Google Play Music stopping when screen turns off

[Racer-X#AC]

I've got my Chromecast hooked up to my Yamaha RX-A820, and I've been playing around with Google Play Music on my Galaxy Nexus. When I start a playlist, album, whatever, the music will stop once my screen turns off on my phone. The TV will show the Music logo and ask if I want to cast some music.

What I have tried:
1) Playing a playlist while not casting. My phone will continue to play songs when the screen is off.
2) Turning off my lockscreen. No effect.
3) Setting my screen to turn off at the max length of 10 minutes. Songs will play while the screen is on, but will stop at the next song after the screen turns off.

If I wake up my phone after the music has stopped, the next song will play.

This is frustrating. Am I missing something?

 

[GadgetGator]

Hmmm, sounds like it might be a bug. Do you know if you have the latests Chromecast update? There might be some weird compatibility glitch between your Nexus and the Chromecast. Another thing to check is that e Google Music app is updated too. They pushed out an update this week to fix some Chromecast bugs.

 

[Racer-X#AC]

I have the latest Play Music update - v.5.1.1107k, Aug 1st.
I have no idea if I have the latest Chromecast update. Is there a way to find out?

I plugged the Chromecast into the TV directly, and the songs still stopped when my screen went off. So it's not the receiver.

I then tried my wife's Transformer Prime. Well, what do you know! The music continues when the screen turns off!

Both the phone and the Transformer have the music stored locally, so it's not an issue of streaming or not. The phone is the Verizon one, but it has the latest 4.2.2 android. Any idea where I should post this to make Google and/or Verizon aware?

 

[enjoylife949]

Both the phone and the Transformer have the music stored locally, so it's not an issue of streaming or not.

It is all about streaming from the cloud to the Chromecast.
What is stored locally is not what is playing on the Chromecast.
I am just guessing but is it possible you have your Galaxy Nexus set to turn off WiFi when it sleeps?
Even though music is not streaming from your phone to the Chromecast, perhaps a control connection is lost when the phone sleeps.

 

[Racer-X#AC]

It is all about streaming from the cloud to the Chromecast.
What is stored locally is not what is playing on the Chromecast.

Well that doesn't make any sense (not that you're wrong, of course). Why stream when you have it right there? Also, I recall seeing an update to something music related that allowed you to favor locally stored music. I can't find it now, but I thought it was the music app.

I am just guessing but is it possible you have your Galaxy Nexus set to turn off WiFi when it sleeps?

Nope. It's set to stay on always.

Even though music is not streaming from your phone to the Chromecast, perhaps a control connection is lost when the phone sleeps.

So, a bug

 

[TenshiNo]

It is all about streaming from the cloud to the Chromecast.
What is stored locally is not what is playing on the Chromecast.
I am just guessing but is it possible you have your Galaxy Nexus set to turn off WiFi when it sleeps?
Even though music is not streaming from your phone to the Chromecast, perhaps a control connection is lost when the phone sleeps.

Actually, I would imagine that if he is streaming an audio file stored locally on his phone, then it is streaming from his phone. Now, if he selected a file in his Play Music lirbary, that would be a different story. But there's a good chance, in this scenario, that the file is streaming directly from his phone and something happens when the screen turns off preventing accessing the next song. Sounds like a bug somewhere to me.

 

[Racer-X#AC]

Actually, I would imagine that if he is streaming an audio file stored locally on his phone, then it is streaming from his phone. Now, if he selected a file in his Play Music lirbary, that would be a different story.

I was using my Play Music library, and by the data usage I saw I was definitely streaming. I don't even know how I could stream something from my phone given the few apps the Chromecast supports.

Next up for troubleshooting is trying my wife's identical phone, and then if that proves fruitless, I have a friend with a GNex and a Chromecast. I know I should have done all of these things before starting this thread, but I though I was missing something obvious in a setting somewhere.

 

[Racer-X#AC]

OK, so I tried the wife's phone and it works fine. Songs play with the screen off. I also realized that the songs on my phone were not in fact stored locally, so I "pinned" them again and tried again with my phone. I got the same result of the songs stopping when my screen turns off.

So, I know it's not the Chromecast or the receiver. Now to figure out what is different about our two phones (both Verizon GNex, on same software). This could take some time. The wife has settled down to watch TV, so my testing is done for the night. If I can figure out what causes this I will report back.

 

[tuccman]

I have the same issue. HTC Evo lte. After the song plays it does not continue to play the rest of the album once the screen is off. Super annoying. Please let me know if you can figure this out.

Thanks.

 

[tuccman]

Update: I just tried with my Acer A500 and it works fine. It's definitely a phone thing. Maybe the apps have not been updated properly to support our phones. Pretty annoying.

 

[Racer-X#AC]

But with mine, remember my wife and I have identical phones, so it just can't be that some phones are supported and others not. Hopefully I can spend some time tonight debugging this.

 

[GadgetGator]

OK, so I tried the wife's phone and it works fine. Songs play with the screen off. I also realized that the songs on my phone were not in fact stored locally, so I "pinned" them again and tried again with my phone. I got the same result of the songs stopping when my screen turns off.

This should make no difference. Once again, Chromecast is not a local file streaming product. (Though there are some efforts underway by some 3rd parties to hack it so it is). But as of now, the Chomecast is not directly streaming your music from your device from everything I have read.

However, one thing you might try doing on your phone if you haven't already, is going into settings and under the app management section selecting the google music app and clearing the cache data for it and then run it again and see if that fixes anything.

 

[Racer-X#AC]

under the app management section selecting the google music app and clearing the cache data for it and then run it again and see if that fixes anything.

Directions unclear. Click the button marked "Clear cache" or "Clear data"? Clicking "Clear cache" didn't help.

 

[Racer-X#AC]

I though I had it there for a second.

I compared my wife's and my phones, and the only difference in the Play Music app was she had "Cache during playback" checked and I didn't. I checked it, my phone played TWO songs, I start doing a happy dance, and then the music stops. So, back to square one. We've got the same phone, same software, same settings, linked to the same music library, both use PIN screen locks.

Now it's going to be pure luck finding the issue.

 

[GadgetGator]

Hmmm, in researching an issue I am having, I stumbled upon some things similar to the issue you are having. It seems like other Nexus users have had similar issues:

Google Groups

However what throws me off is that you have one working phone. So I think it is one of three things. One, your phone's software has been corrupted and gone wonky somewhere. Two, your phone is set differently somewhere. Not nessisarliy within the music app, but somewhere else in the phone's settings. Wifi settings, or power saving settings..something is set different. Does your wife's phone have the exact same Android version/updates? Three, you have different apps installed on your phones I would assume, so maybe some app on yours is interfering. Maybe an automation app, like Tasker or Llama? A battery saving app? Perhaps a good place to start would be to list all the apps that are unique to your phone. Including any version numbers of identical apps that may be updated differently on your device.

 

[Racer-X#AC]

So I think it is one of three things. One, your phone's software has been corrupted and gone wonky somewhere. Two, your phone is set differently somewhere. Not nessisarliy within the music app, but somewhere else in the phone's settings. Wifi settings, or power saving settings..something is set different. Does your wife's phone have the exact same Android version/updates?

Yes, same Android version and update. I agree it's probably a setting somewhere, and I was going to start with Wifi, then screen. We should have the same hardware version as well since they were purchased at the same time, but I need to check that as well.

Three, you have different apps installed on your phones I would assume, so maybe some app on yours is interfering. Maybe an automation app, like Tasker or Llama? A battery saving app? Perhaps a good place to start would be to list all the apps that are unique to your phone. Including any version numbers of identical apps that may be updated differently on your device.

There are no automation or battery saving apps on either phones. It will be a last resort to start deleting apps off my phone to see which could be causing the issue.

 

[D-Caf]

Under advanced settings for Wifi on your phone do you have "Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep" enabled?

Since your phone is controlling the chromecast, it would stand that if your phone made your wi-fi sleep and the cromecast lost it's controller it might stop. The streaming may be direct from the chromecast to the source, but the phone is still the controller.

That's my best guess for now.

 

[dagold99]

Same issue for me. I have htc 4g lte and google music works with chromecast when screen on phone stays on. If screen turns off that music stops. I do have Wifi on during sleep enabled.

I also noticed the same thing happens when I cast music from my PC Computer. The music stops when my PC goes into sleep mode.

 

[Almeuit]

Under advanced settings for Wifi on your phone do you have "Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep" enabled?

Since your phone is controlling the chromecast, it would stand that if your phone made your wi-fi sleep and the cromecast lost it's controller it might stop. The streaming may be direct from the chromecast to the source, but the phone is still the controller.

That's my best guess for now.

This is a good idea. If your wifi was shutting off it could cause this issue.

Sent from my T-Mobile HTC One using AC Forums.

 

[RacerX2]

This is a good idea. If your wifi was shutting off it could cause this issue.

See post #5. It's set to always be on.
(sent from new account since I don't remember my password...)