[Bug]: Playhead won't drag for a book

[mdeeter]

What was the Problem?

I have a book with MP3s that won't let me move the playhead to scroll ahead. I converted the book to M4B and the problem seemed to go away with the new version.

On of the users of my server submitted a TestFlight bug report on it, so I figured I might as well post the issue here too.

Other books seem to work fine. Not sure if you want any of the files of the book to use for testing.

ScreenRecording_01-22-2025.11-45-45_1.mov

Steps to Reproduce the Issue

Can provide the book files at the developer's request.

What was Expected?

Playhead should be dragable.

Phone Model

iPhone 16

Phone OS

iOS 18.2.1

Audiobookshelf App Version

iOS App - 0.9.78

Installation Source

Testflight

Additional Notes

No response

[nichwall]

Is this the only book of multiple MP3 files that the issue occurs with? If so, this may be an issue with the MP3 files as encoding to M4B fixed it. Another test would be is to encode each of the files to MP3 again (just force it to encode the file again) and replace each of the tracks to see if seeking begins working after that.

Does it work when the book is downloaded instead of streaming? Have you been able to test this book in the web client to see if it can seek there?

[mdeeter]

The issue happens on iOS streaming or when downloaded.

The book structure is:

ffmpeg probe data is:

{
  "streams": [
    {
      "index": 0,
      "codec_name": "mp3",
      "codec_long_name": "MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3)",
      "codec_type": "audio",
      "codec_tag_string": "[0][0][0][0]",
      "codec_tag": "0x0000",
      "sample_fmt": "fltp",
      "sample_rate": "44100",
      "channels": 2,
      "channel_layout": "stereo",
      "bits_per_sample": 0,
      "initial_padding": 0,
      "r_frame_rate": "0/0",
      "avg_frame_rate": "0/0",
      "time_base": "1/14112000",
      "start_pts": 353600,
      "start_time": "0.025057",
      "duration_ts": 58406993442,
      "duration": "4138.817563",
      "bit_rate": "128000",
      "disposition": {
        "default": 0,
        "dub": 0,
        "original": 0,
        "comment": 0,
        "lyrics": 0,
        "karaoke": 0,
        "forced": 0,
        "hearing_impaired": 0,
        "visual_impaired": 0,
        "clean_effects": 0,
        "attached_pic": 0,
        "timed_thumbnails": 0,
        "captions": 0,
        "descriptions": 0,
        "metadata": 0,
        "dependent": 0,
        "still_image": 0
      },
      "tags": {
        "encoder": "LAME3.96r"
      }
    }
  ],
  "format": {
    "filename": "/files/watch/7 - Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows/CD01.mp3",
    "nb_streams": 1,
    "nb_programs": 0,
    "format_name": "mp3",
    "format_long_name": "MP2/3 (MPEG audio layer 2/3)",
    "start_time": "0.025057",
    "duration": "4138.817563",
    "size": "66221771",
    "bit_rate": "128001",
    "probe_score": 51,
    "tags": {
      "title": "CD01",
      "artist": "Deathly Hallows",
      "comment": "",
      "encoded_by": "MergeMP3 by The Shchuka's Place"
    }
  }
}

If a dev wants any of the files from the book, I'm willing to share them.

Feel free to close this if you want... just opened this bug in case someone felt that it was worth investigating futher.

[nichwall]

Does the issue occur with the web client or only with the iOS app?