Spotify on iphone 8 with adapter in car

[j5d7]

Problem

Spotify will not play consistently in my car.  When a song finishes, the next song will become garbled.  If I manipulate the wires, pause and start the song, etc. it will start playing correctly again.  Sometimes mid-song when hitting a bump in the road it will go garbled (at least correlated, but not sure it's really a cause).

Setup

Honda Civic Aux Input <-- Male to Male 3.5mm cable <-- 3.5mm to Lightning Adapter <-- iPhone 8 <-- Spotify

Experiment: Other Apps

If I try using iHeartRadio or another audio app but I do not have any trouble for the duration of long trips.  It seems only to happen with Spotify.  It has been happening for 4 months now and I have the app and iOS up to date.

Experiment: Remove Adapter

If I use my phone in a Honda Pilot (over Bluetooth) audio is fine.  If I use my iPad in the same car without the lightning adapter it plays fine.

Experiment: Replace Adapter

I've reproduced with two different 3.5mm to lightning adapters.

Experiment: Replace 3.5mm Cable

I was using a Monster Cable but also have tried a brand new oldboytech aux cable with the same result.

Hypothesis

It behaves as though there were a loose wire somewhere in the system but as I've substituted every component from end-to-end system and now experimented with other audio apps, the behavior appears unique to the Spotify app.

Long-term Spotify Premium / Family subscriber that has been unable to listen to Spotify in my car since upgrading to an iPhone 8.  Not sure how to resolve the use of Spotify on my commute.

[MattSuda]

Hey @j5d7

Thanks for the detailed information. 

You mentioned this only happens with the Spotify app?

Have you tried deleting the Spotify app from your phone, then restarting your phone and then reinstalling the Spotify app? I know it can be a pain to have to redownload and setup the app and all the settings all over again, but that is usually a recommended step to try especially since you mention you are only having this problem with the Spotify app.

[MattSuda]

Also someone else in the community said they had problems too with distored sound and came across this link:

http://piunikaweb.com/2018/04/12/ios-113-users-reporting-music-audio-skipping-problem/

So it could be an issue with iOS 11.3

[j5d7]

I've observed the issue ever since I bought the phone (Nov 2017) so I've gone through a few updates of iOS and the Spotify app.  It seemed like a good suggestion and worth a try, so today I did completely delete the app and then re-install it.  It didn't seem to be as bad as I observed previously so it may have improved with iOS 11.3.1, but during quiet parts of songs or song transitions it still occurs.

It may likely be related to an iOS issue, but I don't observe the issue when using the Apple lightning headphones or during phone calls, only with the Apple lightning adapter plugged into an aux headphone input.

I also recently updated to iOS 11.3.1 but observed the problem both before and after update.

It was a good suggestion to verify though, thanks @MattSuda.

[j5d7]

I've been curious so will need to try Apple Music and see if I can reproduce the problem as I've really only attempted using Spotify and iHeartRadio where the latter doesn't have the playback issue.