Unable to pause and resume music on Android Auto

[pgmunzi]

On Android Auto 3.0 i'm unable to pause music (the play button do not pause and not change to pause) and resume. Also the notification on current song is missing.

I'm using Huawei Mate 9 with lasted version of AA and VLC

Someone have the same issue?

Piergiorgio

[Crazed_by_Penguins]

I'm seeing a similar issue. I'm using a Google Pixel 2 XL and running the latest version of Android Auto, as well as the latest beta version of VLC. I tried reverting to the latest stable version of VLC and had the same issue.

In my case, the notification is present on the Android Auto home screen, but without the controls, which are shown when using Google Play Music.

In addition to the Play/Pause button, the previous track and next track buttons also do not work. My head unit has physical buttons for these actions as well, which do work fine (so, it's only the on-screen controls which seem to have an issue).

[Dekans]

Seems that we have troubles with cars implementing Android Auto, I can only test with standalone app.

I'll try again with Android Auto emulator.

[pgmunzi]

Not only, I have problem also with Android Auto app on my phone.

[Crazed_by_Penguins]

I am also having the same issue with the standalone app.

I also noticed that things are slightly different if VLC is playing audio vs if it's not when Android Auto is started.
If audio is already playing, things are as in my post.
If VLC was closed before opening AA, and opened via AA, the notification doesn't appear, as described by pgmunzi's first post. Also, only the Play/Pause button is present in the main UI (within AA) (and of course, that button doesn't work).

[Dekans]

I reproduce the issue with the Auto emulator.
With dev branch it works fine, that's due to a more recent version of the SDK.

I'll try to figure out what's the difference, but I'm not sur I can fix it for 3.0 :/

[Crazed_by_Penguins]

I reproduce the issue with the Auto emulator.
With dev branch it works fine, that's due to a more recent version of the SDK.

When you say dev branch, do you mean dev branch of VLC or of Android Auto? (I'm assuming dev branch of Android Auto, because I'm still having the issue with the latest VLC Nightly, but I just wanted to verify.)

I'll try to figure out what's the difference, but I'm not sur I can fix it for 3.0 :/

Once again, when you say "3.0", do you mean VLC 3.0 or Android Auto 3.0? (It's a little confusing since both are at version 3.0 right now.)

[Dekans]

VLC 3.0

The dev branch is a branch of vlc-android not yet merged in master.

Android Auto is developped by Google.

[Dekans]

I just tested again with emulator, it seems to work.

There was a Android Auto app update recently, maybe they fixed this

Could you confirm?

[Crazed_by_Penguins]

I'm still seeing the same issue, although it's possible I simply haven't yet received the Android Auto update yet? (There's no update shown for it within Google Play)

My current version of Android Auto is 3.1.581054-release.

I've been testing both beta and nightly releases of VLC for Android (although it seems the latest beta is currently newer than the latest nightly).
The current beta I have (3.0.5) was compiled on 2018-03-30 and the current nightly (3.0.4) on 2018-03-20.

If you can confirm that the version of Android Auto you have is newer than the one I have, I will wait until the update rolls out to my phone, and then post an update here once I've tested it.

[Dekans]

I have the same version.

Maybe an update of your car is needed :s

Nightlies are broken, I'll push a fix soon and Auto should be fixed too.

For releases, we'll have to wait for VLC 3.1 :/

[Crazed_by_Penguins]

I triple checked, and my car stereo has the latest available firmware.

With the latest beta VLC update, it's not showing up in Android Auto at all anymore (although I'm aware this is expected based on the "What's New" section on Google Play).

Now that nightlies are fixed, I've managed to test the latest of those, and it seems to be working as expected!! I've only tested the standalone Android Auto app so far in this case, but I'm assuming it'll work when I hook it up to my car again.

Thank you for getting this working (even if it'll take a while to get it up to the beta and release branches)!