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.