Gapless/Seamless Playback doesn't work

[anil030]

Plan

Premium

Country

The Netherlands

Device

Samsung Galaxy S20FE

Operating System

Android 11

My Question or Issue

The gapless playback function doesn't work on Android. On desktop, you can set the crossfade to 0 seconds, so that way you dont have an awkward pause between 2 songs. That works fine, even on my own playlists.

But on Android, you can't set the crossfade to zero seconds. The lowest is 1 second, which is not what i want. When i check the box which states "continious playing allowes songs to play without pauses", it doesn't work either. It still has pauses between songs.

I've tried clearing cache, re-installing the app, but nothing works. What am i doing wrong?

[Jeremy]

Hi there @anil030,

Thank you for your reply.

Just to confirm, can you let us know if this occurs on one specific device or multiple devices? 

We'll be on the lookout for your reply.

Cheers!

[LookashG]

Thanks for the explanation. Sorry to hear that though. Best regards.

[JonnyW13]

Frustrating to see threads like this! The issue is widespread, I have exactly the same thing as Anil describes on my pixel 6. Checked all settings, cleared cache, reinstalled, etc etc. It just doesn't work without a gap between songs.

It did work at some point in history, so might be that certain devices work better than others... My old phone was a pixel 5 though so unlikely that upgrading to newer faster model would make things slower on Spotify...

Anyway, came here to say thanks Anil for your details as I now know that it's not just me, and I also can see that it isn't going to get fixed any time soon.

[Alex]

Hi there @JonnyW13,

Thanks for reaching out about this in the Community!

Could you try logging in with another Spotify account to test if gapless playback works? You can create a free account for test purposes.

Let us know how it goes.

[rubenferreira]

Sad to see that this issue, after 2 years, still has not been fixed. 

With both "Automix" and "Seamless Playback" enabled, there's still that awkward, half-second silence between tracks.

Just setting the Crossfade option to ~0 seconds isn't really an option for me, as it does not work smoothly and just silences the end of the first song and the start of the next song.

What I don't undeestand is that, when listening to an album with "Seamless Playback" enabled, it works like a charm and there's no pause at all between the tracks, as it should be.

When I listen to the same exact transition of the same exact songs inside a self made playlist however, suddenly there's a pause again. Where does that pause come from? Why does that option only seem to work on albums and not just all songs in general? 

Also, "Automix" seems to pick and choose when it wants to work and when not. Yesterday it worked, today it does not.

Really hope Spotify can do something about the faulty playback options ... Just fixing these issues could make the listening experience so, so much better.

Kind regards

[Mack_Pokorny]

Hello,

I'm trying to make a playlist with seamless transition but I'm running into the exact same issue stated by everyone else in this thread. My phone is a Samsung S21 Ultra 5G, with One UI version 5.1 and Android Version 13. I've seen from some other threads that it seems like iOS users have no issues with this (https://www.reddit.com/r/spotify/comments/9jq2i7/is_there_any_way_to_set_the_crossfade_option_to_0/) and can actually set crossfade to 0. I can set crossfade to 0 on my desktop, and the song transitions work perfectly there, just not on mobile. I've tried with and without Bluetooth but there was no difference. Any ETA on when this or another fix will be implemented? No idea why this is an wide-spread issue exclusive to Android, and why gapless will work on albums, but not playlists. 

Edit: I made a new account and tested it on that, no difference at all.

Thanks

[TropicalToast]

This issue is so weird. 

Gapless ONLY works if it is two songs from the exact same album and in series. Runnin into Glock In My Lap from SAVAGE MODE II works but only if the songs are from either the clean or the explicit version, it doesn't work if you are going from one to another. This is even more weird because you can have them playing from queue, playlist, or anywhere else, the album doesn't have to be the source. 😂😂

[TropicalToast]

I also want to add that this has been true for all versions of android I have come across (9 through 13), on Google, OnePlus, and Samsung. also doubt it is hardware issue as it occurs on my 10t (16gb ram and snapdragon 8 + gen 1) which is faster than most windows pcs

[côtéest002]

Could the gaps be removed entirely? No gaps, no fades, no automix because some artists, especially for electronic music are already mixed. I've tried every combination on both Android and Apple devices. Not every track and album are treated the same but your tools are specific to tracks that aren't already mixed by the artist. Try George Acosta - A State of Mind. Please have an option to play the albums as intended! Thank you.

[j0kew]

Hey, so everytime I enable gapless playback, the button shows its on when I press it. But the moment I leave the app, it automatically turns off and just doesn't work at all. But when I first got the account, gapless playback worked perfectly fine. Also at the time period, one of my personal playlists would let me listen to any of the songs that I put there. Now it just gives random songs that says they added it. It's really annoying and I would like someone to help me on this. 

Thanks. 

[Ivelina]

Hi there @j0kew,

Thanks for joining the thread!

Have you already tried any troubleshooting steps or checked if the same thing happens on different device(s)? Did you notice when the issue started, was it after an update of the app for example?

Just to check, when it comes to the playback, are you currently subscribed to Premium or using the free service? Keep in mind that some features work differently depending on your current subscription. If you're on the free service, you will probably hear and see recommendations being added to your playlists.

Hope this helps and keep us updated.

[j0kew]

Hello, I did a lot of the troubleshooting steps and still it just doesn't work. I'm just so confused right now since when I make a new account under a different email, the gapless playback works for like a week before turning off. I had premium for like a month, and gapless playback worked perfectly fine. Now it's just stuck on off.

[côtéest002]

Amazing, there are multiple users who requested help over the last 2 yrs, going on 3 with the same issue on multiple devices, not OS dependent and still no solutions. When we will receive undivided attention from your developers for this ongoing problem?

[Yordan]

Hey folks,

When it comes to the 0-second crossfade option not being available on the mobile app, we're unable to provide an ETA for a fix at this time, but rest assured it will remain on our internal teams' radar. In the meantime, make sure you're always running the latest version of Spotify so you don't miss out on any updates.

@j0kew, could you confirm you still have Premium? Could you share a short screen recording which captures the app's behavior in action along with the exact version of Spotify you're running?

@côtéest002, I checked this album (which appears to be the one you mentioned) and I can confirm that the tracks have a fade out near the end, however, it appears that it's just how the album was uploaded to the platform by the artist/label.

https://open.spotify.com/album/1hDw5UmoLU35iVOOubiRhi

In general, gapless is best observed when playing an album where the tracks are meant to flow one into another. Below is a good example of an album with seamless transitions:

https://open.spotify.com/album/48ZEv5GfTeyBmdrXcNpzyT

Crossfade on the other hand, overlaps 2 tracks by fading out of the first while fading in the next. As for Automix, it sets custom start and end times for the tracks in specific Spotify playlists, allowing for smooth, DJ-like transitions. Note that not all Spotify playlists support Automix, and the start/end values are predefined by Spotify, so you can't change them. More info here.

Hope this clears things up. The Community is always here if there's anything else you need assistance with.

[user-removed]

Hey everyone! I'm willing to explain this to anyone as dumb as me for not reading all the replies. The gapless playback isn't what removes the gaps on PC, it's a feature only for mobile and is specifically for albums. What does remove the gaps is the crossfade when it's set to 0s. However, you can't set it to this value on mobile because there is no switch to turn off the crossfade so the mobile app uses the 0s value as the off setting for crossfade. I have asked them to add a switch so we can keep it at 0s without turning it off. Hope you all are doing well out there 🙂

[bladeefandraingang]

this is still an issue

[user-removed]

Unfortunately they claim it's only for album songs 😞 Should I just send them a video of some of the transitions in my playlist to persuade them to change something?

[Reversii]

---

@user-removed wrote:

Hey everyone! I'm willing to explain this to anyone as dumb as me for not reading all the replies. The gapless playback isn't what removes the gaps on PC, it's a feature only for mobile and is specifically for albums. What does remove the gaps is the crossfade when it's set to 0s. However, you can't set it to this value on mobile because there is no switch to turn off the crossfade so the mobile app uses the 0s value as the off setting for crossfade. I have asked them to add a switch so we can keep it at 0s without turning it off. Hope you all are doing well out there 🙂

---

Absolutely. This is 100% the problem and is still a problem to this day.
I'm just gonna rehash the problem again in detail here, because why not, y'know?
TL:DR at the bottom.

When you add two songs into a playlist, they will not flow into each other smoothly unless you have an extremely short crossfade, which is only possible on the PC Spotify app. 
The fact that you can't tune the crossfade on the mobile app in between 0 and 1 is the problem, and frankly, whoever had the idea to make it turn off if it's below 1 is a moron.

If anyone who's seeing this somehow doesn't know what we're talking about or just wants a full idea of the problem, here's a great example:
This test only works on desktop due to mobile not letting you leave crossfade on 0 without turning it off.

Love me U - DJ Genki | BREEZE - Ryu*
Take these songs and place them against each other like this in a playlist.

First, I want you to turn on crossfade, but slam the crossfade time as low as possible, make it 0.
When you skip to the end of the first song, it will seamlessly play the next.

Now, please turn off crossfade, completely, switch it off in settings.
When you skip to the end of the first song, there will be an ugly gap between the songs where it audibly pauses.

Why can't crossfade on mobile work as it does on desktop? Why does the mobile crossfade turn off completely when it's set to 0?
Actually, what exactly happens when the desktop crossfade is set to 0? Is it loading the other track in advance to crossfade it, but it simply doesn't crossfade at all because it's set to 0?
I think that's likely, as "Crossfade on the other hand, overlaps 2 tracks by fading out of the first while fading in the next." but if it fades out and fades in nothing, then it just perfectly overlaps the beginning and end doesn't it?

But anyway, this problem is a serious pain in my ass and in the asses of countless people. I only use Spotify because my family has a premium plan, but I use it to make playlists for myself. I've had to create playlists elsewhere due to this gapless play problem on mobile devices.

---TL:DR---
Do you like to make playlists on Spotify with music that normally cuts off abruptly? But hate the fact that Spotify mobile keeps creating this gap in playback?
Do you hate the sound of the fade-in and fade-out of 1-second crossfade?

Well, too bad, there's literally no fix for mobile platforms.
There probably will never be a fix for this problem because not enough people are making it urgent enough for the Spotify company to delegate someone to fix it.
The workaround?
Use Spotify on desktop.
OR
Use Soundcloud, iTunes, or literally anything else for gapless playback on mobile devices.

Turning on Automix, Gapless Playback, or Crossfade will not solve any playback gap issues if you create your own playlists and you don't like the gross 1-second crossfade.
Happy listening.