Android app doesn't correctly register media playback

[esist]

Device

OnePlus 5T

Operating System

Can repro on all versions of Android released, with all versions of Spotify to date.

My Question or Issue

 So I have this weird bug that appears on my phone after Spotify has been there for about 3-4 weeks. It reappears consistently, but exactly what triggers it, I can't be certain. It seems the app enters a state where it is "vulnerable" to the issue, separate from whether the issue is actually occuring or not. The vulnerable state happens after about 3-4 weeks as I said. The issue then presents itself intermittently till I forcibly resolve it.

The symptoms are as follows:

1. Spotify loses track of what it is playing, and often, that it is playing music at all. That is, in app the lower "Now playing" bar is either incorrect (doesn't match the audio) or is missing (even while music is playing). Interacting with it (swiping left or right) produces unpredictable results.

2. Notification doesn't appear in status bar.

3. External media controls don't work: pause/skip actions with external headsets etc. don't work.

4. Because it seems the playback isn't registered/interacting with the system correctly, unplugging a headset does not pause the music: it will start to play throught the loudspeaker instantly.

Everytime this issue occurs, it can be fixed for a brief period of a few hours by force-stopping Spotify. Restarting the phone does not fix it -- actually the opposite; if I want to re-trigger it with 100% certainty (when the app is already in the vulnerable state), restarting the phone will bring the issue back, until the next time I force stop Spotify.

The only way to stop the issue recurring for an extended period of time, is to clear all of Spotify's storage from the phone (and the "vulnerable state" will reset back to normal for a few weeks). But I have offline tracks which are locally-transferred (not available on Spotify's catalogue) so redownloading them every 3-4 weeks is an enourmous pain.

I can't reproduce similar behaviour on any other music player. Has any one else experienced this, or have any idea how to debug?

[TomLegend]

Hey @esist,

Thanks for posting!

It's worth resetting your offline devices to see if this helps. To do so, just head to Offline Devices on your Account Overview and click the 'Remove All Devices' button. As a heads up, you'll need to redownload your offline tracks once you click the button - so it's best to do this when you have access to WiFi.

Appreciate it might take a while to see if this helps, but let us know how you get on.

/T

[esist]

So is this a known issue or something? Because otherwise I don't get why this would be anything more than a temporary fix, like when I force clear the app data.

[Jemi · Accepted solution]

Hey @esist,

There are actually two threads related to what you're experiencing here and here that are currently being investigated. We're trying to solve this as quickly as we can, but make sure to hit a +VOTE and comment the relevant info to get updates about this.

Let us know if there's anything else 🙂

[esist]

Awesome. Thanks. Tried very hard to find if this was already reported somewhere but clearly missed that