Spotify plays, but no controls are available.

[JGGatlin]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Galaxy Note 10+ 

Operating System

Spotify Version 8.7.10.1262

Android 12

One UI Version 4.0

Google Play Update Feb 1,2022

My Question or Issue

Spotify app will open. I can choose a podcast and press the green play button. Controls for playback appear in the correct locations. 

Phone is locked and podcast plays for ~15 minutes. 

Phone is unlocked but the playback controls do not appear in the notification tray. Open the Spotify app and the controls do not appear in the app anywhere. Even when going back to the screen for the podcast that was playing. 

Also, with no Spotify app will begin to play when connected to bluetooth audio, but the Spotify app will not be running, and controls will not be visible. The only way to stop playback is by closing all apps on the phone. 

Restarting the device only corrects the issue with the first time the app is opened. After this, the issue persists. 

I have checked the power management options, Spotify is allowed to have full power usage and exempt from power management. 

The option for allowing music playback controls on the home screen is enabled. 

Full factory reset of phone and reinstallation of the Spotify app does not solve the problem. 

The issue has persisted for the better part of a year. 

Any help would be appreciated. 

[Musiclover000]

Can you check to see if Spotify is up to date and take a screenshot 

[Taylith]

Hey

I'm sorry to hear you're having issues with playback controls.

Quick suggestion, you can try logging out of your account and back in.

Next up,try and log in on a different device. If all's good, the problem is likely app settings on the device in question. Otherwise,it would suggest it's a problem with the account.

These can still be due to settings, within the app.

If after logging out, logging in elsewhere and toggling with the notification settings you still don't find a solution, check out this thread on troubleshooting common issues.

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Android/Android-Troubleshooting-Spotify/td-p/113082#M6612

Good luck and thanks for reaching out 💛

[JGGatlin · Accepted solution]

I have an additional symptom to add to the problem: 

After playing a podcast, when no playback controls are shown, the podcast episode playback stops at exactly 10 minutes. I timed it 3 times. 

I've figured out a solution to the problem and verified that it works. 

There are two ways to manage the battery usage of an app on the Galaxy Note 10+. (I can't verify if this is the case with other devices. Maybe it's an Android 12 feature, or maybe it's OneUI.  Anyway, both battery management settings cannot be used at the same time. One causes problems, the other does not. 

Setting 1)  Settings > Apps > Spotify > Battery > Unrestricted/Optimized/Restricted

I had this set for "Unrestricted" because I thought this would prevent Android from limiting Spotify's battery usage. 

Setting 2)  Settings > Battery and device care > Battery > Background usage limits > Never sleeping apps (Add Spotify to list of "never sleeping" apps)

When setting 1 is set for "Unrestricted" you cannot add Spotify to the list in setting 2.  

I changed setting 1 to "Optimized" then went to setting 2 and was able to add Spotify to the list of "never sleeping apps". Once I did this, Spotify immediately began working properly. 

You can mark this as solved. 

[Taylith]

Thanks so much for your input, this will likely prove useful to other users in the future.💚
I also think they'll find it easily since you've marked the reply as a solution.
Have a great day 💛