Spotify on PC does not appear on my iPhone (but it does on my Mac, and my girlfriends iPhone)

[yannibu]

Plan

Premium

Country

France

Device

iPhone 6s

Operating System

iOS 14.2

My Question or Issue

Hi 🙂

I have Spotify on a PC with windows 10, connected to the internet box through ethernet cable. My iPhone is connected to the same internet box, but through wifi. My problem is that this PC does not show up on my iPhone "devices" page when Spotify is running but no song playing. So I can not start music on my PC by using the iPhone as a remote.

What is weird, is that if I use the media keys "play / pause / etc." on the pc, it commands the iPhone. So I have to kill the app on the phone, THEN use the media keys to start music on PC, THEN I can start the app again and use it as a remote for the PC. Indeed, when music is already running on the PC, then it appears on the phone ("continue listening on...").

However, the PC does appear as intended (without music playing on any on/off shenanigan) on my Mac, and my girlfriends iPhone (5s). So the problem is somewhere between the phone and the internet box. When I switch the "look for devices outside the LAN" (my interface is in French, so I'm not sure about the terms) button, the PC always shows up in my phone's devices. So has anyone an idea about why the phone thinks the PC is not in it's LAN ? (which seems to be at least a manifestation of the problem)

Any input welcome, and thanks for reading 🙂

[Novy]

Hey there @yannibu, 

Thanks for reaching out about this in the Community!

First up, we'd recommend performing a clean reinstall of the app. This is often an overlooked step, but it can be helpful for clearing any cache that might be causing issues and will ensure that you're running the latest app version. 

If this doesn't doesn't the trick, we'd suggest trying with a different network to see if the issue persists.

Let us know how it goes. We'll be on the lookout for your reply. 

[yannibu]

Hi 🙂

thanks for the help. 
Clean install did not help. What do you mean by « try another network » ? Indeed, when unchecking the parameter « see only local devices » i can see the pc as a device on my phone.

How can i make them realise they actually are in the same local network ?

[Alex]

Hi there @yannibu,

Thanks for the reply.

There might be an issue with the way your router is managing the devices connected to it. So we'd recommend restarting your router and checking if anything changes.

Trying a different network would mean to try connecting both your iPhone and the windows PC to another network, such as a mobile hotspot if your PC has access to Wi-Fi. This will help determine if it's indeed a network issue.

Your devices might also be affected by this Ongoing Issue, as some users report that they're having trouble looking up connect devices on their iOS device even when connected to the same network. If you experience this behavior with other devices, like smart speakers or TVs it might be worth going through the troubleshooting steps described in the thread.

Keep us posted on how you get on with this 🙂

[yannibu]

the router (actually the internet box ) is shut down on a daily basis. So, that won’t help. Clearly the problem is that spotify does not see the ethernet and the wifi as the same lan. Do you have an idea about which parameters i could configure in the router to make them one in the eyes of spotify ? Or is the distinction between wifi and ethernet built into the software ?

[Alex]

Hi there @yannibu,

Thanks for your reply!

It'd be best if you contact your internet provider for more detailed info on what might be causing your router to not recognize devices connected via Ethernet and Wi-Fi as part of the same network. 

The issue might also be related to the network adapter of the PC as well. 

I've tested this as well, and in my home set up I have two PC's connected via Ethernet and several devices connected via Wi-Fi but they all appear in the connect tab if I've played music on them. There is no way to start playing music on a certain device if you haven't had Spotify open and played music on that device in the same day.

You can try opening up the Web player on your Win10 PC and check whether other devices detect it without playing music or do you get the same behavior as the desktop app.

We'll be on the lookout for your reply.