Music stops playing on MS Surface when screen turns off.

Anonymous
2012-12-20T21:34:16+00:00

I have a Microsoft Surface. I have my mp3's in my default Music folder. When I play an album, a song will play but it will not play the next song if the screen has turned off. I always need to hit the power button again to turn the screen back on in order to play the next song. This makes this device useless as a music player as I have to turn it back on every few minutes. Often the song will start skipping as well when the screen turns off. This is for the Music app but also any other music playing apps I've tried such as Music Info. And please don't tell me this is by design. It is not by design. It's a bug. It would be nice to know when this will be resolved. Playing an MP3 is a basic function that should just work out of the box. It really can't be that hard. If a $30 mp3 player can do it I sure expect my $700 tablet to.

Windows for home | Other | Music, photos, and video

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-06-16T09:27:35+00:00

    I found a simple solution all you need to do is close your cover to your surface then press the power button and music will play in the backround.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-08-08T15:11:41+00:00

    What worked for me is:

    • Search: Sound: Settings
    • Go to the desktop Sound app.
    • Click on the device, properties
    • Advanced tab
    • -unclick "allow applications to take exclusive control of this device"-
    • You will have to to this for all your devices as they are on

    This also prevents windows 8 from lowering sound when you open up another app (e.g. Skype), so may be slightly annoying in some instances, but at least music continues as screen goes black after 2 min!

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-02-25T03:57:57+00:00

    I am having this issue on my surface pro with xbox music. flip the touch cover over the screen and playback will stop within 5 seconds. leaving the screen on is a very short term workaround. Is there a community visible bug tracking/reporting system where we can see the status of this sort of minor but frustrating usability defects?

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  4. Anonymous
    2012-12-25T03:02:27+00:00

    Greetings Gglazer,

    Have you tried using Ray's suggestion of using the Presentation settings? 

    For now, using Presentation mode or leaving the screen on, may be your best work around.

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  5. Anonymous
    2012-12-22T02:47:42+00:00

    Greetings,

    How many apps do you have open aside from the Music app when the Surface goes to sleep?

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