Spotify on mac keeps stuttering. Auto quality does not work.

[Chad_Chad_Chad]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020)

Operating System

Mac OS 12.1

I am sick of the constant stuttering/dropping out for a second all the time. 

I have searched the "community" and there is no solution that works.  It would be nice if you had actual customer service / tech support instead of just dumping it on your users, and no, the email option, that warns you it will probably never get answered, is not an option. 

This is my last try at getting this solved. I have used spotify for almost 10 years... but, I think Apple music is calling. I like spotify better, its suggestions and AI, but none of that matters if it doesn't work well. 

[Chad_Chad_Chad]

Hey folks,

Thanks for your patience while we looked into this.

We've heard from the right folks and after some tests, this seems to be related to Apple and the way their hardware/firmware works, hence why some of you have previously mentioned it happening with other apps as well.

If you're still experiencing this, we'd suggest reaching out to Apple's support team to see if they have any comments or resolution to the issue.

If anything else comes up, the Community will be here.

[Ver]

Hey @Chad_Chad_Chad,

Thanks for posting here.

We'll be happy to look into this further.

Could you please share with us the troubleshooting steps you've tried so far? That way we can avoid repeating steps.

If you want to reach out to our support team, you can head here in order to message them. The folks are currently getting a lot of contacts so may be slow to respond.

Keep us posted.

[hbs]

I've also been having this same issue on the same OS, on a "MacBookPro16,2" (intel-based based MacBook Pro). 

Been waiting for this to get fixed as it completely ruins the music-listening experience when you're taken out of the ambiance for ~1second every few songs. 

Why do we have to meticulously debug your problems for you? Doesn't our subscription help pay for a Spotify software Q&A team?

[Jeremy]

Hi @hbs,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community. We'd like to take a closer look into this.

Can you perform a clean reinstall of the app? This will make sure there's no old cache files causing this.

If that doesn't do the trick, can you try with another internet connection to see if the issue persist?

We'll keep an eye out for your reply.

Take care!

[hbs]

I tried a clean install according to the instructions you linked, but the stuttering persists.

[Alex]

Hey @hbs,

Thanks for the reply.

Sorry to hear that the clean reinstall didn't help. There a few other things we can try.

Try switching off Hardware Acceleration from the app Settings. You can also try changing the default audio output device and see if that has any effect.

If none of that works, let us know if the audio is stuttering both for music and podcasts, downloaded or not, and if it's happening when you play music from the laptop's speakers directly or when connected to an external Bluetooth device. 

This will help us narrow down what might be causing the issue on your end.

[hbs]

I tried disabling hardware acceleration, as you suggested. It didn't make a difference--the stuttering/pausing is still there.

This happens regardless of output through my bluetooth headphones, or the computer's built-in audio. 

I don't believe any songs are downloaded on my computer, and I don't really feel like taking the time to download a bunch of songs to experiment with. But this problem doesn't happen at all on my phone, no matter what the audio output or download status is. This is simply a persistent problem on my mac. 

[MafeG]

Hi @hbs,

Thank you for keeping in touch. 

You can create a test playlist with just a couple of songs, download it, activate the Offline Mode and check if the issue persists that way. 

Also, could you access the Web Player to see how the music behaves there? This can help us understand if the issue is isolated to the app or the computer itself.

Keep us posted.

[hbs]

The web player suffers from the same issue, although it appears to happen noticeably less often (based on my anecdotal experience).

[MafeG]

Hey @hbs,

Thank you for keeping us updated.

As it happens in the Web Player too but it works fine on your phone, it's probable that you have some corrupted data saved in the cache of your Mac that was not totally removed with the regular reinstall. Please follow the steps you'll find here to clear your hosts file. Even though that article's title is for a different topic, you'll find the steps to follow after scrolling down a bit.

After you've all the entries deleted, restart your Mac and try again.

We'll be on the lookout for your next response.

[dangunnarsson]

I have the same problems as @hbs is describing and after trying all your suggestions the issue still persists on both web and native app on MacOS. I am also using Amazon Music which works flawlessly on the same computer using both web and native applications.

[Elena]

Hey @dangunnarsson,

Thanks for joining the thread!

Have you tried using a different network connection to see if this makes any difference and does the issue persist when using Spotify in the Offline Mode as well?

We'd also advise checking your Firewall settings to see if Spotify may be getting blocked in any way.

Let us know if any questions arise.

Cheers!

[dangunnarsson]

Hi!

I am using my mobile devices on the same network without any issues so its not network related. My first findings are as previously mentioned that this seems to be related to when listening to content in the background e.g. when having a different application active. Happy to help provide any logs or similar as it feels like something an engineer needs to have a look at.

Thanks

[Jeremy]

Hi @dangunnarsson,

Thank you for your reply and for the troubleshooting you've done so far!

Can you let us know if you're using any VPN?

It would also be great if you can check if you notices a drop in resource usage in the activity monitor between fore and background usage of Spotify?

On another note,  Can you do a full restart your mac one time (not close the lid and open it)?

We'll keep an eye out for your reply.

Cheers!

[kkirbatski]

I and my wife are also experiencing this issue. It only happens on Spotify on our MacBooks. It's pretty sporadic. I am using AirPods, but like I said, it only happens on Spotify and not YouTube or any other service. If I had to guess, I'd say it has something to do with the DRM and decrypting it. I noticed that Spotify uses anywhere between 2% and 5% CPU when playing a song, meaning the decryption is happing on the fly on the CPU. Not sure what Spotify is doing differently on iOS, though, because this issue is not present. If there is a way to enable debug logging or something, let me know and I'll reproduce the issue and submit the logs.

[OscarDC]

Hey @kkirbatski,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community.

We appreciate the time you took sharing this information. Just to confirm, have you tried with a different WiFi network or in Offline Mode?

In case you've tried this already and it's still not working, could you include in your next response the Spotify version and the OS version you're currently running on your Mac?

We'll be on the lookout.

[hbs]

Hi again. I finally tried listening with downloaded music, and the stuttering is still present. Are spotify engineers investigating this issue yet?

[Yordan]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your replies so far.

We'd like to forward this to our developers, so they can have a look. Could you please provide us with the following:

• the version of your Spotify app
• your Mac's OS version
• a recording which showcases the stuttering in action

When the stuttering occurs, do you notice any visual disruptions as well (for example, the progress bar jumping, the playback time freezing, the app loading, etc.) or does it just affect the sound? Also does that occur randomly or at specific times on specific songs (for example, song A always stutters at the beginning while song B stutters at the end?

Keep us posted.

Stay safe!

[filippo___]

Hi, 

I had been having the same issue for a few weeks now. 

Tried a clean install, remove hosts file, different networks, restarting the mac, it doesn't happen with youtube/music/vlc/...

It happens at different times on different plays (song A might have it at the beginning or at the end, quite randomly distributed across the song too) and there are no visual disruptions.  

Spotify for macOS (Apple Silicon)
1.1.80.699.gc3dac750

macOS Monterey 12.2

[physh]

Same issue here, Spotify stutters on macOS Monterey 12.2 (Spotify for macOS (Apple Silicon) 1.1.80.699.gc3dac750). Stream quality, hardware acceleration, reboot, reinstall etc didn't make a difference. It seems to be somewhat new, possibly since macOS 12 or 12.2, but no other audio apps have the issue. Works great on mobile and windows. Can someone take a serious look at this?