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
    2014-01-24T01:27:43+00:00

    It happens with both, but the behavior is inconsistent and seems situational. Sometimes I will listening to local files (files in SkyDrive that are "available offline") and playback will be fine. Other times the same local files will not advance between songs once the screen goes black OR the songs will only advance after a long delay (30secs+ of no playback).

    But the behavior is much more common when streaming. I will reiterate though, if I time out of a WiFi connection that requires some sort of verification to reestablish the connection, all functionality of the Xbox music ap ceases, even if I reconnect to the network. The ap will stop searching, won't be able to play even local songs, and just looses all functionality.

    Hope this helps.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-01-22T23:24:43+00:00

    Greetings,

    When the screen turns off while music is playing in Xbox Music, are you playing Local music, Streaming, or does it do it with both?

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-01-22T02:30:31+00:00

    I don't use the Xbox Video ap so I can't speak to that. But I have noticed two things:

    1. I experience the same behavior on the Nokia MixRadio ap when playing songs from my local library. When playing locally stored songs using that ap, playback will not advance if a song finishes while the Surface's screen is black. I feel like this may have something to do with the way that the Surface manages aps while it's in standby.
    2. The Xbox Music ap has A LOT of trouble if it loses internet conection or can't connect to SkyDrive. I frequently use a WiFi connection that times out, and has SkyDrive websites blocked. I've noticed that once the internet connection times out, the music ap essentially breaks- it won't be able to play even locally stored songs, and it won't be able to search for anything (get's trapped in an endless loading loop). Also, I've noticed that the ap runs a lot smoother when SkyDrive access isn't blocked.

    I really think both of these issues are development glitches.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-01-21T22:54:23+00:00

    Greetings,

    Do you experience the same issue with Videos in the Xbox Video app?

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  5. Anonymous
    2014-01-21T03:38:56+00:00

    I am running Windows RT 8.1 on a Surface 2

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