Stuttering on Chromecast device

[gygera]

Plan

Premium

Country

Hungary

Device

Chromecast HD

Operating System

Android

My Question or Issue

About a month ago my spotify application started to stutter randomly on my Chromecast device, I'm convinced that problem is only with the application, my internet service got no issues when the problem occurs. I rebooted every device regarding the matter.

There are two things that I have noticed:

- The stuttering doesn't happen instantly after restarting the device only after a couple of songs.

- When it happens If I move forward/backwards in the song just once, the stuttering stops for that song

It became very annoying recently, paying for a service that does not work.

[OscarDC]

Hey @gygera,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community and welcome. 

Since the issue doesn't happen right after restarting the device, would you mind clearing the app's cache to see if it makes any difference?

Also, could you confirm if the behavior also happens when using the Web Player?

Lastly, it would be great if you could test it on a different Wi-Fi network to see if it persists. If you don't have another one available, you can use a mobile data hotspot to test it.

We'll be on the lookout. 

[gygera]

Hey Oscar,

Although I'm not sure how I'm supposed to run the spotify webplayer on a chromecast device,

I can confirm that the stuttering is still present while connected to mobile data hotspot on the chromecast device the same way and not even clearing cache and also reinstalling the app solves the problem.

[OscarDC]

Hey @gygera,

Thank you for your swift response and for the shared info.

To continue investigating this behavior, 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. 

Also, it would be great if you could let someone log in with their account on your Chromecast (it could be the same friend or family member) to see if the issue persists. 

Lastly, it's also a good idea to check if there is a new firmware update available for your Chromecast and let it run. Firmware updates on receivers/speakers and app updates from Spotify's end sometimes get out of tune which might cause issues like this.

Hope this helps. Let us know how it goes. 

[andras3hun]

Hi,

I am also from Hungary and on Premium. I have been experiencing the same for 1-2 months now. There are days when playback is smooth, but then suddenly the stuttering starts randomly, usually during the middle part of a song. It sounds like some buffering issue: playback is garbled, glitchy, lagging more and more, and never returns to normal. That song must be skipped, but usually the next song has the same issue after couple of seconds.

I experience this both with an older Android TV device (both in Spotify Connect and Chromecast mode) and with a brand new Wiim Mini network speaker (in Spotify Connect streaming).

When playing directly on my Android phone (via bluetooth or Android Auto) or from my Windows laptop desktop app the issue never occurs.

Pause and resume, using other wi-fi network or lowering music quality in the settings does not help. A factory reset of the Android TV device and even trying both latest and earlier versions of Android TV variant of Spotify app did not help either. On Wiim Mini I have the latest firmware.

Can someone at Spotify please investigate whether this is a potential server-side central or geographical network issue related to the Spotify cast/connect streams? 

Thanks a lot!

[g0ierli]

Have the same issue for 2 weeks. Only on chromecast. No other devices in the same network have any issues. neither phone nor PC.

[gygera]

Hey, so I can confirm, the issue did not go away.

I've been fed up with this. I've got one more detail to add, when the stuttering occurs the audio part of the song gets laggy but the play time still progresses like nothing happened. The first time this happened to me, my network provider had issues with packet loss, after a couple of days the provider solved the issue and I no longer experienced issues with any other apps, spotify on the other hand remained with the same issue just not that often than before.

[andras3hun]

Just a quick update that with my WiiM player the issue have not occurred for more than a month. Some time in December there was 1 single stuttering during playback via WiiM as well, but that must have been some temporary glitch in my local setup. So for me it seems that issue is more related to Android TV and/or Chromecast mode. Actually in Play Store of Android TV version of Spotify app I have seen comments complaining about stuttering since November 2024.