Majority of Downloaded Episodes Will Not Play. Locked on "Resume Download"

[sumi]

Thanks, StefanK, I will try backing it up and sending it to you when I have a chance.

For now, though, it happens with most of my feeds, not all. Currently, 4 are unaffected, but 18 are having the resume download problem.
It seems to only affect older episodes that have been downloaded for awhile. However, as drt said above, it seems like things that downloaded fine one day will be showing "resume download" the next. I am not sure when the change occurs, maybe during my nightly update of all feeds?

[drt]

Stefan,
I've sent the backup as requested.

answering your feeds question:
Quite a few feeds when it happened. I could not see a pattern. It was both, newly downloaded feeds and archived feeds but it was not ALL feeds. I had some movies and it lost the playback position of the ones I had in progress. I'm using a Samsung Galaxy 4.2 player.

Looking a little deeper - it seems April 29 through May 3 were the most affected. But also some archive episodes with earlier dates.

[juwlz]

To help with troubleshooting, which were the 4 that were unaffected?

[sumi]

The 4 feeds that were unaffected for me were:

Comedy Feeds:
Doug Loves Movies

Talk Radio Feeds:
Dr Joy Browne Show
NPR Topics: Story of the Day

Science & Tech:
Lifehacker (Video)

I initially thought it was maybe category settings that were causing this, but, as you can see, basically 1 feed per category was unaffected.

[StefanK]

Thank you both for the backups. They helped quite a bit to reconstructing what is going on. From what I can tell this happens when BeyondPod download folder gets moved between the internal and external SD card or vice verse. If the downloaded episode files do not exist when BeyondPod starts (for example if the external SD card was not available for some reason), BP switches to use the next available card (usually the internal). As it can't find the downloaded episodes there, BP assumes they are deleted and converts them to stablemate episodes. If later the downloaded files are put back in the correct folders, on subsequent start BP finds them, converts them to back to downloaded episodes and those episodes are the ones that show as "Resume Download". This should affect only episodes that were downloaded when the SD card switch occurred. Episodes downloaded after that should work correctly.

In the next beta version I will add logic to handle that situation and restore the episodes correctly. This logic should fix the existing ones and prevent this from happening in the future.

Thank you very much for your help tracking this issue down.

Stefan

[drt]

Not sure I fully understand. Is there a fix listed in your message? I was wondering when my external card would not have been available... Could it be that if I tried to get into BP immediately after a powerup (and before the mediascan has started or completed)?

At this point, is there some cleanup I should perform? I do see a BeyondPod\Podcasts\ directory on my internal card. And it does have some of my podcasts under it. Should I merge them back into their proper homes on my external card?

[juwlz]

Not sure I fully understand. Is there a fix listed in your message? I was wondering when my external card would not have been available... Could it be that if I tried to get into BP immediately after a powerup (and before the mediascan has started or completed)?

Yes, if you don't have the option "Lock to current path" ticked in the Advanced options, and any BP process starts before your phone has fully mounted the external SD card, then BP will assume this is a new installation, and create a new BeyondPod folder in your phone's the built-in storage. It will then continue to use this storage, ignoring anything on your external SD card.

At this point, is there some cleanup I should perform? I do see a BeyondPod\Podcasts\ directory on my internal card. And it does have some of my podcasts under it. Should I merge them back into their proper homes on my external card?

Yes, you should exit BeyondPod (using the Exit option on the menu), copy the BeyondPod folder on your built-in storage to BeyondPod folder on your external SD card, and restart BeyondPod. Then tick Lock to Current Path in Menu | More... | Settings | Menu (again) | Advanced Settings.

Julie

[StefanK]

As I mentioned in my previous e-mail - the fix for the existing "Resume Download" that you see will be in the next beta version (released later today or early next week). Once you install it, episodes that now show as "Resume Download" should show as "Downloaded".

As far as what caused your device to switch between SD cards, as Julie mentions, is most likely a reboot of the device. When the device starts, Android runs a consistency check of the SD card. This check is usually fast, but if you have a very large SD card (32 GB or larger) with data on it can take a long time. During this time the SD card is not available. BeyondPod is also started automatically at boot (to reschedule any future scheduled updates). Usually the external SD card gets ready before BeyondPod starts, but if the consistency check takes long time (if you have a big SD card) Android can start BeyondPod before the external SD card is ready. This is most likely the case where this switch occurs. The check of "Lock to Current Path" as Julie describes should solve that issue as it will force BeyondPod at boot to wait longer for the external SD card to get ready.

Stefan

[drt]

Thanks Stefan and Juwlz. Appreciate the support and really love the app.

[Rocky Collins]

Hey, I've been having this same problem and joined the forum to look for solutions. i will try the 'add to playlist' suggestion from drt. But it seems like a bug that needs fixing.