Chromecast playback sometimes stops at end of song

[BFluffy]

Plan

Premium Family

Country

United Kingdom

Device

Pixel 3a

Operating System

Android 11  (5 February 2021 security update)

Chromecast Device

Google Home Hub Max

System firmware version

241809

Cast firmware

1.52.241809

My Question or Issue

Spotify frequently won't advance onto the next song in a playlist. This happens on multiple Chromecast devices and happens if we initiate playback through the Spotify app or by asking the Google Assistant on the Chromecast device itself. When using the Google Home app to see what state the Chromecast device is in it appears as if it is still connected and playing, and using the Spotify app to see it shows that it is still playing however the elapsed time indefinitely continues past the length of the song. So if the song is 2:30 long, the playback time will show 4:00 and keep increasing. Trying to "skip track" does not work. The only solution we've found is to stop the Chromecast device and start playback again (either rebooting it or using the Google Home app to kill the media session).

This issue happens seemingly randomly, however for us usually at least once a day and has been happening for a year on different Chromecast devices and phones. For example last night we listening to a playlist and this morning it still thinks it's playing. See attached screenshot. It really should never get into a state where it's on minute 640 of a 2 minute song!

We use Ubiquiti Unifi access points throughout the house which is rock solid. No other apps or devices suffering connectivity issues. Been trying to get a packet capture of the Chromecast device traffic to see what happens at point of failure but because the issue does not happen on demand it involves capturing a large volume of data which is proving tricky. Would this be of use to the engineers if I can catch it in the act?

The Chromecast devices are on the latest firmware, the network equipment is all up to date and not showing any issues for other services. Given this happens when not using a phone to connect at all it seems unrelated to the Spotify mobile app version, although that's the latest as well.

Other than changing music service, what steps we can take to get this issue resolved?

[Alex]

Hi there @BFluffy,

Thanks for reaching out about this in the Community!

Can you try the following:

• Restart you Router.
• Connect all your devices to a different network like a mobile hotspot and see if the issue occurs again. This will help us check if it's related to your network in any way.
• Log in with a different account. You can try it with the account of another family member or by creating a free account for test purposes. Pleas make sure all devices are connected to that account when carrying out this test. As other users mention that this might be related to the particular account you have linked, read more here.

Keep us in the loop 🙂