Automattic / Automattic/pocket-casts-ios

CarPlay: Indefinite Loading occurring quite often

Open
#3,363 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
[Area] Car play [Type] Bug
Dominant language
Swift
Stars
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Forks
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Avg merge
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

### Description

A customer has reported an issue with the Pocket Casts app when using CarPlay on their iPhone 13. Upon initially connecting the iPhone to CarPlay and opening Pocket Casts, the app displays a "loading" message in the centre of the screen instead of the list of available podcasts (30). This loading message remains indefinitely unless the user switches to another CarPlay app and then back to Pocket Casts. Once the user switches back, the list of podcasts displays correctly.

As of today (2025-07-27), the customer's iPhone 13 is running the latest iOS release, and Pocket Casts is also updated to the latest version. The customer has followed the instructions to disconnect and reconnect CarPlay, but the issue with Pocket Casts persists. All other apps on CarPlay work without any issues.

The Pocket Casts issue occurs approximately 75% of the time for them. Occasionally, Pocket Casts will open without any problems.

The customer is using a 2017 Opel Astra 1.4 Turbo Sport 5-door with the OEM (factory-fitted) infotainment system.

### Step-by-step reproduction instructions

1. Connect iPhone to CarPlay
2. Open Pocket Casts
3. Observe the Issue
4. Switch CarPlay Apps to something like Spotify
5. Return to Pocket Casts

### Screenshots or screen recording

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### Did you search for existing bug reports?

- [x] I have searched for existing bug reports.

### Device, Operating system, and Pocket Casts app version

App Version: 7.90
Device: iPhone14,5
OS: 18.5

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by reproducing the CarPlay launch sequence on the reported iPhone and app versions, following the listed steps and observing the initial loading state versus returning from another app. Trace the Pocket Casts CarPlay startup and lifecycle handling; done means the podcast list appears reliably on the first open without switching apps.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
ios, swift
Domain
mobile-dev
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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