Just won't stop casting!

[Roger Clarke]

I seem to have an issue which rarely appeared in the past, but has become more and more frequent. I tend to use the "shuffle all songs" casting to a chromecast audio from a NAS when I'm working at the desk. The "now playing" app screen is kept "on" on a tablet, and the "casting" also appears in the desktop media notification area.

The issue is that the"now playing" screen stops advancing and freezes at the start of a track/song. However the music continues to play and shows correctly on the desktop notification! The pause/play and stop casting work correctly in this notification, but the tablet completely loses control of the cast. The CCA is shown as "not on this network", even though it continues to play music from the NAS. Even clearing the queue on the tablet makes no difference - the music plays on.

The only insight I can offer, is that it might be related to removing a track/song from the queue by swiping to the right, and perhaps the freezing occurs on reaching the missing track, but it is not easy to catch it in the act!

Any thoughts?

Roger Clarke

[Hi-Fi Cast Developer]

Hi.

This is just a guess but maybe the tablet is shutting down the Hi-Fi Cast app when the screen is off and/or the app is in the background (and that's when it loses sync with the CCA).

You can check the battery/power settings via the Android settings app (select Apps -> Hi-Fi Cast). Make sure the app is set to 'NOT optimized' (if this setting is available on your particular device).

I hope that helps :)

[Roger Clarke]

Many thanks for reply. Under "battery", Hi-Fi Cast is set to "unrestricted" ie to use the battery "without restriction". The screen is kept on with the Hi-Fi Cast setting "Now Playing - Other - Keep screen on".

Of course, it goes without saying that since posting it has behaved perfectly - but I have been careful to leave the queue as shuffled, without swiping out any tracks. Over the next few days I'll try swiping out some tracks and see what happens.

Again many thanks,

Roger Clarke

[Roger Clarke]

Update: Suspicions confirmed - an unaltered shuffle list plays without problem, but a list changed either by swiping out a track or by re-ordering with the drag handles freezes the casting app.

It probably doesn't help, but the playback diagnostics on the stuck track all show OK.

Best Regards

Roger Clarke

[Hi-Fi Cast Developer]

OK. Thanks for confirming that Roger.

FYI. Hi-Fi Cast maintains a queue of tracks on the Chromecast and when changes are made to the queue in the app it attempts to synchronise the two queues. Obviously something is going awry there.

- Brett

[Roger Clarke]

By way of a work around, I've taken to selecting "this device", then "shuffle all songs", editing the queue as required and then changing the play back device to the CCA.

No-one else has jumped in here, so perhaps this is a quirk of my router or CCA? These devices aren't young anymore, and I do have one which now has a very substandard (digital) output.

I should mention that otherwise Hi-Fi Cast has behaved perfectly for many years and I have had no other problems. In the world of the Play Store, it is refreshingly understated and elegant. Thank you - long may it continue!

Best Regards

Roger Clarke

[Roger Clarke]

Resolved - even if not solved!

I offer this as observed. If there is an explanation I would love to hear it.

Also connected to the router is an ASUS chromebox. It is not involved in playing music from the Synology NAS to the chromecast audio (which is via minim server and Hifi cast app on tablet).

However, while check some other settings I found that the channel on the chromebox had gone from "stable" to LTS (long term support). Google support pages are adamant that this must be user selected on non-managed devices.

Returning the chromebox to the "stable" channel appears to have resolved all previous issues. I have spent this evening with a shuffled list which has been juggled, swiped and rearranged. The tablet app display has not faltered and the desktop notification has stayed entirely in step.

Having returned to the stable channel, the LTS option is not listed. It may well be that tomorrow will bring all the problems back again, but for the moment everything is hunky-dory! Will post again after further testing.

Best Regards

Roger Clarke