Constant "Unable to Play Media" error with multi-item playlist

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What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Pick any program (Morning Edition, click Add All To List
2. Play
3. After 1 to 3 items the program will blink "Unable to Play Media" message for 
a minute or more regardless of if you are in the app.  I have to force stop the 
app to get the message to go away.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

For the past year the app has worked fine, but for the last month I've been 
getting this error from a few times, to now I can't play more than two stories 
without it being unable to play the rest of the program.

**Since the app hasn't changed I suspect the URL used to tell the app where to 
download the story from has changed or the format of the audio stream it is 
trying to download has changed. Either way it's broken.

What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?

V. 2.3
Happens on the three different devices I own (Galaxy Blaze phone, Samsung 
player 5, and Asus TF101) always on the same item in the list. Using android 
2.3.5, 2.3.6, and 4.0.3

Original issue reported on code.google.com by montest...@gmail.com on 4 Sep 2012 at 2:19

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Thank God I am not the only one. This problem has been growing more and more. I 
uninstalled the app and reinstalled it only to find the same problem. It seems 
to not matter if I am on Wifi or on 3g service. 
HTC Incredible II HTCC Sense version 2.1, Android version 2.3.4 NPR version 2.3 

Original comment by mfingerl...@gmail.com on 8 Sep 2012 at 7:32

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I too have suddenly started to have this problem. I'm running Android on an HTC 
Evo Shift. I hope NPR fixes this soon; it's terribly frustrating. Thanks!

Original comment by mtben...@gmail.com on 13 Sep 2012 at 5:12

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I recently started having the same exact issue on my HTC Incredible.  Also 
tried uninstall/reinstall, which didn't work.

Original comment by mcdon...@gmail.com on 16 Sep 2012 at 1:46

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[deleted comment]

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Dear Developers,

I too have the same problem and would like to help solving it for myself and 
others.

I did some analysis of logcat recorded over serveral days with the same 
playlist.  I determined the following:

After studying the logcat files, I identified multiple attempts to play various 
streams.  I identify the name, the number of successful attempts (#OK) and the 
total number of attempts (#TOTAL).  I computed the success rate and sorted all 
the streams using the rate and make the following list.  As can be seen, there 
are a large number of attempts on some streams at different day/hour of day.

#OK/#TOTAL  --> stream names
1/1  -->  atc/2012/09/20120909_atc_01.mp3
1/4  -->  tmm/2012/09/20120907_tmm_01.mp3
1/6  -->  tmm/2012/09/20120907_tmm_03.mp3
1/7  -->  atc/2012/09/20120905_atc_06.mp3
1/7  -->  atc/2012/09/20120905_atc_13.mp3
1/7  -->  specials/2012/09/20120905_specials_clintonspeech.mp3
1/7  -->  wesat/2012/09/20120908_wesat_13.mp3
1/7  -->  wesat/2012/09/20120908_wesat_18.mp3
1/7  -->  wesun/2012/09/20120909_wesun_16.mp3
1/8  -->  atc/2012/09/20120903_atc_13.mp3
4/34  -->  me/2012/09/20120912_me_13.mp3
1/10  -->  me/2012/09/20120904_me_12.mp3
1/10  -->  me/2012/09/20120914_me_14.mp3
2/21  -->  me/2012/09/20120913_me_15.mp3
1/22  -->  atc/2012/09/20120912_atc_20.mp3
1/43  -->  me/2012/09/20120910_me_03.mp3
1/43  -->  tmm/2012/09/20120907_tmm_02.mp3
1/46  -->  me/2012/09/20120907_me_02.mp3
0/9  -->  atc/2012/09/20120903_atc_16.mp3
0/3  -->  atc/2012/09/20120909_atc_03.mp3
0/42  -->  atc/2012/09/20120910_atc_08.mp3
0/42  -->  atc/2012/09/20120910_atc_15.mp3
0/42  -->  atc/2012/09/20120910_atc_17.mp3
0/37  -->  atc/2012/09/20120911_atc_18.mp3
0/12  -->  atc/2012/09/20120913_atc_09.mp3
0/45  -->  fa/2012/09/20120906_fa_03.mp3
0/9  -->  me/2012/09/20120904_me_14.mp3
0/45  -->  me/2012/09/20120905_me_08.mp3
0/48  -->  me/2012/09/20120907_me_08.mp3
0/42  -->  me/2012/09/20120910_me_05.mp3
0/45  -->  me/2012/09/20120910_me_13.mp3
0/42  -->  me/2012/09/20120911_me_07.mp3
0/36  -->  me/2012/09/20120912_me_16.mp3
0/12  -->  me/2012/09/20120914_me_03.mp3
0/12  -->  me/2012/09/20120914_me_10.mp3
0/12  -->  me/2012/09/20120914_me_15.mp3
0/47  -->  tmm/2012/09/20120906_tmm_02.mp3
0/12  -->  tmm/2012/09/20120913_tmm_01.mp3
0/12  -->  tmm/2012/09/20120913_tmm_02.mp3
0/12  -->  tmm/2012/09/20120913_tmm_04.mp3

All the URLs have the same prefix and suffix.  I remote them to save space:
prefix:
http://public.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/
suffix:
?sc=18
e.g.:
http://public.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/atc/2012/09/20120903_atc_16.mp3?sc=18

I looked deeper into 20120912_me_13.mp3 which has 4 successes in 34 attempts.
I identify in the logcat the start of the attempt, to when it either played, or 
failed.
I see they are the same up to this point:

09-12 17:54:57.499 I/HTTPStream(  134): GET 
/anon.npr-mp3/npr/me/2012/09/20120912_me_13.mp3?sc=18<!--  Burned on demand at 
2012-09-12 20:54:56-->&_kip_ipx=1428736441-1347497697 HTTP/1.1
09-12 17:54:57.499 I/HTTPStream(  134): Host: public.npr.org
09-12 17:54:57.499 I/HTTPStream(  134): User-Agent: HTC Streaming Player tmous 
/ 1.0 / htc_doubleshot / 2.3.4
09-12 17:54:57.499 I/HTTPStream(  134): 

The bad one is followed by this:

09-12 17:54:57.720 E/NuHTTPDataSource(  134): connect() redirect http status 
error

The good one is followed by these:

09-12 08:23:48.985 I/aricent_plugins(  134): Version [4.0] AriSnif ++
09-12 08:23:48.995 I/aricent_plugins(  134): AriSnif --
09-12 08:23:49.005 I/OMXCodec(  134): [Stagefright] use software 
codec=MP3Decoder 
09-12 08:23:49.515 D/SurfaceFlinger(  282): [DISP] purgatorizeLayer_l 0x8fb578 4
09-12 08:23:49.515 D/msm8660.gralloc(  282): HDMI fb_videoOverlayStarted 0
09-12 08:23:50.006 W/MediaPlayer(30488): info/warning (1, 902)
09-12 08:23:50.016 D/org.npr.android.news.PlaybackService(30488): Prepared

I can share my logcat files if they would help.  I have also downloaded the 
source code and had successfully rebuilt and ran, so if there is anything I can 
do to help please let me know or give me suggestion.

Original comment by l00g33k@gmail.com on 16 Sep 2012 at 7:42

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Has been happening to me for awhile... and I don't generate multi-item play 
lists.  I do listen to the Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle.  The post by 
l00g33k@gmail.com suggests to me that the playlist issue may be a red herring 
and that some change in the RSS feed has confused the app for (at least?) 
certain files.

Original comment by jdnew...@gmail.com on 17 Sep 2012 at 4:28

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Hmm - not sure what might be causing this. We are doing some work right now on 
the app and the logcats would certainly help us figure out if this is a client 
problem or a server one.

l00g33k, can you post yours?

Original comment by jpenn...@gmail.com on 18 Sep 2012 at 7:38

• Changed state: Accepted

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Hi jpenn,

Thanks for looking into this.  Happy to share.

I have some privacy concerns about posting the logcat files to a public forum.  
May I send it to you privately?  Looks like my email address is already publc 
but yours isn't.  I intend to send 2 .zip files totalling 250 kB which expands 
to ~3 MB.  I have more if that's useful.

Original comment by l00g33k@gmail.com on 19 Sep 2012 at 12:49

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I've also been seeing the problem for the last several weeks (months?). Also 
not related to any update, just started happening one day and is pretty 
constant. I'm using a Samsung Galaxy W. Seems to be most severe when playing 
from a playlist (e.g. trying to listen to a complete All Things Considered). 
Listening to an individual Science Friday broadcast seems to almost always 
work. Seems very unlikely to be a client problem since we have different 
devices and it just suddenly started to happen unrelated to any change on the 
client side.

Original comment by guru.tej...@gmail.com on 19 Sep 2012 at 6:11

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Interesting, it's been problem free yesterday and this morning.  Something on 
the server side changed?

Original comment by l00g33k@gmail.com on 20 Sep 2012 at 3:45

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I too got through Morning edition without an error.  Thanks to the devs for 
looking into this.  I have the ADK but haven't done any development, so I can 
send whatever files you need.

I also wanted to point out there are two problems.  One is the stories not 
playing, but the other is how the error message is displayed.  It takes over 
the top UI layer of the OS rather than just within the app.  This means when 
the error displays, it continues to display even when you leave the app, and 
even blocks the volume keys.  This wouldn't be such a problem if it displayed 
for a second and left, but it continues to "blink" three to four times for each 
story unplayed.  So if it can't play five stories, it blinks twenty times in a 
row and can only only be stopped by going to Manage Apps and force stopping it.

Original comment by montest...@gmail.com on 20 Sep 2012 at 5:49

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l00g33k - feel free to send any logs you have to jpennycook {at} npr {dot} org.

Thanks.

Original comment by jpenn...@gmail.com on 20 Sep 2012 at 7:24

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Original comment by jpenn...@gmail.com on 20 Sep 2012 at 7:24

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jpennycook, I have shared with you via Google Drive.  Let me know if you have 
trouble accessing.

Original comment by l00g33k@gmail.com on 20 Sep 2012 at 7:54

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Thanks. I also shared it with out tech lead.

Original comment by jpenn...@gmail.com on 20 Sep 2012 at 9:09

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No problem.  Glad to help you help us.

Original comment by l00g33k@gmail.com on 20 Sep 2012 at 9:33

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Trouble free again this morning.

Original comment by l00g33k@gmail.com on 21 Sep 2012 at 5:05

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Everything has been fine so far so this is my last report.

Original comment by l00g33k@gmail.com on 5 Oct 2012 at 4:03

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I believe this was most likely an API issue with a server-side fix. Glad to 
hear it isn't happening anymore.

Original comment by jpenn...@gmail.com on 5 Oct 2012 at 5:44

• Changed state: Verified

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Thank you for your help and fix.

Original comment by l00g33k@gmail.com on 5 Oct 2012 at 6:22

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Problem has cleared.  Thanks for the fix.

Original comment by erick...@gmail.com on 6 Oct 2012 at 10:34

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lg optimus slider, latest application update, won't play more than one story. 
Sometimes doesn't play any stories for hours. please help. app version 2.4, 
version code 7340

Original comment by MustLove...@gmail.com on 30 Nov 2012 at 12:28

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While I still have the issue of the current play time not resetting to zero at 
the end a story and thus skipping the next story, I haven't had this issue 
again accept under two circumstances.

If I start the NPR app and use it a bit then leave it to do other things for an 
extended period of time, when I come back to it it doesn't want to play the 
current story anymore. If I click the pause/play button it will eventually 
start but act weird.  If I choose another story it will often give me the 
"Unable..." error but then play the story.  Similarly, if you quickly select 
different stories in the queue you can get it to give you the "Unable..." error 
but it will usually play the last story you selected.

My solution to not using the NPR at for a bit is to go to Manage Apps and force 
close it, then reopen it and all is better.

Original comment by montest...@gmail.com on 30 Nov 2012 at 11:00

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I have a Samsung S3 and just downloaded the app and does not work at all for me.

Original comment by pguibo...@gmail.com on 7 Dec 2012 at 4:48

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I am having this same issue. I have a Samsung galaxy s3

Original comment by stevesmi...@u.boisestate.edu on 8 Dec 2012 at 7:30

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Ah, restarting fixes it.

Original comment by stevesmi...@u.boisestate.edu on 8 Dec 2012 at 7:35

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I have an S3 too. Stations buffer without playing. It has happened for a while 
now. The recent update to kitkat did not help. 

Original comment by Kenneth....@gmail.com on 17 Jul 2014 at 12:44