There are many threads on this issue, but I'd like to open a new thread because many of the ones opened are on different (older) hardware and different versions of Android/Spotify etc.

Issue: When first connecting to the car, Spotify will load, but will not play music. The music seems to be stuck on pause (meaning that it won't play even though you keep pressing the play button). Another issue that seems to be related to this is the side menu won't load at all when this issue is happening (by side menu, I mean the menu with the recently played, etc.) 

Force stopping, allowing all permissions, and hard killing Spotify doesn't seem to work. The only solution to this so far is restarting my phone which is obviously very inconvenient.

Is anyone else having the same issues? Does anyone have a way to get around this? I'm sure Spotify is aware of this issue...

Phone: Samsung Galaxy Note 8 (Verizon)

Car: VW GTI 2017

Android Version: 7.1.1

Samsuns Experience Version: 8.5

Android Security Patch Level: January 1, 2018

Kernel Version: 4.4.21

Spotify Version: 8.4.39.673 armVG7