Groove Music update brings lots of small interface tweaks

Haha, still rockin a 1020. Never have to reboot to get audio lol.

Hahaha! Jokes on you! I'm rockin a Surface Phone Pro3, running Windows Infinitum, and MS has just pulled Groove from the Windows store, and now only supports iDroid.😛😛😛😛😛 Jokes on you, sucker😂😂😂

Is it already happy hour 🍸 in your neck of the woods man? Lucky dog!

It was!! Lol

W10M was some issues with headphones with mics. The issue is quite widespread for Lumia 950/XL owners especially. Some other phones started experiencing this with W10M, while having no problems on WP8.1.

Ditto 😂😂

I had an issue playing groove through Bluetooth whenever the app lost focus or the screen timed out. I should of tried a hard reset, but I rolled back to slow ring and the problem was fixed.

I have had this problem as well with my 1520 when listening to music over bluetooth in the car.  As soon as the screen times out or the Groove app loses focus the audio stops.  I just set the screen to stay on and plugged the phone in.  Bit of an inconvenience but as long as it gets fixed in future builds, it's not a huge problem.

Yeah, I'm on the road all day on some days. It sucked for me. Have you tried a reset?

Not that one but since a recent update to either the phone or the groove app music no longer resumes after taking a call while on Bluetooth headset. Worked fine a while back..

I had some similar issues recently. It turned out that it was my headphones that were broken.

I've been getting this on my PC.

Sometimes the sound is garbled on Groove Music and I have to restart to fix it too. I'm on the latest fast ring build on my Lumia 950xl.

Ive been having to do the reboot for audio since the anniversary update on my 650. I get the Xbox error in groove music, which skips tracks non stop, and no other audio outputs till i restart the phone.

Yes... Why does Groove decide to change tracks, without my approval, in the middle of the song?

It must be because you're on Insider Fast. The article says they went from 10.16102.1034.0 to 10.16122.1027.0 and I'm on the same version you are. My playlists look like the "after" rather than the "before" in the picture above.

The most noticeable change is the music stops playing when the app is closed from app switcher ( or whatever it is called)

That surprised me a lot!!

Yes!!!!!!!!!! I can confirm this is true!! Been waiting for that ever since Xbox music on WP7, Finally it works like a NORMAL application!!!

Is that a good change? Not sure.

It's a bug, isn't a good change at all.

Well of course, when you close the app music stops, how's that a bad thing?? That's how it should be.

Yes, it's a good change... The music still plays when you navigate away from the app.. This is good because when you close something down you intend on stopping all functions of it. Now you can do that. So, the music will never stop playing, unless you say so. If you don't want your music to stop playing then don't shut your music app down. This makes more sense, and should be the way audio behaves.. It's EXACTLY the way your Netflix, and YouTube, apps works.

Thank you! Finally someone understands! Apparently these 2 didn't understood.

@rodneyj Actually I use Metro Tube as my you tube app.  And when I select a song on you tube I actually close out the app and still listen to the song with the app closed.  So to your ascertain, that's EXACTLY how YouTube app works is wrong.  And I can actually continue to repeat the song as much as I want without having to go back into the app.  Been doing that for a long time. Just an FYI.  :)

Good point... As usual, the things need to have options in settings tied to them... When will MS ever learn...

@rodneyej I agree wholeheartedly.  There should be options.  Not a one size fit all approach.  I'd be good with that.

The funny thing is that ever since WP 8.0 the music experience has been terrible, and we always asked for a worthy music app.. The OS was great, and was building steam, but the music app didn't do It's part... Now Groove is pretty tight, and it works fine, for the most part. This is what we've been asking for all this time... But, the OS, and the entire mobile platform, is now pretty stagnant, and nobody except a few hardcore fans care... Go figure.

@jes1888 You couldn't have been waiting "...ever since Xbox music on WP7".  Why because WP7 ran Zune.  How do I know because I'm still rocking and using my HTC Radar with Zune.  Secondly, you didn't just close the apps in WP7.  You have to hit the back button until the program closed.  Again, I know because I still have and use my WP7 device.  That said, if this is in fact a change it's not a good one for me.  I listen to lots of hours of music on my phone and having the application still open uses resources.  Why would I want that extra power being used no matter how minor?  I don't.  You may have forgotten how WP7 actually worked.  But I am part of that 1% who loved the original OS and refuse to give it up.  Easily.

Well, what a coincidence, I've used an att Samsung focus as one of the 1st devices with wp7 on at&t. Also have used windows Mobile 5 & 6 and in ANY os, when u close an app it's so supposed to CLOSE and stop ANY process being used by it, THAT'S a normal operation of a program. Just so you know, ever since wp7 days if u closed the Xbox music/ Zune app, whatever, it never closed, all the processes that made it run stayed open even though the app wasn't open on the task switcher window, it consumed EXACTLY the same quantity of power because it was still open. That's why we had to lean on 3rd party apps like stop the music to kill the processes that stayed open without restarting the phone. I'm happy about this because now, when you or me decide to close the app, it can definitely be killed completely like it's meant to be. If you wanna leave it open and playing, just press the home button and keep going your way. That's how it is in any other platform even on pc. Just remember what i said, even though you think that it consume less by "closing"the app well, you were wrong, as it consumes exactly the same as leaving it minimized, so now you know ;), cheers

You say that's "how it's suppose to close".  No, there is more than one way for things to work.  That's your preference, but that's not how it is "suppose" to work.  That how you want it to work.  I'm sure there are many to include myself who do not want it to work that way.  That's like some one who uses the iPhone telling you a cell phone should have icons to open an app rather than having live tiles.  And it seems the masses prefer icons.  I'm in the minority.  I prefer live tiles.  And if I'm in the minority on this feature, I still would prefer my music app to continue to play when I close out the app.  And lets make this clear.  When you've been listening to Groove or Xbox music and you close out the app you can sill listen to your music by using the volume up or down to play what was you were previously listening too.  So the notion you must have the app open seems like a dated step.  Yes a step backwards.  But to those who actually uses their device to listen to music this would be another nail in the coffin for Windows Phone.  But heck Microsoft is pulling out all stops to kill their own mobile program.  And I still use my HTC HD2 Windows Mobile 6 because I have lots of music saved on that device.  So, just so you know I'm a Microsoft fan too, but not all their moves are brilliant.  :)

I agree. I'm so annoyed at this change. I close the app expecting the music to keep playing. It's my preference. This catches me out so often when I close Audiobooked while listening only to have the audio stop. It annoys the hell out of me. I hope this is a bug

I think you confuse between "minimized" and "close". It still plays when minimized (open in background), but when you kill the app from the task switcher it'll kill the app. Energy saving by "closing" the Groove Music app while music is playing in the background is an illusion.

No I'm not. My preference has zero to do with energy saving and more with having 1 less app to swipe past when looking for a another minimised app. I want music to play when the app is minimised AND closed.

But why?

Ehhh, ok, so this is just laziness then. Question, when you're done listening to music, what do you do then? You just pause the music and leave everything open or restart the phone just to stop the music process or close everything with another app? Do you even hear how that sounds? We need an app to close a freaking music player, or we have to restart the phone, who on earth calls that normal? It's like saying you love a switch that when turned off doesn't kill the lights. That's simply not normal, and I'm glad they fixed that.

I have to agree with jes1888. There has to be a standard, OS based way to stop a process, including music. Whether or not the app appears in the task switcher, if music is playing, or just paused, as evidenced by music controls when you hit volume up or down, the music app is running/in-memory. That causes it's own set of problems, which is why things like Stop-The-Music were created. Too often paused music would start back up after taking a phone call, or some other interupt that was designed to automatically pause the music for the event and then start it back up. Even if the ringer was set to vibrate for a meeting, an incoming call could fire music back up if media wasn't also turned down. Task management and process management still needs work in WM. Too often can I long press back, swipe down, or X out, every app that appears, then go back to home and back arrow through half a dozen apps that are still running. That's an issue. If I  explicitly close an app, it should close. No resources, no going back to an open screen. It's the difference between minimizing and closing the application on a desktop. Whether or not you believe music should still play when you have explicitly closed Groove in task manager, the OS response should still be consistant. One of those consistant responses has to be shut the app down...completely. Never being able to shut down an app/process isn't an option.

P.S. I have the new version and mine does not work that way. Explicitly closing Groove with the task manager does NOT stop the music. (as I believe it should). At least not consistantly. Sometimes it pauses the play, sometimes not. It never completely closes Groove. It does remove the app panel from the task manager, but does not remove the option to play/pause from the volume action panel. Tapping the groove tile at that point brings you to where you were, it does not appear to start Groove from scratch, landing you on its home page. It is clearly backgrounded/minimized. If other apps behave that way, this could be an issue. If apps that you have explicitly closed continue to run in the background without your knowledge, they could easily be performing actions you have no control over or cognizance of. That's wrong. 

SvenJ, it also pose a privacy concern, because any app created as a music one could stay open gathering data. Also battery life takes a hit, it doesn't matter if it's a 2% difference but still an additional energy draw. Also, that's what kills this OS, the inconsistency, when you press X on a PC on groove it closes it, in idroid doesn't matter the side you slide on the task switcher, you close the app and everything stops, in pc's there's an exception with some programs like Spotify that run on tray if you allow them because of a wide range of resources and different needs from a phone, but a phone that doesn't kills an app when u ask it to, specially a music one? No thanks

Uhm its not laziness, its the removal of unnecessary clutter. If I don't need the app to be there, why would I want it there. Yes I pause my music. Which I'm evidently perfectly happy with since I don't have that extra app and have no desire for a stop button either. If it was there I wouldn't use it.

Ok 👌

As rodneyej mentioned.  There should be options.  We all have our preferences.  I'm not trying to take away anyone's preference.  I just don't want anyone taking away mine either.  But if Microsoft doesn't do something soon to help sell more devices we may all be out of luck. 

I know, I agree 100% with you, but we know how Microsoft is. It's so sad we just have to be thankful for the little crumbs they decide to give. Or so they think...

Lol. You don't agree 100% with him. You've been arguing with me above over my preference telling me its the wrong way and it shouldn't be that way.

You know, actually I do agree. This is just a matter of choice, sadly the option to choose ain't there. Also, if I didn't agree, would it matter in the end? Doubt it. 😉 cheers!

Chill down guys. Yes, the new change has affected me as well. I'm used to closing all the apps from the task switcher without seeing which app I'm closing. But now I have to be careful when playing songs. I guess if this new change helps to conserve battery or improve the performance in any way I'm ok with it. We just have to get used to it. For ex. I had kept my screen timeout to 30 mins because I keep some games on auto play mode. But with the anniversary update they removed the 30 mins and made it max 5 mins. I found it troublesome for the first few days but now I'm used to tapping the phone every 3-4 mins so that it doesn't go off.

I just tried it on my Lumia 950 and the music still played... I'm not complaining, just saying it didn't happen with me.

Hmm, are u sure u updated the app? It worked for me, took a second but it did.

Close it from the task switcher (long-press back button)

Now if they can get the app to not show ringtones as songs it would be perfect

Put your ringtones in the ringtone folder and not the music folder. They are just short music files, so how else would it know.

They are in my ringtones folder on SD card. It still reads them. Core Player and Perfect Music don't do this.

Mine don't. Maybe it is because my music is on the SD card but my ringtones are on the device. They don't take up much room. Isn't even a Ringtone folder on my SD card.

I created the ringtones folder on my SD to keep them out of the music folder. I don't like them on the phone so when I reset device I don't want to back them up each time. Interesting.

Maybe Groove just needs a better, 'look for my music here' UI, like on the desktop. You should be able to point it at where your music is, and isn't. Even on OneDrive, I have folders with 'music' in them other than the music folder. I haven't paid attention to whether some of that is showing up.

I think it's because there's no rule in groove to ignore files larger than _ _ MB and smaller than _ _ KB, but yeah it's a problem, it even reads my WhatsApp audio filled and recorded calls, not good

Maybe they switched to the new single process model for background audio. This way, when the app is closed, the music will stop playing too. Had they been using background audio, then the audio would be playing from a background process which doesn't get killed when the foreground app is closed.

Also the live tile is not updating when the next song plays. Tried repinning and a soft reset. Anyone with the same problem?

That drove me crazy! I tend to shut the app instead of pressing the Start button, and my playlist kept getting paused! Another irritating thing is that the music stops and can't be resumed without entering the app, whenever you play a video on Edge, or receive a GIF on WhatsApp!
Speaking of playlists, the "NEW" icons are actually the old ones that were there before an earlier update(I don't remember which update).

even after, still need a huge amount of work it looks extremely basic

horses for courses, i for one really like it. cant please everyone all the time...

if that the case you should be happy with the android app too... for desktop the app looks nice but on phone its not 

I'm happy with the mobile app (Lumia 830, Release Preview) but PC still needs some love. Can't see any album art for local stuff, unless I add 'em to OneDrive. Tag editor is laughable. And so goes on. The only reason I use Groove Music on my laptop is because I have a Music Pass subscription.

Nah. It's a good app. And come a long way. With ability to store and play your personal collection of music from OneDrive along with better "radio" than, say, Spotify, Groove can compete with the big boys now. It's got a 40 million library to Spotify's 30 million, though who knows if the million more are the ones you want. Plays wma. Sure it could use some polish, I'd like to sort playlists by song title, but Microsoft is constantly improving it.

You can't play your music from OneDrive.

I like it... It should look simple and clean. That makes it good and intuitve...

Wait for project NEON

Isn't this what the playlist used to look like a while back?

Microsoft are kings at taking things away then bringing them back with great fanfare....

Sorry fanfare..???

yes, this is the way it was before, then MS updated it to those huge colored bars, and now back again to the old one

Just came back to Windows 10 mobile since having a Galaxy s7edge then the iPhone 7plus and missed Apple Music so signed up to Groove for the free trial. It's actually a hundred times better than I expected considering how poor many of the apps are. I'm really liking it so far

yea i really like groove as a service, only ting i wish they would do is add a family plan..  

Nvm

People usually just say the apps are bad until they try the alternatives... Then they usually become quiet.

Don't see the update yet. Preview fast ring, canada Lumia 950 XL. I like how that new playlist looks, the old one makes zero sense and can't start playing right away

I really enjoy Groove. I'm not sure if the Pass is worth it though since I have thousands of songs already.

I am glad they fixed the layout of playlists.  those large pannels were ugly.

Also, my earphones cannot open groove music 🎶 anymore... What's up with that?

This has nothing to do with Groove Music. Check out the Gadget app to do what you want.

It does... I've set the gadgets app to open groove when I insert my earpiece. It always worked before the update but not now

Yeah, that sucks!!

I'm still waiting for them to allow songs to be downloaded to the SD card on Android.

I'm waiting for a 'Sleep timer' feature that isn't "3rd party." I'm not one to use it a lot but I would still like to have the option either in Groove Music or in the Timer app. :)

I look forward to seeing if anything changes on my drive home from work. On 8.1 when I turned on bluetooth streaming in my car, music would automatically resume, or if nothing playing, would play the first track alphabetically. Presently or at least on the build of groove before this, music would rarely resume without me first pressing play on the device. I'd also have trouble with tracks resuming playing after ending a call while driving.

They brought the old playlist design back. Not a fan of it but it looks more suitable for metro UI in WP8.

This playlist layout was live on Android first and has been for a while. Wtf MS?

and, this update broke the background run. WTF!

My only issue I have trying to run on an iPhone 7 is, it doesn't automatically start up when I get in my car like it does on Windows Mobile, or like Apple Music does on my iPhone. Is there a way to change this?

OMG.. I complained through feedback about the giant playlist icons on mobile and they have been updated with this latest build... NICE!!

Yay 🙌

Good to feel like we're being heard by Microsoft!

Dam I miss wp version imo it's better than the android version 🙃

I'd love if they added the functionality to show lyrics stored in the tags.

Add this through the feedback app :)

Groove is good. But for me, loco music player best. After latest update, ui is way better than groove. Wp need more of that kind of apps.

So does this mean it actually works on PC now?

ive been uing it on pc with no issue for well over a year now..??  

It's never worked properly for me, always crashed after playing about 5 or 6 songs, so I just use media player instead. Every update I try again, and every update it still doesn't work.

wierd, i use it daily for hours at work without problems, also on home pc when working home. some sort of reset in order..?  

I've tried "repairing" you can't uninstall the app.

It does not appear to be available on mobile. 950 here on fast ring.

Here's an idea: give a free years subscription to all new windows phone purchases and advertise it.

Re: nlm,
Great idea. Especially the idea of advertising.

Reasonable idea, but consider you could get a $30 WP Go-Phone, throw it in the trash, and use the 'free' Groove subscription on your iPhone or Android ;) Might help the subscription service, but wouldn't neccesarily help WP.

I find a very small percentage of people use loopholes like that. I imagine there would still be a net gain of WP sales and you'd have an increase of stream share. Make the ad short and sweet. "Streaming music is good. Streaming music for free is better. Get your Groove on Windows Mobile."

I discovered (and reported) a bizarre bug with Groove last night. When running Groove for an extended period of time, the firmware in my surface book would force the processor into a low power state (capping the clockspeed at 800Mhz) as soon as I closed Groove the clock speed would shoot back up to normal. I'll try this new app version and see if it fixes it.

There's only one thing I want. It's not pertaining to this at all but. I reallllllllllllly miss the Dolby 5.1 surround sound recording for videos on my Lumia 830. That's the feature I miss most from Lumia camera 5 plus I would like the option to do bracketing as well, I used that alot to compile some awesome HDR pics

I just wish they would fix the iPhone or Android app so I can download music. I can download music fine on a Windows Phone, Desktop, Laptop and Tablet.

I prefer the old playlist interface better. It looked like a real music hall. This one just looks bland.

Yah, I agree also about the new playlist design. I liked the old style with the color and such but it is nice that we can fit double the amount though.

SMARTPLAYLISTS !!!! FINALLY !!!!! Oh.....wait...nevermind.

Check out My Groove.

Huh?

Nice! I've been a happy user of Zune/Xbox Music/Groove since 2007. Try it people, you just might like it.

Nothing will ever compare to Zune...

Gad to see these are switching the Playlist icons back to the way they were prior.

The app doesnot work if i clear the background process.

That's how it's supposed to be

We heard you the first time and we're allowed to disagree.

No, that sucks!!

Any of these tweaks include a family subscription option?

Folder play?

Nice upgrade. On w10m, There is some space on right side (for extra button) But they should give an option to adjust the alignment of control buttons(play,repeat, Shuffle etc).
Issue on both w10 & w10m: BACKGROUND PLAY ISN'T WORKING WITH THIS UPDATE which is the root of media player.

What does that mean to you? Keep playing when you switch to another app, or keep playing if you go into task manager (long press back) and explicitly swipe Groove down or hit the X. I can't stop playback with any of those actions. The first action is how it should work, keep playing. The second seems to be controversial. I think if I explicitly close Groove, the music should stop..completely.

Yes.I'm also facing the same problem with background playing. 

That's why I've not upgraded it on my w10 system.

This must be a big because the music art is still showing way after the music stop playing .

Those seem like nice changes.

nice

Seems like an improvement, but a few initial comments:
- The Repeat and Shuffle buttons status is odd. Tapping the symbol toggles the gray background circle behind the symbol to display or disappear?
- Need sleep timer.
- No song animations.
The development group should take a look at the features from ZUNE and make a list and action plan.
(If Microsoft built cars, their new models would be missing features that we have become accustom to, like air-conditioning and interior lights.)
Best Wishes

And they broke the playback via BT again ;( ;( ;( Car does not play anything when I get back in the car and the phone is connected... Tried it 3 times today

Maybe they'll pull the Android Groove app out from the ******* and actually update that crap app soon.

I wish they'd let us choose our own pictures for the 'Artists' image. I've got lots of properly tagged, very well known artists who it just puts a blank (or just plain wrong) picture for. Just looks messy.    

Microsoft are kings!

Hello. Groove Live Tile not working since this update on mobile...

On My Xbox1, the audio playback of my Groove App, produces no SOUND!, I know its the app and NOT MY TV, and NOT MY XBOX b/c sound is coming out as normal in all other situations. PLEASE UPDATE the XBOX ONE GROOVE APP, so that it actually plays music and not just show me the Track count down. Thanks much - MSOFT

and music doesn't resume after ending phone call. :( disappointing... Also why does my ring tone play at headphone level really loud? really annoying.

I was about to say, new update, seems like I've had this for a long time. But then I remembered that I'm on insider rp.