Spotify Crashes when in landscape position and animation of song ist playing

[LukyLand12]

 Since the animated covers are implemented, Spotify is always crashing when my phone is in landscape position an a song with this animation is starting. 

I have a black screen but music continues playing. Turning the phone doesn't stop the problem. I always have to restart the app to solve it, until the next animated song starts. 

In portrait position I never have problems with that animated songcovers. 

Device: Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

Operating System: Android 8.0.0

[Loxer]

Hey, thanks for reaching out.

I know it sounds simple, but it's often overlooked. Could you try restarting your device? If that doesn't help, try a quick clean reinstallation of the app. Just follow the steps here.

As far as I am concerned Spotify doesn't support landscape mode, you can only use it portrait mode 🙂

Hope it helps!

[LukyLand12]

I did a clean reinstallation and it is still the same problem. It is definitely a bug of Spotify that the animations can't be played in landscape mode and because of that the app crashes. And Spotify was always supporting landscape mode and is still supporting it. This is the first problem I ever noticed in landscape mode. 

[Loxer]

Hey @LukyLand12,

I already mentioned that Spotify doesn't support landscape mode 🙂

Could you please provide me with a screen recording of the issue you are actually having?

I will make sure that this is passed on to the right folks at Spotify 🙂

[LukyLand12]

Hey, 

I did a screen recording and attached it for you. I did not move the phone from landscape mode but you can see that Spotify tries to switch in portrait mode and finally crashes. In live you cant see that spotify switches between landscape and portrait mode the screen is still remaining in landscape mode. You only can see this in the recording! After the crash I had to go to the desktop and open the app again. But music is still playing. The black screen is still remaining after a song with animation. So it plays no role whether the following song after the crash has an animation or not. 

[dbongard]

Mine doesn't flash like that but does go to a black screen like yours.  It even blacks out the 3 x software Android buttons (square/triangle/circle) so that you can't even switch away from Spotify or get back to your home screen.  So Spotify keeps playing with the screen completely frozen and black, and if I leave it playing that way for a few minutes then eventually the whole device crashes and restarts.  This only started 2 updates ago.  It used to work fine...for about 2 years!  And my screen is a permanently landscape mounted vehicle screen...so for me this is now entirely unusable where it used to be my daily entertainment, and I have to warn everyone "Whatever you do - don't use Spotify or I will have to reboot the screen!".  

[pnbr0014]

This is ridiculous man WHY has support for landscape mode been disabled? if it temporary? is it because of this bug? will it return once this bug has been fixed? this is the type of information that users appreciate "we don't support landscape" is a major change from the previous app behavior and at the very least reasons should be sited and our concerns should be noted so that the dev team can reintroduce landscape mode

[Loxer]

Hey @pnbr0014,

I recently tested it and it works just fine.

Have you tried a clean reinstall to see if that helps?

Please let me know 🙂

[pnbr0014]

Nope.. clean reinstall did not fix phone not rotating to landscape in playback screen. autorotate works everywhere in the app except the now playing screen. This has to be fixed asap its very inconvenient when my phone is docked in landscape mode.

[Loxer]

Hey @pnbr0014,

Thanks for posting it here 🙂

I'm make sure to pass your feedback to the right folks at Spotify.

[dbongard]

Tried a clean install, wiped data, wiped cache, even did a factory reset on the whole phone and then ONLY installed Spotify afterward.  ...pretty sure it's Spotify.  Android 6 if it makes a difference.  Delete Spotify and the whole screen works fine in every way.  I haven't seen an app that can crash my whole screen for a long time now.  Usually developers would be all over something like this.  I work in Android app development and we have never had a bug this bad make it to launch, but even for lesser bugs we would generally have about a 48 hour response time to confirming, fixing and re-launching an update.   Spotify is going to be past 48 days soon.  

[Loxer]

Hey @dbongard & @pnbr0014,

Could you tell me in what songs does this happen to you?

In what operating systems and devices are you experiencing this?

Thanks 🙂

[dbongard]

Hi there,
All songs. All I have to do is expand the view with the album cover art on
it while in landscape. Does it every single time. It is Android 6.0.0. I
work for developing an android based product called LINX, and we have
thousands of screens out in the world globally, across 2 different MTK
processor models. They are permanently landscape mounted.
www.linx.arb.com.au
I run Spotify on mine and have for years but now Spotify crashes the whole
screen. I'm taking many calls every day about this from others. We are
telling people not to use Spotify until we let them know that it has been
fixed. Please help!

[Loxer]

Hey guys,

Hope you're doing great 🙂

@LukyLand12 does the issue still occur? Have tried updating your devices OS/Spotify version since then and could you show me examples of songs where you see these animations (looped videos) if the issue still persists.

@dbongard does this issue also occur when you sign in with your account on a different, regular device instead of one with the LINX interface? Also, make sure to check if there are any OS or Spotify updates.

If the issue doesn't persist in a different device, you can also check Spotify for Developpers if you're a developer and if you're using your own integration for the devices the issue occurs.

@pnbr0014 please make sure to check if there are any available updates for your devices OS and Spotify app, and if so to update them.

Hope it helps 🙂

[pnbr0014]

Hey man,

I've checked my app and it's the latest version and my is is Android 9 still cannot rotate to landscape during playback on the now playing screen. If my device is in landscape mode while I'm selecting or searching for a song, when I find it and play it then open the now playing screen the orientation flips back to portrait on its own.

[dbongard]

I hadn't tried my SGS8+ before, but it no longer goes into landscape mode
at all with Spotify, but keeps playing in portrait mode without crashing
everything. It used to be 100% good also.

It definitely isn't a LINX issue, as it ran 100% for 2 years up until 2
Spotify updates ago. Now even device prototypes running bone stock Android
6.0 black out and bar the soft controls if you dare to turn the device on
it's side while running Spotify.

Any way to confirm if they are in fact on top of this or not? It isn't
actually in question whether there has been a giant problem... It's only in
question whether Spotify plans to step up and fix it or not.

[Loxer]

Hey guys,

@pnbr0014 try logging in on another device, with your login credentials, and see if the same thing happens. Also try to toggle on and off tge auto-rotate to see if it makes a difference (while being logged in to Spotify).

@dbongard, could you try with a different device (preferably with a smaller screen resolution), and also create a new account, log in, and check if it works better. 

Please let me know 🙂

[pnbr0014]

I'll try to get my hands on another device and try it out. funny enough I was in my car and I was in a playlist in landscape mode and as soon as i selected a song you could see it use the landscape playback screen format before immediately switching to portrait mode so I know the app is capible of displaying landscape layout its just forcing itself to go into portrait when I select anything for playback. I'll report back again once I get another device to try it on

[pnbr0014]

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pranavpandey.rotation

You're welcome my friends! The app works it locks the system into landscape orientation and overiedes the app came across this in an article not even related to our issue but I'm glad I did!! It's a really great app. And attached is the proof

[djsift]

I am also experiencing the same issue with Landscape mode on my LGV20.

I had my sister try on her Galaxy Note 8 and it works fine.
Wondering if this bug might be device specific?