Android widget forgets which song it played after pausing

[electrocutus]

Plan

Premium

Country

Canada

Device

Pixel 4a & LG G6

Operating System

Android 10, Android 11

My Question or Issue

The Spotify widget seems to forget that it was playing a song if I pause and go do something else with my phone. After I come back to my homescreen, the widget is "reset" as if it had never played anything. Clicking on it opens up the whole app, so what's the point of the widget anyway if it only works for a little while?

The same issue happens with the Notification shade. The Spotify notification disappears if Spotify is paused for a while, forcing me to open the app.

I have Spotifiy configured to keep the connection ON in the background. 

Is there a way to fix this?

[electrocutus]

Hey everyone!

We're back with some more info from our internal teams.

We brought your reports to the right people for further investigation and they are aware of this behavior. For now we're afraid that due to technical and hardware limitations this behavior cannot be remedied with troubleshooting or tweaks from backstage.

Our teams will continue to work with Android to improve the performance but we're not able to provide any end date for the time line.

Hope it gets sorted out soon. If you need anything else, the Community is here for you.

[Mihail]

Hey there @electrocutus,

Thanks for getting in touch! We hope you don’t mind us replying now as we just stumbled upon this thread.

If you're still experiencing this issue, it's possible that some of the app files have gotten damaged. This is usually resolved by performing a clean reinstall using these steps. They are more thorough and make sure that no leftover files remain.

We also recommend you try disabling any battery optimization software running on your phone. Follow these steps:
 
1. Mobile Settings> Apps> Spotify> Permissions. Allow everything you see there.
2. Mobile settings> Apps> Spotify> Battery> Optimize battery usage> select top All (not optimized for apps)> Spotify> disable.
3. Last step - restart the phone.
 
Note: Menu order may differ on different devices.

Keep us posted! We'll be happy to lend a hand if you need more help. 

[DrMatoi]

I'm latching on to this, as I have the same symptoms with my widget. I have followed the recommendations here and some others in older threads I found, nothing helps. In my case it is on Android 10 on a Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro. So yes, I have tried disabling the Samsung battery stuff in various ways, including system-wide, and I have done a clean reinstall of the Spotify app, but the widget still goes blank seemingly at random. Sometimes I find it still operational hours later, sometimes it will go blank within minutes. But it never survives a night.

For what it's worth, it was not always like this, I've had this issue for a few weeks now. Also, Apple Music has the same widget problem, whereas the widgets of Samsung Music and a few non-streaming players I use (e.g. BlackPlayer EX) work just fine for days. I have been digging through the app/battery/notification settings of the latter to find some critical difference, but to no avail.

[DrSleeplover]

Hi,

I am facing the same issue in 11/2021 and the internet has no answers. I am using android 10 on oneplus nord, battery is not optimized for Spotify, yet it does not keep the song, I thought it was the launcher (Nova launcher) that might be the issue, so I last them phoned on the stock launcher for night with the Spotify widget and it was the same...

I am clueless

[Kiril]

Hi @DrSleeplover,

Thanks you for reaching out on the Community!

It's really odd experience indeed and we weren't able to reproduce this. Could we confirm that this behavior still persists for your widget, and that it wasn't due to a possible connectivity issues at that moment?  We can also suggest to log out and then log back in the app - twice in a row, as this triggers a refresh between the app and your account and could resolve potential cache-related issues. 

If the above does not help, we'd need some more info, to advise you further. Could you share the Spotify version of your device?  Also have you tried any troubleshooting steps, such as performing a clean reinstall using these steps, as this usually resolves possible glitches in the app.

Hope this helps. Let us know how you get on.

[DrSleeplover]

Kiril,

In short ( my previous answer generated unexpected fail on your website(

Spotify Version is 8.6. 74.1176

OnePlus Nord

Android 11 (yes eleven)

Thanks

[DrSleeplover]

Please see the screenshot, it is also weird, the notification bar shows the Spotify alert saying it's trying to play music, batter optimization is off, also the permission to read files is enabled. Clicking on the alert opens the Spotify...

[MafeG]

Hi @DrSleeplover,

Thank you for your reply and for sharing that information.

Just to make sure, were you able to run the clean reinstall with the steps shared by @Kiril. If not, please give them a go.

Also, go to your phone's settings and make sure Spotify has enabled all app permissions. 

Lastly, go again to your phone's settings and toggle on/off the "Background app refresh" for Spotify. After tweaking any settings it's recommendable to reboot the phone, just to make sure they're properly applied.

Let us know how this goes!

[DrSleeplover]

Hi,

I have done all steps mentioned above, twice, no progress...

Even the refresh in background is toggled .

No difference so far.

[Kiril]

Hi again @DrSleeplover,

Thanks for your reply.

Sorry to hear that this situation still persists. We'd like to take a closer look, so if it's possible for you, please send us a short video, so we can investigate this deeper.

You can send  us a link to it or attach it using the Insert Video option in the post editor. 

As you mentioned you have done a reinstall already, could you just share with us the Spotify app's version number you have currently on.

Keep us posted, we'll be keeping an eye out for your reply.

[DrSleeplover]

Kiril

thank you for your patience

I can not "record" it on a video as there is no action to captur, it goes like this:

I play music from the app, the widget works just fine - it shows the title of the song etc, when I stop the music or pause, then after a while (5-15min ? I dont know exactly), I wery likely switch off the screen in between, than when I ahve a look at the phone the widget is blank  - no song "loaded" so you can not play straight from the widget with hitting the play button, also it does not play anything when controlled via the blth headphones that have the control buttons.

The widget is "blank" until I enter the app ( by clicking ont the widget or from the app drawer) - and I dont even have to play the music (hit play button) and the widget becomes lodaded again when coming  back from the app (btw in the app  the last played song appears correctly still loaded) 

version 8.6.78.266

NOVA Launcher 

android 11

ONEplus nord - snapdragon 765G

I thing this was happening on my previous phone too ( motorola with clear android One)

my YT music widget stays loaded with the song forever

thanks

L

[Eni]

Hey there @DrSleeplover, 

Thanks for letting us know that.

In this case, we suggest reaching out to our Support team through any of these channels so they can check if everything is ok with your account's cache and see if that may be the issue. Make sure to send them this thread's link so that they can be aware of what we have already tried. 

Let us know how it goes.

[DrSleeplover]

tanks for redirirection to support page ( I am afraid this is useless)

I wonder if other @DrMatoi or @electrocutus  solved the problem, or they left for other music app..

Last try - my account name is weird - my user name is: SNIP [Moderator Edit]

as I started from free account - thius might be the reason it remained generic - but is it the issue? dont think so - everything account related works

thanks

L

[DrMatoi]

@DrSleeplover: I was never able to fix this, after many app reinstalls and updates and one Android system version upgrade the widget still falls asleep all the time.

I have given up on bugs like that. The app is what it is, be glad for the things that work, as it is pretty clear Spotify does not have the coders to maintain it or fix basic problems. I still use it - the music selection is alright, I have family tied to the family account, and Apple Music had its own issues.

That random username of yours could have been avoided by doing things just right upon signing up; unfortunately it is very easy to run into this, and I did it myself with my first account. Registering anew is the only way to "fix" it, as Spotify will not let you change the username.

[DrSleeplover]

thank you @DrMatoi for your answer, it is strange the internet is not full of threads on forums solving this bug.

regards

L

[Alex]

Hey folks,

Thanks for your posts.

Please share only comments related to the current thread topic. If you have another issue or question it's best to start another topic on the Help Boards.

Regarding the username - this random combination of letters and numbers is a Spotify username automatically generated by the system upon signup. It is used to identify individual accounts and it can be see by only your. It works much like an identification code, helping the system to distinguish betwenn millions of accounts. Your friends and followers will only see your Display Name, which you can set yourself from your profile. 

@DrSleeplover, please refrain from posting personal information on public forums, like this one, as it might be used with malicious intent. 

We do recommend reaching out to the customer support team, because they can have a look at your account backstage. They can check whether everything is OK with the cache on your devices.

Keep us posted on how you get on.

[sarkanyt]

Same issue here for a while but I've just found this thread. Please solve this problem because it is irritating. Phone: Pixel 4XL; OS: Android 12

Update: After my comment a tested a little bit. It goes blank after exactly 10 minutes. Tested 2 times.

[Jeremy]

Hi @sarkanyt,

Thank you for your reply and confirmation.

Can you let us know if you tried all of the troubleshooting steps that's been provided in this thread so that we can help you in the best way?

We'll keep an eye out for your reply.

Take care!

[user-removed]

Same here! I'm using Android 11 and the widget just "forgets" which song was played after a while.

Spotify Account: Premium

Steps to reproduce:

- Start Spotify

- Play any song

- Go back to home screen: widget now recognizes the song played

- Stop playing the song via using the widget (leave app running in the background)

- Turn off screen, wait for maybe 10-20 min.

- Turn on screen, widget is now blank and has forgotten song

Since this bug affects several people, it should be cleaned up with the next Spotify version.

Thanks!

[Eni]

Hey there @user-removed, 

Thanks for reaching out about this here in the Community. 

Just to make sure, have you tried following the troubleshooting steps mentioned in this thread?

If so, could you let us know the exact make/model and Spotify version of your device?

Lastly, we suggest that you try logging in to your account in a different phone to check if the issue persists there. 

We'll be on the lookout.