Troubleshooting Player Issues

Many player related issues are caused by inability to seek in the particular podcast. In most cases, BeyondPod relies on the device's default audio player for playback. Different devices come with different versions of the audio player and some are better than others in handling different podcast formats.

Based on how the publisher has encoded their podcast - for example what codec they use (M4A/MP3/AVI/FLAC) and what bit rate (fixed/variable), the default audio player may play it but may not be able to seek correctly in it. In most cases this works, but unfortunately in some device/podcast combinations seeking may not work reliably.

When playback speed is enabled, BeyondPod uses a different player that (occasionally) may handle better a particular podcast. If you have playback issue, try to either enable playback speed support or disable it (if it was enabled) - hopefully one of the players (the default player or the variable speed player) are better at handling episodes on this particular device.

To enable disable playback speed support use BeyondPod Settings > Player Settings > Enable Speed Adjustment. If speed adjustment is enabled, you will see the playback speed control (a big number like 1x) on the full screen player - you can change the speed by tapping on it. (you don't need to actually play at faster speed, just make sure it is enabled).

For some episodes, the only option is to use an external player (like MX Player) that may be able to handle them correctly. To play episode in external player, long press on the episode and select "Play in External Player" from the main (application) menu.

Another possible reason for playback issues of downloaded episodes is a (partial) corruption of the SD card. In this case BeyondPod can't read portions of the file which causes pauses and playback errors. In this case, reformatting the SD card usually fixes the issue.