[Android] Background play can be stopped only by forcing stop the application if the notification from VLC is turned off

In my Android phone, VLC is used as a default music file player (but not specified as the "default application" of Android). Moreover, I turned off notifications from VLC about playing a file.

When I tap a music file in a file manager (I use ASUS default one), it is played by VLC. But since its play is background, there is no other way to stop the music by Android setting --> Applications --> Choose VLC --> Force stop.

If I turn on notifications, then I can stop from the notification display. But it is troublesome if turning off notifications. In this sense, it may be better to be launched foreground rather than background. A possible workaround is to prohibit (or warn) background play if the notification from VLC is turned off. How do you think?

If you turn off notifications, you still get some ways to stop the playback:

1. Open the app and you will get the mini player
2. Use the widget on your home screen

I don't think we will manage this use case as there are ways to use the app without the notifications.

added Status::will not fix label

closed

Dear Nicolas POMEPUY,

Thanks, I later found that I can stop the music by just launching VLC.

But this is not the main problem. To be more specific,

VLC is used as a default music file player (but not specified as the "default application" of Android)

means that "VLC is automatically (outside of my knowledge) specified as the default music file player". So, before I know that VLC is used for playing a music file when tapping it in the file manager, I have hardly any idea to stop the music.

If this behavior (VLC is automatically specified as the default music file player) is rare for Androids, then this can be considered as the problem of my android phone. But it is not rare, then I think that VLC should be fixed.

removed Status::will not fix label

reopened

The cannot know if you hide the notification. We won't open an UI for everybody for this rare use case in which you hide the notification and don't know what application is used to play music.

BTW, if you hide the notification it's because you already have played music with VLC and you know it's used to play music.

added Status::will not fix label

closed

BTW, if you hide the notification it's because you already have played music with VLC and you know it's used to play music.

I don't agree with the thought above. If it is obvious for most of Android users that VLC (or other music players) plays music background without any display if we turn off the notification, but I don't think so.

I think any music player playing music background (including VLC) should appear somewhere easy to be found (either the list of launched apps or notification area).

removed Status::will not fix label

reopened

Hi,

WONTFIX means we won't fix this.

There's no point in reopening because you have a different point of view, except being annoying and wasting everybody's time.

I'm sorry that your request didn't make it but VLC for Android is not meant to be your vision of multimedia. Feel free to fork if you want a different customized version and maybe it could make it back here if it really proves useful.

Please don't reopen again.

added Status::will not fix label

closed

I won't argue anymore about reopening, but let me tell that I proposed this since I think it is not just my problem but problem for many users.

I thought again about the problem, and found that my proposal doesn't solve the underlying problem. (But I still think this is a problem --- perhaps not VLC but Android developers should work for it.)

I thought of:

• If VLC just goes background, then it continues playing the music, but
• if VLC is closed by swiped away from the launching app list (as the function of Android), then it stops playing the music.

But, in reality, in both of the cases it continues playing the music. Probably this is an expected behavior of Android that can play music background, so for now there is no other way for all Android users to enable notifications from apps that can run background.

Hi,

From a look at the source code, there's already a setting to kill the playback when the activity is removed:

override fun onTaskRemoved(rootIntent: Intent) {
        if (settings.getBoolean("audio_task_removed", false)) stop()
    }