Playback stopping randomly (or when screen is locked)
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 optimisation 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.
Samsung Battery Optimisation
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 Optimisation for Pocket Casts is all you should need to do.
- Turn off Optimisation 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 Optimisation for Pocket Casts
- If that doesn’t work, Turn off Put Unused Apps To Sleep
Turn off App Optimisation for Pocket Casts
Step 1. Open the Settings app
Step 2. Tap Apps
Step 3. 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)
Step 4. Tap Battery
Step 5. Turn off Optimise battery usage
If your Samsung device is running on Android 12, select the Optimised option as shown in the following screenshot.
Step 1. Tap Settings | ![]() |
Step 2. Tap Device Care | ![]() |
Step 3. Tap Battery | ![]() |
Step 4. Tap Power Mode | ![]() |
Step 5. Turn off Power Mode settings from Optimised to High performance, or adjust according to preference. | ![]() |
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. | ![]() |
Step 5. Switch off Adaptive Battery. | ![]() |
Step 6. Switch off Put unused apps to sleep | ![]() |
Step 7. Check on the Sleeping apps menu if Pocket Casts is listed and remove. | ![]() |
Step 8. Check on the Disabled apps menu if Pocket Casts is listed and remove. | ![]() |