Unhappy Premium user...

[PauloON]

Plan

Premium

Country

Brazil

Device

Asus Zenfone 6

Operating System

Android 11

My Question or Issue

I've noticed my Spotify now takes a looooong time to open when I start it.

It was not like this before. Already tried cleaning, reinstalling and everything.

Probably you've messed up something like you did to the bluetooth meta info.

Please, stop deploying glitchy updates. It's becoming very annoying to be a Premium user and have to deal with these "downgrades" every time.

Also, I have thousands of songs but shuffle keeps repeating his "favourite" ones. What a lame. You're going to loose a bunch of customers.

Rgds,

Paulo.

[Kiril]

Hey @PauloON,

Thank you for posting on the Community.

Good that you've done some troubleshooting steps already! Let's try resolve this situation together with a bit more info from your side. Could  you share the version number of the Spotify app that you currently have on? Assuming your internet connectivity is not responsible for the issue here, then such a slow start of the app could be also cache-related. It's worthwhile restarting the app twice in a row to shake things up a bit. This may sound odd but it's how the app does a refresh.

If the above doesn't resolve the situation, then you can resort to a more thorough reinstall, which also cleans your cached data, so it does not get in the way of the new installation - here's how to do it. 

Regarding your dissatisfaction about the performance of the current Shuffle feature, you can add your feedback and show your support to this thread here, where users have already created a discussion on improvements.

Hope you find this useful. Keep us posted if you have any additional questions.

[PauloON]

Hi Kiril,

I'm using verson 8.6.68.1225.
It's not the internet, and I've got all my liked songs available offline anyway.
Its 18 Gb of data stored in my MicroSD card (SanDisk Extreme Ultra).
Some people said if could be that, but then it's another software design flaw because this shouldn't happen, in my opinion.
I'll monitor the slownees, but what's bothering most everyone is this:
https://community.spotify.com/t5/Ongoing-Issues/Wrong-metadata-displayed-on-car-radio-via-Bluetooth/...

Let me know if you have more tips.

Thanks,
Paulo.

[MafeG]

Hi @PauloON,

Thank you for your reply and sharing that information.

You mentioned you're using an SD card, have you tried removing it to test how the app behaves and if it's able to start up normally? If not, please give it a shot, this will help us gain more insights. 

Lastly, it's not very clear to us if you're also having the exact same issue you shared in the last link, about the metadata not showing correctly when connecting to a car via Bluetooth, or if it also happens when connecting to another device.

Keep us posted. 

[PauloON]

I did try to remove de MicroSD card and it indeed load much fast when starting. But now when I put back the MicroSD it was a mess. Spotify did not recognize my card was back, had to change it manually it looks like it's download all musics again. No comments about that.

And, yes, I've also having the metadata problem since last update, and also my wife. The solution it's taking too long that I'm seriously thinking about manually downgrading it. There's a ton of complaints in that post.

That's what I'm saying that you cannot deploy glitchy updates. I'm tired, really.

[PauloON]

It's not only the metadata. Bluetooth has become much more unstable. It's even dropping connection sometimes. Did not happen at all before. You really messed things big.

Also, one thing that stopped working is that I have a Tasker routine that opens Spotify when the phone connects to my car, but it's not working correctly anymore. The app opens "partially" and freezes loading the UI and everything until I turn on my phone screen. Don't know if it is related to the bluetooth problem, or the slowness.

I'm downgrading it. After this MicroSD mess I'm done.

Since I'm having to download all offline again, I'm doing it.

At least it's just going to be the slowness problem.

Think of a terrible user experience....

[Alex]

Hey @PauloON,

Thanks for the reply and the info you've provided.

This seems like you're having a few seperate issues.

Spotify is a software, which needs to be updated. Most updates of the app feature fixes and new content, however they can cause issues with usability on certain devices. This is why we need to troubleshoot all possible scenarios, in order to get to the bottom of what may be causing these issues for you.

Regarding the app slowness - since the app works better without the SD card, what you can do is check the SD card for errors. You can do this with free software available online. If the app has been downloading your offline content on the card, that gets reset once the card is removed, so you have to redownload your songs. This is expected behavious, as the app will automatically re-download content if it detects change of hardware or 30 days elapse. Also, make sure that the card is formatted as External Storage.

Regarding the Bluetooth Connectivity issue - can you let us know if this happens even witouth the Tasker routine, and also if it happens when you connect to other BT devices, like headphones/ Speakers?

We'll be on the lookout for your reply.

[PauloON]

"Regarding the Bluetooth Connectivity issue - can you let us know if this happens even witouth the Tasker routine, and also if it happens when you connect to other BT devices, like headphones/ Speakers?"

Without Tasker nothing happens unless Spotify was already running in background (which usually is not the case). That's why I needed to create a Tasker macro that, when my bluetooth connects to my car, it opens Spotify, sets volume etc. This use to work like a charm even with my phone locked BUT recently even this stopped working, apparently after a Spotify update. Tasker does its job correctly trying to open Spotify, but it does not finish loading because of the phone being locked/screen off. Spotify UI loading freezes and nothing happens until I unlock my phone. This is really annoying since it makes Tasker function useless, and I have to take the phone out of my pocket and unlock it manually every time.

Also the bluetooth meta tag problem that does not refresh persists, which is taking a century for you to fix.

So, basically, its being a terrible experience.

[MafeG]

Hi @PauloON,

Thank you for your reply.

Since we're talking about two different issues here, we'll go one by one. About the issue with the metadata, we're still gathering information and investigating the ongoing issue, we'll post any updates as we receive them in the dedicated thread.

About the slowness, there are many technical reasons why this may be happening. We're aware that on some Android ROMs, the initialization of the external storage is delayed and on top of that its virtualization as Android storage isn't standardized among manufacturers and devices, which leads to issues when an app relies heavily on the OS ROM to handle these things properly.

We're also aware that a one-solution fits-all isn't easy due to all the different systems used by manufacturers, OS, UIs, etc. 

Lastly, since we were able to isolate the issue to your SD card, we recommend you run a factory reset on it, or ultimately try with a replacement. We understand the latest may not be ideal, but rest assured that we'll continue optimizing the app.

Let us know if you have any questions.