Spotify Connect stops working on Pioneer wireless speaker

[Karol_Z]

Plan

Premium

Device

Galaxy S10e

Operating System

Android 10

My Question or Issue

I've been using Spotify with my home audio devices for years. I have a Pioneer amplituner (Pioneer SX-N30AE) and two wireless speakers (Pioneer MRX-3).  Everything was working smoothly until around 2 weeks ago. After an app update on my phone, problems started to occur. I play a song, choose a device (wireless speaker) it plays ok for 30 seconds, sometimes a minute and then it stops. The app shows it's not connected, what's more the device is no longer visible on the the list of spotify connect devices. I'm not able to reconnect or anything.  I have to restart the device to make it visible again. What's strange, is that it only happens with the wireless speakers. The amplituner seems to be working fine. 

The only thing that has changed is the spotify app. The firmware and app for audio are the latest version, but hasn't been updated in last few weeks. I tried to reinstall the app app, then even did the clean reinstall and nothing helped. 

How it can be fixed? As in current state the speakers are useless to me.

[Alex]

Hi there @Karol_Z,

Thanks for reaching out about this.

If you've already performed a clean reinstall of the app, which involves deleting the app cache, we'd recommend giving your router a restart, as this sometime helps with such issues. 

Could you also tell us if this happens only when you're playing music from your Android phone or also when using another device or the web player to stream?

We'll be on the lookout for your reply.

[Karol_Z]

I did a clean reinstall and it didn't help. As for the router, it's scheduled to restart every night and it doesn't change anything in this case. I believe it happens only with the android app, managing the music from a desktop app seems to work fine.

[Alex]

Hi again @Karol_Z,

Thanks for the reply.

Could you try performing a factory reset on your Pioneer MRX-3 speakers and check for any firmware updates. 

If that doesn't make a difference let us know how exactly you connect to the speakers - Bluetooth, Chromecast over Wi-Fi?

Another thing you can try is to ask a friend to log in with their account on your phone and try streaming music to the speakers. Alternatively, you can create a test account with another email address. This will help us determine if the issue is related to the account or the phone itself.

Keep us posted.

[BartMarley35]

I have the same problem
I own a pioneer sx-n30ae amp (with wired speakers) and a spotify connect account.

When i play spotify via wifi I get random disconnection between my phone and the amp and the music stops. Happens randomly but regularly. I can't listen to a whole album without being disconnected.

I tried with 2 different phones. I event tried different spotify accounts. Same problem.

I even happened to change internet provider (and router) and still no improvments.

I tried setting the amp through dhcp and with a static ip adress (event with a different dns (8.8.4.4)) and nothing changes.

Of course, the amp's firmware is up-to-date.

No problem occurs when i play music through bluetooth though (but that's not what i'm paying for!)

Any help would be appreciated but it looks like there is a conflict between spotify and the pioneer amp.

Thanks

[Mihail]

Hey @BartMarley35,

Thanks for searching for the answer you need here.

We appreciate the troubleshooting you've done so far, it helps us narrow down the root cause of the problem. It's a good idea to perform a clean reinstall of the Spotify app on your smartphone.  It'll get you the latest app version with all necessary updates and remove any corrupted files from previous installations. 

If that doesn't fix things, you can perform a clean reinstall also of the pioneer app and revoke it's access from your Spotify account. You can then establish the connection again and see of that makes a difference. This Support page can help. 

Keep us posted! We'll be happy to lend a hand if you need more help. 

[BartMarley35]

I don't use the pioneer app as it only launches Spotify but I removed it
anyway.

I tried to clean reinstall Spotify. Nothing changed.

I tried a factory reset of the amp with the same results.

I finally tried to plug an RJ45 câble (a real long one lol) and this seems
to do the trick. After an hour of playing music I haven't suffered a single
disconnect yet. I will keep trying and keep you updated.

The thing is TuneIn radio works fine over wifi while Spotify doesn't..

[Mihail]

Hey @BartMarley35,

Thanks for keeping us in the loop.

We're happy you found a workaround that works for you. We'd be happy to help you get things running over wifi as well. To that end could you send us a video of how you connect to the Wireless Speaker and what happens when you play Spotify on it? That would help us a lot in getting to the bottom of this.

We'd love to investigate this further! We'll be here if you have any other questions.

[BartMarley35]

Hi

I did a few more tests.

First: no disconnect occured over the week-end when using spotify and my amp (wired) so that's great.

Second: i then connected my amp over wifi. I made a video of my phone when i play spotify on my amp (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkNN4zJNd_k).
You will be able to see how i do that. The white dot is where i put my finger. You can jump to around 4'20 to see when a disconnect occurs (sometimes it can happen sooner, sometimes the music plays longer before disconnecting). The music plays on the phone again. The interesting thing is that this time i could reconnect immediately, most of the time i can't reconnect and have to restart the app).

Thanks for taking the time

[Karol_Z]

I did a factory reset on both of the speakers, it didn't help. Actually it's even worse now, as spotify sees the speakers on the list of devices, but says it can't connect at the moment. At the same time the AMP works ok and is visible on the list. I've attached the screenshot, the interface is in Polish, but basically you'll get the idea how it looks like. 



I'm connecting to all the devices via WiFi. It worked flawlessly for around 2.5 years, until the problems started to occur recently after one of the updates of the app.

EDIT

I even tried binding the IPs on the router, as I thought it may be caused by some DHCP issue with multiple devices trying to use the same IP within the WiFi. That didn't change anything either.

[Mihail]

Hey @BartMarley35,

thanks for getting back to us.

This seems like a disconnect due to inactivity. Could you make sure that Spotify has all permissions enabled to run on your phone and is excluded from all battery optimization processes? It's also a good idea to check the settings of the amplifier and make sure that no such restrictions are in place there as well.

@Karol_Z the screenshot indicates that Connect doesn't recognize the devices as being on the same network. Could you connect to different one, such as a mobile hotspot and letting us know if that makes a difference? 

Keep us posted, we’ll keep an eye out for your reply.

[Karol_Z]

I created a new network, on a different router, new SSID, new password, turned off statics IPs, factory reset on all devices. Results are the same, amplifier works like it should, but I can't connect to the speakers.

They are definitely within the WiFi network, they are visible in the list of devices on the router. Speakers marked in red, amplifier in green.

What's more, I'm seeing the speakers in Pioneer app , can listen to the online radio or manage them via app.  So they are online and they are connected to the WiFi properly. Spotify is the only app that claims they are not in the network.

[Alex]

Hi there @Karol_Z,

Thanks for the detailed info and your help in troubleshooting this.

We're afraid that we won't be able to help you further with this from our end. 

We suggest you reach out to our Customer Support team from this page, as they can escalate this case to a higher support tier. You can link them to this Community thread so they can get up to date with the discussion and the info in here quicker.

Hope this helps. Don't hesitate to give us a shout if you have more questions.

[Karol_Z]

I've sent everything and the first thing they suggested is "to check if your app is up to date", so they didn't event bother to read the thread and see all things we've already checked.

So far, this whole thing is the worst tech support experience I had in years.

[Mihail]

Hey @Karol_Z,

We're sorry to hear that and understand how this can cause a frustration.

We recommend that you keep contact with our Customer Support team by replying to the last message you received from them. Point out that you've done extensive troubleshooting with the Community team already and that we personally suggest that the case be escalated to a higher support tier. Link to our message here anew so that the CS team can have a look at all the information gathered so far an proceed with the escalation.

Keep us posted on how it goes.

[Artur_K]

I have same problem with pioneer MRX-3 Spotify app and WiFi connection almost since beginning (few years).
I was using Samsung Galaxy S10, Windows 10. I did few reinstall for Spotify app on Mobile Phone and Windows not helped. Did factory reset on MRX-3 as well.
Recently I bought MacBook Pro and iPad Air, even with fresh clean Spotify app installations problem still exist. If Spotify Web is in use (Chrome or Opera) problem exists as well. Yesterday MRX-3 firmware was updated, not helped as well.
Another Spotify connect devices (Smart TV - Lg / Samsung / Sharp) Yamaha RX-V475, Chromcast Audio, Chromecast 1st generation, 2nd generation do not have such problems.
I'was wondering, do is possible that bug is related to polish specific (means ąśćłę) characters in songs played in Spotify, but even if I'm listenning non polish songs, problem exists, next day I have to restart MRX-3.
TuneIn app works well.

[annestahl]

I have a very similar problem. Deinstallieren everything everywhere didn’t help. 
Spotify does see the pioneer as a device but it cannot connect. Extremely frustrating as it renders a decent stereo system useless. I do hope there is a solution out there...

[Karol_Z]

Well, out of nowhere, this stopped happening to me, at least so far.

I believe it has changed after new android rolled out and I did a factory reset on my phone, but I can't check this, especially that since then the spotify app has been updated multiple times. Nothing has been changed on the router and speakers when it comes to settings or firmware update, so we can rule this out.

I don't know if that's a 100% recommended solution, especially considering that it's rather a drastic one, but you may try it if you are desperate as I was.

[Karol_Z]

Aaaaand it seems I jinxed it, as it started to happen again, literally the day after I wrote my previous post. Good job spotify on still not doing anything about it.

[Ver]

Hey folks,

Thanks for reporting this to us.

If you're experiencing the same issue, make sure to add your +VOTE.

Could you provide us with the following info:

• Device + OS version
• Exact Spotify version
• Pioneer firmware version
• Troubleshooting steps you've tried so far and their results

Once we have that, we will pass it on to the relevant team, who will look further into it.

Thanks!