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
    2015-09-04T10:50:42+00:00

    I got around this by creating a new power plan where the tablet and screen never go to sleep, then enabling the 'Blank Screen' screen saver to come on after 1 minute.

    It's not a perfect fix, but it enables me to listen to music without draining the battery with the screen. :)

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-09-16T15:38:35+00:00

    I have surface pro 3 in a docking station and with iTunes the music stops every time it times out.  I'm finding that the MS pro3 as a crossover platform (my assumption) does neither desktop work or tablet functions very well.  It can't be that hard to keep the music playing.  MS Surface- "the day the music died."

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-10-09T18:41:06+00:00

    I have this problem off-and-on, as well. It is a highly annoying, easily fixed issue for a software giant... I love everything else about the device. I found a way to mitigate this without simply keeping the screen on always.

    I first went to Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > Edit Plan Options, and set the device to sleep after _______________ (insert preferred time here)

    I then went to Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization > Personalization, then clicked Screen Saver Settings, then set it to Blank > Wait ______ minutes (insert preferred time here, the less the better to save battery. I chose 1 minute)

    This isn't a straight-up fix, but darned close.

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-10-26T20:53:58+00:00

    I tried that.... but it didn't work for me. I have a surface 3 win 10.....Ive only had this thing 9 days and it has caused more aggravation. I uninstalled/reinstalled WMP, have changed the power options numerous times, have gone under options and checked the box to make sure it continues playback, have gone into device manager and unchecked one of the boxes re the realtek driver to make sure it wasn't stopping the power supply. This shouldn't be so hard... it cost enough money and it can't playback music with the screen off?? I Heart radio plays back with no screen. The audio went out totally the other day..... wouldn't play period....4 hours later I get a notification updates were installed...... yet you can't find them in the update history ....samd again today.... more updates but they don't show what they are..... not very happy with this..... also had the keyboard stop working... then it kicked in.... last night I had that blue screen..... good luck with threshold ll everyone

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  5. Anonymous
    2015-11-02T01:54:14+00:00

    This is literally the dumbest solution ever and i totally discovered it by accident. I fu*king hate that Microsoft didn't just make this clear. 

    Okay the solution to this majorly annoying issue is put your SP3 into "Tablet" mode. The music and video will keep playing in the background even if you shut off the display. This didnt occur to me until after 6+ hours of research and downloading useless add on's. SMGDMFH! FML.

    Im using the SP3 and running windows 10.

    *Update* worked for like an hour then stopped again. Give it a try anyhow and see if you have better luck. I give up. -_-

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