Spotify on Apple Watch won't let me listen on my Apple Watch.

[Alex_15]

Whenever I want to listen over my Apple Watch which is connected to my Headphones, Spotify won't let me play on the Watch itself unless I Completely turn of my iPhone.
First I thought this was a weird feature until some weirder stuff started happening: 

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Explanation is down below the first comment. The space is too small here.
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I have the Apple Watch Series 7 (Bought like 4 days ago).
Software is all up to date

[Alex_15]

Whenever I want to listen over my Apple Watch which is connected to my Headphones, Spotify won't let me play on the Watch itself unless I Completely turn of my iPhone.
First I thought this was a weird feature until some weirder stuff started happening: The first time of clicking on the little Icon on the bottom right, where you can select the device you want to listen on, I have the Option to play on my Apple Watch or my iPhone. When I click on the Apple Watch, I should toggle the Apple Watch icon, I dictating that it is trying to connect. But right after the first toggle it instantly switches back to the green Phone icon, indicating that it is connected to my phone.
Now when I try to switch the playing device again by tapping the icon on the bottom right, nothing happens. When I now slide to the left where I can choose a playlist to play, I get as many pop ups to select a device as I have previously clicked to little icon.
When I close all of those pop ups by tapping to connect to my Apple Watch nothing happens.
When I now completely turn off my phone, it suddenly is able to connect to my Apple Watch and lets me play Spotify over my headphones.

I have the Apple Watch Series 7 without cellular (Bought like 4 days ago).
Software is all up to date

[Eni]

Hey @Alex_15, 

Thanks for reaching out about this here in the Community.

Could you let us know if this happens if you're using different headphones as well?

On another note, we suggest that you try following these steps to see if they make the difference:

• Restart your watch
• Reinstall the app on the watch
• Reinstall the app on your phone

Also, we'd recommend checking if the OS of your watch is up to date.

Let us know how it goes.

[Alex_15 · Accepted solution]

Hey again,
So I did a little try and error session and like you said try other headphones.
First I gotta say there is a way around this bug.
The Problem was that when I had my phone on Airplane mode or it was not connected to wifi or cellular I was not able to play Spotify over my Apple Watch. Or to be more specific, I wasn't able to choose my Apple Watch on the menu "Play on a device" where you select the device you want t play on.
There were two situations to occur:
1. It would not even let me see this menu and only show it to me once I shipped to the left and then it popped up as many times as I clicked the icon beforehand.
2. It would open up the menu after the first click, but when I select my Apple Watch it would the logo would toggle once to grey and then show me a green phone logo.

The way around this:
Go to your downloads and click on a playlist there. When I now try to switch the device I want to listen on, to my Apple Watch, it works like it should (Let's me select the Bluetooth device I want to listen on and then plays the music).
It works with all headphones I tried (Bose qc 700 and Apple air pods pro and regular a air pods).

I don't know if this is a bug or a feature. But It might be confusing for other users.

 Best regards Alex

[parsons3]

I’m having same symptoms.  The problem was intermittent for me - sometimes would connect to AirPods Pro after a few tries. Before trying the download workaround, I removed and reinstalled Spotify app and re-downloaded my playlist to watch.  Playback on Apple Watch is now never a choice in Spotify app on watch (with or without connection to iPhone or AirPods - Bluetooth on or off entirely).

[Chrispyguy]

Thank you for your workaround! I have the mobile data Apple Watch 8 and I was having this exact same issue. Why can't we listen to the audio on the Watch Spotify app especially when having the mobile data version? Doesn't make sense. I downloaded my workout playlist and was able to listen to it on my headphones now. You're the real MVP!

[Neeksskeen]

Literally!!! Like o know what I’m looking for and the Apple Watch symbol is just not there anymore. I see my phone, tv and fire stick but not my watch when my headphones are connected!!so frustrating 

[soroushar]

None of these steps are working. I've tried with multiple headphones and paired, repaired and factory reset everything. This is clearly a reproducible issue that many people in this thread are facing. can you please follow up?