Lockscreen buttons disappears

[ollvid]

When using Android 4.4 Kitkat (vanilla Android), the "previous track" and "skip track" buttons on the lockscreen sometimes disappears.

You have to pause and then play again (or turn the screen off) in order for them to reappear. This happens often when you skip songs.

This is very common, as many users have mentioned it in this thread http://community.spotify.com/t5/Help-Android/Android-4-4-Spotify-doesnt-load-images/td-p/576494)

[sashi]

Yup that problem still persists after the apk update . there is also a notable lag when sweeping through songs within the app as well

[Marconess]

Happens on my Nexus 5 (4.4) as well. At the moment did to hit the Pause/Play button for Fwd and Rwd to appear.

[Daniel · Accepted solution]

Hi,

This is a known issue on Android 4.4 KitKat. I know the team is aware of it and are currently working on a fix (album art issue has been fixed, but has not yet been pushed to play as I believe they hope to push both fixes out in one go).

[Marconess]

They've released an update apk if you can't wait until its pushed to the play store. Its available in the thread regarding the issue.

[federigo]

I received the update from Google Play fixing the album art issue, but the control buttons still disappear from my lockscreen on 4.4 KitKat.

Where I can find the updated APK?

[SirNishin]

Would like to +1 this with the updated APK, using a Nexus 4. I did notice that with lockscreen widgets disabled, the skip buttons seemed to disappear after skipping a single track but with lockscreen widgets enabled, it appeared to vary more with between 1-3 tracks for the buttons to disappear.

Also noticing a lag when skipping which I don't recall having on Android 4.3, but I think this is minor and possibly a matter of perception.

[federigo]

I definitely  have the lag too.

[SirNishin]

The very same. Seems to happen regardless of whether I use the lockscreen controls, the notification bar controls or the in-app main controls.

Would you agree that tracks tended to load more or less instantly in 4.3?

[federigo]

Yes, I agree: they do lag noticeably more than in 4.3.

I didn't complain about it because it's hard to precisely describe this kind of problem and it happened in the past that some  new release introduced a lag that disapperead in the next one.

Also for me the lockscreen buttons issue is very important: I use Spotify with my car stereo, but I also have the GPS on when driving, so when I want to skip a track i simply push the hardware lock button twice so that I know the control would be on the screen and touch it without watching (eyes on the road!).

Obviously I can't do this move without watching if I have to wait for the controls to randomly appear. 😞

[Daniel]

Apologies, it looks like rather than hold off to fix all the issues they thought they'd push the update out with just the image fix. It kind of makes sense as this is the mian thing people will notice, so why hold out.... As previously mentioned it is a known issue and is being worked on. I'd hope we won't have to wait too long until another update fixing these issues is pushed out.

Blame Google for changing the way the framework files work 😄

[SirNishin]

Hopefully not too long. 🙂

"Blame Google for changing the way the framework files work :-D"

Interesting you should mention, is there anywhere I could get a technical explanation as to what caused this? As a developer myself, I'm curious as to what changes brought these bugs.

[federigo]

Pure speculation, but It could be a problem of when spotify passes the information to the MediaPlayer API.

Maybe it's updated in a way that it goes after the lockscreen control has been drawed and this wasn't a problem 'till 4.4.

[simomaletta]

Same problem here: images fixed, lockscreen commands still disappear 😕

[st3rv1s]

Glad to see the album art is working again. But the issue with the buttons is still there.

[st3rv1s]

Any update or official comment on this?

[user-removed]

I have the same problem, KitKat & Nexus 5

[BlackEco]

Great to know this issue will be fixed soon. Also, can we get art covers in an higher resolution like in Play Music ? That would look great on lockscreen !

[Goodman · Accepted solution]

We just released a new update which should have fixed the lockscreen control issue.

[mattled]

This is happening to me all the time: The lock screen doesn't show the spotify controls and bluetooth pause/next/prev don't work either. I'm using a Nexus 5 with the standard firmware.