Auto Play Randomly Not Working with Bluetooth in a Car

[ck003]

I am a Premium subscriber in the US with a Samsung A53 5G Phone, Android 15, most up-to-date version of the Spotify app, and a 2022 Subaru Infotainment console with the latest firmware updates.  In the last 2-3 weeks, Spotify will not always automatically begin playing at the point my phone connects to the car stereo via Bluetooth when I am in offline mode and accessing a downloaded playlist.  There are no other apps running at the time this is happening, I have stable mobile internet when driving or WiFi in my garage, and the frequency of the problem is intermittent.  My stereo does not appear to be receiving data from Spotify after connecting based on the display readout indicating the artist is unknown, etc.  I usually have to open the Spotify app on my phone for music to begin playing and data to be transmitted when the problem occurs, and it will begin at the start of the current downloaded playlist vs where I last left off and features that were previously enabled like shuffle are no longer active.  Removing and pairing my phone again and clearing Spotify data do not correct the problem.  I am also hesitant to un/re-install and/or log out and into Spotify again given how a certain number of logins has triggered a Spotify lockout and password reset in the past.  This really seems more like a bug than a device issue, and it would be greatly appreciated if your team could address it.  

[Vasil]

Hey @ck003,

Sorry to see you've been having issues with your playback! Let's see what we can do to resolve them 🙂

You've mentioned that the described behaviour is occurring when you're in offline mode. Has it happened when you're online or is it isolated to offline mode only?

You've also said that opening the app makes things work - this makes me think there might be some battery saver setting restricting Spotify while it's in the background or when the screen is off. You can check out these options here to see how you can ensure your apps run unrestricted.

And, lastly, if nothing helps, you can also install a completely fresh copy of the app by following the exact steps for a clean reinstall here, although in this case you will need to log in again.

Hope you'll find this info helpful! We're here for you if anything new comes up 🙌🏼

[ck003]

All battery optimization settings have always been disabled for the Spotify app.  Unless your security algorithm has been modified in the last year, I noted the reason above why a reinstall could be a problematic workaround.  I have been using offline mode because it seems to be the only way to actually access downloaded music vs being forced to stream.  Given the intermittent nature of the problem and no other Bluetooth-connected apps are impacted, I'm still thinking this is a bug.

[Dessi]

Hey @ck003,

Thanks for the reply!

We would love to help and if needed we can relay the info to our tech folks, but we would need to cover all bases with the needed troubleshooting first. There haven't been any recent reports of this particular behavior lately, which also leads us to believe we need to try some steps first to figure out the root cause. 

We also understand your concern regarding logging out and reinstalling the app and while we do have systems in place to prevent fraud when we see too many log ins, this is usually triggered in specific circumstances, which we don't believe will happen with a clean reinstall of the app, since it's a routine step. It'd be greatly appreciated and helpful for our investigation if you can give it a shot, since it will ensure that any damaged cache will be removed and that you're running the latest app version. Also, when it comes to our security protocols, we cannot share much info, but can confirm they are regularly updated to protect all users.

Hope this clears things up and let us know if you have any questions.