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
    2014-02-16T17:06:17+00:00

    I'd like to note that my problem with playback not advancing when the screen goes black occurs with the Win8 modern aps (native music, Nokia mix, Pandora client, etch). The above discussion is not focused on the stopping playback of web based music players, though I agree that is a problem too.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-03-20T23:52:39+00:00

    There haven't been any updates posted to this thread for several weeks.  Does that mean the problem has been fixed and I just don't know the solution?  Just purchased a Surface 2 and experienced the same problem with music apps stopping when the screen goes to sleep.  It doesn't matter that the computer sleep time is set to 1 hour, when the display sleeps (2 min) then the music stops.  Waking the screen back up confuses the app.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-03-21T05:08:05+00:00

    Well definitely isn't a solution yet

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-04-04T01:27:54+00:00

    Similar problem here Surface2 pro... music stops playing once you turn device screen to off...  I don't want to have the screen on while listening to music.  This should be basic?  Using XBox Music

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  5. Anonymous
    2014-04-24T14:25:14+00:00

    Sigh.  Every attempt to use my Xbox Music seems to be met with a new frustration.  Just encountered this using a Surface 2 (8.1 RT - fully updated).

    Real world functionality this thwarts:

    • Using Xbox Music to control playback of local, DRM free music to DLNA players;
    • Using Xbox Music to control playback or DRM protected subscription content to:
      • Xbox 360 (Xboxes being the only devices I know that supports the DRM, which is a MAJOR annoyance);
      • external speakers (via physical or bluetooth connections)

    Basically, I want to use the tablet to pick some music to play in my home, then set the tablet down, and go about my day while the music plays.

    Media playback doesn't prevent sleep in either Windows 8.1 or 8.1 RT?  Even as an option?  Why not?

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