Spotify stops playing after 1 second when connected to bluetooth speaker

[BattleCat]

Hey,

so I encountered this issue, when I have my bluetooth speaker connected to my phone (iPhone 12 mini, but it happened on my iPhone 7 too) and try to play anything, it always just stops after a second. If I just disconnect a speaker and play it without it, it plays without an issue. Also if I try to play anything from my PC, and connect the same speaker to it, it plays normally.

I tried to do some googling but didn't find anyone mentioning this issue. The podcast or song never plays for longer than one second. It doesn't show any kind of error or anything.

I would really appreciate it if anyone could help, thanks. 🙂

Speaker: JBL Charge 4

[Eni]

Hey there @BattleCat, 

Thanks for reaching out about this here in the Community and sorry for the delayed reply. We moved your post from Chat to the relevant Help board, where it fits better.

First up, it's well worth running a clean reinstall of the app on your phone to get rid of any cached files that might be causing trouble. This one is more thorough than the usual one.

If this doesn't do the trick, could you try using a different internet connection to see if the same happens? 

If the issue persists, would you mind asking a friend or a relative to log in to their account in your phone to check if the same happens with a different account?

We'll be on the lookout for your reply.

[Gerjansnl]

I have the same problem. The offered solution doesn’t help. Also reconnecting to the internet is not a related suggestion since it does play on my iPhone itself. It only stops after 1 sec when connected to external bluetooth speaker. Other apps does play music from this speaker so it must be somehow a bug in Spotify. 

[BattleCat]

I tried a clean reinstall of Spotify and this happened:

I connected the BT speaker right away and it actually worked. But afterwards, I connected normal headphones to my iPhone and...it stopped playing after one second. No matter what I did, I pressed "Play" and it only played for a second. Now on my headphones. So I had to do another clean reinstall of Spotify and connected headphones FIRST (because I use my headphones daily), so I have at least working headphones. That helped. So it looks like only first device that is connected works, the second one doesn't....

Also I'm sorry, I have no one that would have Spotify account that could test this on my phone.

[Eni]

Hey folks, 

Thanks for your replies.

@BattleCat, thanks for letting us know. In this case, would you mind logging in to your account on a different phone to check if the same happens? On another note, make sure that you've also turned on Background App Refresh for Spotify? This can be done in your phone's Settings > General > Background App Refresh > Spotify.

@Gerjansnl, could you let us know the exact make/model, operating system and Spotify version of your device? On another note, we'd like to know if this happens across devices or only on a specific one.

We'll be on the lookout for your reply.

[BattleCat]

Hello.

I already tried this with my last phone, and partly because of this problem I bought a new phone, in hopes it will not happen anymore. So I already tried it with iPhone 7, now it is happening on iPhone 12 Mini.

I have background app refresh turned on already.

Thank you.

[Eni]

Hi @BattleCat,

Thanks for getting back in touch.

Just to confirm, were the headphones you tried with using Bluetooth connection as well?

On another note, you mentioned that you couldn't ask anyone to test this with their account. In this case, could you create a new account to test with? You can do it here. We're trying to figure out if this is account-related.

We'll be waiting for your reply.

[BattleCat]

Hello, Eni,

so you're right, my current headphones are indeed connected through Bluetooth, and Spotify is working normally (I was using wired headphones before). 

Now I tried again connecting the speaker, and then wired headphones and bluetooth headphones, and everything works now! So I'm not sure what happened, but this seems fixed for me now.

Thank you for your time. 🙂 

[Eni]

Hey @BattleCat, 

Thanks for getting back to us and letting us know.

Fantastic news! Give us a shout if it starts misbehaving again; we're always here to help.

Have a nice day 🙂

[Tharayman]

I have had this problem from time to time. It is a bluetooth issue. It seems to occur when there are multiple BT devices involved. Somehow spotify gets confused when it thinks your phone is connected to more than one.

so clearing your BT device list might help…

[Noobzo]

Hi,

Want to add to this issue, I bought new Bluetooth headphones, they work fine though on mobile when I connected and played a song it stopped almost right away, played with settings a bit and turning on the offline mode helped. I was also connected to the headphones on my pc.

[Kwallied]

So what's the fix?  I'm having the same problem with a JBL Charge 4.  The background refresh option on my iPhone was checked and didn't help.

[AlejaR]

Hey @Kwallied,

Thanks for your reply and for the info shared.

We understand you've followed some troubleshooting (kudos for that! 🙂 ) Just to confirm, have you tried reinstalling the app on the affected device to check if you notice any difference? If you haven't yet, you can follow the steps in this article to do it. By doing that the app can be up-to-date and you can make sure the cache is not leading to this inconvenience. You can find out the steps to do it here.

If the above doesn't do the trick, is this happening over WiFi? 3G/4G? Both? Do you notice any difference if you switch the internet red you're using? Give it a try and let us know how it goes.

Lastly, would you mind sending us the make/model and OS of the affected device along with the Spotify version you're currently running?

Keep us in the loop!

[radnomaciotns]

Same issue when playing from Spotify with a Bluetooth speaker. Meanwhile YouTube plays just fine. I only have my casio “smartwatch” and the Bluetooth speaker (Emberton) connected via Bluetooth. It’s been like this for months now. Makes it impossible to listen music via the Bluetooth speaker 😞

[MihailY]

Hey folks,

For anyone still experiencing this, please share (if you haven't already) the exact model of the Bluetooth device and the model, OS version and Spotify version of the device it's connected to.

Once we have this info, we can relay it to our tech team.

Thanks!

[radnomaciotns]

My Bluetooth device is Marshall Emberton (1), iPhone 13 Pro, iOS 17.0.3 (but reproduced with earlier versions as well), Spotify v. 8.8.78.670

[LouisaMoody]

Same exact issue. Spotify only plays for 1 second when connected to Marshall Action II BT speaker. Latest Spotify version 8.8.82. iPhone 12 Pro Max with iOS 16.6.1.

Bluetooth works perfectly with Instagram, YouTube, and iTunes, so the issue seems to be tied to Spotify. 
I have tried all the fixes suggestion and nothing has helped so far. Thanks!

[Mistersmile]

Hi all, 

I have experienced the same issue. The cause seems to be that Spotify stops playing through the my external speaker when multiple devices are connected with that speaker. When I connect my iPhone with the speaker, Spotify cuts of the music after one second when my MacBook is somehow also connected with the same speaker. When I disconnect my MacBook from the speaker then Spotify works perfectly from my iPhone right away. 

So I think the solution is just to make sure only 1 device is connected with your speaker. 

Hope this helps!

[Ljung123]

Watch this tutorial https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iWNKpw79tnw&t=4

it removed the problem for me

[Hewitta77]

I don’t think a reinstall should be suggested as the first action. That’s a pain in the **bleep** and not great customer care to suggest something that clearly isn’t working for most people and isn’t convenient. This is a bluetooth when you have Spotify open on two devices. 

Here’s what worked for me:

1. check what other devices (Mac, iPhone, etc) are connected to both Spotify and the same Bluetooth speaker. 
2. turn off Spotify or disconnect the Bluetooth speaker / headphones on the other device

that’s it! 

I can reproduce the issue so it’s clear this is the solution. If I disconnect the Bluetooth speaker from the other device (Mac) it fixes it. If I close Spotify on the other device and leave it connected to the Bluetooth speaker it also fixes it. Soooo..

what’s happening is Spotify has a feature that it remembers what you’re playing on a different device so you can switch from iPhone to Mac and your Spotify song picks up where you left off HOWEVER if both are connected to the same Bluetooth speaker this doesn’t work and causes music to stop after a second of play. 

This is an issue for Spotify to fix. Clearly many people have a Bluetooth device connected to both their phone and computer and will not think to close Spotify on one device before using the other. I hope to see this resolved soon. 

Until then, enjoy pause free listening by quitting Spotify on your device before using another one connected to the same Bluetooth speaker.