Spotify doesn't play in my car.

[Adam1977]

When in car, offline mode, all songs downloaded - the playback stops after the currently playing song ends. The app ignores my car audio controls, I can't resume playback using my car's dedicated button. The playback can be started again ONLY with selecting a new song from the playlist. It's worth noting that after that happens, I can select the song that was previously playing again and it plays without any issues. Everything breaks and returns to the frozen state when I leave the car and start it again. If the playback is resumed automatically - it will stop after the song ends and will not react to any car controls. I will have to select a different song or clear the cache to be able to play music again.

I investigated the problem further. This is now 100% reproducible. To reproduce I start the playback, power off the Bluetooth receiver while playing, power it on again. The playback resumes after a long lag, but then stops in non-responsive state requiring selecting a new song. The Bluetooth power off occurs every time I turn my engine off while the music is playing. I performed a test with stopping the playback before shutting the engine off, then when I restarted the engine the Spotify app seemed to be working normally. I tested if I can select the next song from playlist from my car control and it worked. I haven't tested waiting for the song to end.

This seems to be an error in the latest app update. It occurs on Bluetooth disconnect event while playing. The application hangs, it seems to be playing, but it's in a frozen state. The UI is working, except the "play / pause" button that shows pause symbol, as the app was currently playing, but it isn't.

Precisely - the app breaks when the Bluetooth connection is abruptly ended. Such event should cause the application to enter stop / pause state. Instead the state of the player is incorrectly reported as "playing".

For now I have a workaround for it - just stop the playback before disconnecting. It seems to work for now, but it's very inconvenient. Please pass this issue to the software development team, I can also provide more details if needed.

[Joan]

Hi there @Adam1977,

Thanks for the post. Could you please provide us the following:

• The exact makes, models and OS/Firmware versions of all your affected devices
• The exact Spotify Versions you use.
• When did this start happening?
• Is this on all devices or only on specific one(s)?
• Screenshots or a video of the behaviour

With that info, we'd be happy to investigate. Thanks in advance!

[Adam1977]

The phone is Huawei Mate 20 Pro LYA-L29, build number 12.0.0.143, kernel version: 4.14.116, Spotify version 8.7.90.544, it started happening between 5 and 10 of December, I don't remember exact date. The problem occurs with the car's Bluetooth, that is Baseus BS-01. However, I just tested it with Logitech Z537 Bluetooth speakers. The same issue occurs. To reproduce: take any playlist. Select shuffle play. Play over Bluetooth. Power the BT device off. Power it back on. On Spotify select the next track. The app enters frozen state and refuses to play. UI works, but further playing is impossible (until selecting another song from the playlist, but not with prev / next buttons). Later I'll try to test it on my other phone after updating it.

UPDATE:

The other phone is Xiaomi Note 10 Pro, not updated for over a year. I tried to test older version of Spotify (8.6.28.700) on it, but the phone refuses to reconnect my BT speakers after power cycling the speakers. I'm waiting to update the phone firmware to continue testing. After disconnecting the BT however, the phone seems to be playing into void. No sound, but it looks like playing. After selecting next track it plays back through phone speaker. In older version there's no pause icon. Just white circle. The phone react to pressing it with stopping and then playing normally. I suspect when the phone refuses to connect to BT automatically, it won't work in the car too, unless I would display BT menu and manually connect to the device each time I start the engine, that is just unacceptable. Maybe the firmware update will solve the BT connection issue on Xiaomi Note 10 Pro.

[88colls]

Same thing happening to me on an iPhone 12. Latest iOS updated. Started on December 12. Exactly as described above. 

[mikevv1965]

Yes, same thing happening as described above. Another annoyance that came along with the latest round of updates..

[Alex]

Hi folks,

Thanks for the info you've shared.

We've passed this on to the right folks at Spotify to investigate further, since we weren't able to reproduce this on our end.

Keep your app up to date not to miss any upcoming update.

We'll keep you posted here, as soon as we have more news on this.

[Adam1977]

On version 8.7.92.521 it is FIXED. To be clear here - the bug was reproducible on version 8.7.90.544, but fixed in 8.7.92.521. Thank you for fixing the bug, it was super fast and am very impressed! However, there's no point in pretending the bug didn't exist, bugs are normal and expected thing, since I'm a developer myself I know it's just how software is made. It is simply not possible to go 100% bug free. At least not with fast continuous update stream. Smartphone firmware has more bugs than Spotify app 😉  But the fact that you actually READ users' feedback and fix issues immediately looks really great and shows that the Spotify service is in fact very reliable.

[Lyubka]

Hey @Adam1977,

Thank you for your reply and confirmation.

We're super glad to hear that everything works as it should for you again 🙂 

If you ever have any other questions in the future, feel free to post in the Community again,

Cheers!

[leathernlace]

I have an android Pixel 4 XL.  when I am in the car spotify will play one song and stop or it will play 5 songs over and over again.  I am not technically savvy so in plain, simple english, how do I fix this?

[OscarDC]

Hey @leathernlace,

Welcome to the Community and thank you for joining the conversation.

Since we have a recent update fixing a couple of issues, this one could be related to some damaged cache stored on your phone from previous versions. In this case, we'd first recommend performing a clean reinstall of the app on your phone by following the steps in this article. This is often an overlooked step, but it's more thorough than a quick one and can be helpful in getting rid of any cache that might be causing trouble.

If the issue persists, could you confirm if you're connected to the car via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or AUX? This will give us a better look at the issue.

Lastly, include in your next response the Spotify version you're currently running.

We'll be on the lookout.

[nlrivera]

Plan

Premium

Country

Us

Device

Pixel 6 Pro & MA1

Operating System

Android 14

My Question or Issue

When in offline mode the library shows on Android auto but when opening a downloaded album it just spins and now songs are shown or able to be played.