Spotify x Amazon Echo - Multi-room broken

[gaaraara]

Plan

Premium

Country

United Kingdom

Device

(iPhone, Windows, Echo 3rd Gen, Echo Plus 2nd Gen)

Operating System

(iOS 10, Windows 10,etc.)

My Issue

Since December 2019 - I have had issues with Alexa playing music on Spotify multi-room. (Possible never worked properly)

- If the multi-room contains a audio system (two joined Echos or Echos joined to a fire stick), after playing music for a two seconds it just stops audio.

- I can see on my phone that Spotify is still playing. (Sometimes, sometimes it just disconnects and the device disappears for a while)

- I can replicate the issue every time.

I started a Reddit group and looks like lots of users are having this issue. = https://www.reddit.com/r/amazonecho/comments/ekw15v/alexa_x_spotify_issues/

- Before someone from Spotify tries to put this issue down to Amazon, there are no issues using any other streaming services. This must be down to poor implementation.

I am a user of Spotify for 10+ years, but this is becoming a deal-breaker.

[gaaraara]

maybe the same or similar issue.  I have several gen 3 echo Dots, 1 original Echo, and 3 gen 2 Echo Dots.  The pattern I’ve found is that whenever a gen 2 Echo Dot is in a group, that group disappears from Spotify.  Take the gen 2’s out and the group reappears in Spotify and works properly.  The just started happening in the last week.  Up until that time, all of my devices were in a group called Everywhere and worked fine for over a year.

I’ve unlinked, re-linked my accounts, I’ve deleted all devices and groups and re-added from scratch.  I even took my router back to factory defaults and created a new network with a new name, adding devices 1 by 1.  The pattern described above still holds true — anytime a gen 2 Echo Dot is in the group, it doesn’t work.  Remove the gen 2’s and it works.

[Janesvillite]

Same issues, plus the latest update made all groups disappear completely. Not even the Alexa default “everywhere” group shows up. And my computer all of the sudden shows up? Whaaaaaat.....

Please fix or I’m ditching and going to Apple Music or Amazon music.

[Vaughn58]

Same issue here! Please fix and Thank you!

[Elena]

Hey there @gaaraara, Janesvillite and @Vaughn58,

Thanks for getting in touch with us. Don't worry. Help is on the way:)

We're looking further into this but first we'll need to make sure that we've gone through some basic troubleshooting steps that we can offer.

You can start off by restarting the devices. If that doesn't help, you can perform a reinstall of Spotify and the Alexa app. That way you can make sure everything is up-to-date.

Keep us posted on how it goes! If you have questions, don't hesitate to reach out to us. 

[brunoap20]

Hi. I am having trouble with this too. 

Suddenly stops playing and there is no way to do it play back again on multi room speakers group. 

[Ivan]

Hey there @brunoap20,

Thanks for reaching out about this here in the Community!

Apologies for the delayed response, we just came across this thread.

As we haven’t seen any similar posts about this recently, could you let us know if you’re still having troubles with this? If you do, we recommend trying the above steps suggested by @Elena.  

Let us know how it goes! We’ll be right here if you still need help.   

[mlb14]

I'm having the same problem, worse than ever, though it has never worked seamlessly. Right now, neither the Spotify IOS app nor the Mac app recognize any of my multi-room groups, but they are working fine with other streaming services. I've done everything I could find in every forum I could find (and obviously there are a LOT of people who have had problems with this going back 2-3 years, and Spotify STILL hasn't fixed it).

As others have said, I'm now looking into replacing Spotify with a better service -- you know, one that works as it is supposed to, and gets fixed when it doesn't. I'm just sick of it.

[Lu0377]

i have just started having this problem. clearly its not been fixed since you first posted and its now March 2021

[Novy]

Hi @Lu0377, 

Thanks for reaching out about this. 

Could you let us know which troubleshooting steps you've tried so far? This will help us give you better suggestions. 

Also, could you send over the exact Spotify version you're currently running?

Keep us posted.

[richaardvark]

@Novy, @Ivan, (I guess we can't tag users)

I'm having the same exact problem - it's driving me crazy!  About a week or so ago my Amazon Echo "multi-room music groups" stopped showing up as Spotify Connect devices in any of my Spotify players (Android app, web player, desktop player, etc.).  I have spent hours and hours on the phone with Amazon support, we gave gone through every little detail of my network and router setup - this only happens with Spotify.  All other services (Pandora, TuneIn, Amazon Music, Apple Music) have no issues with playing multi-room music. And I am not the only person having this issue - if you look on the Spotify "Skill" page in the Alexa App - dozens and dozens of other people have been reporting this same issue for the past couple of weeks.  People there are quite upset and are apparently leaving Spotify in droves due to their frustration. I really love Spotify and have been a premium member for years and years but if I can't get it to work I won't be able to remain a paying user of Spotify.  Makes me sad.  Please help us fix this.  It has something to do with the way Amazon Alexa's "multi-room" music groups/speaker groups are created as Spotify Connect devices on the back-end and there is nothing us, the users, can do to fix the problem. I have un-linked and re-linked the skill/my Spotify account dozens of times, have deleted and re-created groups over and over and over, have tried alternate Spotify accounts: nothing works.  I've cleared the cache/all data on my Spotify Android app, have used the desktop player, web player - doesn't matter.  The devices simply do not show up as they are supposed to. I have never had any issues for years like this and suddenly do and it is extremely frustrating. I am happy to provide any additional details that might help fix this.  Thanks!

[Alex]

Hey there @richaardvark,

Thanks for reaching out about this n the Community and sharing this detailed info on the troubleshooting you've done and your feedback.

Another thing you can try is to delete the Everywhere Group, then re-add it. Also, make sure all echo devices are on the same network. Some users report that this helped them.

This issue has been reported to the right teams at Spotify, however it is largely dependent on the users' particular network and device set up, which make is very difficult to troubleshoot remotely.

Hope you find this info helpful. Don't hesitate to reach out again if you have questions.

[richaardvark]

Thank you. I have deleted and re-created the device group multiple times, over and over.  Nothing works. I had no issues for years. All devices are on the same network, on the 2.4 GHz band, all devices can see each other on the network/there is no AP isolation mode.  It worked fine for years but now nothing. Amazon is the only service that is not working with Multi-Room Music.  Amazon Support is at a dead end. Dozens of other users are experiencing the same problem and are writing their frustrations on the Amazon Spotify Skill store area. 

[tutkovic]

maybe the same or similar issue.  I have several gen 3 echo Dots, 1 original Echo, and 3 gen 2 Echo Dots.  The pattern I’ve found is that whenever a gen 2 Echo Dot is in a group, that group disappears from Spotify.  Take the gen 2’s out and the group reappears in Spotify and works properly.  The just started happening in the last week.  Up until that time, all of my devices were in a group called Everywhere and worked fine for over a year.

I’ve unlinked, re-linked my accounts, I’ve deleted all devices and groups and re-added from scratch.  I even took my router back to factory defaults and created a new network with a new name, adding devices 1 by 1.  The pattern described above still holds true — anytime a gen 2 Echo Dot is in the group, it doesn’t work.  Remove the gen 2’s and it works.

[richaardvark]

@tutkovic

You figured it out!!! I'm so happy! I only have 2nd-generation Echo Dots, but I also have a couple of Echo Flexes and made a new group with just the Flex devices and it worked flawlessly once again. I'm so glad you posted! I've been going back and forth with Amazon Support, and factory reconfigured my router as well, such a mess. So glad we now know for certain what the problem is. Now we just have to communicate this to Amazon and hope they fix it. It started about a week or so for me as well, after working (not flawlessly, but solidly) for two+ years. 

Reaching out to Amazon right now and hoping they're able to fix it!

[richaardvark]

Reported it to Amazon and they said that they will take care of it as soon as possible and that the engineering team might call me as well for an update or if they need device logs or anything. So now we just continue to wait...

[tutkovic]

Great news.  Please post back if/when you get any update from Amazon on a fix.  Thanks.

[indyrocklove]

@tutkovic has figured it out. This happened to me about a month ago and my Everywhere group stopped working. I just removed an early generation Echo Dot from my group and now  the Everywhere group works. 

Not sure which side this is on, but makes me wonder if Amazon is trying to force me to update. My current plan is to move to Sonos or Apple. Alexa has become more and more impossible to use over the years. 

[jamie100]

This issue is also effecting me. Have confirmed removing the gen2's from my group seems to fix the problem. Do we know if this is a problem on Spotify or Alexa's side?

Will give it a couple weeks more and then I will have to decide if I need to upgrade my alexa devices or change to a different music streaming platform

[tutkovic]

Any further communication from Amazon on fix timing?  Are they sure this is 100% an Amazon problem and not a Spotify problem?

[tutkovic]

All working again finally as of this morning