[Android] App crashing when loading playlists

[Vasil]

Hey folks!

You may have noticed that your Android apps might crash when you attempt opening your playlists. We've investigated this and found out that this may happen if they include local files. 

We're currently looking into this but, in the meantime, we've confirmed that clearing you app's cached data and going for a complete clean reinstall should solve the issue 🙂

[Rndmann]

Plan

Free/Premium

Device

Samsung Galaxy M51

Operating System

Android 12

Spotify Version

9.0.20.604

My Question or Issue

When I scroll down a playlist app crashes every single time. This happens on longer playlists (70+ songs). Shorter the playlist, closer I can get bottom of playlist. This is happening around exact same location in same playlist, I can't scroll down past certain point without a crash. This doesn't happens in songs I liked even though it has 154 songs. I tried restarting my device, logging in again, clearing cache.

[Mackaroni]

I am also having this issue

[creature-]

Plan

Premium Duo

Country

United Kingdom

Device

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra

Operating System

Android 14, OneUI 6.1

My Question or Issue

Whenever I open the 'add to other playlist' option on a song, it crashes the Spotify app. I have tried with multiple songs and tried at various times of day.

[creature-]

Here is a screen recording of this happening

[Yordan]

Hey there, folks,

Welcome to the Spotify Community!

Interesting. Have you noticed this behavior when scrolling to a specific song or is it always dependent on the scroll position? Try changing the sort order of the playlist to see if that makes a difference. Also, does activating/deactivating Smart Shuffle have any effect on this behavior?

If you haven't already, I'd recommend performing a clean reinstall of the app - this will get rid of any potential issues with corrupted cache and ensure you're running the latest version of Spotify available.

In case the issue persists, please share a short screen recording which captures the described behavior in action so we can take a closer look.

Cheers 🤘

[Yordan]

Hey there, @creature-,

Thanks for reaching out!

Does this occur when adding songs to a specific playlist or with all playlists in general? Have you tried adding a song via the green check mark icon instead to see if it makes a difference?

If possible, check if the issue occurs with another Spotify account: you can ask someone (a friend or a relative) to log in to their account on your device to see if the same behavior would occur.

I'd also recommend performing a clean reinstall of the app - this will get rid of any potential issues with corrupted cache and ensure you're running the latest version of Spotify.

Let us know how it goes 👍

[Rndmann]

Ok, changing the shuffle didn't have any effect, but changing the sort order yielded different results. I suspected that one or more songs might be causing crashes, so I tried various sorting methods to identify the problematic song. It was challenging, as a crash would occur just before that song appeared on the screen when I scrolled slowly. If I scrolled quickly, I found it hard to determine which song was causing the issue.

Eventually, I succeeded in pinpointing the song responsible for the crashes. Remember how I said that this didn't happen in liked songs in my previous post? I made the dreadful mistake of finding this song there and playing it. As a result, the app immediately crashed again, but now I couldn't even open the app properly because every time the app opens, it automatically tries to play the last song, which means the app crashes as soon as it opens. I managed to resolve this by deleting the song from local storage. However, deleting it from my device doesn’t remove it from my Spotify lists. Then I went to my liked songs again, tapped the three dots next to the problematic song, and removed it from my playlists. This solved the issue for those playlists. Now, the remaining problem is I still can't remove the song from my local files using the same method. When I tap the three dots next to a song in liked songs, only playlists appear, not local files. While trying to identify the song, I sorted my local songs in a way that the problematic song appears on top of the list, which means the app crashes every time I open local songs.

I should note that there wasn't an issue like this until several days ago, and I can still open that song using another media player; it seems that Spotify has suddenly started having issues with this specific song. From what I’ve seen in recent posts, other users are experiencing similar problems.

P.S.: I have gone into detail because I thought that way you guys may have an easier time finding the source of the error.

[OscarDC]

Hey @Rndmann,

Thank you for keeping in contact.

We appreciate the detailed info you sent in your response, it's really helpful. Taking into account that the issue was caused by a local file, it's possible that the format of the audio file was affecting the proper behavior of the app. By any chance, have you tried to download the song from a different source and add it to your local files to see if it makes any difference?

Also, since you've made some changes to your local files and taking into account that the app crashes when loading the last listened track, to reset the playback on that device, we’d recommend performing a clean reinstall of the app. This process will also be helpful in getting rid of any cache that might be still causing trouble. 

Hope this helps. Let us know how it goes. 

[creature-]

Salutations, @Yordan

This issue does happen with adding to playlists in general, with the only method that works being the add to playlist option at the top of a playlist.

However, I believe that I have identified the issue being the cover image (or potential lack thereof) for one of my playlists (the exact one I am not sure of). The crash also happens when on the library tab and I scroll down until where I presume the playlist lies.

[creature-]

I have found the offending playlist since my last message.

I believe that it is something to do with a local file that the playlist contains, as the local files section (playlist?) also crashes Spotify when I open it.

Either that or a problem with local files in general.