Video playback stops on a random basis

While watching a video I will occasionally see the playback quit back to the recordings menu. This usually happens within the first 30 seconds or so of watching a recording, and then it doesn't happen again until some later time when you watch another video.

Diagnostics were sent just now, I'm running the current beta.

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Seeing this as well today, Channel beta 9.14.2235, submitted diagnostics.

We're seeing other weird reports about this too. We're going to add some logging tomorrow and push a build up for you guys to get on, so that when it happens again, we can hopefully have a better trail of activity that led up to the stopping, and what caused it.

Right now, all the logs show that it's stopping normally, not from any video playback issues. As if someone is sitting on the remote.

If anyone can provide more precise details on the behavior, it would be helpful.

Some people have mentioned that they get taken back to their Home Screen. If so, does the app start from scratch? IE, did the app crash, or did it just exit to the Home Screen and go into the background. Those are very distinct things.

I’ve had it happen a few times. Both with live tv and recordings. For me it seems it just goes back to the previous screen prior to playback. If it is live tv it goes back to the guide and for recordings it goes back to the library(home) page. I haven’t had a crash type error where the app closes. Your sitting on the remote analogy is how I’d describe it.

Yeah it just goes back to the recordings screen when it quits. You can immediately hit watch again and it will usually play all the way through from that point.

Now that some other mention this, I too have had random stop of playback, and it goes back to the video description screen. This is for local content though, not recordings. Thought i had sat on the remote or accidently tapped it etc.

I've noticed this has happened here too, 2 or 3 times in the past week or so. I've noticed no rhyme or reason yet though.

Anything that’s happening in combination would be helpful.

A recording just started.
A recording just ended.
Another client on the network is watching something.

Anything to help track it down or reproduce it would be helpful.

I have had this happen a few times. I had actually had it happen even a year ago and I recall making a post about it then. At the time there was no determination of why either. It was very random and sometimes didn't happen for weeks at a time.

I haven't been using channels as much recently, but I can start again just to see if I can help you guys pinpoint this. I do recall it happening about a month ago when I was using this more regularly.

For me, it most often occurs, just after i start playing something.
It plays for a very short time, less than 1 min.
It has happened when i start playback of file, either from the very beginning, or anywhere in progress, ie, resuming a video I had partially watched.
It happens, maybe, once a week or so. If that.
When it happens, i just start playback again, and it is fine.
Not able to reproduce it.

How long has this been going on?

No idea really, maybe the last few months. Before the latest tvos 18 update for sure.
But again, it so random, and quick a thing, i never gave it much thought.
Especially since, nearly every time it has happened, i was sitting on the remote for the Apple TV, or had just messed with it, had wet hands, had food on the remote etc.... Thought also it may be my remote...as they tend to wear out and double press or just be weird after a while.

The last month, I also been messing around with testing some changes to some HomeBridge things, (Unifi Protect plugin) rebooting the Apple TV frequently. But am done with that now.

I never saw it until maybe two or three weeks ago, so it's very recent for me. And I watch a lot of recordings every week mostly sports.

When it happens I don't think there's anything else special going on, no other clients watching no other recording starting etc. It's just completely random but the next time it happens I'll take a closer look. It didn't happen at all this weekend.

Same issue for me, only started in the last week or so. I commence playing a video movie or TV Show that might be on my NAS Synology or my Mac Mini. I hit start, it plays for around a minute, then just quits back to the previous screen. I immediately hit play again, it goes to resume playing, I hit play and the show plays right through no issues.

No recording events happening at the time. This is my viewing the show via the Apple TV. Come to think of it, it has only started happening since I updated all my Apple TV's to tvOS 18.

Not sure if that is the cause, but seems coincidental.

In my case the remote was on a coffee table on front of me, it was not due to inadvertent presses.

Within the last 2 weeks IIRC it has happened once with a recording being played back, and another was live TV, and both were within the first minute or two of watching, and then didn’t happen again. When it happened the first time, I do recall thinking, “hmm, that’s a new one…”

I will keep an eye out to see if it happens again so I can share more details, but it’s certainly rare.

Mine is still running tvos 17.6.1 so it doesn't look like a new tvos 18 issue.

I FOUND THE BUG!

This should be resolved in the latest TestFlight beta. I'll keep this thread open for a couple days to let you guys report back if you see it again.

Background

Just for some background if you're curious, because this was such a mystery. Our root views in the app reset themselves on a timer. This way, if you left the Movies view deep inside a hierarchy, when you go back to it later on, you're not in the middle of a navigation session from multiple days ago and confused. This is a silent feature of what makes Channels feels nice.

ANYWAYS, what was triggering this was the reset happening in Settings.

This is why it wasn't always happening, and when it did, it happened about "a minute" into the video. It was because you visited the Settings view, then went to play something.

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Good to know..thanks. Looks like they may have found the issue. The Channels Team do a great job of addressing issues I have to say.

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@maddox Nope. Still does it for me.

Going into settings, a few menus deep, not backout of those menus, but instead, just using the side bar to go back to my Personal section page, and start playback.... it played for 53sec, then stopped.

Beta 9.25.1510
submitted diags from app

EDIT: Reproducible now. The going into settings, a few menus deep, then right into playback, does seem to trigger this issue.
:laughing:So at least, we now know what the cause of this mysterious "random" issue is.

Please explain where and how you started the video after leaving settings.