So this story starts like any other. After watching hundred of hours of Steve’s videos, my phone finally ran out of data and I was left with no connection while away from WiFi. Worry not - I told myself - since I anyway only use my phone for listening to “Who Is She?” on the LingQ app and I have them downloaded in a playlist so I don’t need an internet connection. Well, the fates are fickle mistresses and I would by lying if I said expectation and reality were to see eye to eye in this matter.
When I launched the LingQ app I found that I could not start the audio on any of the downloaded playlists. I can see the playlists and the lessons, but pressing them does nothing and pressing the button for playing the entire course also does nothing. When however I turned off mobile data entirely, I was able to play the lessons. I can’t test it now, but I think I observed similar behavior when connected to my home wifi while the internet was down.
What I guess is happening is that while mobile data is turned on or while the phone is connected by wifi to a router, the app is in some kind of online mode regardless of whether there is actually an internet connection, and it seems that the downloaded audio won’t play while in online mode. It could be that the app is just waiting for something from the servers, such as a confirmation that the audio has not been replaced with some other audio or something like that. I don’t think the downloaded audio is being redownloaded since even with an internet connection it starts instantly.