Now Playing bar missing on Android

[Mario]

Hey folks,

We have received reports that Android users (mostly Samsung users) are unable to see the Now Playing bar on the app whenever they play songs/podcasts.

If you’re experiencing this issue, make sure to click +VOTE and Subscribe to the thread to be notified of any developments.

[tunaman_jim]

THANK YOU! I'm so tired of people blaming Spotify for this issue, when it's
been fixed on my Moto Stylus 5G for... six weeks? A couple months now? Seems
like 99% of the people still complaining about the issue are using Samsungs,
which is their own fault.

[palecry]

Yes i do have Samsung...do you want to tell me that using samsung inevitably leads to a bugging spotify app whilst all my other apps (most of them are for free and non premium) do run properly...?

Stupid me...

[tunaman_jim]

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. Read the whole thread - everyone with
Motos, LGs, TCLs, Nokias, Alcatels and OnePlus phones saw the issue fixed
weeks ago. It's almost entirely Samsung users still complaining.

[Vic3000]

The Spotify programmers are not configuring their app properly for Samsung devices. 

It is an oversight on the part of Spotify. They made changes to their program, and released it without properly testing them. 

[Dkonia]

Agree that Spotify hasn't adjusted for Samsung. Also, Spotify in general starts  freaking out when reception is poor. If I'm ok airplane mode it works fine. If I'm connected to Wifi or have strong signal it works mostly well. Navigating to my downloaded songs while signal is poor (i.e., doing something that shouldn't need internet to function) is when all **bleep** breaks lose. Also feel the play bar is more likely to disappear in those situations.

[palecry]

Ok, Spotify, im really sorry...forget about all Samsung users and take care about all the others

Also sorry that i do not use my time to read through hundreds of comments...

In the future you can have my money and provide me with some buggy app as its proven that its my fault to use samsung

Before buying any future smartphone i will deeply think about which apps i want to use and then read through all support forums before buying a new device

Learning here means learning for life, dont expect a professional app for all devices but buy the proper company device if you want your apps to work properly...pure logic...wow

[Tom0527]

@palecry 

I think this is more than what just an app developing company can handle.

If they want to resolve this issue, they must hire a group of people who knows exactly the in and out of Samsung's software development, which is impossible.

@Dkonia 

Again, this problem is related. Samsung is probably doing some excessive control over the background app's data transfer protocol. This is causing a slow loading when you move the app foreground, and the Samsung's built-in protocol that reestabilishes (re-allows) data on Spotify and spotify trying to load the content is conflicting each other.

But that does not mean that Spotify should stop trying. Afterall, we and advertizers are paying for the service.

Spotify should at least publicly announce that this problem exists on Samsung devices, and make the paying customers aware.

[Vasil]

Hello everyone,

We've been continuing to gather your details in this thread and further looking into matters.

As mentioned previously, the issue with the now playing bar had been resolved for the majority of users about a month ago. The common denominator with every report received afterwards was that this was still intermittently an issue on Samsung phones. 

There's most likely something within how the affected phones process and handle the Spotify app that still causes the now playing bar to misbehave. We'll continue to work on optimizing the app and trying to find a permanent solution for those affected.

While this is ongoing, we want to thank @Tom0527 for posting steps that provide a solution by modifying some phone settings. Follow the instructions in his post and you shouldn't have any more troubles. 

As we now have enough information, the general fix is in place and there's a device-specific solution, we will be marking this thread as Fixed and closing it. With that being said, we want to reiterate that we'll continue in our efforts to improve stability for all supported phone models from our end as well.

Take care!

[omaha353]

Plan

Premium

Country

Ireland

Device

Samsung Galaxy S22+

Operating System

Latest Android 

My Question or Issue

When playing either a song or podcast on Spotify the now playing bar dissapears after a while. Usually this occurs when I open another media app, say YouTube, then come back to Spotify to resume what I was listening to earlier after like 30 mins. However, the now playing bar is gone. If I start another track/ podcast episode, it doesn't appear. The only way to stop media playing is to force close the app. 

I saw the gigantic thread on this issue from April and have gone through the suggested solutions several times, but to no avail. I see it is noted as being "fixed". That is most definitely not the case for me. I also see that the solution does not seem to work on Samsung phones.

When is this going to be fixed? I expect one of the biggest apps on the planet to work as advertised on a phone from the biggest phone manufacturer on the planet. It is really unacceptable.

I will be switching to YTM if this most basic of functions is not fixed.

Omaha

[Elena]

Hey folks, 

Thanks for visiting the Community. We are investigating this issue again now in 2024.

Go here to learn more and leave a comment with your details.

Thank you!