Connect - volume and timeline greyed out on Windows when playing through Android

[netwiz]

Plan

Premium

Country

UK

Device

iBasso DX300 and Samsung S2 tablet

Operating System

Android 7 and 9, Win10

My Question or Issue

When controlling on Win10 and playing through Android the volume and timeline sliders are greyed out. I think they worked before. The controls are ok if I play through Alexa. I have followed instructions for a clean install on Windows and Android.

The effect is the same on both Android devices strongly suggesting a bug in the Android version (or in Windows ability to talk to Android).

Any ideas?

[netwiz]

I've just downloaded an Android update. The timeline slider now works, the volume doesn't.

It's very frustrating to pay for a product and find oneself shouting into the void when there's a problem. Can someone even acknowledge the issue?

Oh, but it's ok - I earned a badge! Whoopee.

[Alex]

Hey @netwiz,

Thanks for the post.

If you're streaming music from the PC to the phone via Connect and the sound is coming out of the phone you won't be able to control the volume from the PC, as not all devices support this type of remote control.

Let us know the exact Spotify versions of you Desktop and Mobile apps and we'll check this further. 

It would also be great if you submit some screenshots of the grayed out volume sliders, so we can understand more about your set up.

Cheers.

[netwiz]

I'm using Spotify for Windows
1.1.67.586.gbb5ef64e

For Android

8.6.60.1126

Image attached

Thanks for your reply - I'm not clear though why, if you know it's not going to work, why you need the versions or the image? It's also a trivially easy thing to confirm at your end assuming you or a colleague have a Windows and Android machines. 

So I'm unclear. Will it definitely not work or do you need the version info to investigate?

And if it's known not to work why wouldn't it be documented somewhere that I can find and save your time and mine?

Also by the way, if I try to post a message whilst not logged in (by mistake) I get an error message that 'something has gone wrong' (rather than telling me I need to log in), and everything I've written is lost.

I also spent quite a bit of time trying to find out what the Spotify logo by listed posts means but there's nothing. I eventually figured it out.

Also while I'm here, there's an alert that's asking me for consent for a private messenger but it doesn't tell me what private messenger is so I'm going to ignore it.

Each of these little things just add a bit of friction and annoyance to the whole experience. Please pass on to the UX team.

Nick

[Ver]

Hey @netwiz,

Thanks for getting back to us.

Even though our initial assumption has been confirmed with the additional info provided, it's a proven good practice to clarify details, especially when trying to help others remotely with a myriad of possible device configurations. So the info requested was only aiming to confirm a hypothesis.

As mentioned previously, remote volume control isn't supported via all device configurations, and Windows > Android is one of those. There might be specific android phones that, depending on the ROM they use allow this to function, but as a standard it's not a supported control type.

Due to the sheer amount of possible different device connections, a complete listing would be very hard to maintain, but that's why we, at the Community, are here for and will happily clarify any questions our users might have.

We'll look into the error message "something has gone wrong' as we understand how this can be confusing. In the meantime you can confirm your login status by opening another tab and refreshing. The Community also automatically saves drafts of posts to help avoid losing anything you've written, but this works only with cookies enabled and while logged in.

We'll look into adding an alt-text to the Spotify logo, to say that a Spotify employee has replied in this thread, which is what the logo signifies. We appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback with us on this as this might not be obvious from the get-go.

Regarding the private messenger-as the name implies, this is the ability to receive and send private messages on the Community. We'll look into clarifying the text blurb on this as well.

Hope this clears things up. The Community is here for you if there's anything else!