bug reports and feature requests

[Jackie7610]

To put it simply -

The volume adaption does not work.

I tried this on various podcasts changing from "no adaption" to "heavy boost". The result? It sounds the same without any increase in volume. Same goes to volume reduction. Could you please look into it?

Podcini version: 6.6.5
Download source : Github
Device : Galaxy A32

One more thing...the volume adaption is working on Antennapod so I guess nothing is wrong with my device?

[XilinJia]

Volume adaptation works on my Samsung Android 14 phone.
The numbers were 0.2, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5. Changing among them was noticeable to me. The boosts were not great (I guess the numbers were inherited from AP). in version 6.6.6, I changed these to:
0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 7 (the max boost being 6dB).

Note, when you change the scale, you need to re-play the episode.

[Jackie7610]

Greetings dev. The volume adaption works now, selecting the required boost level after pausing the episode. Hitting play applies the boost but now I'm getting a lot of distortions on medium and heavy boost level. I dont know if this should be happening. This is happening with version 6.6.6 but not with version 6.6.5

[XilinJia]

Good.
The distortion could mean the new boost numbers are too high for the speaker of the phone (at medium level it's 3dB higher). I will play with the numbers a bit and get a better compromise.

[XilinJia]

tuned the numbers somewhat in 6.6.7

[Jackie7610]

Yes now the volume adaption works. Just need to pause and play after selecting the boost level. Easy.

I do have some questions though...it's about the progress bar. It shows time as if it's leaping a few seconds. It goes like 00:00 (after 10 seconds) it's 00:10 (I don't get to see the rest of the seconds like 00:05, 00:06 etc).

And the progress bar is really on the edges and it get's difficult for fat fingers like mine :)

And the "now playing" is half-ugly. I don't know the right word. The album art is down and the description is on top (no issues) but when the description of a podcast is long swiping down to view the album art shows 2-4 lines of the description on top like it is not fitting in one page.

Should I be creating a new issue about it?

Sorry for ranting though. Love the modification of antennapod.

[XilinJia]

The progress bar is set to update every 5 seconds, in the same frequency as persisting progress into the DB, to conserve some energy. Do you feel a strong need to see it every second?

The "now playing" (or player detailed view), yes, I made the description to the beginning as I think that's more important for understanding about the current episode, especially when the description is sort of like a transcript. So you feel like to see the art work in the beginning? Explain why.

I agree the progress bar on the bottom player UI is pretty much on the edge, though I don't have much trouble dragging it (my finger is not too thin). How would you suggest to improve it?

No, you don't need to open a new issue. Just explain here. I'd love to hear great ideas.

[Jackie7610]

BUG REPORTS:
(Unchecked bugs are still alive in the latest version)

• MOSQUITO - Adjusting the progress bar from the notification crashes podcini or sometimes removes the notification. This plays violin out of tune while you sleep https://imgur.com/a/5YTWZCR

• CRICKET - Clearing the history crashes the app.

• CRICKET NYMPH - Clearing episodes in history page individually by swiping does not actually remove them. Hear them chirp https://imgur.com/a/JrtA2U6

• LOCUST - Tapping on the album art below to pop up the "Now playing page" will cause the "now playing page" to forcefully close. Quite annoying: https://imgur.com/a/p955NRJ

• MILLIPEDE - Scrolling long lists of episodes will cause podcini to crash but if scrolling a podcast that has like 50 episodes podcini will lag. Have a look. Update: Now podcini only lags when scrolling long lists.

• COCKROACH - This is related to the "select" option. Selecting any item in any list will make it remember how the item was selected and will save it for the next time you select anything new. Select all= this works. Deselect all = this doesn't work. It's hard to explain so I'm leaving this here : https://imgur.com/a/lkCZMCU

• FLY - Bad contrast on some pages. Black characters on Violet background. Samples: https://imgur.com/a/BWvWIwc

• MOTH - Nothing much...just a gray bar that's overlayed. It just looks a little un-organised. https://imgur.com/a/2bPVjCC

• WEEVIL - This one is a bit strange. Any youtube channel that has huge number of media above 200 (example 350) won't be all shown in podcini. As far as I can remember I could tell the limit was upto 500. Is this a possible bug? https://imgur.com/a/xR1DPI4 (Dead rabbit radio on youtube has a huge amount of media but yet only 210 episodes are shown in podcini)

• EARWIG - Resetting an episode's playback position will cause podcini to crash.(6.9.0) Crossing out since I can't seem to locate the option anymore.

• TERMITE - This creature is chewing through the statistics. Take a look

• TICK - Youtube media but sort of blank?...Also a crash at end. Maybe this 🔎 may help take a closer look.

FEATURE REQUEST:

• A. While searching for a podcast adding an option to subscribe to the podcast without opening it would be great like as in subscribing directly from the search results.

• B. Switching from list view to grid option if implemented to the subscription page would be an easy switch?

• C. Speaking of switch, maybe remove the preview images from themes of automatic, light, dark. I thought of the idea of a simple switch to toggle light, dark, amoled, dynamic, etc.

• D. Is it possible to increase contrast on the "play/pause, rewind, fast-forward, etc. buttons" shown below? They're very light grey...having them black would be great.

• E. Maybe add another podcast source "listennotes"?

• F. Able to create categories of podcasts in subscriptions. Like I listen podcasts in 3 different languages with many different genres...if I could tag them or arrange them inside folder like style would prove useful.

• G. A quick 1-minute preview of the podcast before subscribing?

• H. A scroll bar at the edge to quicky scroll in between 1000+ episodes.

• I. Maybe change all that purple and bright green colour to follow Material You.

[XilinJia]

Switching from list view to grid option if implemented to the subscription page would be an easy switch?

This is in 6.8.5

Switching from list view to grid option if implemented to the subscription page would be an easy switch?

What's your intention? Do you feel the current brightness is too much for the eyes?

[Jackie7610]

What's your intention? Do you feel the current brightness is too much for the eyes?

Is it about the play/pause, rewind, etc buttons? Yes they were very light in contrast with the background sometimes making it hard to view. But after a few "pre-releases" it's fixed. I guess it's because of the Jetpack compose?

But man...the progress bar has stretched to the edges.

[XilinJia]

Are you on light theme? I meant to make the buttons less visible (darker) in dark theme so that they don't produce too much shine to the eyes. For light theme, I'm not too sure what they were like. I will try to tune them shortly. The idea is that they don't need to be too obvious to the extent that they shine too much (in dark theme). For light theme, they should definitely be very dark.

the progress bar has stretched to the edges

explain what you mean. The progress bar is even wider now with Compose, and it's not really at the edge, as the episode title is above it, so dragging the bar is not quite likely interfering with others.

[Jackie7610]

The progress bar looks like this on my screen

https://imgur.com/a/ypjU4eC

I don't know how it looks or behaves on other devices. But say if I want to drag it a few seconds forward for a podcast that is more than an hour long, the back gesture gets triggered or sometimes the side panel opens up.

I found more bugs. Give me time. I'll get back to you

[XilinJia]

Yes, the progress bar looks the same with me.
If you have hour-long episode and you want to move forward a few seconds, dragging progress bar is not practical, you'd better use the fast-forward button. You can configure the number of second per tap for the button in Settings -> Playback. The progress bar is better for larger move in position. And BTW, you can also tap on a position in the bar without dragging.

[Jackie7610]

This would help me for a while. Also I've submitted the bug reports.

[XilinJia]

@Jackie7610, excellent report of bugs. Thank you

[XilinJia]

regarding MILLIPEDE, I suspect you set "use episode cover" in Settings -> Interface. It takes time to download them the first time you open the list. Can you unset it and let me what happens. I scroll through list (the AllEpisodes view) with 32,000 episodes, and it seems to work fine.

Some of the color issues will need some overall adjustments as some strange colors like purple can be simply due to switch from View to Material to Material3.

can't reproduce LOCUST.
can't reproduce MOSQUITO.
Can you provide more details on the situations you were in?

I'v marked some others as fixed.

[XilinJia]

in 6.8.6, long-press on a online feed prompts you to subscribe directly.

[Jackie7610]

regarding MILLIPEDE, I suspect you set "use episode cover" in Settings -> Interface. It takes time to download them the first time you open the list. Can you unset it and let me what happens.

I did had. I have unchecked the option. But yet it occurs. :(

Some of the color issues will need some overall adjustments as some strange colors like purple can be simply due to switch from View to Material to Material3

No issues. I can wait till it's back to normal.

can't reproduce LOCUST.

Appologies as I forgot to mention. My bad. This happens with youtube videos.

• Search a youtube channel in podcini and subscribe it.
• Head over to settings and toggle "audio only" mode for youtube videos.
• Now play any file from the subscribed youtube channel.
• Tap the album art below and
• You'll see the locust destroying crops.

can't reproduce MOSQUITO.

I just play any podcast, be it from a youtube channel or normal podcast. I tap anywhere on the notification progress bar and that happens. That MOSQUITO... It just entered the room while the windows and doors were closed. I don't know how it got it. The bug was there since 6.7.3 even before the pre-releases.

The COCKROACH is half alive. It still drags itself with 1 leg. The "deselect all" still doesn't work.

The CRICKET while is not chirping anymore...it's still sits there silent. Clearing the history while does not crash the app it does not clear it also.

I really appreciate the effort you put in Podcini dev. Thank you ❤️

[XilinJia]

resolved clear history and deselect all in 6.8.7.

[XilinJia]

LOCUST appears no problem for me (6.8.6) with Youtube channels. Which channel causes it for you?

[Jackie7610]

Which channel causes it for you?

Any youtube channel. Any of them...it doesn't matter if it has 10M subscriber or 27 subscribers. This happens mostly with youtube channel IF and WHILE using "Audio only" mode. Video mode plays well.

If you require I can share another video using multiple youtube channels.

Edit: I managed to silence the MOSQUITO (for the time being). Play a podcast > pause the episode from notification > adjust the progress bar > notification disappears and reappears in a fraction of second > Hit play > episode plays from where the progress bar was adjusted.

[XilinJia]

found some anomaly on LOCUST, though not crashing on me. the fix in 6.8.7 likely fixes your problem.

[Jackie7610]

LOCUST is still there and not really fixed (6.8.7). I wonder what this is and is it only my device that is facing this :(

I can wait till that is fixed since it's not stopping me from using podcini. The MILLIPEDE is what slows down the experience.

[XilinJia]

Hum. Your device is Galaxy A32. What's it's memory and Android version?

[Jackie7610]

Your device is Galaxy A32. What's it's memory and Android version?

It has 6GB of RAM but I've increased it to 8GB with RAM Plus and has 128GB of internal storage. It's running on Android 13. One UI 5.1

edit: The MILLIPEDE appeared during the phase of the recent pre-releases.

[XilinJia]

See if 6.9.0 improves your situation.

[Jackie7610]

It didn't. It still lags when I scroll. Let me see if I can grab a log when it crashes

edit: It didn't crash. I tried scrolling. Of course it lagged but it didn't crash but I noticed the lag was reduced by a fraction and thank you for fixing WEEVIL

[XilinJia]

Regarding WEEVIL, the limit of episodes for a youtube channel or playlist has been changed in various versions, currently with 6.9.0 is 1000. When it's changed, it only affects new subscriptions. And the limit is only for the initial subscribing. When you later update the subscription, the newer episodes should come in though the older ones don't, and the total number of episodes can grow and there is no limit there.

[XilinJia]

create categories of podcasts in subscriptions

You can do this in the setting of every subscription, or through multi-selection menu in Subscriptions. Then you can filter based on your tags in the spinner at the upper-right of the Subscriptions view.

A quick 1-minute preview of the podcast before subscribing

In OnlineFeed view where you subscribe, you can tap Episodes button and play (stream) any episode in the list as normal.

Does LOCUST still happen to you? how about on a newly subscribed channel?

[Jackie7610]

You can do this in the setting of every subscription, or through multi-selection menu in Subscriptions. Then you can filter based on your tags in the spinner at the upper-right of the Subscriptions view.

Aye aye capt' 😃

In OnlineFeed view where you subscribe, you can tap Episodes button and play (stream) any episode in the list as normal.

Yes, but that's more like listen to the whole episode. I was wondering more like a single tap for a random 1-min listen.

Does LOCUST still happen to you? how about on a newly subscribed channel?

🥲...yes it does. Even to newly subscribed youtube channels. (Audio mode only).

[XilinJia]

I was wondering more like a single tap for a random 1-min listen.

can't you just stop it anytime you want?

For LOCUST and the lag, I can't imagine how it can happen yet.

[XilinJia]

Can you verify if LOCUST, MILLIPEDE, MOSQUITO and EARWIG still exist with version 6.11.3?

[Jackie7610]

Yes. Have just tested all three a moment ago. All of those bugs are in their place. About EARWIG...I seem to have forgotten where the option to reset the playback position was 😅

I however got the chance to grab a stack trace of a bug that was caused by millipede. Remember the crash after scroll lag? That one

[XilinJia]

Hum, that stacktrace doesn't tell too much, but I made a bit change, so we will see it happens again on the next version.

[XilinJia]

6.11.4 largely improved episodes list scroll. Let me know what happens with you.

[Jackie7610]

I tried 6.11.4 but alas! 🥲 It is the same. The LOCUST, MILLIPEDE, MOSQUITO are still there. I tried some previous versions to check where it started. LOCUST was from day 1 when the youtube feature was implemented.
MOSQUITO was there ever since I found the app from F-droid. MILLIPEDE occured from the pre releases of JetPack Compose.

[XilinJia]

As it stands now, the issues of LOCUST, MILLIPEDE, MOSQUITO sound very peculiar. I could never re-produce them. Performance feels better than the pre-compose versions to me. Could narrow them down to certain conditions? Or could you try re-installing Podcini afresh and see if you still get them?

[XilinJia]

I noticed some serious lagging in some cases that I can't define. have to do with the phone: my S21 Android 14 phone has no issue while a high-end Android 9 phone has some trouble. have to do with some podcasts: certain podcasts on my Android 9 phone behave very poorly while others don't have problem.

[XilinJia]

Hopefully MILLIPEDE is fixed in 6.11.6. Try it.

[Jackie7610]

Hey dev. Just tried it with a fresh install from github. I think you're right about the phone part, I saw it happening only with samsung devices. It didn't happen with Vivo, Poco and Oppo as I've tried using my friend's device.

This is the result and it's the same as before. I've tested all three.

https://upload.disroot.org/r/JoV5zMhk#A78DxVT6qJXUqrvdF7oOHxYapMt7jdUul1wKUmp/Rcs=

[XilinJia]

Thanks for the info.

Did you find 6.11.6 improved the scrolling for you compared with prior versions?

I tried your Nocturne Boulevard podcast, scrolling is very fast.

I tried your Nexpo podcast, opening the playerdetailed view has no problem

[XilinJia]

Regarding player detailed view not open, I wonder if you have WebView or Chrome browser installed on your phone? I can't say which one is definitely necessary, but that part uses webview to display the info.

[Jackie7610]

I use android system webview and that's on version 129 or something. Let me see the results after updating the webview

Edit: I've updated the webview. Did another fresh install but..no results. :(

[Jackie7610]

Greetings Dev. It's been a while...
I'm writing to thank you for fixing LOCUST. I'm relieved...I can listen to YouTube media in audio form without any issues. Well...without the LOCUST issue.

Give me a moment while I update the bug reports as I have tracked down more. Edit: updated

[XilinJia]

Thank you. Look forward to more bug reports.

[XilinJia]

I see you added a couple items on the list. Editing a previous comment doesn't get me notified. It's better to add a comment, or for better management, it's better to create a new bug report.

Could you review the list and update the status on every unresolved issue?