Podcast playback speed for certain shows slower on Echo Dot devices

[fernandopassos]

Hello all,

I would like to add to this topic, as I'm facing a very similar problem, but with Google devices, instead of Amazon devices, and my podcasts are playing at 2x speed (instead of slower speeds).

It happens on ALL my Google Chromecasts, Google Home Mini speakers, and JBL ("works with Google") Speakers. It happens whether I talk to my speakers asking them to play a podcast, of if I start playing from my iPhone and then start casting to those devices. If I cast from iPhone, it doesn't matter what speed I set on the iPhone, when it starts playing at the Google device, it immediately switches to 2x and greys out (meaning I can't adjust it while playing on the external device). If I talk to my speakers asking them to play at regular speed, they say they don't support that command.

We all know that for now Spotify doesn't support adjusting playback speed when casting to external devices, but at least it should default to 1x obviously, as expected. But recenlty Spotify started showing this behaviour of defaulting to 2x on my Google devices, and I can't do anything about it. I just can't listen to podcasts on my google devices anymore (unless it's at 2x).

Tried unlinking my Spotify account from my Google Home, and re-linking, but no effect whatsoever. Like I said before, even If I start casting from my iPhone (which doesn't require google accessing my Spotify account), the problem occurs.

That is clearly a bug on the SPOTIFY side of things, as it happens on both Amazon and Google devices, as we can see.

Referring to this thread: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Other-Podcasts-Partners-etc/Podcast-playback-speed-for-certain-show... 

Spotify, please just... fix... this ! ASAP!

[MihailY]

Hey @fernandopassos,

Thanks for reaching out and apologies for the late reply. We're sorry to hear you're facing issues with the playback speed on your Google devices. We'll do our best to help.

As a first step, can you please confirm if this happens with any podcast or with particular ones? If you've tried only a few, please give it another go with some more and share a few examples where you're seeing this behavior, so we can attempt to reproduce it on our end.

Another thing that will help us narrow down the root cause would be to connect another Spotify account in your Google Home app and see if that changes anything.

Keep us posted.

[dbtchrldy]

I am not the original poster, but I am having this exact problem. It is consistent across every podcast I've tried, and it's only from my account (does not happen with my husband's account on the same external Google Dot speaker). It does not happen when I play from my phone, only the Google Dot speaker. It is really frustrating, so it would be helpful if Spotify had a fix for this issue.

[Maria]

Hey there @dbtchrldy,

Thanks for posting in the thread!

Just to confirm, does this the same thing happen if you try relinking your Spotify account to the Google device? You can do so by following these steps: 

1. Open the Google Home app. 
2. Tap Account in the top-right.
3. Tap Settings.
4. Tap Music under services.
5. Tap UNLINK.
6. Then, link your Spotify account again.

It's also worth checking for updates for the Google device's software. You should be able to see this in the Google Home app as well.

Let us know how it goes!

[fernandopassos]

Hello MihailY!

Sorry for the long delay, I've been away from home and wasn't able to perform the tests sooner. In response to your inquiries:

1- Yes, it happens on ALL podcasts, not just specific ones. I'd already noticed that before my original post.

2- I unlinked my Spotify account from my Google account and linked my wife's Spotify account instead, and the problem DIDN'T happen. Playing podcasts through her account on my Google devices behaved just as expected: at 1x speed.

This goes to strengthen the hypothesis that the bug is very probably on the Spotify side, but somehow tied to a few accounts, such as mine.

I look forward to hearing from you again, hopefully with a solution.

Thanks in advance,

Fernando.

[fernandopassos]

Hello Maria,

To contribute to this post by @ dbtchrldy and in connection with my original post, one of the first things I did was unlink and re-link my Spotify account to my Google account, but that didn't solve the problem.

Please see my reply to MihailY (moderator) and find that, such as fellow @ dbtchrldy, I too experimented linking another person's Spotify account to my Google account and found that the problem didn't happen on their account. Furthermore, my Google devices are all up-to-date.

Best regards,

Fernando

[dirkblaster]

@fernandopassos This was driving me crazy but I think I might have finally fixed it (for my use case at least). For me the issue was across all Google devices (Nest mini, Nest Hub) and when casting to Echo dot. On my phone the playback speed was greyed out and not able to be changed when casting. It seemed random which podcasts would play sped up

I found on the Nest Hub screen that there was a playback speed control option which was INDEPENDENT of what my phone was showing me, and my kids must have been playing around with it - see photos. When you touch it, it will cycle through 1x, 1.5x, 2x, 3x and back to 1x.

This seems to be a setting that Google/Spotify are saving on my account or profile that doesn't go away when you stop or restart. Changing it has finally restored normality! Kids are happy again they can hear their stories at normal speed.

Hoping this helps someone else out there!

[fernandopassos]

Hello dirkblaster!

Thanks for sharing your solution! Happy it worked out for you.

Unfortunately it’s not a solution for me, as none of my Google devices have a screen or a controllable interface. I use Google Home Mini (speaker), Google Chromecast (TV stick) and a JBL speaker with Google built in. They all must be controlled either via Google casting or via Google Assistant commands.

For me, it all started after I listened to a few podcasts at 2x on my iPhone connected to my car. By some mysterious logic, Spotify “imported” this choice and made it standard (and unchangeable) on my Google environment… so frustrating.

[dirkblaster]

Ah that's a shame the specific fix doesn't work. I think we may be in a similar boat though, if you were able to change it to 2x via iPhone in your car, are you able to go back to your car and change back to 1x to see if it remains normal?

This speed setting looks to have been somehow saved in my profile for weeks despite start/stopping multiple times across many different devices. I wonder if this is some behaviour Spotify has enabled for 'convenience' instead of resetting back to 1x after a session closes?

[fernandopassos]

I did try what you suggested (listening at 1x on my car as an attempt to force-reverse the thing), but it had no effect in fixing the situation.

Maybe because my car system is not actually a Spotify instance, instead it's just an "extension of my iPhone" app itself (either via Bluetooth or via Apple CarPlay).

I'm hoping to get a solution to this awful bug from the folks at Spotify... it would be all resolved if they just implemented the speed control on Google Casting / Google Assistant devices. But once you're casting on Google devices, the speed button is greyed out.

[Yordan]

Hey folks!

This setting does seem account-based, so what you can try is using the desktop app / Web Player instead and changing the playback speed to 1x - your preferences should be saved for your account, which may help here. 

If the issue persists, you can try the following steps for the desktop app (I recommend using the version from our website as the location of the Spotify and Users folders would be different if you install it from the Microsoft Store):

1. Close Spotify and make sure it's not running in the background.
2. Go to the Spotify folder > Users, located in C:\%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Spotify\Users. You should see another folder with your Spotify username. Open it.
3. There you'll find a file called prefs. Right-click it and open it with Notepad/another text editor.
4. Modify audio.episode.speed and set the value to 100 (for 1x speed; the value is in percentages).
5. If you can't see it, you can add it on a new line instead: audio.episode.speed=100.
6. Restart Spotify. Playing an episode should now update the playback speed to the designated one.

Mac users can find this folder in Finder > Go > Library > Application Support > Spotify > Users.
 

Hope this helps! Let us know how it goes.

Cheers 🤘

[fernandopassos]

Hello @Yordan

I just tried both things you said, but they had no effect. The bug still persists.

As soon as I start casting to any of my Google devices, the Spotify app (whichever app: PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad...) locks in 2x speed and the button to adjust speed just greys out immediately. See below what I see on my Spotify while casting (tried casting to a Google Speaker and to a Google Chromecast):

This is extremely frustrating, to be completely honest. I need a to fix for this ASAP. This kind of bug wouldn't happen in the first place If you would just let us ajust playback speed while casting to an external device. I've been facing this for several weeks now.

I might have to create a new account, that is, if Spotify can transfer my history, playlists and preferences to the new one. If not, I'll just use another streaming service from now on and cancel Spotify.

[fernandopassos · Accepted solution]

Hello all

I just discovered a fix to the bug I was facing. I logged into the Spotify web player (using Google Chrome*), and there, AND ONLY THERE, it was possible to control the playback speed while casting to an external Google device.

I used Google Chrome* because with it I was able to start casting from the Web Player tab into my external Google speaker, and voilà, the speed control was clickable and I was able to revert back to 1x.

Apparently Spotify "saves", somewhere deep into its logical structure, the playback speed you last used IN THE WEB PLAYER and applies that as default when you cast to Google devices from Spotify Apps or using Google Assistant directly on them. To me, this is clearly a bug (it shouldn't save that setting account-wide, it should stay within the browser session only!).

Well. That's the end of it.

But at least, in the process, I was able to discover that you CAN actually control podcast speed playback while casting to external devices, you just have to use the Web Player on Google Chrome. And don't forget to revert back to 1x before you log out or else you'll have this same bug as me next time you try to use the app + your Google devices.

Thank you all.

[Yordan]

Awesome job @fernandopassos! Yeah, I didn't have a cast device that I could use at that time, so I tested without a speaker. Apologies!

I'm glad you found a way to save the playback speed to your account though. Kudos!

[steveaddeo]

So still no fix but now Spotify is raising family to 19.99 a month for *checks notes* "innovative products and features"? Ya'll cant even make what you already have work correctly. I'm thinking this might be my last year with spotify. 

[khuinink]

THANK YOU fernandopassos!  I've searched high and low for this solution, and I'm so thankful!!

[Bigabba]

After I play an audiobook on my phone at increased speed (1.5x or 2.0x) and then later begin an audiobook or podcast on a Google Chromecast (Google home mini), it sets the podcast or audiobook to that speed and does not allow me to change it. Even when I play on the phone at normal speed and then recast, it is at the increased speed. The only way to adjust it is to begin playing an audiobook or podcast in the web player and adjusting the speed there. It seems to reset the speed of casting devices to 1x speed, or whatever speed is chosen.

Plan

Premium

Country

United States

Device

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G

Operating System

Android 13 UI 5.1

My Question or Issue

[AlejaR]

Hey there @Bigabba,

Thanks for posting in the Community and welcome.

We'd suggest you try the following to see if you notice any difference in this behavior:

• Make sure both your devices and the app are up-to-date,
• Make sure your speaker's firmware is up-to-date as well.
• Clear the cache within the app and for your Speaker. 

We'd like to gather some additional info to better understand the behavior you've noticed on your side. In that sense, please send us the following:

• When playing the content on the Google Home Mini, are you using Connect to cast to the speaker or are you using voice commands to play the content on it?
• When playing the content later in the speaker, is Spotify open in the background on your mobile device?
• Did you notice if this started to happen after a specific event such as an OS update?
• The exact Spotify version you're running on your mobile device.
• A video recording of this behavior. You can attach the video in your next reply in mp4 format, or you can also upload it to YouTube or Google Drive and make it public, so we can visualize it. We understand this could be difficult to record, so take all the time you need.

We'll be on the lookout!

[gerfer1981]

Me pasa exactamente lo mismo 😞