Drag Loop Highlight implicitly sets playbackRange and restricts playback even when isLooping = false

[AvaTheArchitect]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Current Behavior

Current Behavior

When user interaction is enabled (settings.player.enableUserInteraction = true), dragging across measures creates a highlighted range. After doing this, playback becomes restricted to that selected region, even if api.isLooping is set to false (for example via a Loop on/off toggle).

The highlight is not only visual — playback actually plays the selected range and then stops after one pass.

No explicit call to set playbackRange was made in the application code.

As a result, loop-like behavior can be triggered unintentionally through drag selection.

⸻

Workaround

Disabling user interaction prevents this behavior:

settings.player.enableUserInteraction = false;

However, disabling user interaction also removes built-in click-to-seek behavior, which then requires implementing a custom click-to-seek solution. This can be a complicating process as a result.

Expected Behavior

Dragging across measures should only affect playback behavior when looping is explicitly enabled by the application (for example via a Loop toggle or when api.isLooping = true).

If looping is disabled (api.isLooping = false), drag selection should:
• Not create a visual highlight, and
• Not modify playback behavior.

Loop being off should prevent drag selection from appearing or restricting playback.

Steps To Reproduce

git clone https://github.com/louislam/its-mytabs
cd its-mytabs
git checkout dev-alphatab181
deno task setup
deno task start

1.	Open http://localhost:47777
2.	Load the demo tab
3.	Ensure looping is disabled (api.isLooping = false)
4.	Click and drag across one or more measures to create a highlight
5.	Press play

Playback becomes restricted to the selected range, even though looping was not explicitly enabled.

Link to jsFiddle, CodePen, Project

No response

Version and Environment

•	alphaTab version: 1.8.1
	•	Bundler: Webpack (confirmed), also reproducible in Vite (LouisLam repo)
	•	Browser: Chrome 144.0.0.0
	•	OS: macOS 10.15.7
	•	Device Pixel Ratio: 1
	•	Screen Resolution: 1105×851

Environment log excerpt:

AlphaTab Environment Info - V100.7
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/144.0.0.0 Safari/537.36
Screen: 1105x851
Device Pixel Ratio: 1

Platform

Web

Anything else?

1. This behavior has been present for multiple versions (confirmed in 1.7.x and newer). It does not appear to be a recent regression.
2. The application does not explicitly call api.playbackRange = ... when this occurs.
3. After drag selection, playback becomes restricted to the selected region even when api.isLooping = false.
4. Disabling user interaction (settings.player.enableUserInteraction = false) prevents the behavior, but removes built-in interaction features such as click-to-seek.
5. It appears that drag selection internally sets or activates a playback range that affects playback behavior independently of api.isLooping.

console.log('after drag', {
isLooping: api.isLooping,
playbackRange: api.playbackRange,
});

After the drag highlight appears, api.playbackRange becomes non-null and remains set unless explicitly cleared.

Why enableUserInteraction=false is not a “real fix”

•	Disabling user interaction prevents the issue
•	But it also disables built-in seek / selection UX, forcing custom click-to-seek

[Danielku15]

Your expectation and understanding of this feature is slightly incorrect. The behavior you describe is the intended functionality: Users can select a range of the song and by this limit the playback. This is completely independent from the looping option.

a. Users can select a playback range using cursor dragging. This will limit the playback to the selected start and end tick range.
b. There is a looping option which enables a seek to the "start" when the "end" is reached.

These features can be used standalone or combined.

[AvaTheArchitect]

Hi Daniel, If the playback range and looping are independent, what is the purpose of the toggle switch? My expectation, similar to apps like Ultimate Guitar or Songsterr, is that turning the loop off would disable that behavior entirely. Currently, both my app and LouisLam’s implementation follow the alphaTab documentation, resulting in the following: - Loop On: Users can drag the cursor to select a playback range, which repeats until paused or stopped. - Loop Off: Users can still select a range, but the player runs through the section once and then stops. The highlight remains active. It seems we are unable to completely disable the loop highlight or the range selection during a cursor drag. In other applications, when the loop is off, the player only responds to click-to-seek, and no start/end range can be set. Range selection is only available when the loop is toggled on. Is there something we are missing in the implementation, or are there any videos available that demonstrate the intended difference between these states? Best regards, Brett Bolzenthal

…

On Sun, Feb 22, 2026 at 10:04 PM Daniel Kuschny ***@***.***> wrote: *Danielku15* left a comment (CoderLine/alphaTab#2575) <#2575 (comment)> Your expectation and understanding of this feature is slightly incorrect. The behavior you describe is the intended functionality: Users can select a range of the song and by this limit the playback. This is completely independent from the looping option. a. Users can select a playback range using cursor dragging. This will limit the playback to the selected start and end tick range. b. There is a looping option which enables a seek to the "start" when the "end" is reached. These features can be used standalone or combined. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#2575 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/BNLESQGMFN6PY3G2GHBMA2T4NKKAXAVCNFSM6AAAAACV4AE7WCVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZTSNBSHA3DOMZZGM> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>