Can listen to music but podcasts wont play

[Mrsvan1]

Hi

I've been listening to podcasts for ages, I can play music, but then when I go to play a podcast I can open the podcasts but they won't play when I click on play

Any ideas??

[Yordan]

Hi @Mrsvan1,

Thanks for reaching out! Sorry for the late reply, I just came by your post.

Are you still experiencing this issue? What device does it occur on? If possible, try logging in on another device or on the Web Player to see if the issue persists there as well. Also, does it happen with specific episodes or with all podcasts in general? A short screen recording which captures this in action would be greatly appreciated.

Check if the issue occurs both on Wifi and mobile data. You can also try logging out and signing back in to your account twice in a row as it triggers an internal refresh of the app that may help here. If that doesn't do the trick, perform a clean reinstall of the app by following the steps in this article.

Let us know how it goes. Cheers!

[H3I2T]

Plan

Premium

Country

U.S

Device

Samsung Galaxy S23

My Question or Issue

Podcasts wont play on Spotify. I've tried clean and hard resetting the app, clearing the cache, removing SIM card and everything you could imagine. Every now and then I'll have luck downloading and playing one or two podcasts, but besides that, they wont play.  My music plays and downloads just fine as well. I can see the podcasts and everything else just fine, but when I press the play button it just endlessly buffers and is stuck at 0:00. When I try to download them, it will look like everything is normal, except the progress wheel wont change. I've let my phone sit for hours in an attempt to play the podcasts, but nothing ever happens. I typically am an iOS user, and I haven't ran into the issue before, so I really don't have any other ideas on how to fix this.On other devices, podcasts will play just fine and I have no issue you with it so it doesn't have to do with my network connections. Any support would be very much appreciated. 

[heroblake58]

I have this exact problem have you found any way to fix it?

[Susan_GP]

Hi there,

Thanks for your replies in this thread.

First up, and just to make sure we cover all bases, have you tried reinstalling the Spotify app as @Yordan suggested? If not, we recommend performing a clean reinstall by following these steps. No worries, you won't lose any saved content, but you might need to re-download your offline music, if you have Premium.

On another note, make sure you check if this happens when using a different internet connection. You can try checking with your mobile data, WiFi, and with a different internet connection.

Lastly, it'd be really helpful if you can log in using a different account to check if you're able to play podcasts from there. It can be a relative or friend's account.

We'll be on the lookout!

[Coltsfan]

I have the same problem and these steps did not fix it. Switching to a premium plan broke my account for podcast playing. I've moved on to a other podcast platform, and likely will cancel Spotify premium after Christmas since part of the appeal was using one app for multiple purposes...

[Yordan]

Hey folks,

Could you check if this only happens with shows that have video? Or all audio-only shows affected as well? If you haven't already, try heading to Settings > Data-saving and offline and toggle on Audio-only downloads/streaming for video podcasts to see if that makes a difference.

Let us know how it goes 👍

[LightnRod]

Same problem here.   On my SamSung phone A32 music works fine but not all podcasts.  Some podcasts work on some days.  Frustating.  

[krolik111]

For me podcasts work on web, but on the app it's showing no episodes are available. 

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra

[krolik111]

Tried this solution. Didn't work for me

[Dessi]

Hey @krolik111,

Thanks for reaching out!

Did you try any of @Yordan's or @Susan_GP's other suggestions, such as performing a clean reinstall of the app and checking if the issue occurs on both WiFi and mobile data? Give logging out and signing back in to your account twice in a row a try as well to make sure everything's synced. 

If the above doesn't do the trick, it'd be really helpful if you can make a screen recording capturing the issue, so that we can have a closer look. If the file is too large to attach, you can upload it to Google Drive (make sure to allow general access to the file) or as an unlisted YouTube video.

Keep us posted.

[M11wo]

I have iPhone 15. I have tried clearing cache, uninstalling and installing it then shutting down, tried deleting app, and still will only play music on app but no podcasts, it plays on the web browser but no video then. 

[Liamrose2006]

I have tried every solution in this thread but nothing works. It’s very frustrating because it just started happening all of a sudden.

[Coltsfan]

I tried all solutions to no avail. I gave up and canceled today--this was already too much work with so many other options.