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Forum Discussion
Dropbox iOS app playing audio twice (double); glitch still present after latest UI update
I use Dropbox for audio playback a lot, mostly MP3 files. This audio glitch (explained in more detail below) has been present in the iOS Dropbox app for a long time now. After a recent UI overhaul th...
zacw
Dropbox Engineer
Dropbox EngineerThanks for posting on the forums about this issue. I'm one of the engineers working on the iOS app for things like file previews. Another engineer and I saw your app review earlier today and we've looked into this issue, but unfortunately neither of us have been able to get audio files to play multiple times simultaneously.
Here's the things we've tried to do so far:
- Played an MP3, FLAC, and a few other audio formats
- Played the files both "make available offline"-d and not
- Viewed the files as shared links, or as contents within my Dropbox from either the Home or Files tabs
- AirPlayed to a HomePod
- Played via Bluetooth to AirPods
- Pausing and playing in Control Center, either with the app open or in the background
- Done the above on both iPad and iPhone (though I'm guessing you are reporting the issue on iPhone)
It would be helpful to know a little bit more about how you are playing the audio file. Did I miss something above that is how you are arriving on the file? Are you playing it directly on the iPhone speaker or something else? It might be useful to record a video of the issue happening for you, if you feel comfortable sharing that.
Hi Zacw
I’m experiencing this issue too. It has been an intermittent issue on Dropbox iOS for me for a while but seems to be much worse since updating a couple of days ago. I’ll try and recount the steps that makes it happen for me.
Open Dropbox iOS (on an iPhone 10XS Max running latest iOS version).
- play a file, in this case an mp3 file downloaded. I am opening it from the recents folder on the homepage.
- exit dropbox while listening.
- song finishes.
- decide I want to listen again, so open the Dropbox app.
- the song automatically starts playing again on launch with no prompts. There is no way to pause it because the audio api doesn’t seem to be aware it’s playing.
- force quit Dropbox will stop audio playback.
- it happens when I pause a song, exit and goes back into it. It’s auto plays but again without the app recognising it’s playing or providing the ability to pause. Only way to stop is to force quit.
- it also happens with or without AirPods.
- when it plays automatically, if you open the file in question(or another file) they playback twice.
- one other thing that I’ve experienced with it is the file double playing back a couple of ms apart so it creates a sort of echo of itself!
All very strange stuff!
Hope this is useful!
I’m experiencing this issue too. It has been an intermittent issue on Dropbox iOS for me for a while but seems to be much worse since updating a couple of days ago. I’ll try and recount the steps that makes it happen for me.
Open Dropbox iOS (on an iPhone 10XS Max running latest iOS version).
- play a file, in this case an mp3 file downloaded. I am opening it from the recents folder on the homepage.
- exit dropbox while listening.
- song finishes.
- decide I want to listen again, so open the Dropbox app.
- the song automatically starts playing again on launch with no prompts. There is no way to pause it because the audio api doesn’t seem to be aware it’s playing.
- force quit Dropbox will stop audio playback.
- it happens when I pause a song, exit and goes back into it. It’s auto plays but again without the app recognising it’s playing or providing the ability to pause. Only way to stop is to force quit.
- it also happens with or without AirPods.
- when it plays automatically, if you open the file in question(or another file) they playback twice.
- one other thing that I’ve experienced with it is the file double playing back a couple of ms apart so it creates a sort of echo of itself!
All very strange stuff!
Hope this is useful!
- zacw
Playing audio files automatically when opening the app is a bug and one that should be fixed in an upcoming app release. If you find that version 326 or later doesn't work, please report back. I'm hopeful that this means your issue with it playing but not noticing will be eliminated -- I think it may have to do with how the app is remembering which file you were viewing the last time the app was running.
- Hi Zacw,
Thanks for getting back to me. I can offer some more feedback.
The audio does automatically play back. But other new issues I’ve experienced are:
- two different audio files playing back at once when I’ve hit play / pause from the Lock Screen api. This I’ve never experienced before:
- force quitting app and auto play still happening when logging in again.- zacw
Can you share which version of the iOS app you are using? (It's under Account > Settings) Either our TestFlight beta or the one releasing today should have the fix (326 or later), but it isn't in the one on the App Store (324) right now.
