Playback pausing/stuttering in car only

[kkc1]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Samsung Galaxy s10e

Operating System

Android 12

My Question or Issue

For the past couple months I've been experiencing sporadic "stuttering" or ~1 second pauses in playback, but only when playing in my car (via bluetooth). I've had the same phone and car for years, so I don't understand why this problem is starting now. All the music I'm playing is downloaded to my phone. No issues when listening with bluetooth headphones. Any suggestions for troubleshooting?

Thanks!

[Vasil]

Hey @kkc1,

Sorry to see you've been experiencing playback issues in your car!

Have you tried re-pairing the Bluetooth connection between your phone and the vehicle?
If the issue only occurs in there, it's possible that this could fix things up 🙂

Keep us posted on how things go!

P.S. In case the playback doesn't come back to normal after this, please take a look if the issue is isolated to Spotify or if other apps are being affected as well. Many thanks 🙌🏼

[kkc1]

I tried re-pairing but the pausing still happens on occasion.

[Susan_GP]

Hi @kkc1,

Thanks for your reply and for trying out our recommendations.

Were you able to check if this only happens when playing music from Spotify? If you haven't, try playing something from another app, like YouTube, or something directly from your phone. It's also worth checking if it also happens when connecting your car via Bluetooth to a different phone. You could ask someone else to try it with their phone.

Let us know how it goes.

[JJango]

Plan

Premium

Country

UK

Device

Xiaomi 13T Pro

Operating System

Android 15 AP3A.240617.008

Car Nissan Juke 2025

My Question or Issue

The music stutters the moment 5G signal drops while driving through the city, is there a way to increase the cache or have it preload more of the song so it isn't streaming just-in-time.

[Mastahh]

Did you solved issue I have same problem, so I started listening online radio, sometimes it is annoys very much.

[Yordan]

Hi, @Mastahh,

Are you using Android Auto? Does your vehicle's Bluetooth support multipoint connection (i.e. several devices can be connected at the same time)? If so, it's worth checking if removing the extra ones alleviates the issue.

Below are some advanced Bluetooth options you can tweak, however, do note that they require turning on developer mode on your phone:

• test if changing the Bluetooth codec (if possible) makes a difference;
• switch to a different version of the AVRCP and MAP settings.

Let us know how it goes 👍.

[pmj64]

I've been having this same issue with the Spotify app since the summer of 2025, when I suddenly started having problems with my iPhone 13. I've paired my phone with the car a few times, but nothing has helped.
All other apps work fine in the car—YouTube, audiobooks
I now have a new phone (iPhone 16) that does exactly the same thing; the music cuts out practically all the time.
And this only happens in the car. I have no issues with the Spotify app when using other Bluetooth devices.
When I use Spotify through a web browser in the car, there’s no stuttering, so clearly there’s something wrong with the Spotify app.

[Dessi]

Hey @pmj64,

Thanks for reaching out!

A lot of users in this thread have shared different solutions to this issue, so we'd recommend checking it out. For the most part, this seems to be Bluetooth-related and following steps such as changing the Bluetooth AVRCP version in your phone's developer settings and disabling Media audio in your Bluetooth settings has helped a lot of users, feel free to try them out as well.

Hope this helps, but let us know in case you need any further assistance.