Podcast fast-forwarding causes playback to stop

[Berger781]

Plan

Free

Country

USA

Device

iPhone 13

Operating System

iOS 16.2

My Question or Issue

This issue occurs under very specific circumstances:  you must start playing a podcast whose mid roll ads are served by Spotify (that is, not read as part of the podcast but served as an audio cut out).

Many podcasts serve an ad spot towards the beginning of the podcast.  If you fast forward past the point where the cut away ad should pop up, audio playback stops, and the “currently playing” screen with the fast forward buttons closes.  The app does not crash, but playback stops.

This can be mitigated if you slide the playback marker manually past the ad break (say, to the middle of the podcast), let the audio play for a second, and then slide back to the beginning.  Now, fast-forwarding past the ad marker triggers the ad as usual (and I can fast forward through the ad as usual also).

To repro, try any podcast from The Ringer for the past 6 months.  I’m literally listening to less Spotify-owned content because this has been broken for so long that I now prefer mid roll ads read live by the hosts.  Lol.

[Ines00]

I'm a paid user I've also been experiencing the same issue. Whenever I try to fast forward the first ad in a podcast episode the episode closes. It's been happening I'd say for about 2 months. It annoyed me enough to complete a Google search to see if others are have this same issue. It's happening every time. 

[Berger781]

I don’t use a VPN.  This behavior does not seem to be connection-dependent.  

Clearly, I’m not the only one with this problem.  Rather than speculating about how many users are having this issue, can you tell me whether or not anyone has reproduced the error on your side?

[AlejaR]

Hey folks, 

Thanks for keeping us in the loop.

@Berger781, in this type of case, in order to properly investigate what's possibly triggering the behavior you kindly describe, it'd be more useful if we had the info of the different users who are reporting the inconvenience.

@Ines00, we appreciate the time you took to report us this inconvenience. In order to continue looking into this, please send us all the details asked by @Eni above. It's really important that if you're experiencing this, you send us that info, so our tech team can have a better look at it.
 

We'll be on the lookout!

[Ar5718]

@moderators - see below for responses to your questions:

• Your device + OS version: has happened on 2 devices: iPhone 7 (iOS 15.## - can't remember specifically which 15 version it was); brand new iPhone 13 Mini (iOS 16.2)
• Current Spotify version: 8.8.10.698
• Troubleshooting steps you've already tried: issue persisted on a brand new iPhone with newly downloaded Spotify; also occurs regardless of being on WiFi or using data
• Does this happen while using a different internet connection? yes
• Does this happen with multiple podcasts or only with a specific one? multiple - the way berger781 has described the issue is exactly what happens across affected podcasts
• screen recording - can work on providing you one

[Ar5718]

Hey @alejar / moderators - see the below links for example of the issue in screen recordings for two separate Spotify podcasts.

In the first, the playback stops entirely when I fast forward into the first embedded advertisement. In the second, the audio continues when I fast forward past when the first embedded ad starts, but the playing episode disappears from my Spotify interface so it looks like nothing is playing on the screen. When I hit play on the episode again, it reverts back to the point where I hit fast forward initially.

1. https://youtube.com/shorts/9gMnwoSTaOI?feature=share

2. https://youtube.com/shorts/OS5u2tqfscw?feature=share

[AlejaR]

Hey folks,

Thanks for all the details you kindly send us.

@Ar5718 we really appreciate the time you took to send us all this detailed info. 

Folks, we've gone ahead and passed all these details about this behavior to the right team. Rest assured this is being investigated.

If you're new to this thread and you're experiencing this on your side, please make sure to send us the list of details you find in the pinned message at the top. This would help our tech team to better isolate it.

We'll be on the lookout!

[Mcp19]

Want to jump in and say this is happening on Android too. Browsing the previous replies I may have missed it but I only saw people reporting iPhone

Device: Pixel 6

OS: Android 13

Spotify Version: 8.8.14.575

Plan: premium 

This is also happening exclusively on Spotify owned podcasts where you would skip into the insert ad. I will attempt to showcase this in a screen record at a later date but a good example is the podcast Heavyweight there is usually 45 seconds or so of banter in the lead up before the ad that you can skip around freely but when it would skip into the ad the playback crashes.

[Berger781 · Accepted solution]

This seems to be fixed for me at some point in the last 24-48hrs.  Not sure it corresponded to an app release so maybe it was a server side issue.

I’ll wait to close this issue until others confirm this is fixed (make sure to update your app, then like this post if fixed)

[Ar5718]

Seems to be fixed for me as well.