Podcast keeps playing an old episode instead of the next episode

[adebaser]

Plan

Free/Premium

Country

UK

Device

Android

My Question or Issue

This has been happening for maybe 3 weeks. I've been listening to a podcast for years and Spotify has always just played the next episode when it finishes (exactly as you would expect).

But for the last few weeks when an episode ends it plays an episode from exactly 16 episodes ago. It's always goes back exactly by 16 episodes. This is driving me insane. Whenever an episode finishes I have to intervene and make it play the correct next episode, and then when that one finishes, it will go 16 episodes back again.

Why doesn't it just play the next episode in all situations? This seems like a bug that has been introduced. It should be extremely easy to make it always play the next chronological episode after the one that was just played.

[OscarDC]

Hey @adebaser,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community.

To make sure we're covering all the basics, would you mind confirming if you have already performed a clean reinstall of the app on your device? If not, we'd recommend following the steps mentioned in this article. 

If the issue persists, would you mind checking on a different device (using your own account) to see if it makes any difference? If you don't have another one available, you can borrow one from a friend or family member to test it out. 

Lastly, could you confirm if this is happening with all podcasts you've tried or is just a specific one? In case of being specific, could you share the link/URI of the podcast to take a better look?

We'll be on the lookout.

[adebaser]

Why should I need to reinstall the app? There shouldn't be any situation where this happens unless there is a bug with your app. Why does Spotify have so many issues that require reinstalling? It's so buggy.

I tried clearing the cache and all user data, which made no difference. It should just always play the episode after the one you played, there should be no situation where it does anything else.

It was happening on this podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/34mXWuUCEa2UzTft5vxxLp?si=93fdf63446754ee1

Last night I played S03E01, when it finished it played BBC Radio 2 | NYE Show. Then I stopped it and told it to play S03E02, when that finished it played S01E05. It's always exactly 16 episodes behind.

The reCAPTCHA on this page also doesn't work. It says "verification failed" and has no way to retry it.

[Dessi]

Hey @adebaser,

Thanks for the reply and all the info provided!

Can you check what your current sorting options are for the podcast episodes and if they're set to Newest? You can also try selecting a different option from the list, then go back to Newest again and once it's done, start a different podcast and then head back to the first podcast that you changed the settings on to see if that forced a sync. 

You can also try adding the Unplayed filter, if you haven't listened to the newer episodes before, as this should prioritize them. You'll find these filter and sort options under the 'Episodes' tab on the podcast's page. 

It'd be great if you can also test this out on a different device and with a different account (you can ask someone to try and play this podcast), so that we can check if this is account- or device-related.

Keep us posted.

[adebaser]

The list is sorted by "Newest" (I've never changed that).

But I figured out a workaround. If I press play on the listing page next to an episode, then it works and will play the next episode(s) after it. If I go to the episode and press the big play button on the episode, then it won't play the next episode after it when it finishes. It used to, because that's the way I've always been playing episodes!

It's definitely a bug with Spotify. I have to be careful never to click play on the episode (even if I pause it and then play it again - I instead have to go back to the listing and press play from there).

[Jmay09]

• How in 2024 is this still not fixed? I can google and find all kinds of people with this issue. When a podcast episode finishes it doesn't play the next new unplanned episode. It starts one allready marked as played? This is getting really annoying and I will be switching to YouTube if this doesn't get resolved.

Plan

Free/Premium

Country

Canada

Device

Samsung s24

Operating System

(iOS 10, Android Oreo, Windows 10,etc.)

My Question or Issue