Garmin - Media Error Occurred When Adding Podcast

[johnblack45]

Plan

Premium

Country

UK

Device

Garmin Forerunner 165 Music

Operating System

Garmin OS

When adding a podcast the "Media Error Occurred" error message appears and the device transition back to the watch face. The steps to reproduce are;

Library -> Add music & podcasts -> Podcasts -> Tea With Me

The watch will display the error message and transition to the watch face when the button to select the podcast is pressed. The list of episodes for this podcast are not displayed as the error happens between selecting the podcast and the displaying of available episodes

It is currently happening with 2 of my podcasts;

1. Tea With Me (current episode 304) https://open.spotify.com/show/2Nf8VkaljXtfvesRsIxXIy?si=40c6a589186845a9
2. The Physiology of Endurance Running (current episode Road to Barry 3 weeks to go) https://open.spotify.com/show/5Ve414ZvuCEiA1rlVvkP7f?si=4df50922b4bd462b

All other podcasts I am subscribed to work without issue and I can add them to my device. These specific two examples are podcasts which I have downloaded episodes to before but now for some unknown reason are not working. 

This has also happened in the past to the first podcast but it somehow magically fixed itself after a few weeks.

I notice that both of the current episodes for these podcasts are video episodes is it possible that when building the list of episodes that a video podcast causes some sort of problem which causes the crash? Some mishandling of meta data that doesn't allow the list to be built?

I have tried all of the usual solutions. Updated the Spotify App in Garmin Connect IQ (currently running version 1.7.2). Logged out, restarted watch, uninstalled and reinstalled the Spotify App. 

I have two friends who have also stated they have received the same error message.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Ivelina]

Hello @johnblack45,

Welcome to the Community and thanks for posting this thread. We really appreciate all of the details that you've shared as this helps us with the investigation.

You've mentioned having updated the app, but as we have come across such reports in the forum before, first make sure that there isn't a newer Spotify app version through Connect IQ as updating has been helpful to other users. 

If there's not, let's start with some additional info to clarify the situation. Could you let us know:

• If you noticed when this started happening (was it after something specific)?
• Does the behavior with these particular podcasts persist across devices or it happens only on the watch?
• Are the episodes that you're trying to add downloaded? What about if you remove the downloads and try again?

It's great that you've already performed some troubleshooting steps and although we can't be certain if that's the case, if these specific episodes contain video, you've downloaded them and this is when you see the error message, this could have something to do with the issue happening.

Also, let us know what devices your friends see the error message on and if it's again happening with these specific podcasts.

Appreciate the cooperation and we'll be on the lookout.

[johnblack45]

Hi Ivelina

The current Spotify version advertised on the Connect IQ store is 1.7.2 this is the version that is installed on my watch. The Garmin Connect IQ App on my phone also indicates this is the latest version available and is installed on my watch. Can you confirm if this is indeed the latest version available?

Answers to the following below

---

• If you noticed when this started happening (was it after something specific)?

My watch was working as expected prior to the first instance of this. There have been no other issues that I have noticed when using my watch and no deviation in how I have been adding podcasts. I am a heavy user of podcasts and regularly add 5-10 podcast a week without issue. I have however seen the same issue in the past and again it was only with specific podcast shows rather than all podcasts. These previous issues seemed to resolve themselves with time but my speculation is that enough episodes from the podcast show get released to push the problematic episode out of the list of episodes displayed when selecting the podcast.

• Does the behavior with these particular podcasts persist across devices or it happens only on the watch?

---

I only have one Garmin watch to test with so I can't confirm if it is limited to only my watch. However I have anecdotal reports from others with Garmin watches that they also encountered this issue however I can not confirm the installed version of the Spotify app they are using. The problematic podcasts work fine on my Google phone, and Windows computer.

• Are the episodes that you're trying to add downloaded? What about if you remove the downloads and try again?

---

I'm not sure this question makes sense for the scenario of a Garmin watch. When using a Garmin watch you select the podcast show you'd like to see the episodes for and then are presented with a list of the episodes for this podcast. From this list you select the episode you'd like to download. The "Media Error Occurred" error occurs when selecting the podcast show and does not present the list of episodes available. So there is no opportunity to download the problematic episode. Again this is why It feels like the parsing of the meta data used to build the list of episodes is causing the error.

So to reiterate I am unable to download the episodes because the Spotify app on the watch is crashing before I can get the opportunity to do so.

John

[Maria]

Hey there John,

Thanks for following up and for providing us with more details - we appreciate it!

We've forwarded all the info on to the right team so they can have a closer look as well. While we can't give you a specific timeframe for if or when this will be fixed, we recommend keeping both the watch's OS and the app up-to-date. When the latest version is installed, no pending updates will show and it should be displayed in the way you describe.

We'll keep you posted here if we have any news to share, @johnblack45 🙂

Also, we noticed a similar thread on the Garmin forum. If you'd like, you can have look and post there as well.

Take care!