Android App crashes forever after Ad, needs clear data/new login.

[avidmusiclistener]

App Version

8.8.22.510

Plan

Free

Operating System

Android 11

Network

Any

My Question or Issue

The App enters a crash loop forever after a video ad, needs clear data/login again

1. App attempts to show a random video Ad

2. App enters a crash loop forever. Restarting app, phone and clear cache do not solve, clear all data and repeating login does solve.

Happens at random (once/twice a day) in same way, not always reproducible.

[avidmusiclistener]

Furhter analisys and debugging makes this appear as something that limits listening for non-premium users, unless (video) ADs are played, watched and then perhaps clicked upon.

Here a more detailed daily flow (still not entirely reproducible)

1. The app works perfectly fine for a few hours, playing some playlist with some (audio) ads in the middle

2. Playing suddenly stops, listener is expected to open the app, click on "PLAY" to play and watch a video ad

3. Listener either does not watch the video ad, does not click on it, or puts it on mute

4. The app enters a crash loop

Workarounds: (find a new one)

A: clearing all data and logging in again

B: waiting a few hours (2-3) and restarting the app

Apparently then, in this bug there is some AD related event keeping your account into the crash loop for some hours, then solving itself.

I also noticed that some video ADs seem broken (i.e. I see the title like "Tommy Hifigier", sorry for mentioning), but then the video AD never starts. Realistically "hanging" on these broken ads is what causes the crash loop, until a few hours later you are assigned another (working) ad.

[avidmusiclistener]

This bug could be related to failed connectivity to graph.facebook.com facebook API, on heavily filtered corporate networks.

A missing or failed response just after an attempted connection to that host seems to trigger the dispatch of a crash report, then the crash happens.

If that's the case, DEVs could easily catch the exception (dependence from an external service) and prevent the crash.

[Alex]

Hi there @avidmusiclistener,

Thanks for the post and your detailed description of the issue.

We've passed on this report to the right folks at Spotify 🙂

Take care.

[avidmusiclistener · Accepted solution]

For the sake of information, I traced the root cause of this issue.

The issue happens on Android devices in the presence of a multiuser (home/work) setup (some vendors call it "dual apps")

When Spotify is used from the secondary user, it apparently has issues acquiring full control of the screen to dislpay video Ads. This failure seems to be the cause of the crash loops.

Running Spotify from the main android user makes the crashes disappear, and the app becomes stable.