Audacious - OLD, PLEASE USE GITHUB DISCUSSIONS/ISSUES

Also tested on 3.9, 4.0 beta 1 and master

Here is the log for a flac file (no buffer delays):

Feb 26 20:34:31 INFO probe.cc:89 [aud_file_find_decoder]: Probing file:///run/user/1000/gvfs/smb-share%3Aserver%3Dserver.local%2Cshare%3Daudio/Favorites/The%20Doors%20-%20L.A.%20Woman/The%20Doors%20-%2010.%20Riders%20on%20the%20Storm.flac.
Feb 26 20:34:31 INFO probe.cc:115 [aud_file_find_decoder]: Matched FLAC Decoder by extension.
Feb 26 20:34:31 INFO probe-buffer.cc:30 [ProbeBuffer]: <0x7fe448005bd0> buffering enabled for file:///run/user/1000/gvfs/smb-share%3Aserver%3Dserver.local%2Cshare%3Daudio/Favorites/The%20Doors%20-%20L.A.%20Woman/The%20Doors%20-%2010.%20Riders%20on%20the%20Storm.flac
Feb 26 20:34:31 INFO vfs.cc:105 [VFSFile]: <0x7fe448005bd0> open (mode r) file:///run/user/1000/gvfs/smb-share%3Aserver%3Dserver.local%2Cshare%3Daudio/Favorites/The%20Doors%20-%20L.A.%20Woman/The%20Doors%20-%2010.%20Riders%20on%20the%20Storm.flac
Feb 26 20:34:31 INFO probe-buffer.cc:50 [release_buffer]: <0x7fe448005bd0> buffering disabled for file:///run/user/1000/gvfs/smb-share%3Aserver%3Dserver.local%2Cshare%3Daudio/Favorites/The%20Doors%20-%20L.A.%20Woman/The%20Doors%20-%2010.%20Riders%20on%20the%20Storm.flac
Feb 26 20:34:31 INFO probe-buffer.cc:30 [ProbeBuffer]: <0x7fe46c0021c0> buffering enabled for file:///run/user/1000/gvfs/smb-share%3Aserver%3Dserver.local%2Cshare%3Daudio/Favorites/The%20Doors%20-%20L.A.%20Woman/The%20Doors%20-%2010.%20Riders%20on%20the%20Storm.flac
Feb 26 20:34:31 INFO vfs.cc:105 [VFSFile]: <0x7fe46c0021c0> open (mode r) file:///run/user/1000/gvfs/smb-share%3Aserver%3Dserver.local%2Cshare%3Daudio/Favorites/The%20Doors%20-%20L.A.%20Woman/The%20Doors%20-%2010.%20Riders%20on%20the%20Storm.flac
Feb 26 20:34:31 INFO probe-buffer.cc:50 [release_buffer]: <0x7fe46c0021c0> buffering disabled for file:///run/user/1000/gvfs/smb-share%3Aserver%3Dserver.local%2Cshare%3Daudio/Favorites/The%20Doors%20-%20L.A.%20Woman/The%20Doors%20-%2010.%20Riders%20on%20the%20Storm.flac
Feb 26 20:34:31 INFO probe-buffer.cc:135 [fseek]: <0x7fe46c0021c0> buffering enabled for file:///run/user/1000/gvfs/smb-share%3Aserver%3Dserver.local%2Cshare%3Daudio/Favorites/The%20Doors%20-%20L.A.%20Woman/The%20Doors%20-%2010.%20Riders%20on%20the%20Storm.flac
Feb 26 20:34:31 INFO probe-buffer.cc:50 [release_buffer]: <0x7fe46c0021c0> buffering disabled for file:///run/user/1000/gvfs/smb-share%3Aserver%3Dserver.local%2Cshare%3Daudio/Favorites/The%20Doors%20-%20L.A.%20Woman/The%20Doors%20-%2010.%20Riders%20on%20the%20Storm.flac
Feb 26 20:34:31 INFO output.cc:271 [setup_output]: Setup output, format 0, 2 channels, 48000 Hz.
Feb 26 20:34:31 INFO output.cc:576 [output_set_replay_gain]: Replay Gain info:
Feb 26 20:34:31 INFO output.cc:577 [output_set_replay_gain]: album gain: -2,260000 dB
Feb 26 20:34:31 INFO output.cc:578 [output_set_replay_gain]: album peak: 0,972977
Feb 26 20:34:31 INFO output.cc:579 [output_set_replay_gain]: track gain: 0,430000 dB
Feb 26 20:34:31 INFO output.cc:580 [output_set_replay_gain]: track peak: 0,977000
Feb 26 20:34:33 INFO playlist-files.cc:133 [save_to_file]: Saving playlist file:///home/jeroen/.config/audacious/playlists/1000.audpl.
Feb 26 20:34:33 INFO vfs.cc:105 [VFSFile]: <0x5564f27355e0> open (mode w) file:///home/jeroen/.config/audacious/playlists/1000.audpl
Feb 26 20:34:33 INFO probe-buffer.cc:30 [ProbeBuffer]: <0x5564f22b1a90> buffering enabled for /home/jeroen/.config/audacious/playlists/order
Feb 26 20:34:33 INFO vfs.cc:105 [VFSFile]: <0x5564f22b1a90> open (mode r) /home/jeroen/.config/audacious/playlists/order

when playing same files mounted via sftp also no buffer delay is experienced

when mounting same samba share with mount.cifs also no delay is experienced

if playing from mountpoint of Linux Mint, /run/user/1000/gvfs/smb-share:server=server.local,share=audio, the buffer delay occurs again

it has something to do with the amount of files in a folder, more files causes longer buffer delays, even when the files are not added to the playlist in audacious

When copying an MP3 file to a folder with few other files the delay is indeed gone, when playing the mp3 from the original folder containing many files buffering is slow again.

The same problem occurs with flac files when there are many (audio?) files in the same folder as the flac file.

But only using the gvfs share

But what is audacious doing with all the other files in the folder?

It only becomes slow when a lot of files are in the remote folder.

So it is a gvfs problem but obviously audacious is doing something strange and unnecessary jobs.

Jeroen Steenhuis wrote:

But what is audacious doing with all the other files in the folder?

Audacious itself? Nothing. The GVFS layer? Your guess is as good as mine. Let us know what you find out.

Edit: It's possible that the album art search is slowing things down. You can see if this helps:
https://github.com/audacious-media-player/audacious/commit/f3de214ed51c1534e901f1eac34432eb1337b84b

I will have a look, meanwhile I found the issue on the gnome bug tracker:

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gvfs/issues/292