Better error handling/messaging for playback failed #782

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2026-04-24T23:37:52+02:00

adam commented

2026-04-24 23:37:52 +02:00

Originally created by @advplyr on GitHub (Dec 4, 2023).

Typically this happens when downloading an audio file that cannot be direct played by the app. Ideally we show an alert when first downloading if it is something we can detect but often times it is an encoding issue.

I think this toast should link to a guide/faq explaining some common reasons.

Originally created by @advplyr on GitHub (Dec 4, 2023). Typically this happens when downloading an audio file that cannot be direct played by the app. Ideally we show an alert when first downloading if it is something we can detect but often times it is an encoding issue. I think this toast should link to a guide/faq explaining some common reasons. ![image](https://github.com/advplyr/audiobookshelf-app/assets/67830747/a1cadfa3-05fc-462a-86c7-897fab78d87e)

adam added the enhancement label 2026-04-24 23:37:52 +02:00

adam commented

2026-04-24 23:37:54 +02:00

@DDriggs00 commented on GitHub (Jan 24, 2025):

I think this should be split into two parts.

The main part of this issue should be fairly easily solved. Simply adding a pre-download check if the file format is incompatible with the current device, then aborting the download with a message would fix that.

Handling corrupt files is much harder, and the only thing I can think of there is like you said: increasing the error message verbosity.

@DDriggs00 commented on GitHub (Jan 24, 2025): I think this should be split into two parts. The main part of this issue should be fairly easily solved. Simply adding a pre-download check if the file format is incompatible with the current device, then aborting the download with a message would fix that. Handling corrupt files is much harder, and the only thing I can think of there is like you said: increasing the error message verbosity.

adam commented

2026-04-24 23:37:56 +02:00

@mew1033 commented on GitHub (Jan 24, 2025):

This is slightly different, but https://github.com/advplyr/audiobookshelf/issues/2477 would probably help to solve this.

@mew1033 commented on GitHub (Jan 24, 2025): This is slightly different, but https://github.com/advplyr/audiobookshelf/issues/2477 would probably help to solve this.

adam commented

2026-04-24 23:37:56 +02:00

@RaHoni commented on GitHub (Jan 24, 2025):

Is there a List of supported formats for the operating systems? Because I would need that to know for a simple check. That could be tested before we start the Download.
Or do we need to check the exact encoding of the file on the Server side? Because for this to work. We would probably need to change the Server to support the test using ffprobe. Which in turn needs to report the encoding to the client.

@RaHoni commented on GitHub (Jan 24, 2025): Is there a List of supported formats for the operating systems? Because I would need that to know for a simple check. That could be tested before we start the Download. Or do we need to check the exact encoding of the file on the Server side? Because for this to work. We would probably need to change the Server to support the test using ffprobe. Which in turn needs to report the encoding to the client.

adam commented

2026-04-24 23:37:57 +02:00

@advplyr commented on GitHub (Jan 25, 2025):

I'm not aware of a list of supported codecs that we can retrieve on any device. If we could get a list then we can report that ahead of time.
Although there will still be cases where the codec is supported but the encoding is bad

@advplyr commented on GitHub (Jan 25, 2025): I'm not aware of a list of supported codecs that we can retrieve on any device. If we could get a list then we can report that ahead of time. Although there will still be cases where the codec is supported but the encoding is bad

adam commented

2026-04-24 23:37:57 +02:00

@RaHoni commented on GitHub (Jan 26, 2025):

Okay for Android i found a List of supported Codecs but for IOS I could not find a List but maybe we could simply use a List of known good Codecs with advplyr/audiobookshelf#2477 and if the playback fails none the less redirect them to the m4b re-encoder to try to fix the errors in the file.

@RaHoni commented on GitHub (Jan 26, 2025): Okay for Android i found a List of [supported Codecs](https://developer.android.com/media/platform/supported-formats) but for IOS I could not find a List but maybe we could simply use a List of known good Codecs with advplyr/audiobookshelf#2477 and if the playback fails none the less redirect them to the m4b re-encoder to try to fix the errors in the file.

adam commented

2026-04-24 23:37:57 +02:00

@jinnatar commented on GitHub (Apr 26, 2025):

Re the original intent, a more verbose error or an available error log has value in itself since there are other issues unlikely to have anything to do with encoding that manifest with the exact same toast. Without more information it's exceedingly difficult to even create informative bug reports on those issues.

@jinnatar commented on GitHub (Apr 26, 2025): Re the original intent, a more verbose error or an available error log has value in itself since there are other issues unlikely to have anything to do with encoding that manifest with the exact same toast. Without more information it's exceedingly difficult to even create informative bug reports on those issues.

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Reference: starred/audiobookshelf-app#782