Podcast doesn’t resume playing intermittently

Tech Support
1

Setup: iPhone + AirPods Pro (gen 1, 2 and 3) + Overcast.

Scenario:

  • I’m listening to a podcast
  • I pause using the button on the AirPods, or by taking them out (I started manually pausing because after Overcast’s big update a year or so ago, playback sometimes continued when putting them in the case — though that now seems fixed)
  • I put the AirPods in the case
  • Some time later (anywhere from 1 minute to several hours), I put the AirPods back in and press the button to resume playback
  • Nothing happens

To continue listening, I have to unlock the phone, open Overcast, and press Play manually.

This causes a ridiculous amount of frustration since it happens 5–10 times a day!

Does this sound like an Overcast issue or an iOS/AirPods issue?

2

I get the same behavior with Apple CarPlay and Overcast. My understanding is that this is an Apple/iOS issue. Overcast uses the system provided Resume Playback feature, which is needed to detect when a device reconnects. Unfortunately, that system feature does not reliably retain its state and often fails to resume playback when it detects a reconnected device. In other words, the Resume Playback feature will detect the reconnected device but won’t remember what was most recently being played and therefore never informs Overcast to resume. And because iOS won’t allow Overcast to remain running in the background, there is no way for Overcast to reliably bypass the system feature and provide its own replacement for Resume Playback.

One thing I wish Marco would do is add a feature (perhaps not enabled by default) where playback would automatically resume when the app is launched manually. That way there would be no need to also manually press play. Presumably, the problem with that is that it would result in complaints of autoplay when it is not wanted.

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3

Does Apples Podcast player behave the same way?

It’s unfortunate, but honestly that’s enough reason for me to switch apps. I need to think about my blood pressure.

4

I first noticed this behavior some time ago while using Apple Podcasts. And later found the same problem occurred with Overcast.

In my case I will pause a podcast using Siri, and later tell Siri to resume the podcast. At that point either nothing happens OR Siri will start playing some random music. The chance of music playing seems to increase the longer the podcast is paused. If I only pause for a minute or two things frequently work.

I can’t say this problem started with iOS 26, but I had several problems right after I “upgraded”.

5

I use a simple, one-action shortcut called Resume Overcast. I typically run it either using Siri or via a button on my iPhone’s lock screen.

Resume Overcast
Resume Overcast1320×684 48.5 KB

I hope this helps!

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6

This wasn’t an Overcast issue, but an IOS issue for any audio app, including Music apps.

I have this, I suspect that IOS randomly (to me) quits the audio App. sometimes is happens after 15 minutes, sometimes I can click to resume hours later and it works.

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7

Thanks for the input guys!

So it seems it’s an iOS issue, time to make some complaints at Apple Feedback!

…and the shortcut is a clever workaround for this. :+1:

8

My guess is that this is the result of iOS killing Overcast when it is in the background. As you open other apps, iOS will kill background tasks to free up memory. It doesn’t work the same way as MacOS which always keeps your tasks running until the user quits the app.

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9

Sadly this is apparently an Apple issue with iOS, and not limited to Overcast. I use Prologue quite a bit for Audio book playback, and have the same issue.

Marco discussed on ATP and also a few Reddit posts - further reading if you can be bothered.
https://www.reddit.com/r/overcast/comments/1qvpyln/overcast_losing_focus/

For me this issue was far more prevalent a few months back, but less so now (but still annoying).

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