[Android] Keep widgets from going blank on Android

[azp01]

The android widget goes blank after a few minutes of not playing music, even if Spotify is open in the background. Therefore to start listening again, instead of just playing play on the widget as I'm sure your supposed to do, you have to reopen the app and press play on there. The widget should keep info permanently, or at least have the option to, so that if I want to resume playing after a period of time, I can literally press play from my homescreen. I'm sure I've used music players such as apple which even if phone has been restarted the info is still there. Please look at adding this option as without it the frustrating widget is pretty much useless

[CarlosE]

Hey there @azp01,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community and welcome!

We moved your post to the relevant Help Board as this sounds more like an issue than an idea.

We tested it on our end and the widget did start the playback even after a few hours of not playing music. Try logging out from your account > removing the widget > restarting your phone > logging back in and adding the widget again. Any better?

If this behavior persists, make sure that there aren't any optimization settings enabled for Spotify in your phone's settings and that it has all permissions.

Keep us posted.

[FöB]

It works, but only until I lock my phone. After I unlock it again, the exact same problem occurs again.

[Maria]

Hi there @FöB,

Thanks for reaching out in the thread!

Could you double-check that Spotify has the permissions to run in the background? You should be able to see this in the device's settings.

We can also recommend that you check the phone's battery settings and make sure that Spotify is set as an exception if you're using the battery optimization option.

If that doesn't do the trick, can you let us know what device and OS version you're using, along with the Spotify version?

Keep us posted on how it goes.

[FöB]

Unfortunately it didn't work.

Device: Pixel 7a

Android-Version: 14

Spotify Version: 8.9.16.593

[Eni]

Hey there @FöB, 

Thanks for getting back to us. 

Could you let us know if this has always happened or if it started happening after a specific event such as an update? 

Also, we suggest that you make sure that Spotify has all necessary permissions enabled by following these steps:
 

1. Open your Settings menu.
2. Scroll to the bottom to find Spotify and open the app settings.
3. Enable everything you see.

On another note, could you ask a friend or a relative to log in to their account on your device to check if they can replicate this?

We'll be on the lookout. 

[FöB]

It happens now for about 3 month,

All permissions are enabled

And happens for everyone logging on with their accounts, on my phone 

[Ivelina]

Appreciate the cooperation, @FöB.

Are you by any chance using an SD-card? If that's the case, keep in mind that corrupted cache on it can cause different issues with Spotify's performance. We recommend removing it and giving the app a clean reinstall with the steps in this article. 

Even if you're not using an SD-card, test with the reinstall to see if that changes anything with the behavior. 

Hope to hear from you soon 🙂

[FöB]

I'm not using any SD-Card.

It seems like its the update function. I dont know how frequent your update function for the widget gets called, but it seems it breaks after about 20 minutes after doing what the initial fix in this threat was. It works always the first time, but then it breaks. Probably there needs to be a delay or wait for other functions/methods to get called before the updated widget gets displayed.

[Eni]

Hey @FöB, 

Thanks for getting back to us. 

Would you mind sending us a screenshot of what you're seeing on your end so we can take a closer look? You can attach it to your next response by using the Insert image option in the post editor. Make sure not to send any private info.

We'll be on the lookout. 

[FöB]

That's what I'm seeing.

[AlejaR]

Hey @FöB,

Thanks for your reply and for the info shared.

Would you mind opening your account on a different mobile device? This will help us understand if this is device-related. You can ask for the mobile device of a relative or a friend to open your account there and check.

On another note, we'd suggest you double-check if Spotify has permission to notify you on your mobile device settings. You can go to the app manager on your mobile device settings. Give it a try and let us know how it goes.

If the above doesn't do the trick, we'd like to check, is this happening over WiFi? 3G/4G? Both? Do you notice any difference if you switch the internet red you're using?

Lastly, and just to confirm, do you notice if this tends to happen when playing specific content (such as a podcast or an album)? Or does it happen no matter what content you choose to play?

Keep us in the loop!

[FöB]

It is not my account. It's the widget. No matter which account I use on my phone, it happens. Also tested it on some other phones. On some it happened on some it doesn't. Tested on different devices. It depends on the launcher it uses. Which exactly it is, is for your workers to figure out. It seems like Microsoft based systems and Google phones got the problem, but I don't know exactly.

All permissions are granted, that doesn't change anything. Tried it in every different configuration too. 

It also doesn't matter which Internet option I use, it just breaks.

The specific moment ist, how I said in an earlier post, that it breaks after about 20 minutes (when probably the widget update happens) after I reset the widget like in the original post suggested.

It doesn't matter which content I play or don't play.

Also if the widget breaks afterwards my phone gets frozen after unlocking it, until I lock and unlock the phone again. This doesn't happen since I deleted the widget from my home screen, which also suggests that the update function gets caught in some kind of loop which exhausts the RAM of the phone. 

So deleting/not using the widget seems to be the solution so far.

[Susan_GP]

Hi @FöB,

We appreciate you taking the time to try out all our recommendations and providing all the details.

We’re taking a closer look at the situation, but we haven’t been able to reproduce the behavior from our side. We appreciate your feedback as it helps inform our decisions going forward, but just as a heads up, we’re not able to confirm when this specific issue will be resolved. 

If you know other users who are experiencing this, it'd be helpful for them to report the situation in this thread, along with their device info (make, model, and OS version), Spotify version, and screenshots of how the Widget looks from their side.

In the meantime, we recommend keeping your Spotify app up-to-date to guarantee you get the latest features and fixes.

Thanks for your understanding.