Autoplay next unplayed podcast instead of random music

[svarshavchik]

Plan: Free

Country: United States

Operating System: Android

I use Spotify in Android Auto while connected to my car. I have subscribtion to several podcasts and the podcasts are the only thing I'd like to listen to; I have no interest in music.

My expectation is that after I finish a podcast the next unplayed one gets started. This used to work like that, for a while, to the best of my recollection. But right now, for some reason, when I get to the end of a podcast Spotify starts playing some random pop-culture music, inexplicably. I have to then (carefully) work the car's screen to open spotify, go to new episodes, and pick something.

Is there a way to get Spotify to work the way I want it to work: after playing a podcast then just go to the next unplayed one. That seems so ...intuitive. The only relevant setting I can see in the app is "Autoplay similar songs when your music ends in this app", and I have it turned off.

[Lyubka]

Hey @svarshavchik 

Thanks for posting in the Community. Apologies for the delayed response, we just came across this thread.

Does the issue occur only when you're listening to podcasts in your car? Would you mind trying if the same thing will happen if you're streaming on your device?

On another note, have you already tried clearing the play queue of your device? This looks like an issue with an item in the play queue at a first glance. Here is more on how to do that. 

In case the issue persists, try reinstalling the app on your phone with the steps here. This will clear any old files that might be interfering with app's performance and causing issues and will install the latest version, so that you don't miss out on any fixes.

Let us know how you get on. We'll be on the lookout for your reply.

[svarshavchik]

I'm afraid that this made no difference. I just happened to have a few minuets left in one last podcast under "Your episodes" which I started. After it finished playing "Couldn't find any episodes" appeared, and Spotify immediately switched to some random screeching and yelling from some artist I never heard of, even though "New Episodes" was full of unplayed podcasts that I'm subscribed to.

Your first link to "Play Queue" led to a page that mentioned something only about the Premium level. I found nothing there that applied to the Free level.

The suggestion to reinstall the app is, of course, a typical canned answer when there's no specific answer available, and there's nothing better to suggest. And, indeed, after uninstalling Spotify and reinstalling Spotify, and updating to the latest version, I was impressed how things were exactly where they were left off. Including all my podcast subscriptions, and Spotify itself patiently waiting to resume the playback of the same screeching and yelling that I hurriedly paused earlier.

It seems to be that "New Episodes" in Spotify is something that's available only for manually selecting tracks, and one has to do it by hand. It makes perfect sense, to me, to select the next track from "New Episodes" if one's available, instead of randomly choosing a track from the cloud. I was hoping that there was a setting for this, that I overlooked. It seems rather obvious to me, but looks like that's not the case, and the only setting that looks remotely relevant in "Settings" is "Autoplay on this device", which I tried both ways, and it made no difference either.

[Vasil]

Hey @svarshavchik,

Thank you for the detailed response!
On your mobile app, there should be a 'Autoplay on other devices' setting.
Could you try toggling that off as well? It should stop any music recommendations when you're listening via Android Auto.
Let us know how it goes 🙂
Cheers!