Spotify LAG when open in background

[pappagentil]

Plan

Premium

Country

Italy

Device

Google Pixel 3a

Operating System

Android 11

My Question or Issue

Every time I listen to spotify and eventually my phone screen goes off with the app running in the background, the music starts lagging or even stops. Then, as soon as I clink the wake-up botton, the music starts flowing again. This happens with WI-FI, with mobile data and even when listening to saved songs offline.

I have tried:

- Restarting phone;

- Clean reinstall of Spotify;

- Granting spotify all permissions, including the one to run in background, unrestricted data access and everything that was possible to grant;

- I manually chose NOT to optimize battery only for spotify;

- I disabled the adaptive battery.

NOTHING worked. Please help me fix this!

[daroot1]

I'm also on a Pixel 3a and have the exact same problem since upgrading to Android 11 when listening to music via headphone jack the music became laggy as if the stream was interrupted but the songs were all saved. i just tried to replicate this and while testing i encountered another bug, I'm listening to spotify on my desktop and my phone says i can't switch it to the phone because "This device (meaning the phone) is not available". Hopefully a Android 11 fix will come soon this makes the whole thing kinda useless on mobile

[Jared117b]

I'm having the exact same issue, I also have it with the youtube music app.  It must be an android 11 issue hopefully they fix it soon because this is painful.

[Mihail]

Hey everyone,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community!

@Jared117b and @daroot1 it's a good idea to try out the steps that @pappagentil mentioned in the original post. For your convenience we've expanded them with more detail bellow:

1. This page contains the steps for a clean reinstall. They are more thorough than a regular one and make sure that no leftover files remain.
2. You can double check the permissions of the Spotify app like this: Mobile Settings> Apps> Spotify> Permissions. Allow everything you see there.
3. Exclude the app from any battery optimization: Mobile settings> Apps> Spotify> Battery> Optimize battery usage> select top All (not optimized for apps)> Spotify> disable.

Note: Menu order may differ on different devices.

If that doesn't fix things, you might be experiencing a case of this ongoing issue.  You can +VOTE and subscribe to it, if you haven't already. We'll keep you updated on any updates on the matter there, as soon as there are any.

Hope you find this useful. Let us know how you get on.

[atreotb]

Since the Android 11 update, I have issues with lag in both TikTok and Spotify. The audio will never play smoothly and will often cut off. It will resume a few seconds later. In Spotify, it will not pause the audio, but stop the playback, so that I will actually miss those seconds it wasn't playing.

In my case, wether the screen is locked or not is irrelevant.

[Jeremy]

Hey there @atreotb,

Thank you for your post in this thread.

Can you confirm if you followed the troubleshooting steps that @Mihail provided in here?
 

It would also be great if you can try with another internet connection.

If that doesn't do the trick - can you log in with another account - such as a friend's or a family member's on your device this occurs on to see if the issue persists?

We'll keep an eye out for your reply.

Cheers! 

[Pushevolvester]

THIS DOES NOT WORK!!!!!!!!!!!

[Pushevolvester]

We've done everything there is to do. We didn't make this issue!!!!!!!! We just wanted to listen to music and now this bullsh*t!!!!!!!!!!!

[MafeG]

Hi @Pushevolvester,

Thank you for posting on this thread. 

For this specific issue there may be several causes that depend on the phone, settings, connectivity, etc. This is why we need to narrow it down as much as possible. 

Could you also share with us the make, model and OS of your phone, as well as the Spotify version you're running?

Also, let us know if you currently use an SD card on your phone.

Keep us posted.

[Pushevolvester]

Why? It happens with several different kinds of phones and there are
hundreds and hundreds of complaints.

I have zero faith you will give me a reasonable answer that doesn't blame
me for a problem I didn't create.

Metro G Play, updated to Android 11 and now Spotify can't share the SD card
with chrome or they get confused.

I tried to switch the Spotify storage to internal/device storage and GUESS
WHAT?!? SD and device all just say "connecting..." And never actually work!

Let me guess, uninstall, clean reinstall, clear cache---I'VE TRIED IT
ALL!!!!!!! STOP LYING!!!! YOU KNOW WHAT THE PROBLEM IS AND HAVE NO IDEA HOW
TO FIX IT WITHOUT A BUNCH OF BULLSH*T I DIDN'T ASK FOR!!!!!!!

I literally can't use Spotify at the same time as other apps without it
cutting out and my only options are ridiculous!!!!!!!!!!

Tell Android to patch Metro G Play, Google Pixel and all the other phones
their updates are ruining!!!!!!

Spotify, Android, I don't care who. I'm paying for Spotify, I didn't do
anything to mess up my experience, FIX THIS WIDE REACHING, PHONE-RUINING
PROBLEM!!!