"Failed to play the file" error

[dannyq]

Hello
I am experiencing an odd error. I can login using DSAudio on my Android tablet over the wireless connection and browse files/artists/albums. However when I attempt to play a music file I receive the error "Failed to play the file:" error.

*Tablet*
Hardware: MID (NATPC M009S)
Andriod version: 4.0.3
DSAudio version: 1.4.2 -062


However it works perfectly when using my mobile phone over wireless:
*Phone*
Hardware: HTC Sensation Z710e
Andriod version: 2.3.4
DSAudio version: 1.4.2 -062

The obvious difference here is the version of Android. Has anyone had issues when upgrading Andriod? Any suggestions would be most welcome!

*Diskstation*
Hardware: DS211j
Software: 4.0 - 2198

thanks
Danny

[Kookgek]

I have exactly the same problems. I can browse audiofiles on my Point of View Protab2 XXL tablet with Android 4.0.3, but get that error "Couldnt play file".

I have no problems on my HTC Wildfire with android 2.3

Any suggestion on how to fix this?

(request, pls implement autorotate for tablets

[ToeTag]

I have had this error for 6 months and it has not gotten any better at all. Even though Synology released DSM 4.0, and also a new Audio Station package and also I now have a ds1512 to go with my ds1511. So I think the problem is related to Android phones. Have never seen it on my iPad or iPod Touch.

Probably 40-50% of my files get the 'Failed to play the file' error. No sh*t sherlock, great error message. If it helps any the error occurs more often with classical music. So maybe they did something boneheaded with the character set. I mean classical music often has really long file names with crazy foreign characters in the names.

I get the problem on my Kindle Fire and also on my Samsung Galaxy Note N7000. I can go get the same songs on my same wifi network with my iPad, have never got the error once. Synology there are a lot of Kindle Fire out there. Could you please fix this? I can't believe more people aren't complaining about this. Maybe its because I have a big music library and Android stints its apps on memory.

[ToeTag]

Samsung sells 1 million Galaxy Note N9000 phones a month. Amazon controls half the android tablet market. Synology, when will you fix this "Failed to play the file" error. I live in Taipei, I will come over and show it to you any time. Its not the size of my library either, even with the small library I get it. Half my songs say "Failed to play the file". Happens on my Fire, happens on my Note. Happens on the LAN, happens over the WAN. Happens on the DS1511, happens on the DS1512. Meanwhile, everything works perfect on iOS like iPad or iPod touch. Has to be your android client.

[ToeTag]

I am in contact with Synology support. I gave them a .m4a ALAC that works... and one that doesn't.

[Bobk88]

Not sure if this is related, but I've gotten the error message 'This file format is not supported' a couple of times, when trying to play AAC-encoded audio tracks via DS Audio on my iPad2.

These tracks play fine from my desktop Mac, via both iTunes and AudioStation.

It's only when trying to play them via DS Audio that I get that error.

EDIT: I've had this problem for months, but haven't had the patience to come to the forums or submit a support request until today. Sure enough, just after I wrote this post, I got the error again, but in a way it's never happened before.

My initial post said that I had the problem with only two tracks, both of which were the first track in their respective playlists. But just now, for the first time ever, I got the error on a track that I've played many times without incident, and which is NOT the first track in the playlist (it's the 2d). I'm not having any other problems with tracks in this playlist.

[ToeTag]

This is Synology's explanation as to why 40% of my files don't play on Android DS Audio. It doesn't make any sense. ALAC doesn't really have a bitrate, it is a lossless format.

-----

We have obtain feedback from developer.
The bit rate of the ALAC files is lower than common ALAC format which normally will not need to be transcode, hence the song is actually played without transcoding.
However because IOS device native support the ALAC format, hence it will work fine, but not for android device which will cause problem to play ALAC file without transcode.

Our developer have record down the issue and will continue to analysis and evaluate the issue.
Once the issue is resolved, then we will update it in the future release.

At this stage, please transcode the special ALAC files manually as a workaround solution.

Sorry for the inconvenience caused.

-----

Please check with your developer. That does not make any sense. ALAC is a lossless format. The bitrate does not apply. I have another 20,000 files I can send your developer if it will help. 40% of my collection. They were all transcoded with the same software and the same settings. So he has not explained why some work and some don't. And also "Failed to Play the File" is not a helpful message. And also why is there no Search function in his Android app.

[ToeTag]

Sorry that we did not provide full detailed information from last mail to explain further, but the information you have send to use double confirm developer's finding:

"From the screenshot, the bit rate of this .m4a ALAC file is 443kbps, lower than common ALAC files (512kbps or higher).
So DS audio will take the ALAC file for AAC format, then playback directly without transcoding which can be accept by IOS device but not on Android."

Please check the OK file that has bitrate 6xxK and the fail one only has 4xxK bitrate.
The rule to judge which file to transcode does apply to work, however the files you have is special which has lower bitrate than usual, hence it has issue and need manually trancode to other format that could be play on the android.

We have already record down the issue to do further investigation and evaluation so it could have chance to be improved in the future.

In addition we will forward your feedback about the error code to our PM and developer for further analysis and evaluation, so it has chance to be improved also.

For the search function, it is located in DS audio > More > Search

We are terribly sorry for the inconvenience caused.

[ToeTag]

Thank you. Sorry if I got excited. I will test more files to confirm. If you are correct, then 40% of my .m4a ALAC files have less than 512K bitrate. Isn't there a better way to distinguish ALAC from AAC than the bit rate?? I thought ALAC was variable bit rate (and lossless) so the bitrate number is arbitrary. Is it the bitrate at the start of the file (and then it varies) or is it the mean or median bitrate.

-----

I checked a few more files that don't play. They were all less than 512 bitrate.

The problem also occurs in Audio Station in the browser window. So your faulty logic is in more than just the Android client.

I think the reason this affects classical music more than other kinds of music, is that classical music often starts with silence or simple sounds. Therefore, the "bitrate" is indicated as low. But again, I don't think bitrate has much meaning for variable bitrate sound files. It is certainly a lazy and incorrect way to distinguish an ALAC from an AAC format.

You can surely see that this has nothing to do with the rip. The rip was just to ALAC, which means I don't get to choose a bitrate; the bitrate is variable and the file is lossless. It is not the users fault.

This faulty logic must be affecting all your users. (classical music fans more) In both the Android client and the Audio Station in the browser. That must be a lot of people and it is surprising such a huge bug has been there for more than 6 months.

Hope this helps and that you are able to fix it soon.

[ToeTag]

I am still not holding my breath but here is the status... They still seem to "blame the victim" a bit. All I know is I used Max on the mac to transcode everything to the format that Emperor Jobs forced upon us, .m4a ALAC. You don't get any options. "...other lossless codecs, such as FLAC and Shorten, are not natively supported in Apple's iTunes software, either on computers (Mac or Windows) or iOS devices, so users of iTunes software who want to use a lossless format which allows the addition of metadata (unlike WAV/AIFF or other PCM-type formats, where metadata is usually ignored) have to use ALAC." ALAC Its a variable rate format and Synology shouldn't be using the bitrate to decide upon anything.

-----
Thank you for your feedback.

Bitrate distinguish method is not developer by us and it works with normal ALAC.
Now we have notice this special bitrate music issue and we had already record it and will continue to investigate and try to improve the method in the future with this type of special bitrate, please kindly manually transcode the music to other acceptable type.

We are again sorry for the inconvenience caused.

Once there is any update about the issue, we will include it in the future DSM release.

[ACoster]

I got the same problem as the TS described.
DS Audio works fine on my HTC Wildfire with android 2.2 running on it.
I recently got a 9.7" tablet, running android version 4.0.4 and I get an error when playing any file fomr my NAS (DS211j) via DS Audio. I see the program is trying to start the song several times and then end up with a message like "Failed to play the file:" and will try the next in the playlist, which also fails.
When I use an other UPnP-player (like BubbleUpnp), is works fine. Also playing a file directly from the share directory is no problem.

Did anybody found a good solution for this problem already?

[eddiekwok]

I got the same problem as the TS described.
DS Audio works fine on my HTC Wildfire with android 2.2 running on it.
I recently got a 9.7" tablet, running android version 4.0.4 and I get an error when playing any file fomr my NAS (DS211j) via DS Audio. I see the program is trying to start the song several times and then end up with a message like "Failed to play the file:" and will try the next in the playlist, which also fails.
When I use an other UPnP-player (like BubbleUpnp), is works fine. Also playing a file directly from the share directory is no problem.

Did anybody found a good solution for this problem already?

I have exactly the same problem for my Hyundai A7HD Tablet with android 4.03, but when I using my another Android phone SE-X8 with android 2.3 is work fine.

I captured some data log from my android device below :

204005 c2dm (packet_type|1),(persistent_id|3),(stream_id|1),(last_stream_id|1)
205001 setup_server_timeout
205002 setup_required_captcha (action|3)
205003 setup_io_error (status|3)
205004 setup_server_error

[ACoster]

I have created a support-ticket and they investigated the problem and also probably found what the problem was. In the next release of DS Audio the problem should be fixed.
So, waiting for the next release and see if it is indeed solved.

[cread]

I have had the same issue for a while on my Iview 760TPC 7" tablet. I am running 4.0.3 ICS and just updated DS audio yesterday to V 2.0.1-086 ( had one from last week so I was hoping this was the fix).
It does work better than the last one in that it does not crash, but it still runs fine until I try to play anything.
EDIT-Update: My symptoms are even present on the local network. They are as follows:

• Launch app,
• App logs in to DS,
• App lists the artist and albums (along with cover art).
• I select a simple .mp3 file and the following happens: (I am not touching the device)
• Play->pause->Play->pause->Play->pause->Play->pause---- Failed to play the file.

[manual]

I get "failed to play" message too. I thought it had something to do with using DS audio on flakey cellular data connection. But it's the same on wifi.
Here's how i get the error:
I launch DS Audio on my Note, log in and go to playlists tab. I select "Random 100" and tap whichever song that shows on the list. And here's where I MIGHT get the error message. Some songs play and some don't.
What's more puzzling is that the same songs that trigger error message when playing from "random 100" playlist play just fine when I access them going Album>Song, or Artist>Album>Song or Folder>Song route.
My setup: DS 212j, DSM 4.0, DS Audio 2.1-093, Samsung Galaxy Note (GT-N7000), Android 4.0.4

I hope fix is in the works:)