FAQ: Why won’t Chavah play the next song?

A lot of folks have written in, asking why Chavah won’t play the next song.

**UPDATE April 2020: Quickfix: if you're having this issue on iPhone, update your iPhone to iOS 13.4, which includes a fix for this issue. Read on for more details.

Q. “Chavah plays a song, then when the song ends, I don’t hear anything. What’s wrong?”
A. If you’re on a desktop or laptop, reboot. If you’re on a mobile device like an iPhone, iPad, or Android phone, use the Chavah app: Chavah for iOS, or Chavah for Android.

Q. I’m using the Chavah app, but it still only plays 1 song, then stops.
A. On some mobile devices, like iPhone, Chavah must be in the foreground (not in the background) and your screen must be on.

The problem isn’t with Chavah, but the device you’re using to listen. Chavah uses web standards to play audio, meaning it works fine on laptops, desktops, Windows, Mac, Linux.

However, some mobile devices, like Apple iPhones, impose superficial imitations on web-based audio. For example, as of iOS 12, Apple has imposed a battery-saving (but app-breaking) “feature” that prevents web-based apps, like Chavah, from running in the background. Thus, as of iOS 12, for Chavah to play the next song, Chavah must be the active app (not in the background) and your screen must be on.

We’ve filed a bug report with Apple to fix this issue, but it’s unclear when or if they will do so.

*UPDATE December 2019* Apple has implemented a fix for this issue! Woooohooo! The fix will show up in a future update to Safari/iOS. I’ll update this post when the fix is published.

*UPDATE April 1, 2020* Apple has released iOS 13.4, which includes a fix for this bug. Update your iPhone or iPad to iOS 13.4, and this bug should be fixed. (Don't see iOS 13.4 available? You may have a device too old for this update. iOS 13.4 is supported on iPhone 6S and newer.)