Can't Resume Playing or Mono Sound with My Fort Touch 3.8 and Bluetooth Stereo Connection

[elian]

I have a 2013 C-MAX Hybrid with the latest MFT update (3.8?), TracFone LG34C (Android 4.4).  I am connecting spotify android app (v4.5.0.820) to the car speakers via Bluetooth Stereo.  It will start playing if I use the controls in the spotify app.  Car controls for previous/next track work but if for some reason I try to pause playback or turn off the car stereo and then try to resume playing from the bluetooth stereo input later spotify no longer sends audio or data output to the car - I get "Unknown Artist - Unknown Track" display and no audio until I start playing audio again by using the music controls on the phone. 

Since it's a Tracfone I am using everything in offline mode so I wouldn't think caching would be a problem other than the phone itself has only 512MB of RAM, but plenty of storage I think on the SD card.  The other issue I have is when it playing audio quality will randomly degrade, as if the output switches from stereo to mono, it still continues playback as if nothing is wrong.  I have to restart spotify/phone to get the quality back to "stereo" .. I don't think it's the car because if I switch to another input on the stereo everything sounds 110% better when this happens.

I decided to try spotify since they have a native linux desktop client that is very responsive but having to unlock my phone to restart playing music while in traffic is something that will probably cause me to cancel my premium subscription..

Thanks for any thoughts from the community or spotify techs..