Cannot select "Your phone" as playback device on Samsung watch 5 pro

[alarm9k]

Plan

Premium

Country

Germany

Device

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

Operating System

Phone: Android 14

Watch: Wear OS 4

My Question or Issue

Hi. I have Spotify installed on both my watch and my phone. When I try to initiate the playback on my phone using my watch, I cannot do so. I can see "Your phone" in the list of available devices, but when I tap on "Your phone" nothing happens.

Reinstalling Spotify on my watch or logging out and then back in solves the problem for a while, but then after some time the problem comes back.

The issue is specific to my watch. Using the Spotify desktop application on my laptop I can select my phone as the playback device and initiate the playback without any problem.

I tried reinstalling Spotify and both my phone and watch. I tried unpairing the watch and paring it back with the phone. It works for some time, but then the problem comes back.

I started observing this behavior several months ago, presumably after one of the updates. Until then I did not have any problems using my watch to start playback on my phone.

[MihailY]

Hey @alarm9k,

Thanks for reaching out and kudos for the troubleshooting you've already tried.

As a next step, can you please go through your phone's settings and make sure that the Spotify app is set as an exception in any battery- or memory-optimizing services? Feel free to reach out to Samsung support for a detailed guide on how to do this.

Let us know how it goes.

[alarm9k]

Hi 👋

Thanks for the tip. However, I did that already (see the pic). I should have mentioned that, I guess.

Also I can control the phone from the Spotify desktop app which means that Spotify is accessible on the phone from the outside. The problem is observed only when I attempt do start playback from the watch.

[Eni]

Hey there @alarm9k, 

Thanks for getting back to us. 

Could you check if the OS of your watch and your phone is up to date? 

Also, would you mind checking if the same happens while using a different internet connection? 

We'll be on the lookout.

[alarm9k]

> OS of your watch and your phone is up to date

Yes, both up to date.

> different internet connection

The only two connections that I have are mobile and my landline. I observe the same behaviour on both. I am quite certain I investigated and ruled out most potential network connectivity and routing problems.

[Eni]

Hey @alarm9k, 

Thanks for your reply. 

We tried this on our end and it worked fine. 

Could you let us know if they're able to use Connect the other way around by asking the phone to play in the watch? That should be working too. 

Also, would you mind logging in to your account on a different mobile device to see if that makes the difference?

We'll be on the lookout. 

[alarm9k]

Hi,

> the other way around by asking the phone to play in the watch

I just performed the test and I was successfully able to start the playback on the watch from the phone. The watch appeared in the devices list on the phone shortly after I launched Spotify on the watch. Then I select the watch from the devices list and hit the play button. The playback starts after about 1-2 second delay.

> on a different mobile device

In fact I already did that. I initially started observing the problem when I had my old phone (Samsung Galaxy S10). I bought my current one (Samsung Galaxy S23 ultra) less that a month ago and I'm still observing the same problem with the new phone.

Happy to help debug it further.

[Eni]

Hey @alarm9k,

Thanks for your reply.

Currently, we aren't able to reproduce this on our end, but we appreciate you bringing this to our attention and will make sure to pass it onto the right team, as we always strive to improve your experience.

Additionally, we'll be on the lookout for more reports about this and if we're able to gather some more data, we'll keep you posted. For now, we'd recommend just keeping the OS and the Spotify app up to date on both devices to receive the latest fixes and optimizations. 

Cheers!

[alarm9k]

Thank you. I guess I will resort to playing the music directly on the watch
for now instead of trying to control the phone remotely. I will post
updates if I have any. Have a good day.