Problem downloading ChinesePod MP3s on iPhone

JCBrown
November 27, 2011, 04:37 PM posted in General Discussion

When I tap on an MP3 to download and listen to it, it just says "Downloading. Please wait."  The file never downloads. 

I'm really disappointed with this because my newly renewed intrest in using the moble ChinesePod was my main motivation for renewing my subscription (it worked with the old app). 

Any suggestions?

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jcheinbockel
November 28, 2011, 09:04 AM

From one JC to another...

Out of curiousity, where are you based? For the most part, the only users that have trouble with downloading are based in China, which is something we cannot control. It's very frustrating.

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Grambers

Out of (my own) curiosity, what's the working theory behind why China-based users can't download some of the website's content? Are those meddlesome mainland river crabs up to no good again?:)

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JCBrown

I am indeed based in China, Chengdu actually.

This is very disappointing to hear. Do you reckon a VPN may help?

Thanks for your reply.

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JCBrown

Do you see how this might be a problem for a considerably large portion of your customer base? After all, it is CHINESE pod, not ARABIC pod or SWAHILI pod or some other language that isn't likely to have a lots of students studying it in CHINA.

Perhaps some troubleshooting is in order as the pods did indeed work with an older version of the app.

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jcheinbockel

Hi Grambers,

Yes. Unlike the Beach Boys, we have a lot of problems with "harmony". For a period in October, it affected almost all China users. Since then, we've managed to bring it down to a pretty small percentage of users, and we're looking into other options, but it's more or less out of our control.

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jcheinbockel

Hi JC,

Trust us, we do see. It's incredibly frustrating, and pretty much out of our control. That's just how Chinese internet works. Over the last two months, we changed our media servers which solved the problems for most users, but there are a few still left out, and there doesn't seem to be much reason to it. For example, we have no trouble in our office here in Shanghai, but we've received reports of connection problems from people just on the other side of town. The problem also seems more common for iPhone users than for website users.

If it's indeed a connection problem you're facing, and I'm pretty sure it is, then a VPN will solve it. But, first be sure you have the latest version of the app, and try clearing your phone's browsing data (Settings -> Safari -> Clear Browsing Data).

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JCBrown

Thanks for your attention to the problem. Sorry if my tone was too strong, but I think you understand the frustration.

I do have a VPN on my phone. The VPN is programmed to work whether I'm running on a 3G signal or a wifi signal. I just tried to run the ChinesePod app with the VPN and it seems to work, however, only with the wifi signal. So I guess my solution is to load the file I want to listen to every day before leaving the house. Not entirely convenient, but it'll probably do until a newer version of the app is released....

With that said, there's a few other glitches I'm noticing too. For example, when in the self-study menu, I scroll down to load 'more' lessons. The lessons appear for a second but then disappear leaving only the most recent ones. As a result, I can't scroll through and study/review older lessons.

Thanks.

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jcheinbockel

It's a totally understandable frustration. We feel it, too.

We'll look into the scrolling issue and see what can be done.

Best,

JC

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bennyboyk
November 29, 2011, 01:22 AM

I'm not currently in china but when I was (roughly two months ago) I was able to download the fine. One thing I'd like the app to do in the future is the ability to mark lessons as studied and to also view and make comments in lessons, etc. In fact I'd like the app to become the complete cpod tool and never have to log in to a pc to manage my account

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jcheinbockel

Hi Benny,

Thanks for the suggestions. I've passed them on to our app development team.

Best,

JC