[Enhancement][Android Auto]: Ability to refresh the UI when internet connectivity is established

[armanckeser]

Sometimes when I open the app on Android Auto, I only see the "Downloads" section. I presume this is due to internet instability at the time of building the UI. From the code (I haven't written any applications in Kotlin or AA), I see that this UI happens when there are no items in the library.

My problem is that, I can't find a way to refresh this UI when I know I have internet. My best hope is to search for the audiobook, but the search also almost never works.

Is there a way to redraw the UI when using Android Auto (When I "turn off" the application and "turn on" again, the issue persists, I believe this is due to the app not actually turning off, but I couldn't find a way to force it)?

If not, could we add a refresh button to the UI to manually refresh the BrowseTree?

(PS: thanks for this app, it is one of my most used ones, and got me listening to so many books that otherwise I might not have) Thanks!

Phone Model

Oneplus 9

Phone OS

Android Oxygen OS 13.1

Audiobookshelf App Version

0.9.79-beta

Installation Source

Play Store (I think? maybe F-droid)

[kymahi]

Kinda on this topic, it's worse since 0.9.78-beta. I downgraded to 0.9.77-beta due to the battery issue and the listening tab showed up every time. On both 78 and 79, the listening tab is now missing every time I plug in.

[ppoloskov]

I'm experiencing this as well. My Samsung S22 Ultra, Android 14, OneUI 6.1 didn't have this problem before 0.9.78-beta. Also, I don't know if this is a connectivity issue since this happens indoors and outdoors.

[advplyr]

The update that was made is making many more API requests and so if you have a slow network connection it can be timing out or it may just take a while before the other sections show up. We're going to have to make some changes with that update.

@armanckeser Can you update your issue with the app version, your phones android version and device/model for reference. We use Issue templates that ask for all this info but you selected blank when you opened this.

[armanckeser]

@advplyr That's on me (but also a bit on Github) sorry about that. I looked at the code directly and apparently when you choose a line in the code and press "Reference in a new issue" it brings up a blank issue bypassing the issue templates

[ppoloskov]

@advplyr thank you for the explanation. I think it's not speed but rather latency, but most likely timeout issue

[jhlee2222]

I just wanted to add my own bit of info, as this issue has made it impossible for me to use ABS via the Android app in my car.

I'm on a Pixel 9 Pro. Just updated my ABS server to the latest (2.20.0) and my app version is 0.9.79-beta in hopes of resolving it, but it persists.

Behavior I see is that when I start the app, it sometimes shows either no content or it shows my libraries, for a brief moment. Then the libraries go away and the app tries to load things, but always crashes. After I disconnect from my car though, I can restart the app and access my server without issue.

[armanckeser]

Could we help with this somehow? Android Auto streaming is basically so useless and unreliable now that I download anything I am currently listening.

[golinski]

Possibly connected to #1570?

[advplyr]

This could be #1570 or it could be failing to connect to the server

[smic717394]

Same for me. It has to be connexion problem, because for me only happened when Im parked in the garage. There is no internet, so I can only see Downloads. The only way to fix this is wait untill I have Internet and disconect and reconect the phone to the car.

[advplyr]

There was an issue fixed in v0.10.1 that was impacting battery drain but it may have also helped with this issue. Can you test on the latest and confirm this issue still exists?

[armanckeser]

I might not be able to test this in the near future, I temporarily moved and am not driving much these days (as opposed to driving every day where intermittent issues like these were much easier to spot). I will test every time I do, but if anyone else in this thread could also test and confirm that would be great.

[advplyr]

Thanks for following up. We'll re-open if it still persists

[ppoloskov]

I can confirm that the problem is solved for me once upgraded to the latest server build (2.29.0) and app version (0.10.1-beta).