play playlist, pause playlist, resume playlist not working in MA

[Touch-of-Ink]

I'm a simple girl, with simple needs. I want my playlist to start playing when I close a door. (Done) I want the playlist to pause when I open the door. (Works for 30 seconds, then switches to "off"). When I close the door again, I want the playlist to resume from where I paused it. (Play starts from the beginning of the playlist. So does pause/play.) Plus, the playlist queue disappears completely after a short time period.

I know I'm missing something. Something incredibly simple. Does anyone have any hints, tips, or (better yet) a working yaml I could copy from?

Crap, forgot to include specs. I'm running HA OS 2026.5.3 and MA 2.8.7 as a Home Assistant add on.

[OzGav]

Pausing and resuming from a psecific point in the track works fine normally.

What exact device are you using to stream to? What protocol is MA using to talk to that device? What exact automation are you using to pause and play the track?

[Touch-of-Ink]

Hey! Thanks for the help. Yeah, I feel like it's a basic thing and I'm just missing something, but heck if I know what. I stream to one of my Home Assistant Voice Preview Editions. I'm using Sendspin. (The first automation is set to "replace" so it clears out yesterday's playlist and it's only used for the first play of the day.) Here are my automations:

Step 1. Turn on the playlist.

alias: music 1 play
description: ""
triggers:
  - trigger: door.closed
    target:
      entity_id: binary_sensor.group_front_door
    options:
      for: "00:00:00"
conditions:
  - condition: state
    entity_id: input_boolean.music_playlist_resume
    state:
      - "off"
actions:
  - action: input_boolean.turn_on
    metadata: {}
    target:
      entity_id: input_boolean.music_playlist_resume
    data: {}
  - action: media_player.play_media
    metadata: {}
    target:
      entity_id: media_player.assist_voice_pe_living_room_media_player
    data:
      media:
        media_content_id: library://playlist/384
        media_content_type: playlist
        metadata:
          title: "19"
          thumbnail: null
          media_class: playlist
          children_media_class: track
          navigateIds:
            - {}
            - media_content_type: music_assistant
              media_content_id: playlists
            - media_content_type: music
              media_content_id: library://playlist/384
          browse_entity_id: media_player.assist_voice_pe_living_room_media_player
      enqueue: replace
mode: single

Step 2. Pause the playlist.

alias: music 2 pause
description: ""
triggers:
  - trigger: door.opened
    target:
      entity_id: binary_sensor.group_front_door
    options:
      for: "00:00:00"
conditions: []
actions:
  - action: media_player.media_pause
    metadata: {}
    target:
      entity_id: media_player.assist_voice_pe_living_room_media_player
    data: {}
mode: single

Step 3. Resume the playlist.
There's actually two versions I've tried. Using "Play" works, in that it turns on the playlist, but it starts over at the beginning. Using the "Play/Pause" toggle only works sometimes. Otherwise it doesn't actually play the playlist. But, when it does work, it does resume from the point that it stopped earlier. So, half win? :)

Using Play:

alias: music 3 resume
description: ""
triggers:
  - trigger: door.closed
    target:
      entity_id: binary_sensor.group_front_door
    options:
      for: "00:00:00"
conditions:
  - condition: state
    entity_id: input_boolean.music_playlist_resume
    state:
      - "on"
actions:
  - action: media_player.play_media
    metadata: {}
    target:
      entity_id: media_player.assist_voice_pe_living_room_media_player
    data:
      media:
        media_content_id: library://playlist/384
        media_content_type: playlist
        metadata:
          title: "19"
          thumbnail: null
          media_class: playlist
          children_media_class: track
          navigateIds:
            - {}
            - media_content_type: music_assistant
              media_content_id: playlists
            - media_content_type: music
              media_content_id: library://playlist/384
          browse_entity_id: media_player.assist_voice_pe_living_room_media_player
      enqueue: play
mode: queued
max: 10

Resume the playlist using play/pause toggle.

alias: music 3 resume
description: ""
triggers:
  - trigger: door.closed
    target:
      entity_id: binary_sensor.group_front_door
    options:
      for: "00:00:00"
conditions:
  - condition: state
    entity_id: input_boolean.music_playlist_resume
    state:
      - "on"
actions:
  - action: media_player.media_play_pause
    metadata: {}
    target:
      entity_id: media_player.assist_voice_pe_living_room_media_player
    data: {}
mode: queued
max: 10

[OzGav]

The queue should not be cleared. I suggest you pause the player and then watch the queue in the MA UI to see if it suddenly is cleared and then check the logs.

Also check that you targetting the actual MA entity. So go to HA SETTINGS >> DEVICES & SERVICES >> INTEGRATIONS >> MUSIC ASSISTANT and find the VPE and get the actual entity id from there.

[Touch-of-Ink]

The queue is definitely clearing. I found a work around by transferring the playlist to another VPE and then pausing it. Then transferring it back to the original VPE when I want it to resume.

Of course, what's weird is that the queues on my other VPE aren't clearing unless I actually add that to the automation. But they have smaller playlists. Is there a queue size limit?

[OzGav]

There aren’t many reasons why a queue might be cleared. Can you replace the entity id of the target VPE in your automation to the “good device” which seems to be holding its queue. If the problem moves to that device then the problem is in your automation and you should look at the traces. If this new device works fine then I would change the entity id for the problem device to make sure some other automation isn’t targeting it.