Chromecast stuck connecting

[Noah-Huppert]

Often when I try and connect to a Chromecast audio or video Spotify will get stuck in the connecting phase.

Sometimes it will play music but still says it is connecting, other times it won't connect and does not play music.

Every time this happens I am also unable to disconnect from the cast device. It usually stays stuck in this way until I exit and stop casting.

I have encountered this issue with 3 different network setups (Campus WiFi Network, Personal router at campus, Other personal router at home) and 2 different setups of Chromecasts (college, home) with 2 different Android phones (2 different Nexus 5X's, same Spotify account [replacement phones]).

Android: 7.1.1
When did this issue start occuring?: About 1 year ago
Steps to reproduce:
1. Open Spotify
2. Start playing song
3. Tap the cast connect button at bottom of screen
4. Select a Chromecast Audio or Video device
5. App will show something like: "connecting" in the bottom space where the cast connect button was
6. Often the app will stay in this connecting state forever

[Joe]

Hi. I'm new to chromecast but I see the "connecting" status when I try to stream a local file (which spotify doesn't support). Tapping another song works for me.

[Noah-Huppert]

I do not have any local files that Spotify does not support. This issue does not seam to have a pattern.

[stonekirby]

I got the same problems, it stays in the "connecting" forever. This is really annoying.

All the other options work fine (connecting to my iMac, Bluetooth etc.) it's just that chromecasts (audio and the normal cast) never works.

And I've tried all usual suspects;

- restarted everything, the router the app the chromecast

- it's not a local file

- etc.

For me Spotify really fails on connecting to chromecast(s). I'd expected better.

EDIT:

@Spotify when is the mediocre Chromecast support improving?  Almost every other music service happily casts...The desktop app does not even allow casting to chromecasts, I have to let my iPhone cast for me?

While I'm not really angry/mad, I am hugely dissapointed.

Current status: Still not casting.

Second EDIT:

Since I'm a developer myself I have a lot of development devices. Up till now I've only encountered massive problems with the iOS devices.

The most of the time the Android devices are able to connect right away. Of the times they weren't able to connect I'd stop the Spotify process and restarted it, which allowed the app to connect again.

Maybe, just maybe, that little difference (being able to stop the process) is the reason why iOS fails a lot. 'Force quitting' the app on iOS never made a difference.

Current status: Happily casting! ...not on iOS though.

[movisman]

Hi,

I'm having a weird issue not dissimilar to this. When I cast to a Chromecast Audio device or group, it usually hooks in first time, however, if you want to change the casting destination, once you select another device, it just gets stuck on "connecting", and never changes state. On most occasions, I can sort this by re-clicking on the device list, and selecting the same device again! Then it usually connects. Really strange. But then sometimes it gets itself in a right twist no matter what you do.

But having to select the device twice is not ideal, very frustrating.

@Spotify, can you take a look at this issue and try to reproduce?

[movisman]

PS. This is on my Oneplus 3, Samsung Galaxy Tab A (2016) and my girlfriend's Samsung Galaxy S7. All running nougat.

Also, if you use Android's built in casting controls to kill the current casting session (via notification drawer) and then change devices, usually it hooks in. It almost seems like Spotify cannot "hand off" or disconnect the previous device properly when connecting to a new one.

[Noah-Huppert]

That sounds very similar to the specifics of what I was dealing with.

Recently mine has also started indicating that it is connected, but then
any time I try to set the time in a song or skip a song it disconnects from
my phone.

After a month or so I got an email from Spotify support. It took a lot of
back and forth but I think they are looking into it right now.

[movisman]

Hi there,

Cheers for the reply. How did you get a proper ticket raised with them? I would like to do this. Really hope they are looking into it.

I am able to reproduce the problem every time across all devices, and the only reliable workaround is, if I want to change the casting device, I have to pull down the notification drawer, pull down the Android casting notification so it displays all the controls, and click the "stop" button. Then, in Spotify, I can select another device and it will connect first time. Spotify should be stopping the casting, but it doesn't, so it either hangs there connecting (until you try a second time) - but even if it then connects, you end up with multiple casts from the same device and things get messy.

Google Play Music does it a bit differently. Once you are casting to a device or group, if you want to switch casting device mid song, you click the cast icon in the app, it brings up the currently selected device with the volume, but only one option - "stop casting". It doesn't display the devices. Only once you've clicked this, can you then cast to another device or group by clicking the casting icon again. So it's a bit more simple and not exactly mega slick, but it works reliably and is way more user friendly.

Spotify need to fix the app so that when you are selecting different casting devices during playback from your device, it ceases casting on the previous one. Either that, or do what Google Play Music does and force the user to stop casting before allowing them to select another device.

If Spotify can somehow make it so it automatically stops casting when another casting device is selected, that would be the best of both worlds. As it is, the functionality is essentially broken to a degree and needs fixing!

I haven't experienced the issue yet where it disconnects the phone when seeking etc, but I've only just moved back to Spotify via a Vodafone deal so need to test some more. As it is I'm pretty disappointed, because I use the casting function regularly.

Could someone from Spotify acknowledge the issue or see if it can be reproduced?

Cheers

[movisman]

Did some more testing on this, and I can replicate the issue on multiple devices, under multiple accounts, on the latest version of Spotify. And it also happens on multiple networks.

Being an owner of 3 Google Home devices and 3 Chromecast Audio devices, the multi-casting / group casting function is absolutely key for me. But essentially it is broken at the moment because of the reasons I mentioned in my previous post. Google Play Music does not have this issue.

If anyone can help me get this raised for investigation I would really appreciate it!

Happy to provide any additional information required.

[Noah-Huppert]

Hey man, glad you are also having luck reproducing this consistently. As I said ealier:

> After a month or so I got an email from Spotify support. It took a lot of
back and forth but I think they are looking into it right now.

[movisman]

Hey there,

Cheers for replying. What kind of information did support give you to indicate they are really looking into it? Do they need any further information?

I think this problem has been around for quite a while from when I briefly used Spotify previously, but I have been using Google Play Music until recently for a good 6 months and this has no problems, so I cannot be certain.

Cheers

[Noah-Huppert]

They directly said they had submitted the bug to their technical team. I just sent them an email asking for an update.

I also linked this forum thread to them so maybe they will actually update us on this forum thread. Although I have absolutly no faith they will do this as it took them a month to even respond to my forum post. And when they did it was via email not their forum

Probably because they know this forum is a useless echo chamber of customers all saying they have the same issue with no response.

[leankuroneko]

I wasn't using Spotify for a while and now I gave it a new try I get this bug...

When I tap on the Chromecast Audio it displays 'connecting', sometimes the Chromecast even starts to play the song, but the app fallbacks to 'this device'. At this moment I'm listening the same song in both devices at the same time... If I change the song or it ends Chromecast goes mute.

Moto G5 | Android 7.0 | Spotify 8.4.16.781 armV7

[movisman]

Hey man,

This is exactly what i'm fearing - that they will simply take no notice of this ongoing issue and we just continue to post in the forum, which doesn't even appear to be monitored by anyone who can actually pass these issues up to the guys who can fix these issues. So in the end it still never gets addressed.

It just feels like a black hole and no real way to raise this. It is a bug and needs looking at. At least you had some sort of email response even though it took a month. I have found their support address so will send an email myself anyway, just to add some weight to the issue.

There should really be a way of reporting bugs officially, so it at least goes onto some sort of tracker. If I am missing something and this is indeed possible, someone let me know!

Does anyone else have this issue when casting to CC Audio / Google Home devices?

Cheers

[Joe]

The community isn't considered to be an official support channel. You can post bugs here and they will be tracked. Just search first to make sure this hasn't already been reported.

You can also contact the support guys direct here.

[movisman]

Thank you. I have posted all the information on the first link you provided.

If I don't get any response i'll paste the same information into the support contact box which you can eventually hit on the second link.

Cheers

[Joe]

Awesome @movisman 🙂 If you post a link to the bug topic here, others will be able to find it quickly and add their support.

[movisman]

As requested, here is a link to my (lengthy) bug topic:

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Ongoing-Issues/Casting-connection-issues-using-multiple-devices-gro...

I hope the devs can take a look at it and tweak how the casting behaves in the app.

Cheers

[Noah-Huppert]

---

@Joe wrote:

The community isn't considered to be an official support channel. You can post bugs here and they will be tracked. Just search first to make sure this hasn't already been reported.

You can also contact the support guys direct here.

---

Although it isn't an official support channel I would have expected a community forum for their product to be watched by at least a couple employees.

It's unheard of. Even companies with casual forums just for talking have employees watch over them. 

Most companies take every chance they can to hear feedback from customers. 

[movisman]

I completely agree with the last statement. Spotify does make it difficult to obtain support, especially as it is a paid for product for Premium customers. I definitely feel a small team of employees should take care of customers on the forums, because we can provide valuable feedback and help resolve issues. Ultimately we are all just after a better product.