Autostart/autoplay/resume not working anymore

[dafrizz]

Plan

Premium

Device

Samsung A52

Operating System

Android Oreo

My Question or Issue

Up until recently (fee weeks ago), I would see the following behaviour when connecting my phone to a Bluetooth device:

- when connecting to my car, Spotify would start and resume play where I last left off, usually a playlist

- when connecting to my Bluetooth headphones, I would press the play button on my headphones and Spotify would start and then resume playback (as above)

This is now no longer the case. I have to start Spotify on my phone and then I can start playback. I did not change any settings and can not find any settings that would influence this behaviour.

Anybody know what is happening ? Thanks.

[dafrizz]

Hi folks,

Thank you for your replies.

We've consulted about this with the teams in charge and in turn, they made the proper investigations backstage. In this case, we can confirm that this behavior is expected due to how the specific Bluetooth device is designed to interact with the Spotify API and how the operating system presents notifications, specially on Android 10 and 11.  However, we’re constantly optimizing our app, so this behavior might change in future updates.

@TheCheat54 About the two instances of Spotify, we suggest you take a look at this thread which has handled that specific issue and shares a possible solution. 

We thank you all for your reports, please make sure to always keep your app up to date so you don't miss any important updates or fixes.

Let us know if you have any questions.

[Novy]

Hey there @dafrizz, 

Thanks for reaching out here in the Community, and welcome 🙂

We'd first recommend performing a clean reinstall of the app. This is often an overlooked step, but it can be helpful to get rid of any cache that might be causing trouble. 

If this doesn't do the trick, could you let us know if the same thing happens when you log in to your account using a different phone and then try to connect to a Bluetooth device? 

We'll be on the lookout for your reply. 

[dafrizz]

I tried both (reinstalled on my phone, logged into my account on a different phone). Neither s

[Alex]

Hey @dafrizz,

Thanks for the post.

Can you check if there are any firmware updates for your Samsung phone and let those install?

Also, check if playback doesn't start if you connect another device, like a laptop to your BT headphones, or does it work as expected.

We'll be on the lookout for your reply.

[TheCheat54]

I came here to post this thread myself, but thankfully this one is already active. I am also experiencing this issue.

From what I can observe, it appears that Spotify is "going to sleep" for lack of a better phrase. This appears to happen after anywhere from 5-30 minutes of it not being used. When it is in this "sleep" state, it does not accept commands from any Bluetooth devices until it is "woke up" by either opening the app or pressing the tiny play button on the notification bar.

Please look at these screenshots. On the left I have shown what the notification bar looks like when the app is asleep; no Bluetooth commands are supported in this state. On the right I have shown the normal previous/play/pause/next controls, at which point Bluetooth commands are working normally.

https://imgur.com/a/CMIRQRb

When pressing the tiny play button on the "sleep" state notification bar, that additional notification "Spotify is trying to play..." pops up underneath it as it is trying to wake. This used to pop up whenever my Bluetooth devices would initially connect and attempt to play, same situations as dafrizz described, so it makes me think Spotify is somehow not listening for the commands anymore. To clarify, I have Spotify set in Android to be ignored for sleep and deep sleep background states.

This has been going on for the past month. It is a major convenience issue because I am typically *not* carrying my phone outside my pocket when I put my earbuds in or get in my car, yet I am forced to take it out of my pocket in order to wake Spotify so that my Bluetooth device will play.

[dafrizz]

No firmware updates available.

BT headphones also do not work anymore.

Looks like I am not the only one experiencing this problem and it seems to have started around the same time

[Alex]

Hi folks,

Thanks for the posts.

@TheCheat54, Thanks for the detailed description of the troubleshooting you've gone through.

It would be great if you submit the following info so that we can look into this further:

• Device make, model and exact OS version
• Spotify version
• Bluetooth headphones model
• Does this happen if you connect the headphones to another device, like a laptop

Keep us posted.

[TheCheat54]

OS: Android 11 build RP1A.200720.012.G998U1UES4AUH9

Device: Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G

Spotify: 8.6.64.1081

Headphones: Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro

The headphones do not experience sound playback issues when connecting with other devices (and as I mentioned, the Spotify issue is reproducible on my car's Bluetooth which unfortunately points to Spotify as the common denominator).

[TheCheat54]

Update to this: In the past 2 days (I think since I picked up the update which yielded the Spotify version I listed previously, 8.6.64.1081) this has been failing far less frequently. I went from a rate of 1 out of 20 connections yielding immediate success (success here being "I didn't have to pull my phone out to open the app to start playing") to 4 out of my last 5 connections yielding success.

I'll keep tracking what happens since I'm usually connecting to my phone or car 2-3 times a day. Maybe a fix was already included in that version.

EDIT: Spoke too soon, happened both times I attempted to use Spotify today with a connected device after making this post.

[Alex]

Hi @TheCheat54,

Thanks for the reply.

Can you make sure that there is no Battery saver/ Performance optimization enabled for the Spotify app or the phone in general. Check the case also when a BT device is connected. 

Such processes can hinder the performance of the Spotify app.

Let us know how it goes.

[TheCheat54]

I've set Spotify as a non-optimized app for years ever since it caused some other issue which escapes my memory at the moment. User settings are not at fault here.

[Ver]

Hey folks,

Thanks for keeping us posted 🙂

We've passed your info on to our tech team so they can look into this further.

We'll keep you posted as soon as we have updates. 

In the meantime we'd recommend that you keep your app up-to-date so you don't miss the latest improvements and fixes.

The Community is here for you if there's anything else!

[Xenia]

Hi everyone,

Thanks again for all your reports so far! Our teams are now looking into this, but they are having difficulties recreating the issue.

Just to double-check you haven't missed out a step that might fix this, could you make sure that you have:

• the latest app version installed
• Spotify enabled for background activity
• battery saver and optimizer turned off
• all permissions for Spotify enabled in your phone's apps settings
• followed the suggested steps in this support article
• tried reinstalling the app and cleared cache as described here

For steps how to disable Battery Optimization or Doze Mode on your phone, we'd recommend you head over to this page and pick your device from the list.

If all of the above checks out but the issue still persists, it'd be great if you could share with us the following information, so we can investigate this further:

• device(s) this is happening on
• exact operating system version of the affected device(s)
• exact version of the app you're on
• make and model of the Bluetooth headphones/speaker
• are you able to reproduce this with another phone, Bluetooth speaker or account?
• what troubleshooting steps have you tried and what were the results?

We're eager to get this sorted out quickly, so we'll be looking forward to your replies 🙂

[dafrizz]

Tried all the troubleshooting, no luck

Phone: Samsung A52

Android 11

Spotify 8.6.70.1102

Headphones: Jabra Elite 65t

[Alex]

Hey @dafrizz,

Thanks for the post.

Can you let us know if this happen also if you connect the headphones to another device, like a laptop.

Keep us posted.

[dafrizz]

I tried with a tablet as well, same issue.

[Mihail]

Hey everyone,

Thanks for all your reports and cooperation so far.

We've recently released a new app version which introduces a couple of fixes and improvements. To that end, could you perform one more clean reinstall and let us know if the issue continues? This step will make sure you have the latest version installed plus the added benefit of removing any possible corrupted files from previous installations.

If the behavior continues, please include the exact Spotify version you see at your end and, if you haven't already,  the make, model and OS version of your device. 

Keep us posted. We'll be on the lookout for your replies.

[dafrizz]

Did a clean re-install, same issue, no change.

Spotify version is 8.6.74.1176

[TheCheat54]

I've only had one chance to actually test after doing a clean install following this post. It initially did not work; however, my car tried again after finishing its initial data download it does on every connection to my phone and it worked. No clue why this would be, and doesn't yet guarantee that it would work with my earbuds.

There is also strange behavior with the persistent player-notification on Android. Specifically, it acts as though two instances of Spotify are running. I can left-swipe/right-swipe the notification to change it to the other instance. After being in my car this morning, it's gotten even weirder. The main notification shows the last song that played, while the second notification when I swipe shows the *previous* last song (i.e. before my car session today). Further, neither notification seems to be updating to show what I am playing on my Spotify desktop client right now as was previous behavior.

If I have a chance to get out and walk today I'll try again on the autoplay side. Not awfully optimistic given the weird player-notification behavior.

[Eni]

Hey there folks, 

Thanks for getting back to us. 

@dafrizz, there's a newer version of the app - make sure to update it and then log out, restart your device, and log back in to check if that makes the difference. 

@TheCheat54, we're glad to hear that now it's working fine. Regarding the other issue you mentioned, since it's different to the one most users are experiencing in this thread, we'd recommend creating a new thread. We'll carry on with the help there. 

We'll be on the lookout.