No Phorus/Play-Fi Playback - Spotify Connect on Android

[lovemesummusic]

No Phorus/Play-Fi Playback - Spotify Connect on Android

Plan

Premium

Country

U.S.

Devices
Samsung Note20 Ultra phone
Samsung Tab S6 Lite tablet
(3) PR5 receivers: Models: (1) W10007-0001859, (1) W10007-0001629, (1) W10007-0001827
Dell Inspiron 13, Win10, 16GB RAM
Ubiquiti Unifi Ap-AC Lite - 802.11 B/A/G/n/AC
Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X v2.0.9-hotfix.7

Operating System

Android 13, Win10

My Question or Issue
Spotify refuses to play through my Phorus Play-Fi receivers. System of three Phorus PR5 receivers (speakers) functioning for two years playing Spotify through a whole house speaker group running Phorus and Spotify on a Samsung S6 Lite. Now no playback through any of the receivers in the group. Playback time counter advances but no playback through any speaker group or individual speaker. From the Spotify app content plays normally on current devices, both phone and tablet. Same characteristics as described on two separate Android devices and a Windows machine with Spotify running on a browser.
 
Local media server and Pandora plays normally through all three receivers.
 
Surprisingly, when a Phorus/Play-Fi device is selected in Spotify the app rapidly advances forward through several items in a playlist before settling on one for playback.
 
Steps:
Update Phorus 8.5.0.9121 and Spotify 8.9.44.368 from the PlayStore
Restart phone
Update all (3) PR5 receivers

Restart network, update router.
 
Delete Spotify speaker group on Android devices. Three individual Play-Fi receiver devices now shown in Spotify connect but no sound from any of them when selected in connect. Created a new Spotify speaker group, same result, Spotify appears to play to the speaker group, time counter runs, but no sound.
 
Close app and restart device
 
Delete Phorus app and install DTS Play-Fi. Same result. Uninstall DTS Play-Fi and re-install Phorus from the PlayStore.
 
Close apps and restart device

 

[MihailY]

Hey @lovemesummusic,

Thanks for reaching out and kudos for the detailed report and the troubleshooting you've already tried.

To narrow this further down, we'd also recommend:

• Resetting the receivers to their factory settings.
• Connecting them to a hotspot on your phone.
• Installing the app and logging in on a different mobile device (preferably a different brand) to see if the behavior persists.

Keep us posted.

[lucascenter]

We are having the same issue. It has been tested on iOS, Windows 10, and Android. We can get Pandora, SirrusXM, and other music apps to work with no issue. Spotify will play on the local device with no issues, but not on the speakers like the other apps will.

[lovemesummusic · Accepted solution]

Hope this helps the next guy...

On Tue, Jun 4, 2024 at 3:02 PM Phorus Support <**bleep**> wrote:

Hey Tim,

Thanks for all of the details. It looks like the certificate for Spotify has an issue, and this is why it is failing as you have described. We have updated the certificate for our next release, which will be releasing this month. Apologies for the trouble.

Best,

Phorus Support

[aboulderboy]

This is great news, any idea when the update will be released?  
Thank you. 

[PiankatankBuff]

It is now July 13th and I an having the same problem as Tim and it still doesn’t work.  When is the updated certificate/release coming?  This seems like a major issue and I am disappointed to see that Phorus is so slow in addressing it.   Very frustrating, when you have to pay for the monthly Spotify subscription and you have sunk $$ into Phorus speakers.

[cabmoomoo]

For anyone else still having issues, I contacted Phorus support and they informed me that this is still the same problem, and the update (as of July 23rd) "should be in a week or two." In the meantime, they offered me access to a beta which was trivial to install (you do need a USB thumb drive with a few hundred MBs open). The beta fixed the problem instantly - been running a Spotify playlist all evening with no problems. I'd share the beta here, but they provided access in the form of a direct link to a file hosting website... probably not the most TOS-friendly thing to share on these forums.

So yeah. The problem is solved, we're just waiting on the update to go out. If you don't want to wait, perhaps you can email Phorus support and also gain access to the beta, with all the risks and rewards that implies.

[ConstantlyOn]

Issue is also happening on iOS with iPhones. I reached out to play-to support and they said a fix is rolling out “soon” for iOS.

[ConstantlyOn]

Latest iOS play-fi update includes update for play-fi speakers that will fix the issue on iOS.
You can also do manual updates to the play-fi devices via these instructions if needed.
https://play-fi.com/faq/entry/how-to-do-a-manual-speaker-update