DoggCatcher FAQ

Video

Q: Does DoggCatcher play video?
A: Yes. It will play any of the video formats that are currently supported on the Android platform - formats.

Q: What does 'Cannot play video - Sorry, but this video cannot be played' mean?
A: DoggCatcher is able to play video files in the formats that are supported by Android. If you see this message, then the video you are trying to play is not supported by Android.

Audio

Q: Can DoggCatcher speed up audio playback?
A: Not at the moment. There have been numerous requests for this and I would love to add it, however the Android media player does not currently support altering playback speed. Once this becomes possible, I will add the feature to DoggCatcher. Here's a related discussion on the topic.

Feed Updates

Q: Why does DoggCatcher download the oldest items first?
A: During normal usage, one would usually want to listen to older items first. DoggCatcher will download the oldest items that are flagged as 'New', up to the number configured in the 'Auto Download' feed option.

When creating new feeds, all items but the most recent are flagged as old so that the most recent will be the first available.

You can flag any items as 'Done' that you don't want to have downloaded.

Q: What does this message mean - "Files on the phone are newer"?
A: This happens when you update a feed, then later when another update occurs, the newly fetched feed is older than the original.

This has happened for me when I update a feed on wifi, then later update over the cell network. Sometimes data is cached (my theory at least) on the carriers proxy servers so you don't get the new version of the feed. You can confirm this is happening to you by opening the feed in the Android browser and you'll probably be seeing the old version of the feed.

Q: Why does one of my feeds only display older items when I know there are newer items available?
A: Some feeds publish items out of order. For these feeds, enabling the 'Always sort' feed option resolves this problem.

Google Market

Q: I just purchased DoggCatcher but my download or installation is hung or keeps failing?
A: This is an issue with the market application that happens for some users. Strange as it may be, sometimes a reboot fixes it and sometimes waiting fixes it. In every case I have heard of, it does resolve itself. If you have purchased the app and are having this problem, you can create an account here and email me the username. I can give you access to download the app from this site.

Q: I just purchased DoggCatcher but the market application hangs stating that it is "Authorizing..."
A: This happens when an order gets placed in 'Customer review in progress' status. It seems that the order is getting flagged for investigation as potentially fraudulent order. Here's Google's description of this issue - Fraud protection. This document states that this is normally resolved in 4-6 hrs so I would suggest trying to re-download again after that period or contacting Google to get the order processed.

If you have purchased the app and are having this problem, you can create an account here and email me the username. I can give you access to download the app from this site.

Other

Q: How can I fix the following error after installing an update?
Comm Err: Permission denied (maybe missing INTERNET permission)
A: Users have reported that rebooting the phone or re-installing the application fixes this.

Q: If I change my phone, can my DoggCatcher installation be moved to the new phone?
A: Yes, follow these steps:

  • Backup your DoggCatcher configuration from the old phone by doing a Backup in the DoggCatcher menu
  • Move the DoggCatcher directory from the old phone's sd card (in /sdcard) to the same location on the new phone.
  • Restore your DoggCatcher configuration to the new phone by doing a Restore in the DoggCatcher menu

The ability to download the application from the Google Market is dependent on moving your google account from the old phone to the new phone.

Q: Why does DoggCatcher exit when it is running in the background
A: Android sometimes tells applications running in the background to stop, when applications in the foreground require more resources. We've taken all the steps that are known at this point to encourage Android to not stop DoggCatcher. Recent releases have minimized this problem to the extent that is possible and should any new information become available to improve this further, we certainly will do what we can.

Q: What do I do when DoggCatcher is installed but fails to start?
A:Install the log collector application called 'aLogCat' from the Google Market and email the log file to support at snoggdoggler.com.

Q: How can I determine why my downloads are failing?
A: For some users, this has been caused by corrupt or full SD cards. If this is not the problem, then you can email the debug log to yourself. In the DC menu, press on debug log.

Q: Why does DoggCatcher act strange when my phone is connected to my PC and mounted as a USB drive.
A: DoggCatcher uses the external storage to store images and episodes. When your phone is mounted as a USB drive, DoggCatcher can't see the external storage.

Q: Why does the size of an Episode read "Size Unknown"
A: Some Podcast feeds do not include the length of the media (audio file) or they may include an incorrect length.

Q: Why do I see "?" characters in DoggCatcher?
A: Some Podcast feeds include characters that are not supported by the XML parser built into Android. We replace those characters with "?".

Q: What is a partial download?
A: Partial downloads happen when a feed reports a file to be of size 71.5MB for example (as in the case of redbar), but the actual file is smaller than that. We download the file then we compare the size we have to what we expect and it looks like we are missing some. You can still play partials from the Episode long-press menu.