topic Re: Bug: currently playing does not update in Desktop (Windows)

Bug: currently playing does not update

ReneNL — Thu, 17 Nov 2016 09:54:38 GMT

Version: 1.0.42.151.g19de0aa6

OS: Windows 10/7 & Latest ubuntu

See the picture below, I am listening to a song from Spock's Beard.
1. The Play controls are not functional anymore (only usable via windows task-bar -> hover over spotify icon)
2. Track progress does not update
3. The lower left side bar indicating the currently playing song and cover art are not updated.
This has been going on for at least 2 weeks and seems to be happening after an AD.

Re: Bug: currently playing does not update

musiccornercv — Thu, 17 Nov 2016 14:35:13 GMT

Hey @ReneNL!

That's not good. Have you tried a clean reinstall of Spotify yet? First delete Spotify completely (Configuration screen>Programs>Spotify>Delete) then click here to reinstall it.

Re: Bug: currently playing does not update

Grove — Thu, 17 Nov 2016 16:10:29 GMT

Sound like what I wrote about yesterday..., at that time I also found a screenshot of it I had made three months ago

Looking a little aroound, I found

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Ongoing-Issues/Information-of-song-does-not-change-bottom-left-corner/idc-p/1461577

so it looks like this is a known issue.

Re: Bug: currently playing does not update

musiccornercv — Thu, 17 Nov 2016 16:31:11 GMT

Hey @Grove!

Thanks for the info. It's good to see the Spotify team is working on it. Still, a reinstall might fix the problem for @ReneNL and it certainly won't hurt to try. 😉

Re: Bug: currently playing does not update

ReneNL — Wed, 23 Nov 2016 12:49:20 GMT

So it seemed to be fixed, until today.

I have one desktop, always on or on standby with Spotify active. Yesterday evening I used the android app to cast spotify from my mobile to a chromecast. This morning I started playing music on the desktop again and the problem reappeared. Additionally the playcontrol layout has magically placed itself as in the picture from my first post. (After the reinstall the playcontrols were placed above the timebar).

Re-install might fix it again but this should not be a daily thing....

Re: Bug: currently playing does not update

musiccornercv — Thu, 24 Nov 2016 14:36:17 GMT

Hey @ReneNL!

That's crazy. It shouldn't be back after a reinstall. I'm getting some help with this, hang on.

Re: Bug: currently playing does not update

musiccornercv — Thu, 24 Nov 2016 16:59:00 GMT

Okay, maybe you should clear your cache and then reinstall the Spotify app. The default cache location should be C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Spotify\Storage

Tell me if it works!

Re: Bug: currently playing does not update

Hakul — Thu, 24 Nov 2016 20:57:40 GMT

I don't know what makes you think reinstalling will work when it's an old issue that has been reported for months with no fix.

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Desktop-Linux-Windows-Web-Player/Album-art-freezing-and-not-updating-with-new-tracks/td-p/1427063

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Ongoing-Issues/Desktop-App-Now-Playing-bar-and-Picture-Preview-Album-Artwork/idi-p/1443061/page/8#comments

If you really want to be helpful, don't ask people to go back to the first step of troubleshooting when it's a known issue, you will just annoy people.

Re: Bug: currently playing does not update

musiccornercv — Thu, 24 Nov 2016 23:29:03 GMT

Hey @Hakul,

Sorry to hear you're annoyed, Spotify tries to be amazing for everyone.

It's true that a similar problem has been reported by a lot of users, but that doesn't mean it's impossible to fix. The issue has been hard to tackle since it isn't there for all users and it isn't there all the time. Since we don't know what's causing the bug (yet) these steps might not fix the problem, but they might work just as well. In fact, just trying the basic first steps helps out the majority.

In this case, deleting the cache from the app is a little different from what we tried first, so it might solve the problem. The communication between the app (that still had old info in its cache) and the freshly installed desktop version might have caused the bug to reoccur. So by reinstalling the app the problem might vanish.

I do not work for Spotify, so I can't tell you the tech details. What I do know is that Spotify is working around the clock to fix the issue. Just hang on a little longer. 🙂

Re: Bug: currently playing does not update

Grove — Fri, 25 Nov 2016 09:38:30 GMT

It annoys me when people that doesn't even work for spotify ask people to try things that have been determined numerous times not to fix (it might hide it) the issue, that is too "assume everyone else is stupid" for me. If you really just trying help, make it clear from the start that what you're suggesting is not a fix, but a workaround that hides the problem for some. Especially when it's something as basic as "reinstall it".

Personally I'll rather live with it (I almost always control music with hotkeys doing dbus commands, and they don't break, so this is almost a cosmetic issue for me), and have a setup whether I can actually test things if a spotify employee starts taking this serious and wants to know something that requires the bug to be present.

And how do you know "that Spotify is working around the clock to fix the issue" (your own claim)? Yes, they have acknowledged the issue, and claim to have people working on it, but "around the clock", I wouldn't be surprised if they just have two people taking turns at looking at the number of new reports every monday.

Re: Bug: currently playing does not update

musiccornercv — Fri, 25 Nov 2016 22:28:38 GMT

Hey @Grove!

Sorry to hear you're so frustrated.

Most people that help out around here do not work for Spotify. I am a Rising Star, which is a beginning Rock Star. The Rock Star program picks regular users and gives them access to a big set of technical knowledge so they can support other users. Spotify relies on Rock Stars to help out others. So really it is sort of my thing to try to help. 🙂

As a Rock Star I'm also lucky enough to talk with lot of Spotify employees directly. I assume they let the tech guys sleep too, but I know for sure that they're working very hard to solve this issue. Spotify takes anything that gets in the way of having an awesome experience very serious.

I should indeed have mentioned earlier taht this is a workaround. My bad. Right now It's the best I can offer.