Media Element - Persist across pages

[IcemarkUK]

I've just upgraded to latest maui / Community Toolkit.

CommunityToolkit.Maui 11.0.1
CommunityToolkit.Maui.MediaElement 6.0.1
Microsoft.Maui.Controls 9.0.40

My App is a Radio streamer using MediaElement.

I previously handled the foreground audio service on Android, but have not happily been able to remove this.

Two observations..

1. The playback used to persist across navigation. ie: I have the MediaElement on my "Playing" page. This is the home page for the user when the MediaElement may auto start (dependent on settings), or start the playback themselves. Pause. Stop. etc. If the user navigated to any other page, eg: Chat, Settings... the playback used to continue unaffected. Any navigation back to the Playing page would allow the controls to be used. NOW playback is lost as soon as the user navigates away from the page. And navigation back loses any connection to the embedded media element. (This is likely due to ViewModel commands on my part). Is there any easy way to fix this, or do I need a singleton MediaElement controlled off the page? EDIT: Looks like I can fix this with HandlerProperties.DisconnectPolicy="Manual" in the XAML and not calling MediaElement.Handler?.DisconnectHandler()
2. During streaming of the station, I poll a status endpoint to get the current track and the image. This polling can only start after playback has started. If I update the MetadataArtist and MetadataArtworkUrl they do not update on Android. On iOS and OSX they update after the user pauses and restarts the track, either in app or through the OS Lock Screen media controller.

            <toolkit:MediaElement
                x:Name="MediaElement"
                MetadataTitle="Raindrop Radio"
                MetadataArtist="{Binding MetaInfo.Name}"
                MetadataArtworkUrl="{Binding MetaInfo.Art}"
                IsVisible="False"
                Volume="{Binding Volume}"
                ShouldMute="{Binding IsMute}"
                ShouldAutoPlay="{Binding Autoplay}"
                Source="{Binding Stream}"
                MediaFailed="MediaElement_MediaFailed"/>

[ne0rrmatrix]

The media element only updates the metadata on android when you change sources.

[IcemarkUK]

So in this case, the stream, is a radio channel, and the feed of the Current playing track is available. I am updating the meta data as the current playing track changes. Is there anyway for the Media Element to be forced to update?

[ne0rrmatrix]

I have plans to add this at some point to add this. ATM I am trying to help catch up on the huge list of bug reports. Once we have that under control I will look into this.. I have been asked to focus on on bugs and various other things. Feel free to open a feature request here. I would be very happy to assist with that if you need help. Its a community project so feel free to help out and create a PR after having it approved. If it gets enough votes here by thumbs up or hearts we will discuss it in one of our monthly meetings.