[Android Auto] Larger playlists do not load when offline

[y-jdddg5_zrws]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Pixel 9 (also tested with Pixel 7)

Operating System

Android 16

My Question or Issue

In one of the last updates, I have had a new issue with using Spotify in Android Auto.

When I go to select most playlists, they'll load up how they are supposed to. However, I have a playlist that I've had for years that now will not load and I get a message saying that "Spotify is not responding" on my radio screen.

I have tested this on the Kenwood unit in my 2008 truck, in both a 2021 and 2024 Ram, and a 2025 Bronco and it will not load on any of them. I have also tested it on my old Pixel 7 and it will not work. I have tried both wired (with different cables) and wireless Android Auto and it will not work. The playlist loads fine on the app when I'm not connected but will not through the head unit. I have also duplicated the playlist to see if that fixes it but it does not.

What is even more confusing is that the playlist will load if I select it in the offline/downloaded section but not in the normal playlist section. This leads me to my next issue that, as far as I can tell, Spotify has removed the ability to choose a song on a playlist by letter from an offline playlist. Instead, it defaults to a shuffle and doesn't give the ability to choose a song at all. Maybe it's just user error but if it's not, then I think it's a huge oversight to remove that functionality.

Am I doing something wrong or is there a fix to my issue?

Thank you for your help!

[Joan]

Hi there @y-jdddg5_zrws,

Thanks for reaching out. We'll be glad to help investigate this and get the library working again.

Firstly, a huge thank you for being so thorough and for the extensive troubleshooting you've done. We really appreciate it! To confirm, this issue only affects one specific playlist and only started occurring after the latest Spotify update, is that correct? So that we can truly get to the bottom of this, one more thing worth trying is if the same playlist works on a different account. You can try testing this yourself if you want or you can share the playlist link with someone else so that they can test on their devices. When doing so, just make sure that the playlist privacy settings are correct and will allow other people to access your playlist.

Regarding the scrolling issue, we're investigating something very similar across a multitude of devices in this thread. Check it out and keep an eye on it for new updates.

Let us know how it goes.

[y-jdddg5_zrws]

Hi Joan,

Yes it is one specific playlist and my issues started about a week ago. The Play store says I last updated Spotify around then and it was working a few weeks ago.

I did some testing using my Pixel 7 with another Spotify account and found some interesting things.

First, I shared that playlist to the test account but did not download it and it worked perfect. When I tried downloading it to that phone, it quit working. So I took it on the test account and duplicated it and shared it back to my main account and same thing. When I didn't download it, it worked but it broke when I did.

So then I went back to the original playlist on my main account and removed the download and it worked. Then, I redownloaded it and started removing songs to see what happens and it took removing about 60 songs (going from about 9 hours length to about 5 hours) for it to work with having it downloaded. One thing to note is that playlist did have a song that is no longer on Spotify, but I don't think that song has been available in a long time and it was on another playlist of mine and that one still works. When I saw that was still listed on the playlist but unavailable, I thought that may have been the issue but it appears to not be the case.

Sorry if all of that is confusing but this bug I'm having is pretty strange.

[OscarDC]

Hey @y-jdddg5_zrws,

Thank you for keeping in contact and for the info shared.

It's possible that the length of the playlist might have been too heavy for the head unit to load all the info properly showing the error, but we're glad to know that everything is working fine now after removing some tracks. We appreciate the time you took sharing the process you followed to resolve your issue. Hopefully, this tip will help other users too.

In case you need anything else, remember that we're just a post away.

Cheers!

[Austinshane]

Hello! I have the same issue on my end here. On android auto, Spotify will not load downloaded playlists. Only non-downloaded. This is extremely frustrating as I do not want to stream music all of the time. 

If I download the playlist, it says "Spotify not responding", but, if the playlist is NOT downloaded, then it works perfectly. I have also tried all of the other work arounds mentioned above with no results... 

This issue is with Spotify itself as all other music streaming services work with offline playlists just fine. 

HOWEVER, I have found that Spotify works fine with IOS devices on carplay. I have an iPhone for work, so, I downloaded Spotify to that phone and logged into my account. BOOM! The downloaded playlists worked. 

My android phone is my personal phone, so the IOS mention is not a solution, just a factor i tried to rule out the Head unit of the car. 

Not sure how to roll back the Spotify update on my phone, maybe that would fix??

[y-jdddg5_zrws]

I'm glad I'm not the only one with this issue. I'm like you that I don't want to or can't stream all the time. I drive in places that don't have good connection pretty often so downloading is the only way to enjoy my music.

I guess this isolates this issue to this last update on Android devices then. I thought about finding an older APK of Spotify and trying that to see if that fixes it but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I may have an older version installed on another device too but it ultimately won't fix the issue with my current phone.

Unfortunately, I think we can only hope this issue gets noticed and patched in one of the next updates since it doesn't appear there's anything we can do.

[henryya]

I have the same issue

[Joan]

Hi there folks,

Thanks for all the replies. 

We're definitely going to dig deeper into this. To than end, please share the following with us:

@henryya @Austinshane Is it all downloaded playlists that don't work or only specific ones? Or only bigger ones with more than 60 songs?

@y-jdddg5_zrws if you add songs to other playlists and get them over 60, do they also stop working?

Also let us know, if you haven't already:

• The exact makes, models and OS/Firmware versions of all your affected devices
• The exact Spotify Versions you use.

With this information, we’d be happy to investigate.

Keep us posted.
 

[y-jdddg5_zrws]

The playlist with the issues has 154 songs in it. When reduced to about 94 songs, it will work correctly.

I do have a couple other longer playlists that work fine. One has 195 songs and it's worked fine while that one with 154 has had issues.

Here's all the info for my device:

Device: Pixel 9

OS: Android 16

Android Auto version 14.7.652684

Spotify version 9.0.74.1121

The info from the device I made the other account on for testing that had the same issues:

Device: Pixel 7

OS: Android 13

Android Auto version 14.7.652684

Spotify version 9.0.74.1121

[Austinshane]

My phone is the Galaxy Z Fold 7, and the Spotify version number is: 9.0.74.1121

I can confirm that it has something to do with the number of songs in the playlist. During some of my testing, I made a new playlist and put roughly 200 songs in it. Once downloaded, android auto could no longer read the playlist. Once I took that down to 80 songs, it seemed to work. HOWEVER, 80 is just a random number I picked. Some playlists have 120 songs or more, and they work fine. 

I do have several large playlists that I listen to daily, and the large ones definitely do not work unless I I stream the playlist. Streaming the playlist is the only way to get android auto to read it. Once I click the download button, the playlist no longer shows any songs, instead, it says "Spotify isn't responding". 

In my opinion, the issue lies within Spotifys ability to communicate with the playlist that is over a certain number of songs is broken... Only smaller playlists can be ready and played. 

Just for reference, I can see the playlist fine on my phone, just not on android auto 

[henryya]

it's only a specific downloaded playlist with 226 songs. However, I have other downloaded playlist with more than 226 songs and it has no problem.

Device: Pixel 9 XL Pro

OS: Android 16

Android Auto : version 14.7.652684-release

Spotify version :  version 9.0.74.1121

[Vasil]

Hey folks!

Thank you for sharing your details with us!
We've gone ahead and relayed the info to the right folks backstage. We'll keep you posted as soon as there's anything new to share 🙂

Keep your apps up to date in the meantime and, @henryya, as you've mentioned the two playlists, we'd like to ask you if both of them are your own playlists (or followed playlists) and if they only include the same type of content.

We'll be on the lookout for new replies here. Many thanks!

[henryya]

Yep, those are my own playlists. What do you mean by same content? Genre? Podcast?

[MihailY]

Hey @henryya,

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, what @Vasil meant was if the playlists contain any podcast episodes or music tracks only.

Cheers,

[henryya]

Music songs only.

[OscarDC]

Hey @henryya,

Thank you for keeping in contact and for the clarification.

We appreciate your cooperation regarding this case, we've passed all this info internally and continue investigating further. Rest assured that any relevant update will be posted here to keep you all updated. We'd also recommend having your Spotify app updated, so you don't miss any possible improvements.

Stay tuned.

[coachhoach]

Just wanted to comment that I've been having the same experience as well.  I have a playlist containing ~180 songs downloaded to my device.  Spotify via Android Auto generally works other than trying to load this playlist (i.e. to initiate playing it).  If I start playing this playlist via interacting with my phone, the music will play, but I can't fast-forward/rewind through the track list via my steering wheel controls in the vehicle either.  I can tap the next/prev icons on the 'now playing' view on the car's screen though.

Device: Google Pixel 9
Android version: 16 w/ September 5, 2025 update

Android Auto version: 14.7.652684
Spotify version: 9.0.76.1126

Vehicle: 2021.5 Volkswagen Atlas (MIB 3 generation infotainment)