Spotify connect keeps stopping and disconnecting

[sandznl]

Plan

Premium

Country

The Netherlands

Device

(Multiple devices, either controlling or playing)

Operating System

(Android)

My Question or Issue

Spotify connect keeps stopping after playing somewhere between 30 seconds and about 3 songs max. We use Spotify connect on multiple devices from multiple devices and since a couple of days play stops randomly and when we return to the app Spotify is no longer connected to the device. This has happened multiple times over the last few years so there seems to be some software related issue within Spotify as all our devices still work great from other sources and is always fixed after a while but now it has come to a point where it's driving us nuts, so please fix and keep it fixed.

[Elena]

Hey @sandznl,

Thanks for reaching out to us in the Community!

Could you give us more info on all of the devices you're using and about the accounts affected by this behavior? I'd be great if you also let us know what troubleshooting steps you've tried so far so we avoid repeating them.

Keep us posted on this!

Cheers!

[sandznl]

Hi Elena, we are playing music via Spotify Connect on the following devices: Denon AVR-X1200W, a Raspberry Pi running Moode Audio 7.6.0, a Raspberry Pi running Moode Audio 5.4, Google Chromecast V3 and to a lesser extent a MacBook Pro, MacBook Air or iMac, all Intel-based. Most of these are connected via Wi-Fi, sometimes some are connected with a network cable. All these suffer from the same amount of disconnects/playback stops when it occurs, I'm guesstimating every 3rd Spotify update or so. After another update the problems are usually gone.

We use the these devices with the Spotify app using Spotify Connect to control the devices above: A Google Pixel 4a, a Samsung S20+, a Lenovo Smart Tab M8 and either of the Macs.

All these devices are updated to their latest firmware.

We have a gigabit glass fiber internet connection that rarely has any problems, with 3 connected TP-Link Gigabit access points in a 72m2 apartment.

[Kiril]

Hey @sandznl,

Thank you for the reply and the detailed info.

We understand that your living space is well connected and the setup of your peripheral devices has a reliable internet connection. It's also great that you have the practice to keep every firmware and app updated to the latest versions available. Could you confirm if right now you are experiencing this issue, as you mentioned it tends to get resolved with updates? If yes, then could we ask you for few more details, so we can give you a better advice:

• the current version numbers of your Spotify apps on your different devices
• if you are using (logged in) just one or more Spotify accounts to stream music to those devices via the Connect feature
• a short screen recording of the situation occurring would be of great help to investigate this further

Keep us posted, we'll be keeping an eye out for your reply, thanks!

[sandznl]

Hi Kiril,

The version number on the Google Pixel 4a and the Lenovo Smart Tab M8 is 8.6.84.1240, my wife is not home now so can't say what it is on the Samsung S20+ but I assume it's the same. On the Macs it's 1.1.73.517 they were just updated about an hour ago. Today there was one more occurrence of the music stopping in the morning, for the last 4 hours or so it seems to be fine, I'll try to make a video when it happens again although hopefully, that won't be necessary.

We connect with the devices mentioned in the last post with 2 accounts mostly (mine and my wife's), we're together on a Premium Duo plan. Occasionally we have friends or family over connecting with their own phone to any of our music players.

[Kiril]

Hi again @sandznl,

Thanks for your prompt reply and the additional info.

We hope this odd behavior does not occur again for you, as we aren't seeing global reports about issues with the Connect feature. Meanwhile you can also check the individual OS settings on your devices if the the app has the permission to run in the background or not and also to add Spotify to the exceptions list if you're possibly using a firewall for your network. All sorts of battery optimization apps and in-built OS features about saving battery life could also be causing situations like this, so you might consider excluding the Spotify app from their agendas as well.

Also it would be useful to know if you experience this behavior when you are directly streaming from any of your devices (or it's happening via the Connect feature only).

Hope this helps. Let us know how you get on.

[jhamw1]

I have the Same problem. Also Spotify Connect that keeps dropping connection, also on multiple wireless speakers. 

[Eni]

Hey there @jhamw1, 

Thanks for reaching out about this here in the Community. 

Could you let us know if you've already tried the steps mentioned in this thread? Additionally, would you mind giving us more info on all of the devices affected by this behavior? 

On another note, we'd like to know if this has always happened or if it started happening after a specific event such as an update.

Keep us posted.

[sandznl]

Unfortunately, the behaviour is back again. Yesterday first something different happened, when music was playing on one of my devices none of the apps on either my phone, tablet or laptop showed that music was playing and as a result, I couldn't control what was playing, change the volume, skip a song and so on. And today I have a situation again where it stops playing after anywhere between half a song and half an hour. Please stop messing up the fricking software!!!

[Eni]

Hey @sandznl, 

Thanks for getting back in touch. 

We're sorry to hear that you're still experiencing issues with the Connect feature.

It's important to mention while using the Connect feature the data goes through your router and the AWS network to some server that is currently available to handle Connect requests, gets sent back to your household and then gets distributed via the router to your devices.

In this case, it'll never be as reliable as a direct to device connection like wired, Bluetooth or similar. You're controlling your device over a distributed network infrastructure, so there are a lot of dependencies and temporary outages that can occur based on which server you get connected to and how much traffic the infrastructure you're connected with can handle.

We appreciate your feedback and we'll make sure to pass it on to the right team as we always strive to improve your experience. 

Hope this helps clearing things up. If you need a hand with anything else, the Community is here for you. 

[Andreuha]

I am experiencing the same problem. This is a new issue, and used to work just fine.

This seems to have to do with how/whether a given Spotify instance checks the state of devices in Spotify Connect.

AVR:

Denon AVR-S710W, connected over WiFi.

Network hardware:

- Ubiquiti UAP-AC-LR access point

- Router running DD-WRT

Devices I've tested:

- Google Pixel 2

- OnePlus Nord N10

- Windows 10 PC connected via ethernet (no av, vpn, etc)

- Windows 10 PC connected via ethernet (have tried with firewall & vpn disabled and running)

- Amazon Fire 8 (2020)

- Linux PC over wifi (PopOS)

In most cases, Denon keeps playing uninterrupted, you just lose the ability to control the active playlist from another device, except by starting the loop over by picking a song anew and choosing spotify connect again.

Widnows 10:

Spotify Connect "listening on Denon..." is lost after a while (switches to "Listening on This Computer" on its own).

- App can sit for hours without discovering Denon's state in Spotify Connect when a different device activates the Denon which is on the same network.

- App will occasionally discover/re-discover Denon and correctly reflect the state of the Denon, at which point playback on the Denon stops, and I need to manually select the Denon in Spotify Connect again and press "play" again. Windows will eventually lose the Spotify Connect status and the cycle begins anew.

Androids: This occurs after the screen is off for a few minutes.

1. With the OnePlus phone, that Spotify Connect connection is lost for good, but Denon keeps playing uninterrupted.

2. After initiating Spotify Connect from the Pixel 2, the Denon will quit playing as well as losing "Connect" (the only case where this happens).

3. On the Amazon Fire the connection will be lost after the screen is off for a few minutes, but if I give it a minute it will find the Denon again and go from standalone/paused back to correctly reflecting what's actively playing on the Denon.

Linux PC app:

Discovers the Denon right away when it's opened with music already playing on the Denon. Seems to work as expected, can navigate into playlist and manage what's already playing. Does not seem to lose connect (at least from what I've seen).

[MafeG]

Hi @Andreuha,

Thank you for sharing your report on this thread!

To start, we'd like to confirm if you're having this issue only when you try to control your Denon receiver, or also when you're playing between two different devices such as phone/computer, phone/phone, etc. 

Also, could you create an internet hotspot with one of your phones, then connect your devices to it and check if the issue with Connect persists?

Keep us posted.

[matedave]

I must of Googled 'Spotify keeps disconnecting from my bluetooth device' a million times since I switched from Apple Music to Spotify 2 years ago. I have still not resolved this problem, I have done everything from repairing and reinstalling with no success.

My bluetooth speaker is sat directly next to my Macbook Pro, always has been and this is the third speaker I've had connected via Bluetooth with this problem. Music plays, then suddenly stops, disconnects, my speaker reconnects and I have to press play again. It's so frustrating.

Feel like reverting back to Apple, which is annoying as I thought Spotify was the daddy but it seems so many people have this problem but there is no actual fix. Surely some of the team at Spotify has bluetooth speakers and they experience this issue, or they do and just think 'um odd, must the speak or device'.

There is no issue with sound output on my Macbook until I use Spotify.

[Xenia]

Hi there @matedave,

Thanks for sharing your experience with the Community! Let's try to get to the bottom of this frustrating issue you've been facing for so long.

You mentioned you've tried a few things already, but would you mind checking off the steps listed in this support article as well as performing a thorough reinstall following the steps here?
 

Should the issue persist, it'd be great if you could share with us the following information, so we can investigate this further:

• exact operating system version of the affected device(s)
• exact Spotify version
• make and model of the Bluetooth speaker/headphones
• is this happening when you launch the app and start playback on Spotify or after you’ve been listening for some time?

In addition to the above it’s also worth checking if you experience the same issue using our web player or with the speakers connected to another device for example your phone.

If your Bluetooth speakers are connected to multiple devices, it's possible that the playback is paused because the audio input switches to the other device. More info on that in this thread.

Hope you'll find this info useful. Let us know how you get on.

[ijbc_oy-73va]

My Spotify connect worked perfectly until about two day ago when I done an upgrade that Spotify prompted me to do. My set up is very simple. I use Spotify for Windows and use Spotify connect to connect to my Fire Stick. As I said it worked great until I done the latest update. Now it disconnects every couple of minutes. The update was version 1.1.99.878.g1e4ccc6e
Spotify for Windows.

[Eni]

Hey @ijbc_oy-73va,

Thanks for reaching out about this here in the Community. 

First up, it's well worth running a clean reinstall of the app on your PC to get rid of any cached files that might be causing trouble. This one is more thorough than the usual one. Make sure to download the app from the Microsoft Store. 
 

If this doesn't do the trick, would you mind checking if the same happens while using a different internet connection? You can try creating a hotspot on your phone and using that. 

Let us know how it goes.

[Mark291162]

Hi all 

any further on this thread?

just wrote a long diagnostic on this but lost the lot when I tried to add a pic (great mobile site 🤪)

in short - I’ve tried everything in this thread and additionally port forwarding on my BT router. But this issue persists.  I also think this is a generic issue without the rabbit holes of what combination of kit is used - beyond making sure everything on same rev.  Any thoughts on this?   Hoping to move the discussion past the “me too” loop 

[user-removed]

hello, when everytime I open the spotify it says that my spotify app is stopping. This happens just last night. 

[Karljma]

Am experiencing spotify connect dropouts after approx. 30s and suspect latest spotify update (everything worked fine up until last week). Regular spotify works fine over bluetooth, just connect that's buggy. PPlease look into the matter 😊

[intera_91]

In my case what happens is that iphone's spotify looses connect and I cannot control spotify running in a vm on my linux workstation ... that never happened before, everything is latest version. used to rely heavily on that feature and it is a huge problem. can you please see to that problem as it is a real pain.