[DesktopConnect] Song skips to beginning if one switches tabs on phone

[motzrawr]

Whenever I switch the tab on my phone while usiing DesktopConnect and then come back to Tidal, the currently playing track is just playing from the beginning.

[Inrixia]

This is a known issue and limitation of Tidals implementation, I have some ideas on how to try to work around it but haven't had time to test them

[stefs72]

Hi @Inrixia,

Regarding this limitation, I've been looking at the code in index.ts. A possible workaround could be to utilize the positionMs value that seems to be passed in the data object during the remote.desktop.notify.media.changed event.

Since Tidal defaults to 0:00 on play(), maybe adding a small delay followed by a PlayState.seek could force the sync.

---

ipcRenderer.on(unloads, "remote.desktop.notify.media.changed", async (data: any) => {
const { mediaId, positionMs } = data;
const mediaItem = await MediaItem.fromId(mediaId);
await mediaItem?.play();

// Potential workaround: Apply positionMs after a short delay 
// to allow the player to initialize before seeking.
if (positionMs && positionMs > 0) {
	setTimeout(() => {
		PlayState.seek(positionMs / 1000);
	}, 500); 
}
send({ command: "onRequestNextMedia", type: "media" });

});

---

This might address the issue of the track restarting when the session is re-established.

[Inrixia]

Where are you getting positionMs from?

It has to be from an event from the remote. Which would cause a seek anyway.

However if this issue is primarily playback restarting on the same track. Then a simple check to see if the mediaItemId is the same and using the existing positionMs would probably work.

[stefs72]

I actually intended to test this myself, but I ran into technical difficulties loading the modified code via a Store-URL yesterday. Since I couldn't get it running for a proper test on my end, I would appreciate it if you could try it out yourself.

As discussed, the core issue is that the current implementation only calls await mediaItem.play(), which restarts the track from the beginning on the desktop during a reconnect. I worked with the assumption that the remote.desktop.notify.media.changed event provides the current position, which I referred to as positionMs, but I am not certain if that is the correct property name.

Could you check the content of the full payload for that event? If you can identify the correct property for the playback position and implement a check to see if the mediaId is already active before triggering a seek, it would fix this issue for all users.

[Inrixia]

I am almost certain that it doesn't provide that otherwise I would have implemented it.

It is possible to add more complex logic to work around it as I eluded to in my first response though.

[stefs72]

I found a reference in the native Player.swift from Tidal. They use getAssetPosition() -> Double and seek(_ time: Double). This confirms that 'Position' is the internal standard. While the native side uses seconds (Double), it's highly likely the IPC payload for the Desktop app translates this to milliseconds, making positionMs (or simply position) the most probable property name in the event payload.

https://github.com/tidal-music/tidal-sdk-ios/blob/main/Sources/Player/Player.swift