To ensure that playback is uninterrupted Pocket Casts needs to be granted unrestricted battery usage. Otherwise, the operating system will sometimes stop playback when the phone’s screen is off or the app is in the background. While battery optimization helps conserve battery power on your device, the feature can also cause problems with apps that need to function in the background, including Pocket Casts.
Due to the different customisations of manufacturers, we are unable to test with every device, so the steps and screenshots are provided as a guide and we encourage you to please try to find similar settings on your own phone.
- Samsung
- Huawei
- Additional information on the relevant settings for these and other devices can be found at https://dontkillmyapp.com/
Please also ensure that you are running the latest version of the app for improvement and stability.
If you are still having trouble, please get in touch with us at support@pocketcasts.com.
Audio goes silent but the timer keeps moving
If your episode suddenly goes silent (the sound cuts out, goes mute, or there’s no audio) while the position counter keeps advancing, and skipping back a few seconds brings the sound back, this is usually a different problem from battery optimization. It is most often caused by another sound, such as a notification, briefly taking over audio. Try these two steps first.
- Set “Play over notifications” to Duck volume. In Pocket Casts, go to Profile > Settings > Notifications > Play over notifications and choose Duck volume (or Always). When this is set to Never, Pocket Casts gives up audio whenever a notification plays a sound, and on some devices the audio does not always come back even though the episode keeps counting up. Duck volume keeps your episode playing (just briefly quieter) when a notification arrives.
- Play a downloaded copy instead of streaming. If this mostly happens with episodes you stream, download the episode first (tap the download icon on the episode) and play the downloaded file. Downloaded playback does not rely on a steady internet connection, so it avoids drop-outs caused by brief network problems. See How to Download Episodes.
If the audio still drops out after trying both, the device settings below for keeping Pocket Casts running in the background may also help.
Samsung Battery Optimization
The instructions below have been tested on the S9, Note9, S10, and Note10 (and various variants of those). In most cases the first step Turn off Optimization for Pocket Casts is all you should need to do.
- Turn off Optimization for Pocket Casts
- If that doesn’t work, Check Power Mode
- If that doesn’t work, Check Additional Battery Settings
If your device is running Android 12 (One UI 4), please refer to these steps:
- Turn off Optimization for Pocket Casts
- If that doesn’t work, Turn off Put Unused Apps To Sleep
Turn off App Optimization for Pocket Casts
- Open the Settings app
- Tap Apps
- Find Pocket Casts in the list and tap on it (you may have to change the Filter at the top to ‘All’ to see it)
- Tap Battery
- Turn off Optimise battery usage
If your Samsung device is running on Android 12, select the Optimised option as shown in the following screenshot.
Check Power Mode
| Step 1. Tap Settings |
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| Step 2. Tap Device Care |
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| Step 3. Tap Battery |
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| Step 4. Tap Power Mode |
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| Step 5. Turn off Power Mode settings from Optimised to High performance, or adjust according to preference. |
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Check Additional Battery Settings
| Step 1. Tap Settings | |
| Step 2. Tap Device Care | |
| Step 3. Tap Battery | |
| Step 4. Tap the three dots on the upper-right corner of your screen. |
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| Step 5. Switch off Adaptive Battery. |
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| Step 6. Switch off Put unused apps to sleep |
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| Step 7. Check on the Sleeping apps menu if Pocket Casts is listed and remove. |
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| Step 8. Check on the Disabled apps menu if Pocket Casts is listed and remove. |
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Turn off Put Unused Apps To Sleep (Android 12)
| Step 1. Tap Settings | |
| Step 2. Tap Battery and device care |  |
| Step 3. Tap Battery |  |
| Step 4. Tap Background usage limits |  |
| Step 5. Tap the Never sleeping apps list |  |
| Step 6. Tap the + button |  |
| Step 7. Select the Pocket Casts app and tap Add. |  |
Huawei Battery Optimization
The instructions on this article are demonstrated on a Huawei Honor 8X with Android version 9.
Check Battery Settings
| Step 1. Tap Settings |
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| Step 2. Tap Battery |
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| Step 3. Tap App Launch |
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| Step 4. Search for Pocket Casts app. | |
| Step 5. Switch off Power consumption alert. | |
| Step 6. Ensure Stay connected when device sleeps is enabled. |
Check App Special Access
| Step 1. Tap Settings | |
| Step 2. Tap Apps |
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| Step 3. Tap Apps |
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| Step 4. Tap the three dots on the upper-right corner of your screen. |
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| Step 5. Tap Special Access |
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| Step 6. Tap Battery optimization |
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| Step 7. Tap All apps |
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| Step 8. Search for Pocket Casts app | |
| Step 9. Tap the Pocket Casts app. | |
| Step 10. Choose Optimise |
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