App does not close

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What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Tap the HOME button on your device to exit the app
2. Tap MENU>SETTINGS>APPLICATIONS>RUNNING SERVICES
3. You will see that the NPR News app is still running

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
There ought to be a way to completely exit the app, but it appears that it will 
continuously run in the background unless you perform a force close through the 
SETTINGS panel or restart your device.

What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?
app version 2.0 on an HTC Incredible running Android 2.2

Please provide any additional information below.
We are attempting to respond to listener emails about this. Any info at all 
about why a Close button is not included or whether or not we plan to add one 
soon would be extremely helpful

Original issue reported on code.google.com by jtheodor...@gmail.com on 29 Mar 2011 at 6:53

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This is how Android OS works. When you leave an application Android OS may 
choose to run it in the background. It *can* recycle the application at any 
time it chooses when it's not running in the foreground, for example, should it 
need to the memory for a different foreground activity.

The app includes a playback service that will continue to run even when the 
visible activities are terminated. This allows you to listen to music in the 
background without having the whole app in memory. However, the playback 
service will stop itself when it is has stopped playing everything in the 
playlist or stopped playing a stream or podcast (which aren't stored in 
playlists).

Original comment by jeremy.w...@gmail.com on 29 Mar 2011 at 7:00

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If listeners are having problems caused by the app we want to address those 
problems. What is causing them to resort to wanting to force the application to 
close? Is the new NPR app causing general system slow-down? Is it draining the 
battery?

For a detailed discussion of applications, activities and tasks, see 
http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/ui_guidelines/activity_task_design.
html#navigating_away_from_an_activity

Original comment by jeremy.w...@gmail.com on 29 Mar 2011 at 7:12

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Here's what a user said about this issue:

"know that apps need to close when your done using it, instead of running in 
the background wasting resources like the other average apps on Android do.  
It's the attention to the little details that separate the good apps from the 
great apps."

I tested Pandora on my phone, and using the Quit button completely quit the app 
(did not show as a running service), whereas tapping the home button still 
allowed me to run the app in the background. I think most users would prefer 
this functionality. We got this complaint with previous versions of the app as 
well.

A lot of people also had a hard time understanding that you need to pause the 
player before exiting the app in order to stop it from running the audio in the 
background. One of the most common Android emails we would see for previous 
versions is "Why doesn't the Close button close the app? I have to use a 
task-killer because the audio keeps playing." Having a button that would 
completely quit the application would end that confusion.

Original comment by jlucas....@gmail.com on 29 Mar 2011 at 7:34

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When designing the new NPR app we intended to follow Android application 
guidelines. Again, if we're not doing so or it is causing issues for listeners, 
we want to fix those. 

Doing some research (and from my anecdotal experience with some early Android 
adopters who seem more apt than later adopters to be concerned about this) this 
task-killing / app-closing confusion is a bigger problem. The challenge is that 
Android was designed to handle task management differently and lots of Android 
users aren't comfortable with that. Google has addressed this (and many, many 
blogs and forums have). Here is another article, if you want to share it with 
reporters.

http://androidspin.com/2010/05/25/why-you-dont-need-a-task-killer-app-with-andro
id/

And the source post from Google which explains why "running in the background 
wasting resources" is an incorrect understanding of the OS model:

http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/04/multitasking-android-way.html

Also, recognize that if we were to actually try to force the process to be 
killed when the app is closed, that would mean that views would have to be 
recreated and reloaded when they started the app again. In the case of NPR News 
this isn't terrible — it means that loading the app will always start at Top 
News and always query the latest news feed on startup (rather than showing the 
list from the last time loaded while running in background).

If this is merely a question of listeners who really want the process killed 
when the app is closed, then I think it's a question of whether NPR wants to 
follow *Android* application guidelines or diverge from them to meet listener 
expectations. 

The player running in the background is, of course, by design. I think that the 
new, always visible play/pause button on every activity should resolve the "how 
do I stop the audio" questions from before. So, are we getting feedback from 
the current app with this issue? If so, let's look at the design again. Off 
hand, I don't know that Menu | Exit is going to be more discoverable than a big 
Pause button on the face of the app, but we can add that.

Original comment by jeremy.w...@gmail.com on 29 Mar 2011 at 8:36

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All of these are good points. 

I don't know much about the pros of sticking to Android application guidelines, 
but it does seem that some users are confused by this design or under the 
impression that it wastes resources. The article you provided will be helpful 
in addressing some of those concerns.

What you mentioned about the big pause button brings up a separate point. We 
are also starting to see complaints that the player takes up too much visual 
real estate and that people preferred the player as a drawer.

Original comment by jlucas....@gmail.com on 29 Mar 2011 at 9:20

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I understand that addressing the concerns with an article on how Android OS 
works is time-consuming and challenging from a support perpective. Adding an 
"Exit NPR News" item to the menu is doable. Might even be able to coordinate 
with JP to get this in the next update.

While I have no analytics to back this up (so it's speculative), my concern is 
that adding a menu item will encourage listeners that they must exit the app, 
which continues the misinformation about how Android apps work.

As for the large amount of space taken by the collapsed player, as someone who 
reads more than listens to news, I agree. I think we should log this as a 
separate feature request as it needs some discussion on how to make it work 
without losing the (presumed) advantage it is providing right now.

Original comment by jeremy.w...@gmail.com on 29 Mar 2011 at 10:19

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Thanks. We might need to start a separate thread about this, but what are the 
perceived benefits of having the player not collapse? I never saw any user 
complaints about the collapsing player.

Original comment by jlucas....@gmail.com on 29 Mar 2011 at 10:45

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Created issue #75 for player size change discussion.

Original comment by jeremy.w...@gmail.com on 29 Mar 2011 at 11:32

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I noticed in reviewing comments that some users complain of the app 
spontaneously restarting. That's clearly an issue. I'd love to dig into that 
further if we could figure out how that could happen, what it means (does audio 
start playing when stopped? does the activity restart when it was in the 
background?) and maybe get some logs.

Original comment by jeremy.w...@gmail.com on 29 Mar 2011 at 11:42

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There were three complaints yesterday about the app spontaneously starting. 
E-mails are below:

Subject: NPR.org feedback: streaming

New npr.org mobile feedback:

Name: molly loch
E-mail: mollyglass@cox.net
Zip: 23464
Comments:

"After I updated the app the streaming automatically starts to play everytime 
my phone rings. Even 
though the app is 
not on or open
I love this app please fix it."

Platform: NPRApp
Header Info: 
UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 1.6; en-us; Garminfone Build/DRC79) 
AppleWebKit/528.5+ 
(KHTML, like Gecko) 
Version/3.1.2 Mobile Safari/525.20.1; A50-V4.0.12-user-20100414, IP: 
172.31.2.9

Subject: NPR.org feedback: App will not turn off

New npr.org mobile feedback:

Name: Lindsey Loeper
E-mail: lindseyloeper@gmail.com
Zip: 21201
Comments:

"When I turn off the NPR stream and return to my home screen, a few minutes 
later the NPR stream 
turns back on. I 
can't find a way ti get it to stop without going into my phone's app settings 
and 
selecting force close."

Incidents # in Fuze are  275603, 275619 and 275635 entered by Erin. Let me know 
what additional information you might need. 
Platform: NPRApp
Header Info: 
UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.2; en-us; DROID2 Build/VZW) 
AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, 
like Gecko) 
Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1 480X854 motorola DROID2, IP: 172.31.2.9

Subject: NPR.org feedback: suggested app fix

New npr.org mobile feedback:

Name: kyle marynik
E-mail: kmarynik@gmail.com
Zip: 49930
Comments:

"I enjoy your NPR Radio app and use it frequently.  I was wondering if you 
could add an option in 
your menu that 
allows me to shut the app off when I am finished using it?  I recently was 
listening to the radio through your app, 
then paused the station, and then about 45 minutes later 
the radio just turned on and started playing automatically 
while my phone was in my pocket.  This 
happened while I was in a class, which wasn't very ideal for me as you can 
imagine.  I hope you 
will take this into consideration upon updating the app.

Thank you,
Kyle Marynik"

Platform: NPRApp
Header Info: 
UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.1; en-us; ADR6200 Build/ERD79) 
AppleWebKit/530.17 
(KHTML, like Gecko) 
Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/530.17, IP: 172.31.2.9

Original comment by npr.serv...@gmail.com on 30 Mar 2011 at 3:14

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Subject: NPR.org feedback: bug in app

New npr.org mobile feedback:

Name: Dannis Adamson
E-mail: dannisadamson@gmail.com
Zip: 83201
Comments:

"When listening to a live feed from kuer, I have no way to permenently end the 
playback.  If I 
pause it, the playback 
starts back up after I finish a call even if I was done listening through 
the app."

Platform: NPRApp
Header Info: 
UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.2; en-us; DROID2 GLOBAL Build/S273) 
AppleWebKit/533.1 
(KHTML, like Gecko) 
Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1, IP: 172.31.2.9

The incident number in Fuze is Incident # 276841 

Original comment by npr.serv...@gmail.com on 1 Apr 2011 at 2:37

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I am experiencing the same issue as described in comments 9, 10, and 11.  I 
pause an MP3 audio stream of a local station and hit the home button.  Then, 
some time later, the stream will start back up in my pocket (with the phone 
locked) and I end up re-pausing and then killing it with task Task Manager.  It 
would be nice to have an option that allows the user to "stop" instead of 
"pause", or just completely remove the MP3 audio stream from "Now Playing" when 
desired.

Original comment by zacfos...@gmail.com on 6 Apr 2011 at 12:07

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I believe we have a fix for the spontaneous restart issue in build 204. 
However, as we have never experienced this in testing, we're unable to 
ascertain that this *is* the fix. Perhaps we can do a pre-release test with 
some reporters of this issue to see if it resolves it before pushing to the 
whole market.

Original comment by jeremy.w...@gmail.com on 6 Apr 2011 at 5:55

• Changed state: Fixed

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Jeremy W., resumption of stream playback on phone idle, if that's what you're 
referring to as "spontaneous restart," is easy to reproduce in the emulator.

Original comment by tjack1...@gmail.com on 7 Apr 2011 at 4:50

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tjackson, that's great news! Can you please provide a test case for that? This 
is something we've never seen in testing so I really don't know where to start 
to reproduce it.

Original comment by jeremy.w...@gmail.com on 7 Apr 2011 at 4:55

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It's pretty straightforward.  Start playback of a station stream, start call, 
end call, hit pause, start call, end call.

Original comment by tjack1...@gmail.com on 7 Apr 2011 at 6:06

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Thanks. That is perfect, and... not yet fixed. Moving this back to 'Started' 
and we'll get this addressed. 

This is probably directly related to the phone listener which I *think* is 
different than "the playback starts again in my pocket" issue which I believe 
may be related to the OS recycling the service for some reason after a 'toggle 
play/pause' intent.

Original comment by jeremy.w...@gmail.com on 7 Apr 2011 at 6:38

• Changed state: Started

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Original comment by jeremy.w...@gmail.com on 7 Apr 2011 at 6:39

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Restart on phone completion issue has been fixed in build 205.

This issue existing pre-2.0 and in the 1.x branch as well. It's caused by the 
pausedInCall flag not being reset to false inside the PlaybackService after the 
call completes. 

See block at line 122 in 
http://code.google.com/p/npr-android-app/source/browse/trunk/Npr/src/org/npr/and
roid/news/PlaybackService.java

Also block at line 181 in 
http://code.google.com/p/npr-android-app/source/browse/branches/release_1.x/Npr/
src/org/npr/android/news/ListenActivity.java

Original comment by jeremy.w...@gmail.com on 7 Apr 2011 at 11:22

• Changed state: Fixed

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[deleted comment]

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Adam, 

We'll need to look into that to understand why that would be happening. NPR 
News app launches a GPS listener on start-up just to ensure that there's some 
fix if/when it needs it but it doesn't actually *poll* the GPS unless you ask 
for local stations. It shouldn't be using the GPS all night.

I haven't ever had an Android that could run all night without being charged. 
Well except maybe in the first couple days of owning it. 

Original comment by jeremy.w...@gmail.com on 15 Dec 2011 at 12:59

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I still have NPR icon after shutting down the app from the task switcher.  LET 
ME EXIT the app. Frankly I dont care whether NPR thinks it is not wasting 
resources. It is MY phone and when I close a program I WANT IT CLOSED.

Original comment by MarceloP...@gmail.com on 10 Aug 2013 at 3:37

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I still have NPR icon after shutting down the app from the task switcher.  LET 
ME EXIT the app. Frankly I dont care whether NPR thinks it is not wasting 
resources. It is MY phone and when I close a program I WANT IT CLOSED.

Original comment by MarceloP...@gmail.com on 10 Aug 2013 at 3:37

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I am having this issue.  I press "pause" and then the home button, because 
there is no way to press "stop" and there is no way to "exit".  The icon 
disappears.  Then, in a minute or two, it starts up again.  So I'm walking 
around with my phone in my pocket broadcasting NPR.  

Original comment by jonathan...@meatradio.com on 21 Apr 2015 at 6:14

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Hi,

I just got my Android Turbo.  My problem is similar.  I am listing to a TED 
talk.  Touch the Pause.  The program spontaneously restarts.  The phone is 
quietly sitting. I am using Wi-Fi.  I can shut down the app to make it stop.  

Android Turbo:  MDM9625_104351.17.02.71.13R, QUARK_CUST.  Kernel version 
3.10.40-pef-g9df477d.  Build date Feb 6 15:33:41 PST 2015. Build number SU2-12

The NPR version: 2.5.6 | Version code: 70256

Original comment by twara...@gmail.com on 27 Jun 2015 at 7:39