Pandora: Music & Podcasts

This may have been around for some time now, but I just discovered it recently. It is definitely a change in behavior from earlier versions of the Pandora app, but I don't know when this changed.

It used to be that, if you pressed the thumbs up button for a song that already had thumbs up status, nothing happened. Now, doing this causes the thumbs up status to be removed from the current song, canceling the thumbs up you gave the song originally.

The reason this is a problem is that VoiceOver does not let you know if the currently playing song was given thumbs up in the past or not. There is a visual cue on screen which lets a sighted user know it has thumbs up status, but VoiceOver does not indicate this. Therefore, if you did not remember that you had thumbed up the song before, and you hit the thumbs up button again, you will inadvertently remove your feedback about the song, which is the exact opposite of what you intended to do.

The only way I know of to check a song's status within the Pandora app is to bring up the station details page and search for the song in the list of thumbed tracks. You can access the station details page by navigating to the options button, which is located next to the name of the current station, double-tap it to bring up the options menu, then select station details from that menu. This process is tedious, and I certainly wouldn't want to do this with every questionable song that comes up before deciding whether or not to press the thumbs up button.

Since I have some vision, I can use the zoom function to look at the thumbs up button closely and see if its icon is changed, so that I know if the song was already given thumbs up before I press the button. However, a totally blind user would not be able to do this.

Again, I do not know which version of Pandora changed the behavior of the thumbs up button. I am currently using version 5.6, so it's possible version 5.5 and earlier may not have this behavior, but I have no way of testing this out. I let Pandora know of my findings, so hopefully they may change this in the future to avoid the problem. The ideal solution would be to have VoiceOver announce in some way that the thumbs up state is active.

Have you contcted them regarding this? If so what is yoru response? I already did contact them and gave them a linke to this thread byt they as of yet, since 2 months ago, have not given me a response.

OK, so, with the latest Pandora update, I have had the following problem...

Sometimes the "Skip" button will show. Other times it will not. Anyone else have this problem? Any work-arounds?

Misty,
Not sure if this is your issue but you are only allotted seven skips per hour. After those seven, the skip button is no longer available and you'll have to wait until it resets.

Pandora has just been updated to version 5.7. This update is advertised to feature a significant change to the user interface on iPhone and iPod Touch devices, which might have an impact on accessibility. I cannot say one way or the other because I only have an iPad, and this update does not change the iPad experience in any way that I can tell.

Ever since I downloaded iOS 8.3, it seems that, when I go to my Stations list and try to select a station, my phone locks up. (I am running an iPhone 5.) Does anyone else have this issue? Is there any workaround at all? Is this something we all should be reporting to the developers as a VoiceOver issue or is it something else?

I don't know for sure if the problem is caused by iOS 8.3, Pandora 5.9, or both, but the problem you describe is effectively killing Pandora accessibility at the moment. I contacted Pandora and was assured they are fully aware of the problem and are working to address it.

Unfortunately, until Pandora can update their app, you're stuck.

After deleting Pandora, I might try and give it unother go.
After deleting pandora in faver of Spotify, I might go and give pandora unother go. I want to listen to music while I am out and about, and pandora seems to be the one that uses the least data, and buffers less.

I was disappointed to see that, although the freezing bug was fixed in the latest app update, I still cannot get to the dialog to add/delete stations from my Shuffle list.

When I click on the "Shuffle Options" button I am b rought to the "Now Playing" dialog.

I used to be able to get to this dialog several versions ago, but something got broken in the Pandora app. I've written to their support several times. They were very pleasant and indicated they would work on this problem, but it has now been several months and several updates and the problem still persists.

If anyone has a way around this I would like to know. I'm getting tired of listening to the same stations being in my Shuffle Mix.

Thanks.

--Pete

I have no problems accessing the shuffle options menu. However, I have an iPad, so it may be different on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

I am having problems with the options menu for individual stations. The options button does not show up to VoiceOver after switching stations, until I leave and reopen the app, and the button is announced by VoiceOver as being dimmed, so a simple double-tap does not work to activate it. A double-tap and hold works, though, so I can get around the issue.

I am glad to see the app working again, so I really can't complain about the quirks at present. I will continue to give them feedback, as I have been doing for some time now. They have definitely made things better than they once were, but it seems like every new version adds some new complication that needs to be dealt with.

Pandora just released version 6.1, which brings the new user interface to the iPad, the one that had been on the iPhone and iPod Touch for a while now.

With this new version, I finally have a chance to explore the new interface and figure out how to perform such tasks as modifying stations, deleting stations, and so forth. Below I will give my experiences, which hopefully will help others perform these tasks. I am hopeful that what works on the iPad will also work on the iPhone, but I cannot guarantee it, and since I don't have an iPhone, I cannot test it out on that platform.

The Pandora site claims that swiping a station name from right to left will expose buttons for deleting and personalizing the station. With VoiceOver, a three-finger swipe to the left accomplishes the same thing. VoiceOver announces page 2 of 2 when the gesture is performed.

Unfortunately, the VoiceOver focus acts a little weird after doing the gesture. Therefore, I need to use navigation by touch to find the buttons after exposing them with the three-finger swipe. Therefore, if you're trying to delete a station or access its details, you should first locate the station name by touch so that you know where it is on the screen. Do the three-finger swipe to the left, then feel to the right of the station's name until you find the two buttons.

While viewing the personalization screen for a station, you can see the artists and songs used to create the station, including those added with the add variety feature. Doing a three-finger swipe to the left on an artist or song will expose a button labeled dismiss, which can be used to remove that seed from the station definition.

There are also buttons that access the list of tracks that were given thumbs up or thumbs down. Again, a three-finger swipe to the left brings up the dismiss button for removing the thumbs.

For the shuffle station, there is a button labeled shuffle options, but it is not actually on screen by default. To get it on screen, you must first select the shuffle station to play, then do a three-finger swipe to the left. Now the shuffle options button should work, bringing up a screen for selecting which stations or genres to include in the shuffle.

I sometimes have to do the three-finger swipe two or three times before I can locate the buttons exposed with the gesture, but I don't know if it's because it's not working consistently or if it's because I'm just not finding the buttons quickly enough, since they are only on screen for a short time before disappearing.

All of this is gimmicky, but I can do everything in the app with VoiceOver using the above methods. I hope this will work on the iPhone the same way.

I just tried this on my phone and it works!!! Like you said though sometimes you need to swipe a few times to get the buttons to show but it works. Yay. Thank you.

If anyone still needs this issue addressed, in order to get to the skip button if you can't see it on your screen, you need to use 3-finger swipes left until you get to the last page, 17 of 17, for example. If you don't want to have to do this every time you want to use the controls effectively, the only real workaround is to go in to the settings and tell Pandora not to lock the screen while it's playing. You'll also have to be pretty vigelant about dismissing ads.

Thanks - The Comments and suggestions you made for getting to the Shuffle Options and deleting stations worked on my iPhone 6. I couldn't do some of these things in the previous release of the app.

Note: As you pointed out, it is still a little tricky to reliably (and quickly) perform these functions, but with some patience and practice they can be done.

One problem I am seeing with this version, however, is that VoiceOver tends to lock up when you tap on the "Personalize This Station" button. Sometimes it will work for a bit, but if you touch or navigate near the top of the screen (near the "thumbs UP" / "thumbs Down" buttons), things seem to freeze and I have to kill the app and/or turn off VoiceOver to get the app working again.

--Pete

OK, in previous versions, there used to be a button to the right of stations that said something like "edit options" and, I believe, it used to contain the option to delete a station you'd added to your list. Now, I no longer see that button and I can't find a way to delete stations from your station list after you've added them.

Is there any way to do this anymore?

Also, is there a way, once you've thumbed-down a track, to thumb it back up again? I tried going to "Station Personalization" and I found the track I thumbed-down for that station, but, when I click it, all I get is the "track information" and there doesn't seem to be a way to un-thumbs-down it.

Pandora clearly has broken accessibility of the Shuffle Options screen. I have not even been able to get into that screen, and while Pandora stated that they would look into it, they have yet to fix this issue, and this was months ago when I had e-mailed them about it. I just e-mailed them again about the same issue, but I doubt it will ever get fixed.

I am no longer able to find where I can share a station or a song. Please help.

I'm also having accessibility issues with this app as well. I can't thums up or thums down anymore, skip songs, etc. It seems like the accessibility has gone down hill with this app. Good thing I'm not paying for it.