HTML audio can't set currentTime

I am using Chrome. In my dev tools console, I tried the following:

Everything works as expected except last line. Why can't I set currentTime on it?

Also in general, I am finding this whole HTML5 Audio thing to not be very reliable. Is there a robust javascript wrapper that fallsback to flash ?

You need to do something like this (if you use jQuery)

$('#elem_audio').bind('canplay', function() {
  this.currentTime = 10;
});

or in Javascript

var aud = document.getElementById("elem_audio");
aud.oncanplay = function() {
    aud.currentTime = 10;
};

The reason behind for this setup is you need to make sure the audio is ready to play.

Check your HTTP server configuration, in my testing environment ( Chrome 69 on Mac OS) setting currentTime property of audio element works only when the audio source is served by a HTTP server support persistent connection.

If the HTTP server you used support persistent connection, you will found (in Chrome DevTool) the Connection field of response headers of your audio source be keep-alive. By contrast if the audio source is served by a persistent connection incompatible server, there will be no Connection field in response headers.

The status code of your audio source HTTP request will be a reference too, 206 Partial Content for persistent connection supported server, 200 OK for an inferior one.

I had the same problem, and the reason was missing headers on the mp3 file, like:

Content-Length, Content-Range, Content-Type

Why cant I set currentTime on it?

Could not reproduce currentTime being set to 0 after setting to 10. Is 18.mp3 duration less than 10?

var request = new XMLHttpRequest();
request.open("GET", "/assets/audio/18.mp3", true);
request.responseType = "blob";    
request.onload = function() {
  if (this.status == 200) {
    var audio = new Audio(URL.createObjectURL(this.response));
    audio.load();
    audio.currentTime = 10;
    audio.play();
  }
}
request.send();

jsfiddle http://jsfiddle.net/Lg5L4qso/3/

I ran into this problem after I'd started to use the PHP Server extension to VS Code to serve my HTML/PHP local testing. The problem was resolved for me by going back to my old Abysswebserver setup.

So, it's not simply that "you can't manipulate .currentTime on locally served files" but rather that "you need to pick a server that gives you the right headers". The Status entry for my file from AbyssWebserver, for example, read "Status Code: 206 Partial Content" while the one from PHP Server read "Status Code: 200 OK".

There are other differences though so there may be more to this than just the Status entry. See https://github.com/brapifra/vscode-phpserver/issues/85, for a full header comparison.