hand seems perfect for the most part unless I missed something... At this point, I'm just inclined to believe that FLAC support for Galaxy at this time is heavily glitched. Does anyone else here have perfect FLAC playback? Totally smooth with perfect tags and everything? If you do, please post the firmware and settings and all that.
Ugh, at least even iphone 4 had a perfect music player and a perfect lossless support, although it's ALAC instead of FLAC... strongly considering it now if the player is going to remain glitched like this. The phone is so excellent besides this, that I'd hate to do that... but music listening just happens to be a big part of my smartphone use.

other users have reported the same findings about FLAC
this is just a software thing, it'll be fixed in no time

K_19 said:
Alright, I was able to install JH2 firmware and play around with turning off the widgets and such... and it did not do ANYTHING with the FLAC Playback problems. The same tracks always still skip at the same place in the song, and no FLAC files seems to play 100% smoothly... and the tags are still broken. Turning off the widgets don't stop these glitches. MP3's on the other hand seems perfect for the most part unless I missed something... At this point, I'm just inclined to believe that FLAC support for Galaxy at this time is heavily glitched. Does anyone else here have perfect FLAC playback? Totally smooth with perfect tags and everything? If you do, please post the firmware and settings and all that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same thing too.. I suspect its a scheduling issue or buffering issue. Not sure about your tag issues though, as they work fine for me

AllGamer said:
other users have reported the same findings about FLAC
this is just a software thing, it'll be fixed in no time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My biggest concern is that FLAC playback is solely Samsung's responsibility apparently (Android apparently doesn't natively support FLAC, so I don't expect Froyo to do much), and I really doubt that it's one of their priorities for fixing at the moment (especially with the whole GPS issue). It's up to Sammy to fix it, but I can't say I have too much faith.
Well, since I've got an android phone and all I think I'll root this phone and play around with the setCPU stuff, and see if that helps. This fixed it for one of the users from what I've read.

I've got no problems playing any FLAC file on my default Samsung player very smooth. I haven't rooted my phone or ever installed custom firmwares. I am running the new official UK firmware XXJM1.
Details
Sandisk Class 4 4GB card.
FLAC Bitrate: 1411Kbps ~ Lossless Audio Codec File

Wow... well, it's at least a good news that someone else can playback FLAC smoothly without any problems... and it also means that if this is true, then its more than likely that this is purely a firmware issue... which means it's more than possible for Samsung to fix this.

Factory reset solved media issues for several people I know of. So if you didn't reset your phone when you got it, do so now and chances are you are rid of the problem.
Sent from my personal Dis-organizer GT-I9000

mickeko said:
Factory reset solved media issues for several people I know of. So if you didn't reset your phone when you got it, do so now and chances are you are rid of the problem.
Sent from my personal Dis-organizer GT-I9000
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've flashed to a new firmware since I first got it. Wouldn't this technically be the same thing as factory reset since the initial firmware/contents got wiped out clean and replaced by a brand new one? And even after that unfortunately the audio problems still remain for me...

Try putting the music onto external sd card. Had audio skipping problems after installing one click click lag fix and went crazy trying to figure it out.
Sent from my Apple Newton 2100

ickyboo said:
Try putting the music onto external sd card. Had audio skipping problems after installing one click click lag fix and went crazy trying to figure it out.
Sent from my Apple Newton 2100
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's been on external SD card since the second day. Doesn't seem to matter for me at all since the files skip the same way on both internal and external card.
I'm going to go to the Bell Store anyway today (to discuss phone plan stuff), so I think I'll take my SD card with me and try the demo models to see if there are same playback problems on those. I really doubt this is due to hardware but hey, since I'll be there anyway, why not.

[Q] Audio stuttering issue at end of tracks

Hi there, I believe a similar thread to this was posted in the WP7 General forum but was abandoned last year around launch, so apologies for the redundancy, but I really need to know if this is a personal issue, a phone issue or what.
Essentially when I'm playing music on my Omnia, certain albums will almost always stutter at the end of each track, and not a skip, around ten seconds of silence then a second of music, and so forth until the track ends. There seems to be no connection between albums and the stutter, I've tried WMAs from Zune, my own MP3s and so on, internet off and on, lots of memory free or not, it just seems completely random. Even worse, some songs just seem to lock up the media player completely, staying at their current position, but unable to play, pause or stop without turning the phone off and on again.
Does anyone else have this problems, or even better a solution?
Thanks in advance.

Have you tried to reset your phone? You will loose all your data, though.

I've got the same issue, but only on songs which i downloaded with my Zune Pass (DRM-Protected songs).

Hardmen said:
I've got the same issue, but only on songs which i downloaded with my Zune Pass (DRM-Protected songs).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same issue, but I have never used Zune pass. I was coming to the conclusion it was tunes I had ripped from CD straight into Zune.
I keep lossless WMA tunes on my PC and transfer 320k MP3s (I think) to my phone...

same issue here on my omnia 16gb JK1 firmware, I wonder why so few people notice or seem to have this problem, its driving me nuts.
I posted this on MSFT answer forums, no respsonse from MSFT for months on this topic...
After the latest update rollercoaster I stopped believing that the issue will eventually solve itself in the foreseeable future and did some further research.
Before I get down to the point, here is yet another observation. The sound stutter seems to be deeply connected to the stuttering of notification sounds (as experienced on HTC devices as well). After a fresh restart the phone notification sounds will work as expected. However, after listeting to musik and getting a stutter at the end of some track, the notification sounds will stutter as well. Again, this can be fixed by restarting the phone. So it seems the Issue is not limited to samsung Phones.
Since I am a shy person and didnt like all the people staring at me while I had to constantly restart my phone to listen to some music, I did the following.
Restoring/resetting the phone and resyncing everything did not help at all, so dont bother trying that.
I then wiped my whole music library from the device and synced a single album (some 20 year old Bon Jovi tracks). Those were all mp3 at a rahter low bitrate. To my surprise I could listen to the the whole album without any single stuttering issue.
I synced another album (this time ripped with lame at 320kbs as mp3 instead of Zune ) and it worked flawlessly. To cut a long story short, I synced mp3s only, avoiding any kind of wma and this is what worked for me.
On a side note, all my wma were DRM free and I still experienced the stutter, so if this bug is related to some DRM check, it definetly fails for unprotected wma as well.
After playing around with a friends zune pass, I got some wma from the marketplace to work (mostly freshly released music) while older songs from the marketplace would produce the stuttering. Consequently it looks like some specific wma version or maybe some header information is the root of the problem.
Anyway, when trying to avoid syncing wma, it is best not to use any file format like .flac or very high bitrates since those will probably be converted to wma by zune during the sync. Also check the conversion settings in Zune to avoid this.
FInally, all my mp3s that I tested so far did work (as already mentioned they are encoded with lame, none of them came from the marketplace).
I hope this helps somehow.
edit: newer firmware and NoDo wont fix it
Device: Omnia7, JK1 firmware, wp 7390
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I have same problem but not with the music in Zune. Instead I experience it when the alarm is playing back!!

Hi all,
This isn't unique to the Omnia - I get it on the Focus too, and I've heard anecdotal evidence that it happens on HTC phones as well.
If anyone's experiencing this, and has an unlocked phone and a registry editor (Heathcliff's is very nice), please try the (possible) fix described here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=13184538&postcount=497
and reply there (or here, your choice) if it works or doesn't work for you.

[Q] Clicking and popping during audio playback.

I'm trying to see if I have a bad Iconia. I've only read great things regarding the quality of the device. For the most part I agree.
Problem:
So I just I just bought an Acer Iconia on 6 days ago.
Just a couple days ago while listening to some music, I noticed clicking and popping during playback. Its not quiet either, the offending sound is louder than the music that is playing.
Workaround:
I have found if I want to stop the offending sound. If I play music in a different app, then the switch back to the first music app, the offending sound is gone. However, only a short time passes before I have to perform this task again.
Solution:
I'm considering exchanging the tablet for a new one.
Has anybody else experienced something like this?

Just after I first bought mine, my speakers would occasionally make a crackling sound, sometimes even when no audio was being played, it went away after a bout a week though, and hasn't happened again.

I exchanged the problematic with a new one. I've been listening to music all day without any issues. It appears I got a bad apple the first time. It happens.

UPDATE!!!
So here we are, 3 days worth of regular music playback and I just experienced the problem again. Just as the previous poster mentioned, I will wait until Wednesday next week to see if the problem clears up on its own.
Odd, perhaps this is a software issue?

So here we are, 3 days worth of regular music playback and I just experienced the problem again. Just as the previous poster mentioned, I will wait until Wednesday next week to see if the problem clears up on its own.
Odd, this is starting to sound like a software issue. I will report back soon.

I can pretty much guarantee that this is a software problem, as I didn't have any issues to this effect for months, but now have it happen all the time after either the most recent update or possibly the one immediately prior. I'm having all kinds of problems after this last update, including music playback stopping after the current track when the screen is turned off, the popping and clicking, slow to come back after sleeping, crashing of the browser and of the overall system... Hopefully we'll see another update that will get things back to normal very soon, because this is nuts.

I agree its a software issue. Here is what I've found:
1) I am unable to replicate this problem using other media players. One of the ROMS i was trying out had the toshiba media player, and i played hours of local music with no issues. The new android music player periodically pops and cracks regardless of whether i am playing local or streamed music via gmusic.
2) By simply pausing the current track, and resuming shortly after eliminates the sound issues. You may even need to unplug your headphones / line out if you are using that.
3) I subscribe to Rhapsody and have yet to experience the popping issue, even after continuous hours of streaming playback.
This is very likely a software issue, much like the random issue some HC users were experiencing with the browser spontaneously closing. Hard to track down, and hopefully fixed in some update that may or may not come

To me this sounds like...
I think more troubleshooting may be in order - have you been able to reproduce the problem with *any* mp3 file you use, or only from one specific set of mp3?
Default music player works great for me for any files I decide to throw at it. Sure, I still have to wake up the screen between tracks sometimes, but that is a known issue with the a500 - never get any strange popping - and my a500 literally plays tracks 4+ hours a day (I do a long commute to get to work lol)
Try reproducing the problem using a known good set of mp3 files - the fact that you have returned one unit and are still having the same problem means that chances are:
1) you have a bad set of audio files - other systems, especially desktop and laptop systems - may be able to decode the corrupted or unstandard file without issue - this does not mean the Iconia can do the same.
2) you installed a application that is causing issues - can you reproduce this problem after a full factory reset? Just reset, load your music, and try to reproduce the problem.
If you could attach a copy of the audio file that is causing this issue - perhaps people can take a look at it and see if you have a format issue.

orbix said:
I can pretty much guarantee that this is a software problem, as I didn't have any issues to this effect for months, but now have it happen all the time after either the most recent update or possibly the one immediately prior. I'm having all kinds of problems after this last update, including music playback stopping after the current track when the screen is turned off, the popping and clicking, slow to come back after sleeping, crashing of the browser and of the overall system... Hopefully we'll see another update that will get things back to normal very soon, because this is nuts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Music stopping between tracks while screen is asleep is a known issue - it's nothing unique to your experience.
Work around - use an alternative media player (in my experience winamp does not have this issue) or simply hit the power button between tracks to continue playback in the default media player. It's a pain in the ass, but it works.

Unfortunately, I've been using Google Music to deal with having a music library I want to access on my Galaxy S phone, Iconia, and work laptop, so unless I just download everything I want to listen to using the 'make available offline' feature and then listen to it in another app (which is a PITA), I guess I'm stuck with this. The 'pause and it goes away' bit hasn't worked for me, either.
As for the music stopping when the screen is off, I'm just frustrated by this since it was working fine for me before, and then Acer broke this with the update (at least for me- no guarantees it's specifically that update, but something about that update made this start happening for me).

[Q] Bluetooth stutter

Just got my Note 3 a few hours ago, on the drive home, I slapped in my microSD card from my other phone which had my music collection. Paired to my bluetooth stereo in my car and started playing my tunes. Im experiencing random stutters that last for half a second and it just continues playing. I also noticed theat watching video, thers random hiccups just like the stutter on bluetooth. Tried playing through the phones speakers, it happens too.
Is this normal? Should I have it replaced? Or are there tweaks that should be done?
TY
edit:
Forgot to mention its a quadcore snapdragon version
ps. will rooting this break the knox fuse?

I've noticed similar stuttering when listening to music on my bluetooth headphones. It doesn't happen often and only lasts a second but it is regular and it is annoying.
Can't be a range thing, phone is in my breast pocket and the headphones are, obviously, on my head. Never had this issue with my Galaxy Nexus.

Good to know I'm not the only one. Might have to wait for a fix for it then.
Hope others can test this out too so maybe we can check if its a very isolated case and have our units replaced asap.

Note 3 Bluetooth Music streaming Stutter
I used 'Rocket Player' from Play Store instead of Samsung 'Music' or Google 'Play Music', the stutter seems to disappear.
I suspect is the .m4a music format.
let me know if this work for you too !

I tried Rocket player and the problem is still there, though Id like to believe that is much better compared to stock.
Video seems fine now as I blame the media that was playing that caused the stutter.
Can anyone who has rooted their phone, and removed the bloat, test it out if their bluetooth streaming stutters?
TY

I have the stutter too.
On top of that, it doesn't auto-connect to paired devices.
When I was with my S3, it would automatically connect to the car bluetooth without issue. The Note 3 doesn't connect automatically although told to do so. On top of that, it sometimes (randomly) only connects media audio and not media AND phone.
I usually have to tell it to connect several times until it finally does. The S3 didn't have any of these issues.
Seems bluetooth overall needs some fixes.

Yungfu said:
I tried Rocket player and the problem is still there, though Id like to believe that is much better compared to stock.
Video seems fine now as I blame the media that was playing that caused the stutter.
Can anyone who has rooted their phone, and removed the bloat, test it out if their bluetooth streaming stutters?
TY
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My device is rooted, and the bloatware are all removed.
I noticed that the bluetooth stutters even before and after rooting. My phone had been reset to factory once I have rooted to ensure a clean start.
Today i noticed something. When the screen is on, and you're doing something, there is no stutter. When the screen is off, the stutter starts. This is most likely the cpu. 300mhz isn't able to handle the music. I raised the minimum cpu frequency to 400mhz, and it was better. So basically, it could be down to the govenor or the cpu unable to handle the music at the minimum frequency. It could also be a bug.

I guess we'll have to wait for an official fix then. Thought rooting would have solved it.

I have this same issue since I upgraded from the S3 to the Note 3 using a Sony DSXS310BTX. Audio seems to cut off several times during the song. The song itself continues to play. Kind of aggravated to have this problem on a new device when it was not there on the previous.

Hi,did you update the latest Firmware?just released today.

I have the newest firmware and it still stutters. Any progress?

Same problem here, even with the new firmware. In addition right after a stutter there is a +/- 15% pitching of the streamed audio. Extremly unpleaseant on music playback.
But I found out, that for me this problem only excist if the phone screen is off.

I've noticed some issues having both bluetooth and wifi on at the same time. If I turn one off, the other works perfectly. Not cool, Samsung.

I do notice I get less stutter with WiFi turned off, but it is still there.

Damn, and I thought the Note 3 would be my next phone. This is a deal breaker, I spend all day with music playing from my current phone via bluetooth headphones.

I can confirm that by turning off all unnecessary services that the Bluetooth audio stuttering is gone. I had the exact same problems as the rest of you. When I got my S9005, the first thing I did was stream audio to my car's Bluetooth radio, and it was awful. Skipping/pausing/stuttering, the whole works.
I then set about disabling virtually every unnecessary app and service that came bundled with my GN3, and then went for a 3-hour car ride yesterday and streamed audio the whole time, and there was absolutely zero stuttering. Not even once. And I had WiFi enabled at the same time as well, and I never updated my firmware. So, that's the good news!
The bad news? Unfortunately, I don't know which app(s) or service(s) that I disabled eliminated the Bluetooth audio stuttering. It could be KNOX or the indexing service, or one of the various S apps, or maybe all of them, some of them, or something else. I just don't know. Your best bet would be to go through and start disabling the apps/services one by one (I also used Titanium Backup to disable some of the ones that are restricted) until you find out which one(s) are related to the Bluetooth audio stuttering.

2013 I'm guessing was jellybean?
Just updated my phone to lollipop 5.0 and get missing/stuttering/skipping.
Got it in kitkat 4.4.2 and thought lollipop should have fixed it?
It's not as bad but it's still as annoying as hell.
headset is BT 4.0,I have another headset that's 3.0 and I'm sure it doesn't happen with that headset(testing).
Phone is stock and unrooted and also waiting for the 5.1.1 update so I cannot alter the cpu which I heard was the problem?
But why no problem with my 3.0 headset?
It's also a bit weird,sat at my desk skipping doesn't seem to be that big a problem but when phone is in my pocket and I'm walking to work it's a problem?
phone to headset is the same distance apart.
It's like using an old mobile cd player,skip city.
Any known solutions or something?

I started to get the Bluetooth stuttering a few weeks ago, and it drove me nuts! I'm on lollipop, and even though my fix might not be the fix for you, the thing that did it for me was that stupid beam service that comes with our phones. I didn't even know about it until I factory reset, and went through each apk, one by one, until I fixed my issue.
delete:
/system/app/beamservice/beamservice.apk
and
the updated apk in /data/app/com.../....
(obviously you need root to do this...)
Hope this helps someone. I listen to music A LOT, and it made me so pissed that something as simple as streaming music couldn't even stream properly!

Spoke too soon. Rebooted and Google Services Framework updated and the stuttering came back. I removed every extra APK, totally debloated the system. It has to be something that Google updates because before Google Services/apps get updated, bluetooth is totally fine. After = stuttering.

[Q] Pandora Stuttering on Bluetooth. Stock music app is fine.

I use bluetooth when listening to music in my car. Pandora is my music player of choice. The problem is that when Pandora plays over bluetooth, it skips. It's like the song pauses for a second and then comes back. This only happens on Pandora. Stock Music App, Apallo, Now Playing, Even Netflix all play fine over bluetooth. This SAME issue existed on my Galaxy S3 as well...
What I've tried:
Disabling Wifi
Disabling GPS
Rebooting (Just in case)
Wiped Device
I'm on the stock rooted rom. Any ideas?

TopHATTwaffle said:
I use bluetooth when listening to music in my car. Pandora is my music player of choice. The problem is that when Pandora plays over bluetooth, it skips. It's like the song pauses for a second and then comes back. This only happens on Pandora. Stock Music App, Apallo, Now Playing, Even Netflix all play fine over bluetooth. This SAME issue existed on my Galaxy S3 as well...
What I've tried:
Disabling Wifi
Disabling GPS
Rebooting (Just in case)
Wiped Device
I'm on the stock rooted rom. Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ive had this issue on JB on all my android devices. I am running a 4.4 rom on my n7 2013 and it streams perfectly. BT stuttering has been a known issue since JB came out. It happens for me personally no matter what the media app is. Its the a2dp. Not much you can do about it user wise.

yakitori2 said:
Ive had this issue on JB on all my android devices. I am running a 4.4 rom on my n7 2013 and it streams perfectly. BT stuttering has been a known issue since JB came out. It happens for me personally no matter what the media app is. Its the a2dp. Not much you can do about it user wise.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had no issues with Pandora stuttering on my Note 2. I have no issues with podcasts (Pocketcasts app) stuttering on my Note 3, nor any issues with stock music player stuttering on Note 3. I DO have stuttering with Pandora on my Note 3.
So, no, it's not just a2dp, it's Pandora. And it would seem that it's Pandora on 4.3, while Pandora on 4.1 works fine. It's possible the track I tried in stock music player wasn't high enough bitrate (Pandora One set to HQ 192kbit) and that it's really an issue with high bitrate over a2dp on 4.3. I'll have to check with a few higher quality mp3s.
I noticed this first after flashing Beans' rom and running from that. I just restored to stock and will see if that fixes the situation, though from the original poster it sounds like this won't go away on stock.

bigillz said:
I had no issues with Pandora stuttering on my Note 2. I have no issues with podcasts (Pocketcasts app) stuttering on my Note 3, nor any issues with stock music player stuttering on Note 3. I DO have stuttering with Pandora on my Note 3.
So, no, it's not just a2dp, it's Pandora. And it would seem that it's Pandora on 4.3, while Pandora on 4.2 works fine. It's possible the track I tried in stock music player wasn't high enough bitrate (Pandora One set to HQ 192kbit) and that it's really an issue with high bitrate over a2dp on 4.3. I'll have to check with a few higher quality mp3s.
I noticed this first after flashing Beans' rom and running from that. I just restored to stock and will see if that fixes the situation, though from the original poster it sounds like this won't go away on stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It IS a2dp. Maybe be specific to certain apps from but it IS a2dp. 4.3 didnt fix it...4.3.1 on aosp didnt fix it. You will get worse skipping if connected to wifi AND bluetooth simultaneously. It does it worse when the screen is off. To prove for you...the only way to get it to stop on my tablet was to go to developer settings and check stay awake on charger. Then plug into charger....stream all you want and it wont skip much at all...on pandora or any other app. All of my JB devices did it. People would always chime in saying "this doesnt happen to me...no probs here". Id be willing to bet money it DID happen and they didnt use streaming enough to experience it.
https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=39633
4.4 fixed it btw.

yakitori2 said:
It IS a2dp. Maybe be specific to certain apps from but it IS a2dp. 4.3 didnt fix it...4.3.1 on aosp didnt fix it. You will get worse skipping if connected to wifi AND bluetooth simultaneously. It does it worse when the screen is off. To prove for you...the only way to get it to stop on my tablet was to go to developer settings and check stay awake on charger. Then plug into charger....stream all you want and it wont skip much at all...on pandora or any other app. All of my JB devices did it. People would always chime in saying "this doesnt happen to me...no probs here". Id be willing to bet money it DID happen and they didnt use streaming enough to experience it.
https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=39633
4.4 fixed it btw.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not just a2dp that is broken for everything. It may have to do with bitrate, I haven't tested enough. Some things, like streaming 128kbps mp3 or podcasts (96-128kb mp3) work fine with no stuttering. 192kbps Pandora One streaming hitches for a fraction of a second every minute or two.
In any case, since you found that keeping full power on fixed it, it's likely there's some other workaround possible to keep pandora at a priority that prevents whatever sleep case might be the cause. Have to dig around more.

bigillz said:
It's not just a2dp that is broken for everything. It may have to do with bitrate, I haven't tested enough. Some things, like streaming 128kbps mp3 or podcasts (96-128kb mp3) work fine with no stuttering. 192kbps Pandora One streaming hitches for a fraction of a second every minute or two.
In any case, since you found that keeping full power on fixed it, it's likely there's some other workaround possible to keep pandora at a priority that prevents whatever sleep case might be the cause. Have to dig around more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
dig then. I dug forever. This ate at me so much that I nearly left android altogether. 3 releases and it stuttered on my Gnex...my nexus 7...my Galaxy S4 and now my note 3. None of the updates have fixed it. Its not just pandora for me...it does the same for Play music...and was doing it for netflix too. In my cars headunit...LG soundbar...Jawbone big jambox...all of them. All my android devices running JB did it. it was introduced with JB. 4.0.4 didnt do it. JB 4.1...bam....4.1.2...persist....4.2...4.2.1...4.2.2...4.3...4.3.1...all did the same accross all my devices.
I use a2dp streaming a LOT, so you can imaging how irritating it is to have all of your devices stutter while streaming.

yakitori2 said:
dig then. I dug forever. This ate at me so much that I nearly left android altogether. 3 releases and it stuttered on my Gnex...my nexus 7...my Galaxy S4 and now my note 3. None of the updates have fixed it. Its not just pandora for me...it does the same for Play music...and was doing it for netflix too. In my cars headunit...LG soundbar...Jawbone big jambox...all of them. All my android devices running JB did it. it was introduced with JB. 4.0.4 didnt do it. JB 4.1...bam....4.1.2...persist....4.2...4.2.1...4.2.2...4.3...4.3.1...all did the same accross all my devices.
I use a2dp streaming a LOT, so you can imaging how irritating it is to have all of your devices stutter while streaming.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I using streaming a few hours a day as well. Fortunately only Pandora is having issues right now, and that was on a custom rom. Haven't tried since reverting. And I never had any stuttering issues at all on 4.1.x on Note 2.

bigillz said:
I using streaming a few hours a day as well. Fortunately only Pandora is having issues right now, and that was on a custom rom. Haven't tried since reverting. And I never had any stuttering issues at all on 4.1.x on Note 2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well lucky you. I have. Actually I should edit my above statement. It was introduced in 4.2.x....4.1 had no issues. Im sure it will be introduced on your note 2 whenever sammy finally gets around to updating their TW to 4.3 (which will be around the time 4.4 has rolled out to most devices lol)
Ive had the same problem that over 1k people have posted as a bug in code.google.com link above. (which I encourage you to read!)
I personally believe it was introduced with BLE.
The question was asked...I gave documentation of the problem from the source (google) and people still refuse to accept the answer. lol what can ya do. c'est la vie

I get stuttering in Pandora while wired to my car, not BT. I did not have this issue on the Note 2 running any Android version (4.1-4.3). Not sure it's a BT issue at all.

akellar said:
I get stuttering in Pandora while wired to my car, not BT. I did not have this issue on the Note 2 running any Android version (4.1-4.3). Not sure it's a BT issue at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol...key words..."not sure"
refer to source above
Skipping on pandora through headjack can be caused by data handoff...poor signal...all while high quality streaming is checked in settings.
It happens through my headphones occasionally in my gym...because signal doesnt penetrate the building well.
so what do we do now? Continue the..
1 I get stuttering
2. well I dont
3. Its still stuttering
4. mines not
5. every few seconds to minutes I get a stutter/blip in music
6. doesnt happen to me on xx phone
7 its happened to me on all my JB devices since 4.2...and not 4.1...nor 4.4...and theres a source bug site with thousands of complaints..same complaint....
8. My phone never did it....therefore it doesnt exist.
and........

yakitori2 said:
lol...key words..."not sure"
refer to source above
Skipping on pandora through headjack can be caused by data handoff...poor signal...all while high quality streaming is checked in settings.
It happens through my headphones occasionally in my gym...because signal doesnt penetrate the building well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apparently reading isn't your strong suit but you are quick to attack. Signal is fine, full LTE. High quality isn't turned on. This isn't my first rodeo, let's relax with the know-it-all attitude.

akellar said:
Apparently reading isn't your strong suit but you are quick to attack. Signal is fine, full LTE. High quality isn't turned on. This isn't my first rodeo, let's relax with the know-it-all attitude.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for ur contribution

yakitori2 said:
Dont be a hypocrit. I posted source site (googles bug report site above) and you have still not taken the time to read it. So dont start with the "reading isnt my strongsuit" crap when youve input 1 sentence lines. How hard is it to read a sentence? You said you dont have a problem with BT on your note 2. And that your phone does this thorugh the headphone jack.
What does that have to do with BT streaming.....which (yeah I double checked) is the title of the thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I said nothing of the Note 2 working with BT. My post was in regards to getting skipping in Pandora with or without BT. Since you apparently have all the answers though I'll just sit back and wait for you to provide the solution.

I fixed my skipping problem in Pandora. I first noticed the issue running Beans' ROM. I have a Pandora One subscription - I was having a fraction of a second hitch/skip/hiccup in my audio every minute or two, streaming to a Pioneer DNX9990HD head unit. I switched back to stock rom and the problem went away. After a bunch of digging, I found a post suggesting it may be the ad blocking hosts file at fault that shipped with the ROM. Fortunately, that was the case. Beans' ROM installs with a giant hosts file blocking tons of ad sites. Even though I have a Pandora subscription, some ad check / subscription check / feed query that was happening and failing was causing the hiccup. I also felt like the audio quality wasn't the HQ setting I had it on (192kbps) - I can't say for sure this was the case, but it sounded less crisp than normal. It's possible there was a background subscription check occurring and when it failed it was not using the HQ subscription audio quality. Now that I've reverted to a stock hosts file, the hiccup is gone and audio quality sounds perfect.
Yes yakitori2, android 4.3, A2DP streaming all day long, no issues whatsoever. Like I suspected, it had nothing to do with the A2DP stack.
You should also read this lovely news piece - http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/0...2dp-audio-streaming-fix-for-the-next-release/ , where Google announced in January that the next release of 4.2 (loooong ago, which would be older than our 4.3) would include a fix for the A2DP problems.
Sorry you're still having problems. You should investigate more, very likely some other issue / software on your phone is causing the problem.

bigillz said:
I fixed my skipping problem in Pandora. I first noticed the issue running Beans' ROM. I have a Pandora One subscription - I was having a fraction of a second hitch/skip/hiccup in my audio every minute or two, streaming to a Pioneer DNX9990HD head unit. I switched back to stock rom and the problem went away. After a bunch of digging, I found a post suggesting it may be the ad blocking hosts file at fault that shipped with the ROM. Fortunately, that was the case. Beans' ROM installs with a giant hosts file blocking tons of ad sites. Even though I have a Pandora subscription, some ad check / subscription check / feed query that was happening and failing was causing the hiccup. I also felt like the audio quality wasn't the HQ setting I had it on (192kbps) - I can't say for sure this was the case, but it sounded less crisp than normal. It's possible there was a background subscription check occurring and when it failed it was not using the HQ subscription audio quality. Now that I've reverted to a stock hosts file, the hiccup is gone and audio quality sounds perfect.
Yes yakitori2, android 4.3, A2DP streaming all day long, no issues whatsoever. Like I suspected, it had nothing to do with the A2DP stack.
You should also read this lovely news piece - http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/0...2dp-audio-streaming-fix-for-the-next-release/ , where Google announced in January that the next release of 4.2 (loooong ago, which would be older than our 4.3) would include a fix for the A2DP problems.
Sorry you're still having problems. You should investigate more, very likely some other issue / software on your phone is causing the problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah..I knew 4.3 was supposed to fix the a2dp bug, but it didnt on my devices. However...they were all running custom roms...and possible had ad hosts as well....I had no idea that would cause anything. Ill would look into it, but Im on 4.4 and dont have any issues at all. so..

It is a2dp + other apps running in the background. Factory reset, install only pandora - no stuttering, install some apps, start them (fill up memory) and try play in pandora - stuttering could be up to 20 times a minute. (using pandora as an example, but it affects any audio players)
Also, the receiver is important too, some receivers handle these micro pauses gracefully to a point that it's barely noticeable, others stop for 1/2 seconds makes it impossible to listen.
To conclude, the stuttering occur mostly when memory is overloaded; and screen off makes it even worse. It looks to me BT gets very low priority on phones.
P.S.
I first noticed this issue on Note 2 running stock 4.1.2

akellar said:
I get stuttering in Pandora while wired to my car, not BT. I did not have this issue on the Note 2 running any Android version (4.1-4.3). Not sure it's a BT issue at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here! My Note 2 never skipped streaming Pandora over BT on any Android version.

I get it in both poweramp and Google music. I think someone once said it was cause of being rooted and the app doing some kind of validation check while playing. I forget how he said he stopped it. Maybe I'll try rootcloak module from xposed tonight on the way in with the music apps set in root cloak and see if they don't skip. Rootcloak hides root from whatever apps you tell it to.
Sent from my GlaDos Baked Potato

bigillz said:
I fixed my skipping problem in Pandora. I first noticed the issue running Beans' ROM. I have a Pandora One subscription - I was having a fraction of a second hitch/skip/hiccup in my audio every minute or two, streaming to a Pioneer DNX9990HD head unit. I switched back to stock rom and the problem went away. After a bunch of digging, I found a post suggesting it may be the ad blocking hosts file at fault that shipped with the ROM. Fortunately, that was the case. Beans' ROM installs with a giant hosts file blocking tons of ad sites. Even though I have a Pandora subscription, some ad check / subscription check / feed query that was happening and failing was causing the hiccup. I also felt like the audio quality wasn't the HQ setting I had it on (192kbps) - I can't say for sure this was the case, but it sounded less crisp than normal. It's possible there was a background subscription check occurring and when it failed it was not using the HQ subscription audio quality. Now that I've reverted to a stock hosts file, the hiccup is gone and audio quality sounds perfect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THANK YOU!!!! This solved my Note 3 problems! I got a Pandora One subscription and noticed every time the screen went off the music would stutter. The quality of the music seemed a little nutsy... I could stream Google music and other music without a problem all day. But Pandora, no matter WHAT I did, it would stutter.
I did what you said above (running CleanRom) - and restored the host file.... BAM I'm playing with the screen off with high quality.
Thanks!

bigillz said:
I also felt like the audio quality wasn't the HQ setting I had it on (192kbps) - I can't say for sure this was the case, but it sounded less crisp than normal. It's possible there was a background subscription check occurring and when it failed it was not using the HQ subscription audio quality. Now that I've reverted to a stock hosts file, the hiccup is gone and audio quality sounds perfect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
glad to hear the 64kbps sounds "perfect" to you. wonder what the hell you were getting before?
"Audio Quality
Pandora on the Web plays 64k AAC+ for free listeners and 192kbps for Pandora One subscribers. All in-home devices play 128kbps audio, and mobile devices receive a variety of different rates depending on the capability of the device and the network they are on, but never more than 64k AAC+."
http://help.pandora.com/customer/portal/articles/90985-audio-quality
hope you understand that pandora one plays at 64k on android
---------- Post added at 10:11 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:09 AM ----------
BigMcGuire said:
THANK YOU!!!! This solved my Note 3 problems! I got a Pandora One subscription and noticed every time the screen went off the music would stutter. The quality of the music seemed a little nutsy... I could stream Google music and other music without a problem all day. But Pandora, no matter WHAT I did, it would stutter.
I did what you said above (running CleanRom) - and restored the host file.... BAM I'm playing with the screen off with high quality.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
64k is now high quality you say?
sorry, not meaning to be a ****, but just wonder if there's a way to hack this stupid app to get anything higher than 64k on android with my pandora one subscription (cause stock app only does 64, but pandora will do 192 with the desktop user agent in Dolphin browser).