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.

[Gimmeur]

same problem also, my widgets works randomly but it always works after a reboot but give it 10~15 minutes and it'll disappear it is so annoying.

i also don't know if this is a normal behavior but if you leave the app does the music pause?

[DrSleeplover]

So we have June 2022 and I still have this issue (I wrote to this thread last year). Seems like there is no chance fixing it, 

Version 8.7.36.923

Spotify team please have a look at that, skip the standard answer with deleting cash reinstalling, logging in/ out .

I just don't see any progress 

[JBanat]

this many years later and still having this problem... but I think I might have a solution. it seems like if you start playing spotify using google assistant, it stops turning off in the background. so like, start google assistant and say "play spotify" and it seems to work. i also set Spotify to "keep open" in task manager. 

If you restart the phone or clear all tasks in task manager, you will need to use google assistant to start spotify again. If you only exit separate apps in task manager (like don't close all), spotify seems to continue working... Hope this helps others! 

Samsung S21 Ultra, Android 13

[KMBakPL]

Samsung Note 10 Plus. Same error since Android 12 update.

[Minijim]

Hello, I have the same issue. Songs not "loaded" after a short pause (around 10 minutes). It's very inconvenient when using headphones, you need to re launch the app every time again.

Maybe it can help but when the song is "lost", Android auto is somehow able to resume the song.

I'm using a Xperia 1 II and have always known this issue.

Still hoping this could be addressed

[Scotoro]

Android 13, Moto G84. Such an annoying bug.

Since the bug fixes obviously don't work maybe you could update the countless angry subscribers about when, if ever, the bug might be fixed?

[javlc]

I'm using Oneplus 8t on Android 13, OxygenOs 13.1.

The homescreen widget gets "blank" (controls go greyed out and are not responsive) if music is on pause for a few minutes. Pressing any button or any part of the widget takes opens the full app.

Spotify app is "locked" (not closed while inactive), battery optimization off, all permissions allowed. Tried deleting data and cache, uninstalling, deleting folder from system, restarting phone and installing again. Did not solve the problem.

 

[Ivelina]

Hey @javlc,

Welcome to the Community!

Are you by any chance using an SD-card? Corrupted cache on it can cause different issues with Spotify's performance so we recommend removing it and giving the app a clean reinstall once again. For that, you can follow the detailed steps in this article. 

On another note, have you noticed when this started happening? Was it after an update or a reinstall for example? Does it happen only if music is on pause for a few minutes?

We'll be on the lookout 🙂

[javlc]

Hi Ivelina,

No, my phone does not even take sd-cards. 

I have this issue since I have started using the widget a few months ago. It does only happen when music is on pause. If I open the app either from the app drawer, a shortcut at home screen or the widget itself, the widget reactivates/updates its state, showing the song that is on pause and the controls are responsive again.

I'd done some research at the forum before posting this and came across the clean . It seems to be a long time bug which has never been fixed. I tried doing the clean full reinstall from the post have linked. Unfortunately, it does not fix the problem.

[De_Gilbert]

Hi,

Exact same problem here. I thought Nova launcher could be an issue since the 4*2 widget had no album art (see here) but on the pixel launcher the 4*1 widget also ends up blank after a 10 min pause.

This issue is indeed very annoying, especially when listening with headphones.

Pixel 7a

Android 14

Fresh install since new phone from last week

[sjw7]

2025 and this is still a problem, which is crazy. It seems to be linked to all other sorts of problems as well; there is no guarantee that if I switch to my PC or an Alexa device, that the same song gets played. Worse is back the other way. For example, I start a queue on my phone, listen to a couple of songs. Then I switch to my PC at work. When I leave at the end of the day, my phone connects to Android Auto, and it goes back to whatever the phone was playing when it "fell asleep," meaning that I have to listen to the same songs again, or skip all the way through. This is embarrassingly poor for a company of Spotify's size, tbh.