Bug: Audio of another App stops when I close Tooot

[DerZyklop]

Audio stops when I close Tooot. Tested it with these:
Spotify music stops when I close tooot.
Pocket Casts podcasts stop when I close tooot.

I think it is related to the fact that I had watched a video inside tooot previously.

After I close the app tooot completely and restart, the issue was gone.

[DerZyklop]

It is reproducible on my device. I made a video. If you are interested, tell me. For some reason I cannot post/upload it here.
¯_(ツ)_/¯

[de1acr0ix]

I suspect it is related to my changes in #491. I found setting the audio mode is really tricky after reading Exponent source and Apple document. I will experiment a bit on the combinations.

[xmflsct]

@de1acr0ix no no, this bug is already there for ages. I actually could not figure out why. Though I did not look into Exponent's source much. If you have any findings in there, please share. Thanks!

[de1acr0ix]

@xmflsct Oh okay. I am feeling this is actually an expo-av bug. Looking through its source it seems to be setting the audio session mode to AVAudioSessionCategorySoloAmbient when app is switched to background. However it does not deactivate the audio session (it never does) and it kinda stops audio playback in other apps. But I still need some more experiments to prove that.

[de1acr0ix]

I do see there is a very similar issue raised for expo-av. It actually mentions the same behavior. I will join the discussion there and see if we can make any progress.

[xmflsct]

@de1acr0ix I am surprised that issue is so new. 😂

[de1acr0ix]

@xmflsct This isn't very new if I am understanding correctly. With expo/expo#16578 expo-av stopped deactivating audio session and I believe that is the time when the problem occurs. It happens in March this year.

[de1acr0ix]

Well I myself can confirm it is the bug of expo-av by debugging tooot on simulator. When it is switched to background its audio session mode is set to AVAudioSessionCategorySoloAmbient without deactivating the session.

[de1acr0ix]

My comment in expo-av issue expo/expo#19042 (comment). I will try to create a PR there later, probably tomorrow.

[xmflsct]

@de1acr0ix Looking forward! Just read through the linked issue in Expo. If it doesn't work out, I can try https://github.com/hirbod/react-native-volume-manager/ as mentioned.

[canny]

This issue has been linked to a Canny post: 现在这个版本又出现了切app会导致正在播放的音乐暂停的bug 🎉

[xmflsct]

#507 fixed the issue, tested through TestFlight. Still yet to try how it works with DuckOthers. cc @de1acr0ix

[xmflsct]

Confirm fixed in above PR.

[de1acr0ix]

#507 fixed the issue, tested through TestFlight. Still yet to try how it works with DuckOthers. cc @de1acr0ix

I don't think DuckOthers works well. According to Apple documentation:

Note that ducking begins when you activate your app’s audio session and ends when you deactivate the session. If you clear this option, activating your session interrupts other audio sessions.

As expo-av never deactivates audio session, the ducked audio never return to its original volume unless we put Tooot to background or close it. This happens even when playback finishes.

[xmflsct]

@de1acr0ix that is right. In this case I can change ducking to DoNotMix. In this case other audio playback will be stopped whenever a video starts playing in tooot. The other audio playback won't be resumed automatically due to lack of ending audio session in expo-av. But at least, closing tooot won't "randomly" stop other audio playback. How does this sound?

[de1acr0ix]

@xmflsct Even with DuckOthers now closing tooot won’t stop other audio playback as the patch I added should have addressed that issue (which happens regardless the option).

Your proposal does sound better but the behavior needs to be tested. Other audio may still resume after tooot is switched to background.

BTW is there any easier way to test on real iOS device? I have enrolled developer program yesterday but I have to change couple of settings such as bundle id to make it work.

[xmflsct]

@de1acr0ix I wish I knew 😂 I still find the whole app signing confusing, so I would not touch it unless it is broken. But if you are aiming for testing locally only, I believe you can change the signing in Xcode to let it manage everything with your account. Currently the signing is managed by fastlane's match so it shows up as incorrect in Xcode.

Unfortunately the simulator does not work like a real device when I tested this issue in particular, FYI.

[xmflsct]

@de1acr0ix have you managed to try out the latest build of v4.6.6? How do you think its behaviour now?

[de1acr0ix]

@de1acr0ix have you managed to try out the latest build of v4.6.6? How do you think its behaviour now?

I just tried that. The audio in Spotify stops when starting playing audio/video and won’t resume thereafter, including switching Tooot to background. So far I think this is best we can get without changing expo-av.

[xmflsct]

@de1acr0ix indeed, until expo-av supports resuming (or stopping the session as you found out), it is the best so far. I will close this ticket then. Thanks again for your help!

[ZerglingGo]

My tooot is showing this problem again.
Didn't play any video, background music stopped when closing app on activated timeline tab (Home, Global)