Android mobile app, HTC Sensation, what a disappointment

[Leanover]

Been using this for a couple of days on my HTC Sensation, Android 4.0.3.

1. I updated my playlists on my computer, but the mobile app will not acknowledge the updates, it still shows the playlists as having the same amount of tracks as before I updated them on the computer. I've cleared all the data and uninstalled and reinstalled and turned phone off and on, cycled through offline/online mode etc. but it still won't update. I am connected to my home Wifi network.

2. But the most disappointing thing of all is that I can't even skip a track from the lock screen, I have to actually unlock the phone, putting my pin number in every time. Even free apps like Cloudskipper or the built in Android music app have this basic function, which is surely obviously essential to a music player. I've spent hours searching the internet on this topic, and some people seem to say there is a lockscreen widget, but I can't find it. It seems like those that have managed to find it are having problems with it and have been for at least a year. Why on earth would Spotify shout about being able to operate in landscape mode (a nice but utterly inessential feature) when this is still not working?

Am I missing something here? Feel immensely disappointed so far considering this costs an extra £5 a month.

[Leanover]

My first issue was 'solved' by doing as advised in this post http://community.spotify.com/t5/Help-Android/Not-all-songs-in-playlists-on-different-computers-mobil...

Disappointment remains. I want my lockscreen controls!

[Joe]

Hi. Glad to hear you sorted out the playlist issue. If you change your lock from PIN to pattern, does the lock screen widget show up? What versions of android/spotify are you running?

[Leanover]

Hi, thanks for replying.

It doesn't appear if I change to pattern lockscreen, no. I'm on android 4.0.3 on HTC Sensation (so with some variation of 'HTC Sense'). The version of spotify is the latest one from the Play store (I re-downloaded it on 2nd of June).

Also, I'm a bit confused as to why that should make a difference. With the Android music player and also with Cloudskipper, the controls appear in the screen before that, i.e. the one from which you drag the ring to unlock. You just press the 'on' button to wake the phone up, and the music player widget is right there, without having to even go to another screen. To me this seems like the obvious best implementation since it means you can skip a track with the minimum of presses/swipes etc.

[Joe]

The now playing widget does work for most android users. There is another thread on the missing widget where someone mentioned the pattern lock fixing thing. Can you try clearing the app data under [system] settings and launch the app again.

[Leanover]

I have also tried that a few times (sorry should have mentioned that before) and it made no difference.

I'm reluctant to do it again now since it deletes everything and I finally got my playlist to download!

From what I could gather reading other posts it seems like mostly that worked for people with Samsung phones. I wonder if it clashes with something in HTC Sense.

I also think it's a bit of a failing of the app if that feature only works with the pattern lock and not the pin lock.

[Joe]

If you submit an online contact form someone at Spotify will look into this for you. If you get an automated reply, make sure to reply to it directly (even if it's from a no reply) and it will be sent to the Spotify staff.

[Tenor79]

I also have the same problem (lock screen widget not displaying) on my HTC Sensation. Here is how I've worked around it:

On the HTC Sense lock screen (with the ring) - the notification bar can be dragged down. So, after hitting the 'on' button, just drag down the notification bar and you can hit pause or next.