App crashing when clicking subtitles in podcast.

[0007000]

Plan

Free/Premium

Country

Usa

Device

Samsung s25

Operating System

Android 

My Question or Issue

When playing a podcast, I was trying to highlight and copy a subtitle in a podcast.

It crashed the whole app.

Easily repeatable.

[Eni]

Hey there @0007000, 

Thanks for getting in touch about this and welcome to the Community! 

Just to confirm, is this only happening on your phone or on other devices as well? Also, does this happen with all podcasts? We tried to replicate this on our end, but we weren't able to. If the issue is only happening with a specific podcast, could you send us its URI so we can take a closer look?

On another note, would you mind sending us a short screen recording of the issue happening so we can take a closer look? You can attach it to your next response by using the Insert Video option in the post editor. You can also upload it to Google Drive and share the link with us (make sure the video has the permissions for anyone to see it).

We'll be on the lookout for your reply. 

[jmarcil1]

Same thing is happening for me. I'm on a Pixel 9 Pro XL. Simply tapping on the transcript where podcast artwork once appeared causes the app to crash. Doesn't look like there is any way to turn off the transcript.

[MihailY]

Hey @jmarcil1,

Thanks for joining the thread.

Can you let us know which podcast you've tested this with? I've tried as well on my Android phone with both video and audio-only episodes by tapping on the subtitles in the Read along tab and the cover art section of the Now Playing View but couldn't reproduce the issue. 

Also, have you tried any troubleshooting steps like logging out and back in a couple of times or clean reinstalling the app? If not, please do and let us know if this changes anything.

In regard to turning off the transcript, here's a detailed reply from one of our Community stars on when and how this can be done.

@0007000, as a side note, it's not possible to highlight and copy parts of the transcript. Tapping on a certain section of it forces the playback to jump to that position in the episode instead.

We'll be on the lookout for your replies.

[jmarcil1]

The Official Alien Earth Podcast is the first podcast that comes to mind, but it's pretty much any podcast that doesn't have a video component to it, but has the read along function that appears where album or podcast artwork would normally be above the playback controls. I have done a clean reinstall of the app and still experiencing the issue. I also visited that link to see if I could turn off the read-along function, but according to that post, this can't be done for audio-only episodes.

[AlejaR]

Hey there @jmarcil1,

Thanks for your reply and for the info shared. 

In this case, we'd like to gather some additional info, as we could not replicate this while playing the Alien Earth official podcast. Please send us:

• The exact Spotify version you're running.
• Does this happen when using a different mobile device? You can ask for the mobile device of a relative or a friend to open your account and check.
• Did you notice if this started to happen after a specific event such as an OS update?
• A video recording. You can attach the video in your next reply in mp4 format, or upload it to YouTube or Google Drive and make it public.

Keep us in the loop!

[jmarcil1]

So I just tried that podcast again and now it's working. Try the podcast "Lovett Or Leave It" or "Pod Save America." I'm attaching a video of what's happening - 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tOSNXudHO1l5n44YUw2nUqB42RRkkLGE/view?usp=drivesdk

I'm on Spotify version 9.0.84.1320

The issue has been going on for a few weeks now.

[Vasil]

Hey @jmarcil1,

Thank you for the additional details and for the video!

As we can't reproduce this issue on our ends and as you've mentioned that you've already tried everything from the thread, we'd also like to know the following:

• If a different account on the same device would yield the same results
• If your account on a different device would do the same
  
  

And an additional question while we're digging into this - have you done anything for the fixed podcast to start working properly again or did it start doing so on its own?

Many thanks! We'll be on the lookout for your reply.

[jmarcil1]

There was a new update in my app store this morning and after doing that update, the app no longer crashes. So for now, this seems to be resolved.

[Vasil]

Hey again @jmarcil1,

Thank you for letting us know! 

The Community is here for you in case the issue resurfaces or if anything else comes up 🙂
Cheers!

[0007000]

Okay sorry for being late. Here's a vid. Podcast crashes when I click on the transcript. 

My hope was at that time highlight and to google search for a phrase that was mentioned. 

So if it's not possible to highlight that ... Let's turn this bug into a feature request! 

[Yordan]

Thanks for the reply, @jmarcil1! Our tech folks will investigate further.

In the meantime, make sure you're always running the latest version of Spotify so you don't miss out on any updates 👍.

As for highlighting the text, there's an idea about this here, feel free to check it out and show your support!

The Community is just a post away if there's anything you need assistance with.

[0007000]

Sure thing. 

I'd like to ask, was my video helpful and was forwarded to your tech guys?

It demonstrates the bug in question.

My video, I had made sure didn't include my name or credit card info, etc.  So I'm not sure if it got deleted for that. It basically showed the Spotify app crashing on highlighting the transcript. And then crashing to my android home screen, which was just a list of apps. No personal info.

That spicetify suggestion sounds great btw. Thanks for suggesting it!

[Vasil]

Hey @0007000,

Anything containing any type of personal info would get removed from the public space if a moderator deems it necessary but no worries - what you've shown us has been taken into account 🙂

Keep your app up to date and be on the lookout for new releases, this is being worked on.
We're here for you if there's anything else in the meantime.

[Maria]

Hey everyone,

Thanks for your patience while we were looking into this!

We have good news - the issue with podcast subtitles is now fixed. Just make sure you're running the latest app version, which should be 9.0.88 on Android.

Cheers 🙂