Android widget forgets which song it played after pausing

[electrocutus]

Plan

Premium

Country

Canada

Device

Pixel 4a & LG G6

Operating System

Android 10, Android 11

My Question or Issue

The Spotify widget seems to forget that it was playing a song if I pause and go do something else with my phone. After I come back to my homescreen, the widget is "reset" as if it had never played anything. Clicking on it opens up the whole app, so what's the point of the widget anyway if it only works for a little while?

The same issue happens with the Notification shade. The Spotify notification disappears if Spotify is paused for a while, forcing me to open the app.

I have Spotifiy configured to keep the connection ON in the background. 

Is there a way to fix this?

[user-removed]

Yes, I've tried all the troubleshooting steps.

Yes, I've tried using Spotify with a different phone (Xiaomi Mi Note 10).

I'm running Spotify version 8.6.88.1104 on an ASUS Zenfone 8. Issue persists both with Stock ROM (Android 11) and Lineage OS 18.1 (Android 11), either one tested with latest updates.

I highly doubt that the issue is device-specific, since multiple users with different devices are affected. I personally believe it's more likely that there is a logic problem in Spotify's source code, maybe the software doesn't update the widget under certain conditions which all of the affected users meet. I would suggest checking the code for errors thoroughly & then test Spotify with a wide range of different devices.

[MafeG]

Hi @user-removed,

Thank you for keeping in touch!

After running some tests from our side we believe this may be a case of the Android OS freeing up RAM space.

In any case, we went ahead and reported it to the right teams. However, please take into account we can't promise or provide a timeline for a fix since we weren't able to replicate it and there's a possibility this is not related to the app itself. 

Nevertheless, we'll let you know about any development we receive about this. 

To anybody else experiencing this issue, please share the make, model and OS of your device, as well as the app version you're running. This will help us keep investigating.

We'll be on the lookout.

[user-removed]

Thank you for investigating this further!

If you're going to report a bug to the development team, be sure to report this annoying one as well: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Ongoing-Issues/iOS-Cover-art-track-title-is-quot-stuck-quot-on-the-... 🙂

Kind regards,

Sebastian

[MafeG]

Hi @user-removed,

Thank you for your reply!

Since that ongoing issue is handling a whole different topic, we suggest that you check the Status Update first to review our response to it. And make sure to open a separate thread here so we can help you with it.

We'll be on the lookout.

[user-removed]

Thank you for fixing the widget bug! Yesterday's update made the widget function normally again. 🙂

As for the metadata bug related to my car radio, I'll check and then open a new bug report.

Thanks for listening to your customers! Have a nice day.

[Alex]

Hey @user-removed,

Thanks for the reply.

Glad to hear that the widget works as expected after the most recent update.

Don't hesitate to reach out again if you have questions.

[DrMatoi]

The widget still falls asleep for me after the update.

Back in the day I used LogCat Reader to look into this, and I think there was some event in the logs that seemed to coincide with the widget going blank. Too long ago, I do not remember. I will do it again when I have the time (requires setting up access rights with ADB, plus a bit of monitoring to catch the moment the widget goes blank). Or maybe someone who is more experienced with this kind of stuff can do it faster... 🙂

[DrSleeplover]

my widget also falls asleetp

Spotify version: 8.6.94.306 ( google play store offers no updtes)

[MafeG]

Hi folks,

Thank you for keeping in touch. 

After investigating this from our side, we've concluded that this may be related to a number of factors such as the OS, factory settings and limitations from certain devices. All of this causes the widget to stop refreshing after being paused for some time. 

Because of this, this is something we can't fix from our side. However, with each update we keep working on improving the optimization of the app, so please make sure to keep your app up to date so you don't miss any important fixes or features.

If there's anything else we can do for you, the Community is here for you.

[user-removed]

I can add a piece of vital information that might shed some light on this.

Directly after the last Spotify update was installed a few days ago, my phone showed a notification "Spotify is trying to play music..." directly after rebooting the phone. It also immediatelly loaded the widget with the last song that I played, without further user interaction. Even with the Spotify App closed before rebooting, so that the App was still closed after reboot.

I can also confirm that I can now play music via the widget WITHOUT the App running.

Therefore, I conclude that there seems to be some kind of Spotify service daemon running in the background that was successfully loaded and stayed on. This was NOT the case before, while my widget didn't work. Now it is. So it has to be related to that. Whatever this daemon/service is, it seems to be broken in those users who experience the issue.

I therefore urge Spotify, on behalf of all the other users who still experience this very annoying issue, to further investigate this problem with this new information.

Maybe this helps others! 🙂
No idea why mine works now. This may indeed be related to different device configurations, but also to the way the Spotify app interacts with them.

[Kiril]

Hey everyone!

We're back with some more info from our internal teams.

We brought your reports to the right people for further investigation and they are aware of this behavior. For now we're afraid that due to technical and hardware limitations this behavior cannot be remedied with troubleshooting or tweaks from backstage.

Our teams will continue to work with Android to improve the performance but we're not able to provide any end date for the time line.

Hope it gets sorted out soon. If you need anything else, the Community is here for you.

[JBanat]

Same problem here. Super irritating. I use Spotify with Bluetooth headphones to play/pause music. If I leave Spotify paused for too long, it 'forgets' it was playing anything and I am unable to play music again using the headphones. I am forced to restart the app using the phone. Seems like a basic function for spotify to remember what it was playing

[JBanat]

To continue from my post above, I am using a Samsung S21 Ultra and Spotify Premium, app version 8.6.96.422. I have performed all suggested fixes (app reinstalled, cache cleared, data cleared, background usage is enabled etc...) and nothing has worked. I have noticed that Spotify sometimes thinks it is offline even though there is an internet connection. I am thinking that if Spotify thinks it is offline, it decides to forget the currently paused song. Might be something to look into! 🙂 

[SkeletorRage]

Hey just noticed this issue on mine aswell, it looks like It forgets that its running in the background, even with unrestiricted power access. Same bluetooth problem that you have aswell,  Spotify will be running in the background, won't use it for sometime and tap to play on my buds, nothing happens. 

[SeebsSeebs]

Im glad i found an active thread where others are experiencing the same issue as me. Similar to everyone else, I also am having these issues. 

1. play music on bluetooth device (ive tried multiple, same result for all)

2. pause the music and lock the phone

3. wait ~5-15 mins

4. when trying to resume the music on the bluetooth device, nothing happens, and the widget is now blank. 

5. to get music to start working, manually open spotify app, then play the song.

This is a relatively new issue to me, and it started ~2 weeks ago. I have spotify premium 8.6.98.900 on a Samsung Galaxy S10+ running android 12. I have turned off battery optimization for the spotify app, gave the app ALL permissions, did a clean re-install of the spotify app, unpaired & repaired multiple bluetooth devices, and none of it has worked for me...

I know this is a Spotify specific issue, as I am not experiencing this issue when using any other music app on my phone (soundcloud & AIMP)

[JBanat]

A potential temporary solution is to use "Spotify Lite". It seems to be able to play a song after some time being paused. 

[SkeletorRage]

Just downloaded spotify lite too see if it was able to play music after being pause after some time and it seems like it does, weird

Going to test this tommorow as well

[SeebsSeebs]

Is there a reason why Spotify Lite is not compatible with my Samsung Galaxy S10+? I am unable to find it on google play on my mobile device, and when searching for the app on my desktop, im seeing google play tell me the app is incompatible with my phone.

[SkeletorRage]

Tried the spotify lite, and while it seemed to have been a fix, it too has the same issue where after a while, it will not play after being in the background after a while of no use. 😞 

[sarkanyt]

Hi!
I forgot to write, but I tested a lot. (Btw I am a test engineer, and I had time to do that). So I tried all of the troublshootings in this thread, but those do not solve the problem. As I wrote the widget stops working exactly after 10 minutes. I tried multiply times to figure out what causes this, but I still don't know. It is strange that sometimes the widget works after 10 minutes but it is rare. Please do something with this issue, it is really annoying. I think the "10 minutes information" can be enough for your test engineers and developers to figure out whats going on with your app.