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How do I exit BBC iPlayer (on Android phone)?
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Soundbox
25-11-2013
Please can someone tell me how I stop iPlayer running?

Say I search for a radio show, start it playing and then want to exit iPlayer. How do I do this? Even in 'settings' there is no option and so far I am just pressing 'back' again and again but even that does not sto[ it fully. Even closing active apps still will not close it fully - it reapears on the screen (although I cannot play it at this point).

Thanks!
gomezz
25-11-2013
Stop playback, go to the main iPlayer screen then exit?
Soundbox
25-11-2013
Originally Posted by gomezz:
“Stop playback, go to the main iPlayer screen then exit?”

There is no exit option I can find. Tunein radio has exit under settings but not with iPlayer. I am having to turn my phone off to get rid of it. Even then it fights back.
qasdfdsaq
25-11-2013
What exactly are you trying to achieve? iPlayer doesn't play anything, it offloads to another app (BBC Media Player) to do that. That stops showing up as soon as you press the back button for me.
Soundbox
25-11-2013
Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq:
“What exactly are you trying to achieve? iPlayer doesn't play anything, it offloads to another app (BBC Media Player) to do that. That stops showing up as soon as you press the back button for me.”

Say I have played a few items and then want to exit iPlayer, short of pressing back back back repeatedly I can't get iPlayer to stop. It is easy enough to start it but harder to stop it.
prking
25-11-2013
Surely you just press the stop (or pause) button and then leave the app. Just as you would with any other app?
TheSloth
25-11-2013
Which version of Android? I assume you have the latest version of iPlayer. Are you rooted and do you run a custom ROM?

Have you tried uninstalling both the iPlayer and Media Player apps and then re-installing? Sometimes irons out issues, especially if there's been an OS update.
psionic
25-11-2013
Originally Posted by Soundbox:
“Say I have played a few items and then want to exit iPlayer, short of pressing back back back repeatedly I can't get iPlayer to stop. It is easy enough to start it but harder to stop it.”

As long as it stops playing, does it really matter the app gets suspended? It shouldn't be taking up any resources.

You really want you can show all your running apps and swipe it to shut it down and remove it from the list.
Soundbox
25-11-2013
Originally Posted by prking:
“Surely you just press the stop (or pause) button and then leave the app. Just as you would with any other app?”

You would think so wouldn't you. It is the only app I know with no way of exiting it. There may well be a way of doing it that I haven't considered so I thought I'd ask.
fluffed
25-11-2013
There should be an exit under the menu button (the menu does absolutely nothing in playback either), but the BBC seem to have a team of 1 person half heartedly updated the android app every few months. They love apple though for some reason.
The other app I used that didn't have an exit was Stitcher, I gave up with after a while though
Soundbox
25-11-2013
Originally Posted by TheSloth:
“Which version of Android? I assume you have the latest version of iPlayer. Are you rooted and do you run a custom ROM?

Have you tried uninstalling both the iPlayer and Media Player apps and then re-installing? Sometimes irons out issues, especially if there's been an OS update.”

I'm running 4.3 on an HTC one. All apps up to date. No custom ROM.

I'll try an uninstall later on. I do notice that the onscreen three dots menu icon does not do anything either.
Soundbox
25-11-2013
Completely erased and reloaded - still the same. The app gets a pretty low rating on the play store.
qasdfdsaq
26-11-2013
You should never need to exit or stop apps on Android. The system is designed around keeping all apps running in the background.
prking
26-11-2013
Originally Posted by Soundbox:
“You would think so wouldn't you. It is the only app I know with no way of exiting it. There may well be a way of doing it that I haven't considered so I thought I'd ask.”

Press the Home button? Or use the multi-tasking button (if you have one) to switch apps. Or drag down the notification bar? Just as with any app.

I don't means this in a patronising way, are you new to smartphones? With smartphones you don't tend to actually stop an application. The OS manages them for you.
TheSloth
26-11-2013
Yes, Android keeps activities alive upon leaving the app unless presumably the dev explicitly terminates the app on given events. As others have said, Android is designed to manage apps in this way and is now very efficient at doing so.

In theory, this behaviour van be changed by ticked Don't Keep Activities in the hidden (by default) developer options BUT as a lot of apps won't adhere to the save state guidelines, enabling that option usually causes more issues than it solves so isn't recommended.

If the app is being persistent in the notifications bar then that is a genuine issue. Otherwise, I wouldn't worry. My IPlayer app has never been an issue and will die if I dismiss it via the recent activities button.
qasdfdsaq
26-11-2013
Being in the notification bar isn't really an issue either, Android allows you to override any app and permanently hide it from the notifications bar just by clicking and holding on the notification.
Soundbox
27-11-2013
Thanks for the help. Yes, this is my first smartphone and as some actions are quite ambiguous it causes me some confusion.
finbaar
27-11-2013
How do you exit GMail? Or Ebay? Or ProCapture? The question is why would you want an exit button? It just isn’t needed in Android. Just hit the home button or switch to another task.
gomezz
27-11-2013
How many tasks can Android cope with keeping open? Ten? Hundred? Thousand? What does it do if it hits a resource limit because of the number of open tasks?
finbaar
27-11-2013
Originally Posted by gomezz:
“How many tasks can Android cope with keeping open? Ten? Hundred? Thousand? What does it do if it hits a resource limit because of the number of open tasks?”

It shuts them down. What did you think it did?
gomezz
27-11-2013
Originally Posted by TheSloth:
“Yes, Android keeps activities alive upon leaving the app”

Originally Posted by finbaar:
“It shuts them down. What did you think it did?”

I think I am getting conflicting information. Or if you mean it shuts stuff down to allow something else to run, how does it decide what to shut down?
Soundbox
27-11-2013
Originally Posted by finbaar:
“How do you exit GMail? Or Ebay? Or ProCapture? The question is why would you want an exit button? It just isn’t needed in Android. Just hit the home button or switch to another task.”

The main reason for wanting an exit button is because I can't get the iPlayer radio to stop playing. Ken Bruce is like a squatter in my HTC when he gets started!
TheSloth
27-11-2013
Originally Posted by gomezz:
“How many tasks can Android cope with keeping open? Ten? Hundred? Thousand? What does it do if it hits a resource limit because of the number of open tasks?”

From the Android Wikipedia page:

Quote:
“Since Android devices are usually battery-powered, Android is designed to manage memory (RAM) to keep power consumption at a minimum, in contrast to desktop operating systems which generally assume they are connected to unlimited mains electricity. When an Android app is no longer in use, the system will automatically suspend it in memory – while the app is still technically "open," suspended apps consume no resources (e.g. battery power or processing power) and sit idly in the background until needed again. This has the dual benefit of increasing the general responsiveness of Android devices, since apps don't need to be closed and reopened from scratch each time, but also ensuring background apps don't consume power needlessly.[65]

Android manages the apps stored in memory automatically: when memory is low, the system will begin killing apps and processes that have been inactive for a while, in reverse order since they were last used (i.e. oldest first). This process is designed to be invisible to the user, such that users do not need to manage memory or the killing of apps themselves.[66] However, confusion over Android memory management has resulted in third-party task killers becoming popular on the Google Play store; these third-party task killers are generally regarded as doing more harm than good.”

So the more RAM you've got, the more apps Android will keep suspended in memory but it'll sort things out if RAM gets too low. This activity has been refined as Android has evolved and RAM is more plentiful in many modern handsets so it should be less of an issue these days.
prking
27-11-2013
Originally Posted by Soundbox:
“The main reason for wanting an exit button is because I can't get the iPlayer radio to stop playing. Ken Bruce is like a squatter in my HTC when he gets started!”

On iPlayer radio there is a Stop button (where the play button was) .just touch that to stop the radio playing.
TheSloth
27-11-2013
Originally Posted by Soundbox:
“The main reason for wanting an exit button is because I can't get the iPlayer radio to stop playing. Ken Bruce is like a squatter in my HTC when he gets started!”

What's wrong with a Brucie Bonus?

This doesn't sound quite right. So you use back or home to leave the app but it continues to play in the notifications area and you can't stop it? This is how it behaves for me...
[LIST][*]If I stop the playback in the app, obviously no issue[*]If I tap the Home button, I leave the app and it continues with a notification[*]If I swipe the notification left or clear it, audio continues - you are simply dismissing the notification (which will return to the player if you tap it so you can stop it that way if you so choose)[*]If I tap the tasks button (the two stacked rectangles) and swipe the app left it exits as expected[/LIST]
Some phones use a long press on the home button to bring up the tasks, incidentally.

Does this help?
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