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[icanrule]

I've been using Gizmo since it was release a long time ago.  I have used it on at least 2 separate android devices.  I'm wondering if anyone else finds it to be extremely unreliable.

I have gone through the comments of the play store and it looks like every 4th person seems to think it has reliability problems too.  It just always seems to disconnect from server and have to reconnect.  I'm not sure if the program crashes or if it just loses the connection but no other music player acts the same way.  I'm even wondering if it conflicts with another piece of software I have installed on the device.  

Basically whenever my phone does something to take me away from Gizmo it may stop working.  This mostly occurs when I receive a text message, turn on/off any wireless services like gps, or bluetooth.  This happens when I switch apps or sometimes even when I just go to the home screen.

Is there perhaps a log that I can pull to determine what might have crashed it or what error occurs when it crashes? This has been occuring for some time now but I would like to increase it's stability if I can.  

In all honesty it crashes so often that I only use it 10% of the time.  These crashes only occur when streaming music (I don't stream anything else).  upnp controls seem to work alright.  

[JimH]

The network connection must be rock solid.  Are you using it on your LAN or away from home?  Is there a difference?

[Matt]

What type of device are you using?

And could you describe the 'crash' in more detail?  Is it an actual program crash, or is Gizmo just returning to the connect screen to reconnect (which it does if it has problems talking to the server)?

[icanrule]

The connection can either be wifi or 3g and it will still disconnect.  I don't use the wifi at home all that much so I can't say if it crashes or not when connected to my home wifi.  I can't speak on weather I have a rock solid connection or not.  When I use any other streaming app they work perfectly.  But all my streaming apps buffer a great deal.  I don't know if Gizmo buffers but it doesn't seem like it.  The moment I get a text message the music stops. 

It's tough to explain the crashing because it just happens.  One second I'm listening to music and the next second I am not.  When I go back to Gizmo it goes directly to the connection screen and reconnects with my server.  It always connects to the server immediately.   One time I never see it crashing is when I am selecting a song. 

P.S. The crash is annoying but it's more annoying when I am listening to a playlist and then it reconnects to the server. I have to load the playlist up again and then locate the song in the playlist  It would be nice if it just connected to the server and began playing from where it left off. 

I'm using a Samsung Galaxy nexus with 4.2.2 installed on it. 

[icanrule]

Thank you for your attempt at helping me.  I didn't expect this issue to get resolved but I was just wondering if anyone else was having the instability issues that I am having.  Based on the replies it may only be affecting me. 

[SecondJon]

My gizmo disconnects from time to time - I can reconnect, but there's no recollection of where I was. Listening to an hour long podcast is difficult to resume as there's no bookmark, last position, or a way to select based on time, one can just tap a position as a guess, without an indication of the time into the track.

You mention this happens when you get a text. This may be related to the biggest pain point for me which prevents me from using Gizmo and JRiver for what I wanted to - namely a replacement for Google Music and other apps: It doesn't run as a service that stays open, so Android shuts it down to save memory.

Most media and streaming apps (all that I've tried, at least), keep the app as a service in the tray. Think Google Music, Audible, Pocket Cast, Amazon, etc. They all sit on the tray and show you the current status, so you can see that it is running. Without an app being programmed to do that, Android will shut it down to save memory.

For most apps that's not a problem as they will preserve state, but JRiver Gizmo doesn't do that either.

All of this to say: I don't think it's a reliability issue that I have, just some design flaws that I'm sure are known to JRiver and must be under development (though I've never seen an update to Gizmo in the Play Store.).

[Matt]

All of this to say: I don't think it's a reliability issue that I have, just some design flaws that I'm sure are known to JRiver and must be under development (though I've never seen an update to Gizmo in the Play Store.).

Please try this build:
http://jriver.com/install_gizmo.html

It's more resilient with a sporadic connection.

[JimH]

Are you modifying the Android install in any way?

[icanrule]

I tried the download and it is unfortunately still giving me major issues.  I do modify my Rom but only because of these issues.  Originally I used the rom that came with the device but eventually got rid of it because it would fail when anything else tried to use the internet. 

currently I am using Cyanogen mod and it works much better then the original Rom except with certain things like GPS.  The moment I disconnect GPS it stops. 

Although this shouldn't be a factor.  The following apps that do stream with no trouble are Google Play, Songza, Tunein Radio, Fit Radio and DJ radio.  Every sound app doesn't force close.  But they all can't be closed by Android.  You have to exit out of each of those apps which leads me to believe it runs differently then Gizmo.

[Louis]

I experience precisely the same "disconnection" issues as others describe here. This is only when playing in Gizmo, if play is paused, 9 times out of 10 I can come back days later. even after the PC with MC server has been rebooted, and continue from where paused, which is really good Gizmo just doesn't seem to like the focus being taken off it. as happens if temporarily switching to another task.

[Castius]

I don't know about many other remote style android music players. But the big difference i see between gizmo and subsonic.
Is that the subsonic is more a download/sync music apps that plays the local music it downloads.
I think Gizmo does this one track at at a time. While subsonic looks at the playlist and downloads as many tracks as you have it set to.

With subsonic you can even switch to offline completely. This is great to heading out for trips. This also helps with not constantly re downloading cover art.

The disconnects i have seen have been more of an annoyance. But it would be nice to see it a little less touchy. For the first time today Gizmo got stuck on "preparing" then stopped all together. This was on my google TV hooked up to the lan line.  So between the Nexus 4 on wifi and the Google tv (revue) I'd have to say it's not the android version or the wireless network. As the cause of this issue.

Over all I'd like to see Gizmo act more like a sync/Media player.

[Louis]

>Over all I'd like to see Gizmo act more like a sync/Media player.
Castius, that's an approach that could have promise and maybe a viable alternative to Synching Handheld which appears to be fraught with unresolved problems and doesn't work very well with Android (MTP?) for me.

[nitephlight]

The disconnects i have seen have been more of an annoyance. But it would be nice to see it a little less touchy. For the first time today Gizmo got stuck on "preparing" then stopped all together. This was on my google TV hooked up to the lan line.  So between the Nexus 4 on wifi and the Google tv (revue) I'd have to say it's not the android version or the wireless network. As the cause of this issue.

Over all I'd like to see Gizmo act more like a sync/Media player.

if your rooted (CM10?) i might have a m solution for you. still testing before adding to connectivity post but feel free to PM if your adventurous

[Matt]

Gizmo with MC19 will download tracks ahead in the playlist and use a local cache.

We're still ironing out the details, but it should work much better when you're using it with a fluctuating connection.

[Castius]

I had complete faith you guys would come through! I look forward to trying it.

[nitephlight]

Gizmo with MC19 will download tracks ahead in the playlist and use a local cache.

We're still ironing out the details, but it should work much better when you're using it with a fluctuating connection.