Spotify Android app crashing, update long overdue

[Rankhar]

Just sent this to Spotify, if I get a response I will share it here. If you are having problems with the Android app as well, and are surprised/annoyed by the lack of information from Spotify, please reply and make yourself heard. The more people complain, the better the chances of Spotify taking notice.

Dear sir/madam,

I recently wrote to you about problems I am having with the Spotify Android app. I am using a Google Nexus S phone, running Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.3). I have been using the app on this phone for more than a year without problems. However, about two months ago, putting the app in online mode started making the app crash within a few seconds. Quickly putting it in offline mode would stop it from crashing, but because of this problem, it was no longer possible to sync new music onto my phone. I am not using any cache-cleaning apps or other such apps.

One of your employees advised me to reset my password. I did this, and also re-installed the app. It worked for a short while, but now I am having the same problems again.

I love Spotify, but this is getting a bit annoying. I pay 120 euros a year for Spotify, and its core business is providing an app for Android, iOS, and PC. Surely it should be on the top of your list to fix these issues as soon as possible? Many of my friends have Spotify on their Android phone, and many of them are having the same problems...

Many people on forums are complaining, but Spotify has so far not provided any useful information on the issue, apart from saying that we should try resetting our password. That is rather bad service for something you pay 10 euros a month for.

I now have three questions, that I hope you can answer:
- the Spotify employee that helped me told me that the Google Nexus S is not officially supported. How is this possible, as this model is one of the Google flagship phones, released by Google itself? Surely, this should be one of THE main phones on which your Android app should run?
- the Spotify app has not been updated in a very long time. Do you have an estimation of when we can expect an update?
- if you are working on an update, why do you not let your users know, so that the many people who are having problems with the app at least have something to look forward to? A simple blog message about what is going on would put many people's mind at ease, and save you from losing your paying customers.

Kind regards,

[ant0ramp · Accepted solution]

Seems as though they are a victim of their own success... grew fast and now cant keep up with the times and release, which is going to be bad on their existing customer base, especially the ones that have been with them for a long time!!!

[Rankhar]

Absolutely. Check out this other topic as well, there's more discussion about the problem there.

[Rankhar]

Several others have picked up the story:

Droidmatters

Slashgear

Helloandroid

Mr Mad (German)

Techhog

Cellphonenews

EDIT: as per request of the moderator, to avoid making the same posts in two threads, I will post any more information on the issue in this other thread that deals with the same topic. 

[kmbauer]

I am having this issue since updating to the Nexus S 4.0.4 last week.  The odd thing is I ran spotify on 4.0.3 like every day for months without issue.

[rferrett · Accepted solution]

Not meaning to spam but oyu might want to click on my idea about this:-

http://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-Ideas/Release-a-ICS-beta-Spotify/idi-p/37113

[user-removed]

I've had no huge problems with the spotify app on my Galaxy nexus, till a few days ago.. ._. It just shuts down after 2 seconds after being started. Havent been able to listen to music for several days on my phone and nothing seem to help. Tried everything and its starting to get really annoying as im paying for this..

edit; After reinstalling the app, it wont even start. Tried clearing the data etc but as soon as I click on the app, my screen goes black and it shuts down. Dont even get to the login screen or anything. 

[Tofsy]

Same here with Galaxy Nexus. Starting , getting black screen then quitting.

[bsid]

just updated my Nexus S to the official -automatic update- release of ICS (previously I had installed it manually). Before today the spotify app worked quite well, a few crashes once in a while, but nothing too aggravating. After the official update, it ALWAYS crashes directly after the app loads. The only way it works is in offline mode, or when 3G/Wifi are turned off.. not much point without syncing.

Hurry up and fix it Spotify!    

[licenced]

To fix the immediate crash on startup delete the /sdcard/Android/data/com.spotify.mobile.android.ui directory from the SD card. This will remove all your synced playlists, but it works for me every time.

Dave

[Shrike]

Same here, but with Motorola Xoom Wifi tablet. As soon as I did 4.0.4 update, Spotify is working erraticly at best. 1 out of 5 or so app launches I can get to offline playlists I already have downloaded.
The weirdest thing is automatic switching online/offline mode, which is probably causing the crashes and freezes as well.

[Xnaj · Accepted solution]

As mentioned earlier another workaround is to disable WIFI/3G and basically any internet connection your phone would have. Blocking Spotify's internet access with a firewall should also do the trick, not confirmed though. Using Spotify's offline mode alone doesnt work.

[licenced]

Using Spotify's Offline mode has always worked for me ... but then the app seems so erratic that I can well believe it acts differently for you.

Note though that keeping the app from connecting to the internet will allow you to listen to offline sync'd tracks, but that the DRM license for this will expire 30 days after the last online check was made. If, after the 30 days (or sooner if you want to sync some fresh stuff) you try to connect it and you get the crashing behaviour then you need to go through the clear cache/directory wipe/reinstallation process yet again

[Malone]

Well after two years as a Spotify premium subscriber I have just downgraded to Unlimited. And might well cancel entirely soon.

My new HTC One X was working with the Android App fine (well, not amazingly, but hey ... and not for long - I've only had the phone 24 hours), until I added some new playlists through the desktop spotify app. Now it won't even start.

I often had similar problems on my old HTC Desire and sometimes had to hack away to get it working.

But to have to do that on a new phone is just got ridiculous, so I'm keeping £5 a month to myself and will start looking for other services.

There was no way to register my reasons for downgrading while I was going through the process, so thought I would pop a note on here.

If Spotify can quickly release a working Android app (it doesn't need bells and whistles guys; it just needs to be stable) they may win me back, but more likely bridges have been burned  and my head will be turned by competing music services.

It's a shame; been great while it lasted. 

Spotify, you took your eye off your current customers in search of expansion. That spells trouble.

M

[gsibble]

I just wanted to add that I have these same problems.  Samsung Galaxy Nexus and now HTC One X.  I refuse to remain a paying Spotify member unless they are fixed ASAP.

Sincerely,

George Sibble

[Rankhar]

I just upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.4 from 4.0.3, and still have exactly the same problems. There's been some more news in the media about all this, I'll post the links in the other topic about this issue.

[crawfish963]

I found a workaround for this problem. Upgraded my Galaxy S2 to 4.0.3 yesterday and was frustrated when Spotify would crash a few seconds after opening. I had read somewhere else that some people were able to got to Spotify's Mobile site (m.spotiy.com) and download the app directly to their Android device. I deleted the market (play) version of Spotify and did the download from Spoitly mobile. This completely fixed the crashing issue for me and now Spotify works exactly like it did when I was on 2.3 Gingerbread. Good luck everyone.

[licenced]

---

@crawfish963 wrote:

I found a workaround for this problem. ... I deleted the market (play) version of Spotify and did the download from Spoitly mobile. This completely fixed the crashing issue for me and now Spotify works exactly like it did when I was on 2.3 Gingerbread. 

---

Good news, but don't jump on this as the solution too quickly. As with most of the work-arounds, it's quite possible that it is temporary and you will start to experience the same issues after a while, depending on how often you change your playlists and sync new stuff over to your mobile

[JarLuo]

Works perfect whit Samsung Galaxy S2.
Thanx for the information.

[ereiamjh]

This is terrible, I love Spotify and Android 4.0 but it's simply not compatible. How can they not care about this? I'm very dissapointed.

[eothred]

Chiming in to say I have the same problem.. I will unsubscribe from Premium until this is fixed, and recommend everyone else to do the same.