[Chromecast] TV won't play audio through Spotify until restarted

[Karthxlr]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Sony Bravia XR A80J

Operating System

Android TV (Android 10)

My Question or Issue

I just got a brand new OLED from sony and I love it, it's got one of the new fancy chromecasts with google tv built in. However, when casting spotify via my phone, the TV won't play audio even though it appears to be working in every other aspect (IE: playhead is moving, songs progress naturally, goes to next song when finished, etc). At first I thought it was my soundbar, but other apps and sources were able to play audio just fine either through the TV speakers or the soundbar. I tried re-casting but the same problem occurred. Then I tried quitting the app and restarting, and same problem. Finally, I tried restarting the TV and re-casting, and THEN it worked. This has happened a few times and the only way to get audio from the TV is to restart it from the system menu.

It's pretty annoying to have to restart my tv anytime I want to play music when cooking or making some coffee!

Other details: My phone is a Samsung S20 FE, TV is connected via WiFi 5ghz, and my soundbar is a vizio connected via ARC.

[Alex]

Hey there @Karthxlr,

Thanks for reaching out in the Community about this.

You can try doing a clean reinstall the app on your phone, following the steps suggested here.

Apart from that you can try connecting both your TV and phone to another network like a mobile hotspot to check whether the issue is caused by the home WiFi.

Keep us posted on how you get on.

[Karthxlr]

This is not a solution and not a problem with the app. This is specifically a problem with the TV chromecast app.

Once again, I can cast to the TV just fine, but it will not play any audio whatsoever until I completely restart the TV. No other apps have this issue and will play audio 100% of the time. Spotify is the only app with this issue.

[CarlosE]

Hey @Karthxlr,

Thanks for your reply.

Try to log out from your account in the TV app, unplug it from power for a few seconds and plug it back, and log back in. If that doesn't make any difference, try restarting your router by unplugging it from power for a few seconds.

Keep us posted on how it goes.

[Karthxlr]

I'm not logged in when I chromecast. I'm not even in the spotify app. This is me casting from my phone to my chromecast w/ google tv SmartTV. My old tv which used smartcast (vizio's proprietary chromecast system) had no issues playing audio every time. The new TV repeatedly does not play audio when chromecasting, even though it appears to be working. All other apps work as intended every time, spotify is the only chromecast app that has given me any issues. 

[CarlosE]

Hi @Karthxlr,

Thanks for your reply and that info.

Just to confirm, did you try restarting your router and unplugging your TV from power? This can be helpful in such cases. Additionally, could you try to cast to your TV from a device other than your phone to see if there's any difference?

We'll be looking out for your reply.

[Karthxlr]

My router auto-restarts on a weekly basis, so I don't think that's the problem. My previous TV didn't need to be unplugged from the power or otherwise in order for audio to work, and the fact that others apps work fine while spotify doesn't supports the idea that this issue is isolated to spotify, not the TV, connection, or internet.

I attempted to cast via my desktop and encountered the exact same issue just now, further cementing that this is a spotify chromecast issue.

[Jeremy]

Hi there @Karthxlr,

Thank you for your reply.

We understand, however it would be great if you can try the troubleshooting we've suggested 🙂

On another note, can have someone log in with their account on one of your devices - such as a friend or a family member. This will help us understand if it's account related or not.

We'll keep an eye out for your reply.

Take care!

[Karthxlr]

My roommate uses the spotify app on the tv, not chromecast. Unfortunately I don't have any other friends who use spotify so I can't test that outside of my own account. I've tried restarting the router and unplugging the TV, and while this is a temporary fix it reverts back to the original issue after some time.  Spotify is the only app affected by this. 

[CarlosE]

Hey @Karthxlr,

Thanks for keeping in touch.

Since your roommate uses the app on the TV, could you ask them to log out from their account in the TV app and then try casting again to see how it goes? If there is no difference, can you ask them to log in to one of your devices and try casting to the TV from their account? This will help us narrow down the possible cause of the issue.

Keep us in the loop.

[Karthxlr]

The issue popped up again and I managed to catch my roommate finally. No difference in which user is casting, after a certain amount of time in the background the spotify chromecast app stops playing audio entirely, regardless of whether the process has been killed or not, the apps are updated or not, or the person casting. I've been running into this exact issue over and over again. The only way to fix it is to restart the TV.

Just to be sure, I tried playing audio from another app and it worked just fine as usual before trying to cast Spotify again to be met with silence. I can confirm that the soundbar/chromecast is not the issue. It's the app.

Edit: I decided to try to log directly into the Spotify app on my TV instead of casting with my phone, and lo and behold, audio worked perfectly as intended. Then I stopped it and tried to chromecast, and I've been met with the same previous issue. It seems the issue is specifically with chromecasting. 

[Ver]

Hey @Karthxlr,

Thanks for the info 🙂

We appreciate you taking the time to try the suggested troubleshooting steps and letting us know the outcome of them. 

If the app for the TV works properly, it sounds like there could be an issue with the built-in Chromecast function for the TV that only affects Spotify.

As we're not the developers of this function and we only provide the API through which this can be achieved, we'd recommend that you get in contact with Sony. You can check with the team there if they have more information about this.

It's also a good idea to keep your firmware up-to-date as it could help in this case.

If you need anything else, the Community is here for you.

[terenceswoo]

Hi @Karthxlr,

I'm encountering the exact same issue as you, but with a different TV (Sony X800H). Did you ever find a solution to this or have you just been using the app on the TV?

[Grekberg]

Jesus christ does the staff even listen???