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Oppo Sonica app works in some devices, not in others

A

Alan Silberlight

Lurker
Help! There is an app (Oppo Sonica) that I have downloaded on several Android devices. On some it does not work at all, on some it works partially and on some it works perfectly. I figured that there must be some conflict. However, I recently installed the app on two Samsung Galaxy S7 phones, fresh out of the box. On one phone it does not work at all, on the other it works perfectly.

I have called the company (Oppo Digital) but they have no answer. This app is a controller; it controls what music is played through its Sonica speaker. The music can be on the cell phone itself ("On This Mobile Device", it can be part of a network server and it can be on a flash drive directly connected to the speaker.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled the app many times. I have also done several factory resets on the phone. I have also tried installing the app in Safe Mode. (The app cannot be run in Safe Mode, however.) No success.

I am documenting the results for each Android device. The results show music stored on the phone itself and music on the flash drive connected to the speaker.

1. My Samsung Galaxy Note 4--On This Mobile Device--shows only songs--does not play
USB--shows only Folders designation--does not display individual folders--therefore, does not play

2. My wife's Samsung Galaxy Note 4--shows and plays perfectly all songs On This Mobile Device and USB

3. My Samsung Galaxy Note 7--On This Mobile Device--displays songs--does not play them
USB--works properly, shows everything, plays everything

4. My wife's Samsung Galaxy Note 7--shows and plays perfectly all songs On This Mobile Device and USB

5. My Samsung Galaxy S3--shows and plays perfectly all songs On This Mobile Device and USB

6. My wife's Samsung Galaxy S3--shows and plays perfectly all songs On This Mobile Device and USB

7. My Sony Experia tablet--shows and plays perfectly all songs On This Mobile Device and USB

8. My wife's Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1--2014 edition--shows and plays perfectly all songs On This Mobile Device and USB
9. My Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (fresh out of the box) --does not play songs on the phone, does not play songs in USB, does recognize and play songs on phone listed as favorites
10. My wife's Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (fresh out of the box)----shows and plays perfectly all songs On This Mobile Device and USB
(N.B.--Galaxy Note 7s were returned.)

I thank everybody for whatever they can do to help me come to a resolution.
 
Update--my wife had what I considered to be a ridiculous idea, that it could have something to do with the memory card. So.....I removed the memory card from the Galaxy S7 edge phone. It worked perfectly! I defer to my wife's intelligence and now I owe her a shopping trip!! In any case, we have the following possibilities: 1) The memory card is corrupt. 2) There is a corrupt file on the memory card. Remember that my Galaxy Note 4 has problems; perhaps the same file is on the memory cards of both phones. 3) There is content on the memory card(s) that is not music (videos, documents, images). Could the Sonica app be getting confused?

A thought--the devices that I use the least (Galaxy S3, Sony Experia tablet) do not have any problems. If it is a case of a bad file that is not present on these devices could this be the reason? And...none of my wife's devices have the problem.

I will report these findings to Oppo Digital. In the meantime, I am moving the content of the memory card to external hard drive. Then I'll reformat the memory card. I'll restore the content and see what happens.

Oppo Digital is a superb company. Their Sonica speakers play music that is on a flash drive connected to the speaker. Music that is on the Android device can also be streamed to the speaker by means of Wi-Fi on the home network. The app also plays music on a computer that has a network server. The company will come out with the Sonica DAC, a device that connects to an amplifier. A flash drive or computer is connected to it.

At least we know more now than we did before. I publicly thank my wife and will come across with the shopping trip!
 
Further Update--On both the Note 4 ad Galaxy s7 Edge I removed the memory card, moved the files to external hard drive, put the memory card back in the phone, reformatted it, removed the memory card and copied the files from external hard drive back onto the memory card. Same results on both phones: 1) With no memory card or with an empty memory card everything works perfectly. 2) When the memory card with content is put back in the phone it works perfectly for a while, then does not recognize content on phone. Does play what is on USB.
I removed the memory card from the Galaxy Note 4. For a split second it did not recognize content on the phone. Then it began to recognize it and play it perfectly. I'll assume that I'll get the same result with the s7 Edge.
So...it's something on the memory cards. I'll have to see what content is on both cards. And possibly, it's not even a music file that is causing problems. I can erase all content and put a little back at a time. Painstaking, annoying, but at lease we know where the problem is. (And it cost me a shopping trip)!
 
I have a Nexus 5X and I'm having problems with the app working at all. My wife and I have the same phone so I'm not able to test with other devices. When starting the app, it fails to find the speaker. I can attempt to retry several times but it doesn't work. I force close the app and try again and sometimes it finds it, most of the time it doesn't. I reset the phone and sometimes it starts right up, other times it can't find the speaker. I unplug and plug in the speaker and that usually works.

You can't use the speaker without the app. I do not have a memory card in the Nexus so when it fails to play, it's not an SD card issue. I have a portable hard drive (not SSD) connected to the back of the Sonica and it works well. There are a few occasions where the folders are not found but restarting the app helps with finding them again. This could be an issues with initial drive access.

I've contacted Oppo but they don't have an answer. I've also requested Pandora and Play-Fi but there's no plan to implement these. My request has been passed on to engineering.

It's a great speaker and has potential but it's a pain to get it to work so I'll probably return it.
 
Ask to speak to the product manager. The product manager can contact the developers of the app. They are still working to develop the app. They sent me a version of the app and now the Sonica plays files on the flash drive and on my phone. It is interesting that your Sonica works with a portable hard drive. From what I understand, it is designed to work with a flash drive, not a portable hard drive that requires more power. You said that you have a Nexus. That is Android, if I am correct. I'm wondering if the R&D was more geared to Apple products. In any case, communicate with the product manager. Hope this helps.
 
It's all about email with Oppo so I sent an email with my wishlist. Opus codec support is a must as I'm using that for all ripping (and keeping flac but streaming breaks up). The updated app works 90% of the time on Android but there are still glitches and resets. The speaker is great but PlayFi would make me purchase another.

The hard drive is a WD 1TB external USB 3 drive. It works but it takes a bit of time for the folder list to populate in the app. I have over 120,000 'songs' on this. All of it was purchased and ripped over 15 years. It's nice that it supports a spinning disk.
 
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