Android app crashes during playback after a few minutes

[ErnstSl]

Plan

Premium

Country

NL

Device

Blackview BV 9900 Pro

Operating System

Android 10

My Question or Issue

Hi there,

The Spotify Andoid app crashes every time after a few minutes playback.

It does not freeze, it stops competely (also dissapaers from memory).

I’ve read simular posts and followed the solutions mentioned there: clear cache, clear data, uninstall en install again. Rebooting phone also no solution.

Problem started when I changed phones. App worked fine on prvious phone.

No netwerk issue, and account plays fine on other devices. MacOs, IOS.

Please help.

[banner_nz]

Had the same issues..... most of the time the app played one song complete fine, but it will crash about 10 secs into the next

I have even done a full reinstall of the app

[CarlosE]

Hey folks,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community!

Just to confirm, did you follow these steps when reinstalling the app? Those are for a more thorough reinstall.

If that didn't make any difference, try restarting the app twice in a row so it can resync.

Additionally, make sure that there aren't any optimization or cache clearing apps/settings enabled for Spotify.

Keep us posted.

[ErnstSl]

Dear Carlos,

thanks for posting your reply.

I did follow the instructins you refer to before posting my first message. As I wrote, I looked for solutions online and this suggestion came up, so ofcourse I tried.

Unfortunately it doesn’t work for me. The app chashes completely after about 5 minutes playback.

Any other suggestions?

Regards,

Ernst

[Jeremy]

Hi there @ErnstSl,

Thank you for your reply and confirmation.

If you have an SD card we suggest that you uninstall the app > turn off your phone > take out your SD card > turn on the phone again (without the SD card) > reinstall the app since the card can be corrupted.

We'll keep an eye out for your reply.

Take care!

[ErnstSl]

He Jeremy,

I appreciate the help from you guys, but again, this is not the solution I’m awaiting. 

I have no SD-card in my phone.

So I’m still anticating a working solution. I listen to Spotify quite often when I’m on the road, and that’s now not possible. Don’t pay voor a premium plan which only works at home.

Thanks again for rethinking it over!

Ernst

[Jeremy]

Hi again @ErnstSl,

Thank you for getting back in touch

If you have any cache clearing or battery optimization apps, can you add Spotify as an exception?

Since you mention that it works as it should when you're home, can you let us know if this happens just in general when you leave the house, or when for for an example, connect it to a car etc..

It might be worth trying a different internet connection to see if the issue persists.

We'll be on the lookout for your reply.

Take care!

[esgall97]

Hello. I have the latest spotify app from google store and i still have the problem like author of this post.

Im using Poco F2 Pro 

System: Android 11

Miui 12.5.3 but the problem was at miui 12.5.x too.

Region Poland

Plan Premium 

I event reinstalled android for cleaning phone like factory reset. I reinstalled app too. battery optimization  is turned off for spotify and its on autostart too.

The problem still exists.

As OP wrote its stops and app is turned off

[ErnstSl]

Hi Jeremy,

I did not wanted to give the impression that the apps works fine at home. It does not, the android-app chrashes everywhere, regardless location or way the phone is connected to the internet. 

In my earlier post I just stated the other ways for conneting to spotify work oke (iPad-app and Mac-notebook). So the problem is not related to our plan.

I appreciate your replies, but please come up with one that

Is working for me (and others as I notice),

Regards,

Ernst

[MafeG]

Hi folks,

Thank you for your replies. 

@ErnstSl Usually, every case is different so we need to narrow this down as much as possible. Could you confirm if this issue happens only when you're connected to the internet, or if it also happens when you've activated the Offline Mode? 

If this doesn't work, can you log in with another account, such as a friend's or a family member's to see if the issue persists? Alternatively, you can create a free account here, just make sure you're logged out of your own account before creating a new one.  

@esgall97 Please let us know if you've followed the other steps shared across this thread, such as removing the SD card (in case you use one). Also, check the suggestions I just shared and let us know how they work for you.

Keep us posted.

[ErnstSl]

Hi MafeG,

thank you very much for your help, these are well-thought questions.

As for the internet connection, I downloaded a few songs and put my phone in airplane-mode. On playback it did not even get to the end of the first song, within 3 of 4 minutes the music stopped and the app was gone from memory, same as with the internet-connected playback.

Your second suggestion it did not try yet, Are your sure this has to be stested? Again, playback on other devices with the same account work without any problem.

And to give a clue which might make the problem unsolvable, all this started when I changed my phone. Somewhere in the beginning of this thread you can read brand, type, android version. It can be related to this phone…

On the other hand, I read simular posts (even in this thread) from people with other phones and other android versions, so I’m not totallly on my own with this problem.

So, yes, problem occurs off-line also and let me know if you insist in trying from an blank new account or if you have any other suggestions. Appreciate your help.

Ernst 

[Eni]

Hey @ErnstSl, 

Thanks for all the info you've sent so far. 

No worries, there are also a few other things we can try. Can you make sure that Spotify has all necessary permissions enabled?

1. Open your Settings menu.

2. Scroll to the bottom to find Spotify and open the app settings.

3. Enable everything you see.

It's also a good idea to exclude the app from any Battery optimization software that might be active on your smartphone.

On another note, would you mind checking if the OS of your phone has any pending updates?

Let us know how it goes.

[ErnstSl]

Hi Eni, thanks for your reply.

It took a while for me to react, because I’ve tried to do some further research and made a discovery.

First, your remarks and questions:

I gave the Spotify app all the possible permissions, with some hesitation, because I really don’t know why the app should have access to my contacts, f.i. It did not solve the problem. 

Battery optimalization is disabled for this app (it was already, so no change).

There are no pendings update for the OS nor the app.

Then my discovery: There is defintily a relation with the screen blanking. I played with the time-out settings for the screen and as long as the screen is on, the app plays fine. After 1 minute screen-blank the apps chrashes. So with a setting of 2 minutes, it chrashes after 3 minutes playback, change the setting to 10 minutes, and it chrashes after 11 minutes. And, when i’m working on the phone, the app keeps playing as well and crashes as soon as time-out plus 1 minute is passed. The app does not have to be on the screen, i can use other apps as well without problem, as long as the screen is on.

I hope this gives you over there a new clue for a solution I can try. I admit it looks like the app is put to sleep but I assure you it set for “not optimalised” in batterymanagement, like Signal/WhatsApp etc.

Looking forward to hear from you again,

Greetings,

Ernst

[Alex]

Hey @ErnstSl,

Thanks for the post and for going through this troubleshooting with us.

It would be great if you can try logging in with another account on the phone, which is having issues. This way we can be sure that it's a phone related issue.

Regarding the Offline mode, let us clarify. Spotify has a dedicated offline mode, which allows you to play downloaded content, without the app connecting to the internet, while the phone can still have an internet connection. To switch this one go to Settings > Offline Mode. Let us know if the app crashes in this mode as well. This will help us see if the issue has something to do with corrupted cache on your phone.

Keep us posted.

[ErnstSl]

Hi Alex,

thanks for your reply.

 I’ve followed your requests, here are the results:

1) The problem also occurs with playback in the spotify-off line modus,  after one minute blank screen the apps chrashes ans dissapears from memory.

2)  I removed the app from my phone, first cleared cache and delayed settings. Then I created a complete new free account and downloaded the app again. It was really new, all kinds of first-time questions about music where asked. I played a song and again, after one minute playback with screen-off the app crashes and disappears from memory.

So, here we are again. What’s next? Is there any “next”…?

And please tell me how to remove this new account completely, I don’t want it to exist anywhere in your databases.

Regards,

Ernst

[Eni]

Hi there @ErnstSl,

Thanks for getting back in touch and for all the info you've sent so far. 

No worries, we're here to keep helping you 🙂

Could you let us know how much available storage space does your phone have?

On another note, would you mind sending us a video of the issue happening so we can take a closer look? You can send a link to it or attach it using the Insert Video option in the post editor.

Lastly, you can close the free account you've just created following the steps here. 

We'll keep an eye out for your reply.

[ErnstSl]

Hi Eni, nice meeting again and thanks for your reaction.

My reply to your remarks:

1) My phone has at present 105 Gb free storage (internal memory, no SD-card)

And as mentioned befory, Spotify is allowed to read and write to it.

2) Your request for a video. If you’ve read my earlier posts (I’m sure you have) you noticed that I indicated when the app chrashes completely: approx 60 seconds after the screen goes blank. No matter if I blank it by hand or if it reaches the automatic time-setting for that (and no matter if that is set to 1 minute, 10 minutes or whatever, it happens always 60 seconds after that period has passed).

So I can record a video which shows the app playing with screen on, than a blank screen for 60 seconds and then the music stops. You’ll be staring at a black/locked screen for a minute and I doubt if that does anything for further clearifying the matter.

And to mention all (did so before): when I unlock the screen the app is not in memory anymore, I’ve to start it again from the app-drawer. It starts fine, even resumes the interrupted song and the whole process start all over again. As long as I’m bizzy on the phone, music plays fine, but 60 seconds after lock-screen it stops.

We’ve been on this for several weeks now, I travel on my working days by train and enjoyed Spotify. That’s not possible for quite some time now, and in stead of recieving rather silly “badges” for posting etc, I’d appreciated a working solution for my payed Spotify plan.

Regards,

Ernst

[Alex · Accepted solution]

Hi @ErnstSl,

Thank you for going thorugh this troubleshooting with us and the additional testing that you've done.

This really sounds like your phone has some backstage app-killing service/ process that might be built into the specific Android ROM of the device. 

We recommend you go throguh the solutions listed here: https://dontkillmyapp.com/blackview and to let us know if any of those work. If none of them do, this unfortunately and most likely cannot be prevented on this current phone as it probably kills the app on the OS level.

Keep us in the loop on how you get on.

[ErnstSl]

Dear Alex,

I’m glad to let you know the problem is finally solved!

The link you provided led to the solution, not the first part, been there done that, but the part about the white-list.

It turned out Spotify was not on the white list, so therefore after a minute is was killed.

After adding it to this list all worked fine, much to my relief of course.

I’m a bit embarrassed now, it seems to me this is something I should know and tried first,but I must admit I never heard of a white list. I assumed the battery-optimizing options which we went trough before were all there is on this issue. And I must say, you guys did not mention this earlier to me, or is this a manufactor-related option?

Anyhow, glad it works!! Thanks for you’re ongoing support.

Ernst

[MafeG]

Hi @ErnstSl,

Thank you for keeping us in the loop!

We're happy to know everything is back to normal. After all the info you shared with us, we suspect this has something to do with the app being stopped in the background. This is very device specific and we ourselves aren't familiar with your type of phone, so it took us some time and research to find out more info. 

Again, we're glad that it's working fine and we wish you a happy listening.

If you need a hand with anything else, the Community is here for you.