Music playback does not resume on iOS after interruptions [Ticket In, Pending Release]

[Andrew_Stein]

I am using ARC on an iPhone, typically connected to CarPlay, with a NUC ROCK wired to my router. When something, such as a phone call or sometimes even a text, interrupts the music, ARC fails to resume the music when the interruption ends. I then have to manually unpause the music from ARC. I don’t think my phone is locked when the problem arises, as the CarPlay symbol usually appears on my iPhone’s screen.

That problem does not, however, seem to occur when I am using another app, such as Apple Music, with CarPlay.

[DDPS]

Same here.

[M.C]

I’ve just reported this problem myself yesterday.

For me ARC will not resume play after a phone call etc, regardless of whether or not it’s connected to CarPlay

I’ve tested Apple Music, Tidal and Spotify. All three apps will resume play immediately after a phone call etc regardless - connected to CarPlay or not.

[Andrew_Stein]

I have seen similar complaints registered in this forum for quite some time. It seems a rather serious bug. Having to manually unpause music after every interruption is not a minor inconvenience, and I doubt it is an uncommon one.

[Suedkiez (Just a fellow user like you)]

I thought this is supposed to be fixed now:

Focus ducking in ARC [on roadmap]

Hey all, this is in testing and should land in production in the next release. Thanks for the feedback and reports.

@vova

Fixed an ARC issue with audio notifications not ducking on Android

[M.C]

Looks like that was a fixed for Android, now if they can just fix the problem on iPhone please😊

[connor]

Hi everyone,

Autoducking has been enabled for ARC on Android-based phones and Android users should see this resolved as of the most recent release, per @Suedkiez’ post.

iOS has a more granular notification and ducking implementation and we have ongoing work to address and improve the iPhone experience as well. Let me flag the product team behind the scenes and get a precise status update.

Since autoducking, not Carplay, is the operative component here, we’ll update the title appropriately. Thank you!

[Andrew_Stein]

Well, my concern was with CarPlay, not with ducking, although I would certainly welcome a fix so that Arc ducks when using CarPlay. But, again, my issue is that Arc does not automatically resume on CarPlay after an interruption. As a result, I have to manually unpause the music after each interruption.

[michael]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for reporting and sorry about this poor experience. Definitely want to do better here.

A few questions to gather intel and fix this issue. First question—is this new since the last ARC release, or always behaved this way?

• What are you experiencing when you have this issue in Carplay?
• Does ARC duck or just pause entirely?
• What kinds of interruptions cause this (texts, which apps? GPS stuff, which apps?)
• Are you using wired or BT connection?
• Do you experience any of these interruptions when just using ARC by itself?

[M.C]

Here’s my experience, my phone is an iPhone SE 2020:

(First question I cannot answer, as I’ve not had the ARC app installed very long)

@michael

• What are you experiencing when you have this issue in Carplay?
  Music stops completely and needs to be restarted by going into the app and pressing Play

• Does ARC duck or just pause entirely?
  When a call comes in, it pauses entirely (ARC play screen will show the Play symbol) (triangle) And it has to be restarted by pressing the Play symbol.

• What kinds of interruptions cause this (texts, which apps? GPS stuff, which apps?)
  For me phone calls cause the music to stop completely and will not resume play when the call ends. I also find with the Ring Camera app, if I go to the Live View it has the same effect of stopping play completely, and does not resume after use

  For me, notification - text messages,TomTom sat nav etc do not trigger a pause they just lower the volume temporarily)

• Are you using wired or BT connection?
  CarPlay is wired

• Do you experience any of these interruptions when just using ARC by itself?
  Yes, exactly the same behaviour whether the phone is used on its own or connected to CarPlay

[connor]

@Andrew_Stein, sure thing, the behavior you’re hoping for with autoresume after Carplay notifications should be resolved as well when we implement notification handling and autoducking on iOS.

[connor]

Hi everyone,

We will release a fix for this CarPlay notification disconnection with the next Roon and ARC release. The fix will first undergo beta testing with the next Early Access release.

Please keep an eye out in the Software Release Notes section.

Thank you again for your patience.

[M.C]

Thanks for the update.

Will this be a fix purely for the CarPlay problem, or will it include the problem that I mentioned here which includes, but is not solely a CarPlay problem?

Thanks

[connor]

Hi @M.C,

For now, playback stops automatically when iOS receives an incoming call, and the user has to reinitiate playback mechanically after the conclusion of the call. We are working to improve this behavior.

This fix will prevent notifications from navigation apps and texts from stopping playback in ARC during CarPlay. Instead, the audio will auto-duck while the notification plays.

You can expect the fix to be released in the next public build of ARC.