Podcast episodes starting 10 seconds from the end when relistening

[Sazzle15]

My daughter likes to listen to kids podcasts before bed, and often listens to them multiple times. Recently when she listens to an episode she has previously finished, they start 10 seconds from the end and then skips to the next episode (which is also 10 seconds from the end!) It's really annoying and didn't used to be this way (they used to pick up part way through if she didn't finish it, or from the beginning if she had previously listened to the whole episode)

[Sazzle15]

Hey folks,

Thanks you for reporting this!
We've tested the described behaviour and were able to reproduce the issue. On our ends it occurs with this specific podcast, when being played through a Connect speaker, regardless of where the initial playback has been started from (desktop app/ mobile).

We'll keep you posted and, while we're looking into this, keep in mind that rewinding the podcast episode to its start will still play the full episode 🙂
Cheers!

[Wcovington]

I just googled this we’re having the same exact issue help I need answers this is eating in to my me time lol. I was able to go into setting and unmask them as finished but that doesn’t seem to make a difference. 

[Sazzle15]

I tried that too and it frustratingly makes no difference! 

[Maria]

Hey @Sazzle15 & @Wcovington,

Thanks for reaching out on the Community!

As the podcast(s) have been played multiple times, could you double-check if it say there's any time left when starting the episode? Or if the episode(s) appear as finished (with no time elapsed) and still start playing with 10 seconds left in the episode?

It's worth noting that for episodes to be recognized as finished, they need to be fully completed and listened to to the end of the track. When they're finished and not yet restarted, they should play from the beginning, if you listen to it again.

And while marking episodes as finished will complete them and remove them from Unplayed episodes - should you've already started playback, it may resume from that point next time. For example, should you pause an episode or skip to a new one before the end, playback will then resume from that timestamp, if you listen to the same episode at a later occasion.

The top episode will resume playback with 13 minutes left

The bottom episode will play from the start

If you've made sure the episode is completed (and not started again) and it still plays with only 10 sec left, it would be great if you could try clearing stored cache, and let us know if you experience this on other/all devices that you use Spotify on.

Keep us posted!

[Sazzle15]

Hi Maria,

Thanks for your response. I have done some testing and the episodes are showing as finished (they had been listened to until the end, with the next episode auto playing) but playback is subsequently starting shortly before the end of the episode. Interestingly it doesn't seem to do this when played directly on my phone, but it does when played through alexa (i control it through my phone but listen through the speaker.)

I have cleared cache on my phone app but this has not made a difference.

Screen shots to show how the episode looked in list and where playback commenced.

 

 

 

[Sazzle15]

 

[AlejaR]

Hey there @Sazzle15,

Thanks for all the info you kindly shared with us, it helped us a lot.

Since you mentioned this is only happening when using your Alexa speaker, we'd suggest you make sure it's up-to-date. You can also remove the access you've granted Alexa in the Apps section on your Account page. Then, if you see Spotify on the Alexa app, you can unlink them following these steps.

If the above doesn't do the trick, we'd like to continue gathering info. Please send us the following:

• Does this happen when using Connect to control the playback on a different device?
• Does this happen when trying to play a different show or does it just happen when playing this specific one?
• Does this happen over WiFi? 3G/4G? Both? Do you notice any difference if you switch the internet connection you're using?

Keep us in the loop!

[mattdc]

Just reporting that I recently started encountering this exact same issue when queueing up podcasts for my kids at night. It is happening when I am casting to Google Home devices, but does not happen when I am playing podcasts on my phone directly. As described by the previous user, the podcasts begin with 20 or so seconds left in the episode, even when I've marked them as "Not Started." Since I see a few similar reports on this forum from the past week, I'm assuming this may be some kind of bug related to a recent Spotify update...

[sb04]

Hi I'm reporting that this is an issue in my home too. We don't use Alexa, we use google nests. The episodes are showing as "finished" but even still when we try to listen to it again, it only plays the last 10 seconds of every episode. We have tried marking the episodes as "unplayed" but still it only plays the last 10 seconds of each episode. Every few minutes my kids are coming to me with issues about playing the next episode of whatever kids stories they're listening to. It's really frustrating and only seems to be an issue the last week or so. 

[Vasil]

Hey folks,

Thanks you for reporting this!
We've tested the described behaviour and were able to reproduce the issue. On our ends it occurs with this specific podcast, when being played through a Connect speaker, regardless of where the initial playback has been started from (desktop app/ mobile).

We'll keep you posted and, while we're looking into this, keep in mind that rewinding the podcast episode to its start will still play the full episode 🙂
Cheers!

[sb04]

I am not using the same podcast as the other posters. Please don't dismiss
the issue as being with that specific podcast.

Also, rewinding to the beginning isn't the issue. It's playing the next
episode that is the issue. At the end of each episode, the next episode
only plays the last 10 seconds. Which means at the end of every episode we
need to manually start the next one from the beginning.

[mattdc]

For me, it's happening with episodes of any podcast that I've previously listened to until the end. Marking the podcast as finished or "not started" has no effect—the next time I try to play that episode via Connect, it starts several seconds from the end (which, as the other posters have noted, is mainly a problem for the podcasts that are being listened to in a queue, one episode after another, like bedtime stories for kids). I tested on 4 or 5 different podcasts—the error doesn't happen the first time I ever listen to an episode, but then starts occurring on re-listens. Thanks for looking into this!!

[Sazzle15]

Thanks for the update, I have tested this with three other podcasts and the behaviour is exactly the same - playback for episodes previously listened to (all the way to the end) is starting just before the end. And whilst we can rewind to the beginning each time it is incredibly frustrating when you have a whole queue of episodes autoplaying. I hope you will continue to investigate as it is definitely not isolated to one podcast.

[PodcastMomma]

Same exact issue here. We use a Google Home to cast a playlist of podcasts for my kiddo at bedtime from our phones. I have tried clearing the cache, reinstalling Spotify, marking the episodes as not started, and unplugging/restarting the Google Home device. I have also tried multiple different kids bedtime story podcasts. Nothing has worked to fix the problem. As other posters note, this is only a problem when casting. The episodes work just fine on my phone. Please help!! It's becoming a bedtime nightmare!

[PodcastMomma]

Just adding that I'm not able to rewind to the beginning of the episode as others have noted. It starts skipping the episode, repeating the same 2-3 seconds over and over, and then I can only get the episode to stop playing/skipping by pausing the Spotify app.

[Funky7448]

We're experiencing the same thing with two different podcasts.

[Funky7448]

We're experiencing the same thing with previously listened to podcasts streamed through a Google device from my phone. Rewinding an episode leads to constant repeating of little parts of the podcast.