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[RoderickGI]

I seem to have JRiver for Android 25.0.120 on my phone, but I haven't seen and can't find any release note for it.

The Play Store says:

WHAT’S NEW
25.0.120 (11/22/2019

1. NEW: Added an option to load remote libraries to the options menu.

Awesome Donkey you made this comment:

Yes, there's some feature overlap since JRiver for Android can now act as a client to a server and load a library from a server

and I can see that there is a "Load Library" item under the Options icon, and it lists my two servers, but selecting either of the servers doesn't load the server Library. In fact it just seems to completely break navigation. A restart of the phone was required to fix that.


Sooo, where are we on this.
Did a Release Note thread for 25.0.120 get overlooked with the excitement about JRiver for Android TV?
Has anyone got connection to a MC Server working?

[JimH]

I think 120 is broken.  Since it's Thanksgiving here, this won't be fixed until next week.  Sorry.

[RoderickGI]

No problem Jim. I won't test until I hear more.

Enjoy Thanksgiving!

[RoderickGI]

I now have JRiver for Android 25.0.121 on my Sony Xperia XZ Premium, Android 9.

I don't see any Release Notes.

On the Play Store, the What's New says:

WHAT’S NEW
25.0.121 (12/6/2019)

1. Fixed: Several fixes and improvements to the library load operation.
2. Fixed: Panel - When playing a file the play command could get sent to multiple zones.

The Library Load still isn't working for me. After the Confirm dialogue and "Loading Library" message, and popup Success! message shows, stating that the App must be restarted, with a Confirm button. Confirming shows the "Loading Library" message again with the spinner, and then JRiver for Android appears to close, but it is still available if I press the "Recents" button (runnings Apps button). If a Switch to that, it shows the local Library. If I close the App by swiping it away in the Recents view, and reopen JRiver for Android, it shows the local Library.

I will note here that if I select Exit under the slide out drawer, JRiver for Android appears to close, but it is still available if I press the "Recents" button (runnings Apps button). If I select it then it reopens the local Library. I haven't reported that before, and maybe this issue is specific to my Sony, but if I select Exit I expect the App to close fully, if nothing is playing.

I tried clearing the App Cache, and then the App Data, but neither fixed the issue. Do I need to uninstall and reinstall? Is Load Library actually working now?

[IlPadrino]

I've got Android 25.0.121 running on my Android TV (Sony XBR-55A1E, Android , but I see no way to load a library... just import local.  On my OnePlus 6 (Android 10), it loads my desktop library just fine, but video playback isn't working.  I've cleared data and caches.

[JimH]

Tap on the settings icon.

[hoyt]

I'm getting the same thing with 121.  It appears to load a library, exits, then when I reopen the app, it's back to showing a local library.  I have authentication on, so I'm not sure what "success" means because it never prompts me for my credentials.

[RoderickGI]

I have authentication on, so I'm not sure what "success" means because it never prompts me for my credentials.

I forgot to mention that. I also have Authentication on, but no SSL. No request for credentials.

Hoyt, I think you are using SSL on your server?

[hoyt]

I forgot to mention that. I also have Authentication on, but no SSL. No request for credentials.

Hoyt, I think you are using SSL on your server?

On my server exposed to the internet, yes.  I just shut off SSL on my Mac though and got the same outcome.  I then disabled authentication on my Mac and it loads the library.

EDIT: I will add, it is quite slow to load my views.  And when I do get to something to play, the app then hangs and eventually I get the "isn't responding" message from Android.

[RoderickGI]

I turned off Authentication on my Workstation MC Server and tried connecting. After a long time the App locked up. Feedback sent via the Android/Play Store function.

[TheShoe]

when i check the play store, it shows .119 as the latest.   where are you getting .121?

[Awesome Donkey]

I believe it's in beta, which requires signing up to the beta.

[BradATIMA]

Load library functionality is not available on the Android TV version, yet. We're still trying to work out the bugs on the mobile version. There is an authentication bug, which you can get around. Instead of disabling authentication, you can try setting Read-Only to Everyone. However, it looks like there is another bug once the library is loaded.

[Awesome Donkey]

Yeah, my giant library (over 111,000 files) never loads, always displays the loading spinner even after an hour.

[BradATIMA]

Yeah, my giant library (over 111,000 files) never loads, always displays the loading spinner even after an hour.

I've seen this on some Android devices, but I can't reproduce it on mine, and the library I've tested loading is over 150,000 files. What device and version of Android is it?

[hoyt]

FYI - my phone just picked up .122.  It sort of works.  The library loads, I hit play on a file and a the progress line starts moving, but there's no audio.  I then hit settings to verify my output and the app hung.  I killed the app and reopened it and I'm now just getting a white screen.  I sent in a feedback log on it in case it helps.  I got the "isn't responding" screen several times in a row.

[RoderickGI]

I saw the new version come through.

No change in functionality for me. No crashes though... Got a couple. Sent feedback.

I think it is entirely weird that the App says it must be restarted after loading a Server Library, and appears to close but is still running in the background, as shown in the recent apps view (right software button).

Reopening the App from the Recent Apps view, or swiping the App closed on that screen and restarting it does nothing, in terms of loading the Server Library.

[BradATIMA]

Thank you to everyone for testing out and providing feedback on this new feature. Version 25.0.123 is available in beta now. It has several changes that should fix multiple Android not responding issues, but any testing on this is appreciated. Anyone running into frequent hangs or crashes should make sure they're running the latest version and try clearing the app data. We will possibly have a fix to allow it to load libraries that require authentication Friday.

[hoyt]

It seems a step in the right direction, but a few things I noticed:

1) It showed my Mac library to pick, but MC wasn't running on my Mac.  I picked it anyway just to see what would happen, the app reported success, I exited, restarted, and it was showing local library from my Android.  I then opened MC on my Mac, repeated the steps and I see my library now. 
2) When I hit play on a file, nothing actually plays.  The slider indicating the track progress moves up to 0:05, then restarts.  It does this 5 or 6 times per track before going to the next track.
3) When I tap on an item to play it (skip to it on a list), it's a solid 5 seconds before it reacts.  At one point I checked my audio volume on my phone, hitting the manual key on the side.  It was several seconds before the screen showed the normal volume dialog.

I sent in a few crash logs.

At one point my MC server hung (to the point of not being able to RDP to it for several minutes).  Once I did connect, MC displayed a message that the database was in readonly mode.  I'm currently trying to get Task Manager up to kill MC because it's not responsive.  To be clear, I'm testing this is a pretty unorthodox manner because of the lack of auth.  I'm connected to my Mac's library, which is connected to my Windows PC. 

[RoderickGI]

I was successful in connecting to my MC Server that isn't running Authentication currently. In fact, JR4A is still playing an Album from there now.

But I got an "App not responding" error and sent detailed feedback. JR4A kept playing while I sent feedback and seemed to recover afterwards. As I said, it is playing, with the screen off, and moving on to new tracks correctly.
It was very slow to respond to the "Play All" tap on the first track of an Album.
I tapped multiple times, which may have caused the error message.

Interestingly, even with the screen off, JR4A downloads some images along with each new track. Four, five, or six images. It also seems to be downloading full-sized images, and the same one, multiple times. Same size, at 58.6 KB. See attached image showing a section f the MC Server "Service & Plug-ins > Media Network" logs.

EDIT: Panel also seems to load full-sized images, but doesn't reload any images on track change. It loads them all when an Album is first displayed, and added to the playlist. The images are embedded images from each track, as shown by the File Key in the URL.

[RoderickGI]

It appears that once connected to a MC Server, if JR4A is closed and reopens, it connects to the same server again, with no indication whatsoever.

The only way to tell is if you know the Server content, or if you look under "Play To" and see both "Player" and "There"... LATER: Oh, plus if you go to Load Library it will show which Library is open. I guess I should have looked there first.

Ah wait, the JR4A Notification was still active... So I closed that. Still connected. So I tried to Exit JR4A, which took some time and lots of extra taps... and left JR4A open in the Recents view on Android. Which it always has, and is bad. Exit should completely exit JR4A, in my view. Maximising JR4A from the Recents View reloaded the Server Library again. Closed it again, nothing in Recents. Re-opened JR4A and it reloaded the Server Library.

Okay, so once a Library is opened in JR4A, it becomes the default Library to open whenever JR4A is launched. Got it.

I will note that the response time for taps improved once the Server Library has been previously opened, as compared to the first time it was opened. So I guess there is some Library caching, or setup that happens on the first load?

Some other things improved, such as the Android software back button used to keep opening the Search bar, which meant the Android keyboard opened and blocked most of the view. I hadn't used the Search function previously, but maybe the "Previous Screen" Android saved wasn't updated correctly or something. That seems to have stopped happening now, after multiple connections to the Server, loading and unloading Playing Now, and so on.

[hoyt]

Patience pays off I guess.  If I click "Wait" in the not responding message twice (meaning I wait, and then it shows up again and I wait again), audio playback started.

I did notice a similar affect on my MC server to what I previously reported though.  My Windows instance runs MC and my Unifi NVR for 4 cameras.  It's not super powerful (2 core 1.6 GHz/ 8 GB of RAM NUC).  It's often at 80%+ CPU.  When I started playback on my Pixel, a tablet that constantly streams from the Unifi NVR locked up.  This happened yesterday when I couldn't connect to my server.

After going through this (killing MC Server once), and waiting.  The app does seem much better.  I changed a few different albums and it plays/ doesn't lock up.    It does seem like loading the thumbnails of artists or album images is very slow though (I imagine related to this: https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,123286.0.html).  For example, I load up an artist with 8 albums.  That view took about 10 seconds to fill in the artwork.  Another example, I go back to home, then to Albums (which shows artist images).  I was just in this view and the first 12 artists had their images loaded.  It's another 15 seconds before those images show.

EDIT: Maybe it is cacheing the images on the device because I don't see a request to get it again from the server.  But it is quite slow to load views. 

[BradATIMA]

JRiver for Android 26.0.15 will be available in beta a little later. It adds an option for adding credentials for library servers that require authentication. Any testing is always appreciated.

[RoderickGI]

Got it.

Still connects with Authentication turned off.
Also connects with Authentication turned on.

Out of 91 Albums in my test Library, about six didn't get any thumbnail until I selected the Album and scrolled all the way down the track list.

Music played. Both locally on the device and on the MC Server.

I'm still getting the Search bar opened, and hence the onscreen keyboard, when I select an Album to play, Play All, then tap the bottom Playing Now bar. Very annoying.

Clear Playing Now worked once, and then didn't, after switching to playing on the MC Server... No, wait. It did clear it on the MC Server, but it didn't and wouldn't clear it on the device, with the "Play to" set to "There". If I changed the "Play to" to "Player" the Playing Now list was empty, as expected, because I was looking at a different Zone. So it is the copy of the Playing Now list for "There" which is shown on the Android device that doesn't clear.

Closing JRiver for Android and reconnecting does load the previous Library, and it is fast, which is good. On the second load, the thumbnails all seemed to be there.


I'll try to look at it some more later in the day.

[Awesome Donkey]

Loads my library for me now too and I can playback music, YAY! And yep, thumbnails are a bit of an issue in JRiver for Android, they constantly tend to rebuild.

One thing I did notice though, once I loaded my Raspberry Pi library, the setting in JRiver for Android to set the items per page doesn't work anymore. I usually have it set to 20 (because of the thumbnails constantly reloading) for a local library, but this no longer works when connecting to my Pi library.

[BradATIMA]

I'm still getting the Search bar opened, and hence the onscreen keyboard, when I select an Album to play, Play All, then tap the bottom Playing Now bar. Very annoying.

Do you mean that it's going to the search page in Panel? If so, what we could try doing is moving the search page button to the main menu instead.

Clear Playing Now worked once, and then didn't, after switching to playing on the MC Server... No, wait. It did clear it on the MC Server, but it didn't and wouldn't clear it on the device, with the "Play to" set to "There". If I changed the "Play to" to "Player" the Playing Now list was empty, as expected, because I was looking at a different Zone. So it is the copy of the Playing Now list for "There" which is shown on the Android device that doesn't clear.

There are still some bugs with the 'There-' zones. I believe the issue is with Panel not getting the playlist information correctly. Related to this, I noticed that regardless of which track is playing, Panel will always show the first track as playing with 'There-' zones. This means that the next and previous buttons in the playback bar at the bottom don't actually work properly with these zones, so you need to use the buttons in the notification window, for now.

[BradATIMA]

One thing I did notice though, once I loaded my Raspberry Pi library, the setting in JRiver for Android to set the items per page doesn't work anymore. I usually have it set to 20 (because of the thumbnails constantly reloading) for a local library, but this no longer works when connecting to my Pi library.

The items per page option in Panel only applies to the search page. This was changed when Panel was updated to handle rendering thumbnails as needed. We'll have to do some testing with a Raspberry Pi Library.

[BradATIMA]

There is one more thing I wanted to add with this update. Once you have entered the credentials and successfully loaded a library server that requires authentication, it should store the credentials. So, as long as you don't clear the app data, you shouldn't need to enter the credentials again, even if you unload it and try to load it again later.

[RoderickGI]

Do you mean that it's going to the search page in Panel? If so, what we could try doing is moving the search page button to the main menu instead.

Open JRiver for Android
It connects to the last Library. (This took some time and just showed a white screen with no indication it was working. I nearly killed it before it opened.)
Select Audio > Album View > Album
Tap first track > Play All
Tapping the thumbnail on the left in bottom Playing Now bar opens Playing Now.
Press Android Back button to see Search bar. (Ah, Back button didn't work. JR4A not responding. Multiple taps. Android screen sleeps. Wake Android to see request to log in to Cloudplay!)

Start again... stops responding except for the Play/Pause button.
Leave it paused while I type. Go back and press Play. Search bar opens. See image. The onscreen keyboard was also open, so only two tracks were visible, but that closes when I try to take an image.

This wasn't the method I intended to produce the result, but the end point was the same.

It could be that the Search Bar opens when I tap the metadata in the middle of the bottom Playing Now bar, rather than the thumbnail. That may actually be intentional. Because if I tap on the Artist name, the search seems to show all tracks from that Artist, rather than what is in Playing Now. But tapping the [Name] or [Album] doesn't seem to have the same effect. I don't know. But I mostly find it annoying.

EDIT: I just compared JR4A to what Panel does. Yes, it is clicking on the metadata that opens the Search Bar at the top in the panel interface. Also, if I click on say the Album, which opens the Serch bar, then the thumbnail, which shows Playing Now, and then click the Back button Panel does take me back to the open Search Bar. So it is a Panel interface function. That works okay in Panel on a PC with a large screen, but not so much for JR4A on a phone. Plus sometimes the Search Bar seemed to open when I hadn't clicked any metadata. I don't know what the answer is. I don't think making the Search function harder to get to is the answer. It could be that this is just a user training issue. But it isn't a good user experience.

Once you have entered the credentials and successfully loaded a library server that requires authentication, it should store the credentials.

That the user needs to know the server requires Authentication and must tick the checkbox to enter credentials is very annoying. Surely JR4A could remember which Libraries require credentials? Or better, query the Library?
When I was connected to an Authenticated Library, then switched to the local Library, then switched back to the Authenticated Library, I didn't tick the checkbox, it wasn't ticked, but JR4A still connected. There was no indication that JR4A already had the credentials saved for the Library I was trying to connect to. This is not intuitive at all.

The credentials were being remembered though, and JR4A was reconnecting to Libraries where I had previously provided credentials. I switched between two Authenticated servers and the local Library no problem.

It's slow.
The second Confirm message and button tap to allow a restart of JR4A is annoying.
That JR4A doesn't restart by itself, but does seem to remain running in the background is confusing. It seems that only the Notification area is updated to close the JR4A notification.
It is concerning that JR4A requires a restart on changing the Library at all. Android reported that the App kept stopping at one point, but I don't know if that was because of the "normal" restart, or some other problem. Feedback sent.
That after confirming a restart it takes some time to do whatever it is doing, showing the "Loading Library" message again for a while, then shows a fully black screen, then a fully white screen, then disappears, is concerning.
That (re)opening JR4A shows a blank white screen for some time with no indication of working is concerning.
That I can tick the "Requires Authentication" checkbox for a Library that requires Authentication, but then enter no credentials, and JR4A still connects, is both concerning and confusing.

I would prefer JR4A to know when Authentication is required, and then ask for credentials. If it already had credentials then it should just connect without asking. If the connection failed JR4A should ask for credentials again, and if changed store the new credentials. There should be a way to change credentials before trying to connect. Or maybe there should still be a Confirm message after selecting the Library to connect to, and if that Library required Authentication, the Username and Password fields should be shown on that screen so a user could change them.

Currently, I don't think JRiver for Android is ready for prime time.

[hoyt]

I can't connect to servers that require authentication still.  I'm getting "Failed to connect" messages.

If I connect back to my Mac, with auth turned off, it says success, exit, reopen, then I just stare at the screen and it crashes in <5 seconds.

[hoyt]

I reset the data and could open the app again.  I installed a new version of MC on my server and tried to connect again, but still get the failed message.  Oddly enough, now my Mac library doesn't show in the listing.  I see my Windows, Linux and Id libraries, but not the Mac one.  I killed it and re-opened it a few times, no change.  And yes, the Mac library is up, I just hit play (on the Mac) to make sure.

[RoderickGI]

Oddly enough, now my Mac library doesn't show in the listing.

SSDP issues?

Connect to the Max using JRemote2, Bingo SSDP (from JRiver on Play Store), or BubbleUPnP and try again.

[hoyt]

SSDP issues?

Connect to the Max using JRemote2, Bingo SSDP (from JRiver on Play Store), or BubbleUPnP and try again.

I opened my other phone and it showed on that one (and allowed me to connect). 

[BradATIMA]

I reset the data and could open the app again.  I installed a new version of MC on my server and tried to connect again, but still get the failed message.  Oddly enough, now my Mac library doesn't show in the listing.  I see my Windows, Linux and Id libraries, but not the Mac one.  I killed it and re-opened it a few times, no change.  And yes, the Mac library is up, I just hit play (on the Mac) to make sure.

Sometimes the list of library servers takes some time to fully populate. In this case, I would suggest using the back button, waiting a minute, and then trying again. We do need to add a refresh button though.

I'm not sure why it's not connecting. I believe you mentioned SSL before. I wonder if that might be related.

[hoyt]

Sometimes the list of library servers takes some time to fully populate. In this case, I would suggest using the back button, waiting a minute, and then trying again. We do need to add a refresh button though.

I'm not sure why it's not connecting. I believe you mentioned SSL before. I wonder if that might be related.

I'm seeing different lists between the two phones fairly consistently:

LG G6 (Android 8.0):

Linux (Generic DLNA)
Mac (Generic DLNA)
Id (NoConversion)
Id (PCML16)

Pixel 3 (Android 10):

Windows (Library Server)
Id (Library Server)

I force stopped the app on my Pixel, reopened it and now I see a new item:
LG G6 (Library Server)

Did the same on the LG and now I see:
Windows (Library Server)
Id (Library Server)

Waited a minute and now on the LG I see, in addition to the 2 above:
Mac - nothing in parenthesis after it
Linux (Library Server)
Pixel 3 (Library Server)

After all of the back and trying again on the LG, I do the same on the Pixel and it hasn't changed (still just showing LG, Windows and Id - missing Mac and Linux).  It's been roughly 5 minutes.

I turned on auth on my Mac (which is not running SSL for testing).  Then connected from my LG and entered credentials. I got the same failed message.  (Realized I had not hit the OK button out of the options window...  retesting this) Went back to libraries (on the LG) and the Pixel 3 dropped off the list.

[hoyt]

I turned on auth on my Mac (which is not running SSL for testing).  Then connected from my LG and entered credentials. I got the same failed message.  (Realized I had not hit the OK button out of the options window...  retesting this) Went back to libraries (on the LG) and the Pixel 3 dropped off the list.

Splitting this into two messages.  I think you're not properly escaping the password perhaps.  If I make my password 'test', it loads with success.  If I make it a password with special characters, it fails.

[BradATIMA]

Version 26.0.16 should have been released on Monday. It was meant to address a couple of the larger problems and add support to Android TV as well. Any feedback would be appreciated because it would be nice to have a public release tomorrow.

[RoderickGI]

I installed 26.0.16 when it came out, but haven't been using it much.

I did test the load Library functionality though, and it works much better. I haven't had any crashes. Seem to play locally from the Local and a remote Library.

Also played from my HTPC MC Server, via JR4A as a Controller, to my Workstation MC installation. In doing this I saw a bit of a strange issue, in that when selecting a target to output to, the Workstation appeared twice in the form "Workstation" and "There: Workstation", but playback to the "Workstation" player didn't work, and later that target disappeared. Playing to "There: Workstation" worked fine.

I also could always clear Playing Now on the HTPC or Workstation once I had loaded the HTPC Library and played to the Workstation and HTPC. But the different Playing Now's did show up in JR4A correctly.

So generally, better than it was previously, but still some issues, particularly around remote Playing Now management.

I haven't tested on Android TV, as I only have a Sony Android TV, and I think you are currently just targeting the nVidia Shield, correct? I will try it on the Sony, but not today.

[hoyt]

Pixel 3 (Android 10)
With 26.0.16 I couldn't initially load another library.  I went to Settings > Load Library and saw all of my libraries, then the app went white for about 2 seconds, the page refreshed and only showed the Main Library.  I repeated this a few times and the same thing happened.   After that, when I open MC, it closes after 4-5 seconds.  I cleared storage and cache and opened the app.  Then I loaded my main SSL/ password protected library.  I got a success message (this is probably completely unrelated), the same time that message popped up, my Mac, which was playing from my main library stopped playback.

I browsed to a file, hit play, but nothing is playing.  The time is incrementing up for about 5 seconds, then restarts for each track.  At one point it got up to 25 seconds and my phone basically froze.  Hitting the volume up/ down buttons didn't do anything for a solid 10 seconds, then I got a not responding message (feedback sent).

After clicking wait the next time a not responding message popped up, my main library on Windows popped up a message that the database went into read-only mode.   But playback finally started on the Pixel.  My CPU is pegged at 100%, with MP3 Encoder taking a huge chunk.  I checked Options > Media Network > Client Options > Audio Conversion.  It's set to Don't convert audio.

LG G6 (Android 8 )
I had to wait a very long time for my main library to show in the listing.  Close to 5 minutes probably.  It loaded though without needing to reset my app data and cache.

I browsed to the same album as the Pixel and it played right away.  I went to a different album, hit play and I saw MC26.exe kick off "MP3 Encoder (32 bit)" again.  At this point, I got a not responding message on the G6, feedback sent from this phone too.

I then force stopped MC and reopened it on the G6.  It took a long time to load, but did come back to the main screen.  The album I had loaded before was still in the playing now, I hit play and it played.

It's not a smooth experience, but I wonder if a lot of it is the initial load...  I'm also not sure why MC is kicking off an MP3 conversion. 

After this testing, I loaded up JRemote2, started playing another album and it played right away.  I included a dff file, saw MP3 conversion go, but it still started playing within a few seconds.  Out of curiosity, I went back to MC on my Pixel to play that same dff track.  It played just fine.  I then switched back to the first album that I played (a 16 bit FLAC), picked a track, selected Play File (nothing played, but I saw it in my Playing Now list).  I then hit the play button again and the dff file started playing again.  However, it showed the length of the 16 bit FLAC.  I hit stop, then play again and it went back to looping every 5 seconds and freezing.

[hoyt]

A quick aside... I think it's nice that this will pre-populate the list of servers on your network so users don't need to type in their access keys, but will there also be an option to manually add a server?

If not, then this will only be useful when you're on a network that allows SSDP broadcasting, right?  Meaning, if I have a guest VLAN, I would need to allow multicast across if a guest is to ever initiate playback.  It also wouldn't ever work when I'm not at home.

[jmone]

LGV30+ (Android 9)
- Audio, Images, and Weblinks all played fine
- Video tried to play (but fails after 3 sec)
- No probs with the initial server connection
- Can be a bit sluggish when loading the library (and you just get a white screen so it looks like it hangs but withing say 10sec it was all fine)
- Can be a bit sluggish moving between views with thumbnail generation

It seemed pretty stable to me, I did not get any crashes  .  Couple of things I did notice:
- Under settings it always says to select a device regardless if I have selected on or not.  It does not seem to matter as audio plays fine.
- The back button on the phone actually behaves as a MC Style Back (back via your previous trail of activity) rather than Android back (which just takes you up levels to eventually you leave the app).  I like this behaviour but it is different from other Android Apps.