Does Android Mobile have any buffer that can be increased?

[MBSki 1114]

I'm having a really hard time listening to music in my car. The music continually stops and starts. If I could set a buffer of at least 10 minutes I don't think I'd get the constant stops and starts. Is there a buffer that I can adjust? Or can Emby add a 10 - 15 minute buffer for music playback? 

[Carlo 4560]

Hi, no there is no an adjustment to buffer size that can be made.

However, we do recommend downloading or syncing media for offline use or for when using Emby in situations where the network is questionable.
Have you explored this yet?

[MBSki 1114]

Just now, cayars said:

Hi, no there is no an adjustment to buffer size that can be made.

However, we do recommend downloading or syncing media for offline use or for when using Emby in situations where the network is questionable.
Have you explored this yet?

Of course, but if I'm on the road every day that's an awful lot of time spent downloading then cleaning up the downloads. That shouldn't be necessary. This seems like a pretty basic function. At a minimum can't Emby fix the buffer size to something much higher?  

[Carlo 4560]

That's something only a dev can answer but in general buffers on streaming apps are limited for reasons.

[MBSki 1114]

4 minutes ago, cayars said:

That's something only a dev can answer but in general buffers on streaming apps are limited for reasons.

Is there a different reason it constantly stops and starts constantly? The buffer seems to be the issue, but maybe there's something else. Music streaming services don't have the same issue as Emby.

[rodainas 191]

The Android mobile app could have a buffering level set by user as the Android TV app.

But buffer problem is not related only to the setting of the app, the peering speed to the server used is a major culprit on that department.

[speechles 2055]

A buffer that large isn't feasible. Android uses memory management to determine when an application has become too greedy for resources. Once another application needs the RAM and has a higher priority the other process is forcefully terminated that runs in the background.

When you increase the size of the buffer it increases the footprint in RAM that Android sees that app taking. Maybe it can break the buffer into a background process. Well that background process if it gets greedy will get killed pretty quick.

That might be what is happening especially if you are playing on Mobile over cellular data. The signal may become too weak and the buffer reaches end. Playback stops. It doesn't rebuffer because it already failed the "max retries" attempt. That would happen if you are say driving while playing music. You lose signal. The signal doesn't come back quick enough. The maximum retries occurs.

Not knowing Android entirely I am making assumptions. The maximum retries once the signal comes back may revive itself and try again. But I believe this isn't what is happen. When the signal gets poor the buffer erodes until playback must stop.

 

Music streaming services use multi peering from colocations and have multiple geographies. Your Emby server has a single peering point with no colocation using a single geography.

Edited July 21, 2021 by speechles

[MBSki 1114]

Thanks @speechles! That was really helpful. I wonder if there's any solution to this. Only thing I can think of is an auto download or something when starting to play on cellular data. I'd imagine there are much better solutions, but that's just a simple idea. 

[Carlo 4560]

Syncing/Downloading the media is really the ideal way to handle music.  You can take 10 to 50 albums with you on the go pretty easily.

This is a really good way to go especially if you can use an external SD card which are cheap these days in your phone.  Drop in a 128 or 256GB SD card and you can have a lot of music at your disposal without needing to use any bandwidth as you can sync it on WIFI.

[MBSki 1114]

I'm looking for a different option. Most new phones don't have extra storage because you can stream everything. Kind of in a catch 22 here aren't we?

[Carlo 4560]

All my phones always have an SD slot. It's something I specifically look for because I like having movies and shows with me on the go.

But yes, if your phone doesn't have an SD slot that could pose a problem.  What phone do you have?

[Ninko 78]

I've been having this issue recently too.

Rather then storing a bigger buffer in ram (and upsetting Android), can't you have an option to set a temporary location on your phone where the whole song is downloaded when possible? This way when the signal is too weak it can play from this folder.

Also, if you give the option to set a data limit, older songs could be deleted on a rolling basis.

This is what Synology Music does, this method massively reduces music pausing!

[Luke 42077]

3 hours ago, Ninko said:

I've been having this issue recently too.

Rather then storing a bigger buffer in ram (and upsetting Android), can't you have an option to set a temporary location on your phone where the whole song is downloaded when possible? This way when the signal is too weak it can play from this folder.

Also, if you give the option to set a data limit, older songs could be deleted on a rolling basis.

This is what Synology Music does, this method massively reduces music pausing!

Hi, yes that's something that we're interested in being able to do for future updates. Thanks.

[Scobra 10]

On 8/3/2022 at 8:24 PM, Luke said:

Hi, yes that's something that we're interested in being able to do for future updates. Thanks.

Would this be possible for video too?

[Luke 42077]

On 3/5/2025 at 12:11 AM, Scobra said:

Would this be possible for video too?

@Scobrahave you tried using the download feature in the app? That's kind of what it is for.

[Scobra 10]

On 3/6/2025 at 6:25 PM, Luke said:

@Scobrahave you tried using the download feature in the app? That's kind of what it is for.

Kinda defeats the whole purpose of streaming...

[Luke 42077]

7 minutes ago, Scobra said:

Kinda defeats the whole purpose of streaming...

OK it is possible for video, however there are a lot more bases to cover. Often times on a mobile device you're not streaming the original file, you're streaming a transcoded version from the server that has only the audio and the subtitles you need. If you wanted to save that to be able to view it later, then you wouldn't be able to select from all of the possible audio, subtitle tracks, etc because they wouldn't be there. Additionally, while you're streaming, what if you change quality, or change anything that requires stopping and restarting the transcoding. What then, does that mean you have little pieces of the video saved in different forms? Or nothing saved at all? So that's where it starts to get a little messy and that's why the download feature exists.

[Scobra 10]

On 3/9/2025 at 11:55 PM, Luke said:

OK it is possible for video, however there are a lot more bases to cover. Often times on a mobile device you're not streaming the original file, you're streaming a transcoded version from the server that has only the audio and the subtitles you need. If you wanted to save that to be able to view it later, then you wouldn't be able to select from all of the possible audio, subtitle tracks, etc because they wouldn't be there. Additionally, while you're streaming, what if you change quality, or change anything that requires stopping and restarting the transcoding. What then, does that mean you have little pieces of the video saved in different forms? Or nothing saved at all? So that's where it starts to get a little messy and that's why the download feature exists.

I see. Thanks for explaining.