Home button Only Pauses

[rdhardi 42]

Yes, it's definitely a pain to have to exit the app and dig through Android permissions.

I'm not sure tying it to the “Video player back button behavior” would help. In my case I do have it set to Stop, but the back button does not work as expected. Yes, it returns to the Shield's home screen, but playback does not stop...it just pauses the playback (it still shows "now playing" in the Dashboard). Apparently, this is normal behavior in the Universal App 

 

[Luke 42077]

@rdhardi

 

Hi there, let's look at an example. Please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. Thanks!

 

[Tigga5 39]

29 minutes ago, rdhardi said:

I'm not sure tying it to the “Video player back button behavior” would help. In my case I do have it set to Stop, but the back button does not work as expected. Yes, it returns to the Shield's home screen, but playback does not stop...it just pauses the playback (it still shows "now playing" in the Dashboard). Apparently, this is normal behavior in the Universal 

*edit* Never mind. I see the stuck session on mine too now. That's dumb, and it also doesn't require a PIN to resume. So it seems like it's yet another way that anyone can get full access to the admin account if the admin simply uses the home button to exit instead of pressing "Back" 6 times to get to the home screen.

Edited October 31, 2025 by Tigga5

[rdhardi 42]

@Luke

Is it possible to send an app log electronically in the Universal app?

Edited October 31, 2025 by rdhardi

[rdhardi 42]

3 hours ago, Tigga5 said:

*edit* Never mind. I see the stuck session on mine too now.

Ok, so it’s not just me! I’ve always used the Back button in the Android TV app…it’s become rote without thinking, I click on it and it takes me to the Shield home screen and it ENDS Emby playback. Silly me I guess, for expecting the same behavior in the Universal App.

IMHO, the user should have the choice to pause or end playback. Especially since the "pause" doesn't timeout and end as stated. It continues to play for hours, all day.

Edited October 31, 2025 by rdhardi

[Tigga5 39]

@LukeCan we fix this so pressing the home button actually ends the session, or when re-launching it actually asks for a PIN? The obvious lack of care when it comes to parental controls and account security with Emby is beyond frustrating at this point, especially considering it keeps coming up again and again... 

Edited November 1, 2025 by Tigga5

[Luke 42077]

On 10/31/2025 at 8:38 PM, Tigga5 said:

@LukeCan we fix this so pressing the home button actually ends the session, or when re-launching it actually asks for a PIN? The obvious lack of care when it comes to parental controls and account security with Emby is beyond frustrating at this point, especially considering it keeps coming up again and again... 

Hi there, have you configured the startup behavior option in the app?

[Tigga5 39]

36 minutes ago, Luke said:

Hi there, have you configured the startup behavior option in the app?

Yup. It's always been set to "Show login screen". And again, it works if you press the Back button enough times to exit, but using the Home button isn't ending the session and lets anyone re-launch the app with full admin access.

[Luke 42077]

19 minutes ago, Tigga5 said:

Yup. It's always been set to "Show login screen". And again, it works if you press the Back button enough times to exit, but using the Home button isn't ending the session and lets anyone re-launch the app with full admin access.

It depends on how long until you come back. It's  modeled after netflix profiles where if you come back immediately or within a few minutes, it will not make you enter the pin. But if you come back more than 10 minutes later, then it will.

[Tigga5 39]

1 hour ago, Luke said:

It depends on how long until you come back. It's  modeled after netflix profiles where if you come back immediately or within a few minutes, it will not make you enter the pin. But if you come back more than 10 minutes later, then it will.

That's not how it's working. I pressed the Home button to exit Emby, launched another app, then left it idle for more than 30 minutes. Emby still let me right back in without authenticating when I launched it again from the home screen.

Edited November 3, 2025 by Tigga5

[FrostByte 5392]

Just a guess, but maybe it's because clicking Home doesn't actually fully exit the app.  The Home button in AndroidTV just shells out leaving the current app running in the background.  This allows you to quickly return to the app or use things like PiP, etc while running other apps.  In order to actually Exit from the app you would need to use Exit from one of the menus.  

Or, after clicking Home and getting to the AndroidTV home screen, try double clicking the Home button.  This should bring up a list of recent apps (see pic) that are still running.  Close Emby from there and see if it does the same after 10 minutes.

 

[Luke 42077]

7 hours ago, FrostByte said:

Just a guess, but maybe it's because clicking Home doesn't actually fully exit the app.  The Home button in AndroidTV just shells out leaving the current app running in the background.  This allows you to quickly return to the app or use things like PiP, etc while running other apps.  In order to actually Exit from the app you would need to use Exit from one of the menus.  

Or, after clicking Home and getting to the AndroidTV home screen, try double clicking the Home button.  This should bring up a list of recent apps (see pic) that are still running.  Close Emby from there and see if it does the same after 10 minutes.

 

No you don't actually have to do that. If you do force close it, then it's a fresh start of the app.

[FrostByte 5392]

3 hours ago, Luke said:

No you don't actually have to do that. If you do force close it, then it's a fresh start of the app.

True, which is the same things as using the Exit command in the menu which exits and force closes the app.  Emby is not in the active list after when you use the menu.

So, you're saying the PIN should work either way (as long as you wait 10 min when only exiting).

Edited November 4, 2025 by FrostByte

[rdhardi 42]

Just tested again. I exited Live TV with the Back Button at 7:34. Playback paused, shows "Now Playing" in Dashboard, and immediately starts throwing errors in the log. Log also shows session still playing. 

Over an an hour later, STILL paused/playing. In my experience with this issue, it will continue to play for hours, sometimes all day, until I notice it and force stop it.

Log attached. 
Issue started at 2025-11-04 07:34:34.662 

embyserver.txt

[knoll126 10]

Hey new to Emby after wanting an alternative to Plex for Live TV. I noticed this behavior yesterday and today. Yesterday I was messing around on my Nvidia Shield using the Android App (Not Android TV) and switching between testing on Roku and the Shield. Noticed last night that even with the app not being opened on the Nvidia Shield that it was still registered as watching a specific channel (the last one I had up and running). Checked again this morning and it was still in the dashboard of the emby server. Went to the Nvidia shield and it was on the home screen (has been 12+ hours at this point). Had to close the app fully to get the dashboard to be cleaned up.

[FrostByte 5392]

31 minutes ago, knoll126 said:

Hey new to Emby after wanting an alternative to Plex for Live TV. I noticed this behavior yesterday and today. Yesterday I was messing around on my Nvidia Shield using the Android App (Not Android TV) and switching between testing on Roku and the Shield. Noticed last night that even with the app not being opened on the Nvidia Shield that it was still registered as watching a specific channel (the last one I had up and running). Checked again this morning and it was still in the dashboard of the emby server. Went to the Nvidia shield and it was on the home screen (has been 12+ hours at this point). Had to close the app fully to get the dashboard to be cleaned up.

Did you exit the app by clicking the Home button vs using the menu?  Does disabling PiP in the Shield settings help?

[knoll126 10]

8 minutes ago, FrostByte said:

Did you exit the app by clicking the Home button vs using the menu?  Does disabling PiP in the Shield settings help?

I just clicked the home button and didn't hit the back buttons. I disabled PiP as well. 

I did know that hitting the back button will stop the stream, and tested that. But I wanted to see the affects of just going to the Shield's home screen. Not only does it keep the stream open on the emby dashboard it takes up one of my tuner/connections slots as well. Which is also not great.

Also tested on a Google with Chromecast TV and the same results. 

I will just have to train my family to back all the way out, or we may not have enough connections for the different ways of watching.

[FrostByte 5392]

4 minutes ago, knoll126 said:

I just clicked the home button and didn't hit the back buttons. I disabled PiP as well. 

I did know that hitting the back button will stop the stream, and tested that. But I wanted to see the affects of just going to the Shield's home screen. Not only does it keep the stream open on the emby dashboard it takes up one of my tuner/connections slots as well. Which is also not great.

Also tested on a Google with Chromecast TV and the same results. 

I will just have to train my family to back all the way out, or we may not have enough connections for the different ways of watching.

You could always force close the app after clicking Home which should close the stream.  Just double click Home again to view the recent apps list and close it from there.  Whichever is quickest, I guess.

[Neminem 1518]

@FrostBytethat a workaround

@LukeWe need the old Exit option when clicking the "Home" button, that canceled streams and properly closed the app.

Or at least the option to enable that behavior

 

 

Edited November 4, 2025 by Neminem

[rdhardi 42]

29 minutes ago, knoll126 said:

Not only does it keep the stream open on the emby dashboard it takes up one of my tuner/connections slots as well. Which is also not great.

Yes, I forgot to mention in my original post that it takes up a tuner. Definitely not good!

[knoll126 10]

25 minutes ago, FrostByte said:

You could always force close the app after clicking Home which should close the stream.  Just double click Home again to view the recent apps list and close it from there.  Whichever is quickest, I guess.

On Chromecast with Google TV, you can not do that though. Agreed that you can do that on the Shield though. But it will just have to be muscle memory unless the devs feels like they should make change on how it behaves. 

[knoll126 10]

Hopefully I am not too spammy.

But same behavior on the cell phone running android, but I believe the background app killing process android does doesn't keep the app running as long as the android streaming sticks will. 
 

[FrostByte 5392]

29 minutes ago, Neminem said:

@FrostBytethat a workaround

@LukeWe need the old Exit option when clicking the "Home" button, that canceled streams and properly closed the app.

Or at least the option to enable that behavior

 

 

Using exit from the menu or settings does close the new app.  It's just the Home button doesn't, which I believe is normal.  Most people don't want to take all those steps though.

v .16 did change the Exit behavior on the menu somewhat.  It now asks.

[rdhardi 42]

3 minutes ago, FrostByte said:

It's just the Home button doesn't, which I believe is normal.  Most people don't want to take all those steps though.

In my first post on this issue, I was told that this is normal behavior in the new app. This is the exact opposite of the AndroidTV app, which for years, I have used the Back button to exit. So, for me the muscle memory is real.

So, I guess this is the new normal in the new app, but I can't imagine that it's normal (IMHO) to keep a stream/tuner playing forever until is force stopped.

[Q-Droid 989]

58 minutes ago, Neminem said:

@FrostBytethat a workaround

@LukeWe need the old Exit option when clicking the "Home" button, that canceled streams and properly closed the app.

Or at least the option to enable that behavior

 

 

Any reason to not make the Android app put up the Exit dialog when pressing Back just like the ATV app does? I thought feature parity was the goal for the Android app.

How about putting up a pumpkin when I press Back on the new app. That would at least look like some effort has gone into this.