Questions about Rose Coonnect Premium app

#1

Hello,

Sorry if this was asked elsewhere; I’ve looked around but haven’t found anything on this particular topic.

If you go into the folder structure set up by us (the user) on the internal SSD via the app, you’ll click on the bottom tab (Music) and then at the top tab called Folder. My structure is like this:

ROSEDISK>
Music
Purchased
Rock
Fleetwood Mac
Rumors

Once at the level where the songs for Rumors is displayed, there are two buttons at the top, called:

All Play
Shuffle Play

First, in English we would probably say “Play All”. More importantly, when I click these buttons, nothing happens. Nothing plays, and when I look at all the music queues, nothing was added.

Fortunately, there’s a menu under the three dots, and the top item does what I want. It’s called “Add direct listening”. Not sure why it isn’t called “Play All”.

What should these buttons do? Am I missing something?

I noticed there was an update to the app a couple days ago. Can you tell me what was changed? Every update for the last 5 months just says “Improved usability and stabilization”. I would like to understand what sorts of changes you’re making. I’ve purchased an RS151, but I’m not sure if I’ll keep it. Between the numerous usability issues and outright bugs I’ve found, I’m concerned that your software team is not up to the task of building and maintaining what seems to be a rather simple app.

Oh my, in researching how many months that text has been used to describe the updates, I see another update has already been pushed.

Okay, updated the app today again. Now if I try to delete items in the queue, it doesn’t work. I’m pretty sure that’s a regression as I’ve tried that before and seen it work.

And those two buttons still don’t work. Any information you can provide would be very helpful in deciding my future with HiFi Rose. The player itself seems great, but the app is a huge part of the user experience for a network streamer.

Thank you,

Brian

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#2

@Bjnelson104

Here are a few things to check.

  1. When you use the RoseConnect app, which device do you use: iPhone, iPad, or Galaxy?

  2. What is your RS151 version?
    RS151–>Settings–>System info–>System version info

  3. Does it work normally except for the “Play all” function?
    Does the same symptom occur when you change it to RS151–>Settings–>Audio settings–>Add a song to the end of the queue?

  4. When you press Play All on your RS151, does it play normally?

#3

Thank you for your response. Here are my answers:

  1. I’m using an iPhone 12 Pro Max with the latest version of iOS and the app.
  2. I didn’t find “System Info”, but I did find “ROSE version info” in the app. The ROSE-83 version == 5.7.13. On the device for “System Version Info” it says “5.7 (Official)”.
  3. What do you mean by “Does it work normally”? Does what work normally? If you mean the unit or app in general, yes, aside from all the bugs, problems and issues in the app. And I changed that Audio setting before attempting the steps below.
  4. I tried drilling down into the same folder structure using the touch screen on the unit. Hitting the Play button at the top (right facing triangle inside a circle) causes nothing to change. Same with the shuffle button. Using the 3 dot menu I can play the songs from that album just like in the app. Also, when tapping those 2 buttons I could see the button briefly change to brown, so I know it registered the press.

Interesting. It would seem those two buttons are activating functions on the unit, and it’s the software on the unit, not the app, that’s failing. So it will need a firmware update to fix. And changing that audio setting in step 3 had no effect on the outcome, it was still broken. I tried the buttons on the unit with both settings.

Also note that “Play All” was my suggestion for the button, it actually says “All Play”.

Thanks,

Brian

#4

Also, about clearing the queues:

When I use the touchscreen on the unit, I can clear the queue. However, doing it in the app, nothing happens in the app, although this time, because I was near the unit, I saw it said “The list has been updated” on the unit’s screen. Not sure why, even looking at the unit I couldn’t find that anything had been cleared.

This pretty clearly looks like a bug in the app.

Brian

#5

@Bjnelson104

We have confirmed that this issue is currently occurring in the iOS app.

We will fix this issue and release an update as soon as possible.

#6

Thank you.

However, since the buttons on the unit for Play All and Shuffle All also don’t work, wouldn’t that mean a firmware update would be needed as well? At that point the app isn’t even involved, although it is almost certainly a separate bug (or two).

And were you able to confirm the issues with clearing the queue button (trash can)?

Thanks,

Brian

#7

@Bjnelson104

We tried deleting the track list in the Queue and it works fine.

Please make sure your iOS App is the latest version (v5.07.74)

#8

Yes, I have the latest version of the app, and it reports the version number you specified.

Can you give me exact steps when this feature works? So far I can’t see it work at all. I tried adding some tracks from Qobuz and then clearing them (click trash can, click Confirm, click Confirm). Nothing changes, all the tracks are still there, and the numbers do NOT update (shows “50/3000”).

I also tried this by adding tracks from my local library, for example the tracks from the Rumors album I referenced before, and the same thing happens. Tracks get added, but I can’t remove them.

My steps:

Add some tracks to the queue by clicking the menu item “Empty queue and add”.

First song starts playing.

Click button with 4 small lines and a musical note to the right. This shows the 3 queues, Integrated, Music, and Qobuz.

Click trash can, click Confirm, click Confirm.

Nothing changes or updates. Am I missing something? Please list the steps that show this feature working.

Interestingly, deleting the queue from the screen of the RS-151 DOES work, only the app fails to work.

Brian

#9

@Bjnelson104

If you want to delete a track in the Queue, select the trash can icon on the RoseConnect app Queue screen, click on the track you want to delete from the Queue, and then click the confirmation button at the bottom right to delete it.

Even though you tried as above, the track saved in the Queue is not deleted?

#10

I see. I didn’t understand how that button worked. I thought clicking it would clear out the queue. Yes, it does work.

However, there is still a bug. A usability bug. The interface allowed me to do something (click Confirm, TWICE!), that it knew was going to fail. No wonder I was confused.

A better interface would show a message when someone clicks on the Confirm button and hasn’t selected anything. It could say something like, “You need to select something to remove”. Delete isn’t the right word here, you’re simply removing it from the queue, the track still exists!

Even better than that is to make the Confirm button disabled UNTIL the user selects something. If that had been the case, I would have figured out what the problem was. Since it allowed me to do what I did, but then appeared to fail, I assumed it was broken.

This is a problem I have experienced over and over with this app. Even when something works, it is rarely easy or intuitive to use.

For example, the screen in the app to create an account. I tried for an HOUR to create an account! It kept failing. I would fill out all the fields, click Submit, and the app would crash. Every time. Since I didn’t get a message, I had no clue why.

Then I used the touch screen on the unit to create an account, and I figured out the problem. While trying to type in my main email account, I couldn’t because there was NO underscore character! This is an email account I created back in the 1990’s, and either your app or server (or both) doesn’t handle underscores. The best fix would be to have the server handle underscored, but at a minimum you should update the app to check for characters your server can’t handle.

And a Test button to see if a name is already used is far from ideal. Much better would be to have a Focus handler on the field that gets called when the name has been typed in by the user, and then they click on another field to fill that in and the name (or nickname, I forget) field loses focus. Also, have the Submit button be disabled until all fields are filled in and the name checked with the server.

You need to guide the user in how to use the interface.
It is so hard to use in some places.

I don’t know. It doesn’t seem fair that I spend so much on this unit, and then I’m doing the work of your QA team for free. Plus trying to teach you how to build a better GUI (I spent 35+ years building software, specializing in GUI’s).

Brian

#11

But I would like to know if those buttons, “All Play” and “Shuffle Play” will get fixed.

And I think I reported that something on the player’s UI was not working as well.

Brian

#12

Going back to the trash can icon for the queues, take a look at the iOS Mail app. Go into a folder, Inbox for example.

Up at the top right there is a Select button. Click it, and what happens? Each row moves over to the right, and at the far left is an empty circle, clearly indicating something you can select — even though you can tap anywhere in the row to select it. But that visual cue is SO important to the user.

At the bottom, there are Mark, Move & Trash buttons. But guess what? They’re disabled until you click on at least one row! Or click Select All.

That is EXACTLY the interface you need here.

Brian

#13

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

#14

Well said.

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