Audio crackling

asgeirogm

Hey, I like to listen to audiobook mp3's on my phone (GrapheneOS, Pixel 4a 5G) and hadn't had an issue. Then I dropped my phone and the screen wasn't responding, so I restarted it, and as it booted up, I got a screen saying it was "optimizing apps" or something like that.

Ever since, when I try listen to an audiobook, I get crackling sounds whenever the reader speaks, which is unbearable to listen to. I had been using the app "Voice" from fDroid to listen to the audiobooks, and I tried giving the app unrestricted battery usage in the background, but that didn't help. The crackling happens whether I use bluetooth headphones or the phone's own speaker. I also tried other apps, "Smart AudioBook Player" and playing the mp3s in VLC, but same issue persists (also given unrestricted batter usage). If I play a local video in VLC, I don't get the audio crackling.

Any ideas?

roddyd

Hmm. The "optimizing apps" usually appears when the phone is updating. Did your phone have a pending install before the reboot?

This could certainly be a hardware issue but you should investigate and make sure. Try many different audio and video apps and see if any of them work correctly. If it's the same for everything it could be a broken phone but if some things play normally then it could just be a strange bug. Also try rebooting again since that can solve a lot of software issues.

abcZ

Crackling will NOT be a hardware issue. And the fact that VLC works without the crackling proves that this is definitely software related. The phone took an update (optimizing apps), so something may have changed.

mandrake

I have the crackling when playing audio via some browsers then leaving the app or turning the screen off. Most noticable with myNoise.net

Any ideas on what the issue might be?

Eagle_Owl

mandrake
I have the same issue on my new Pixel 8 Pro only.
No issues on my 7 Pro.
Both I have never dropped.

App optimisation could be the cause, but I have another suspicion:
I've been using dual eSIM on the P8P from the start. Perhaps the DSDS multiplexing task is causing the interference?
These occur every approx. 30 seconds (time not stopped, only estimated).

I only use one eSIM on the P7P because I can't install a second eSIM (strange error, different topic).
Since the P8P has been my main phone, I no longer use an additional SIM card on the P7P.
But whether with dual SIM or just this one eSIM - no cracking with the P7P.

Music player app: Metro (a fork of RetroMusic). A really brilliant app, by the way!

mandrake

Note: I'm using 7 Pro.

Eagle_Owl

Eagle_Owl
Addendum, I don't want to leave it unmentioned so as not to make troubleshooting more difficult:
I'm no longer one hundred per cent sure whether the crackling problem really didn't occur with dual SIM with nano SIM + eSIM - perhaps someone with dual SIM use can verify this?

Eagle_Owl

Eagle_Owl
Addendum #2:
Yesterday I found out the source of the audio-crackling/dropouts on my P8P:
It happens, while the messenger Threema Libre is running on this phone.
But – until now I never had tested it with the VLC app on this P8P!
And this is the solution also on my P8P! :-)

Apparently VLC does not use the standard audio codecs that all other apps use?
I have no other explanation for the fact that no dropouts/crackling can be heard with VLC.