Spotify breaking on Samsung devices. App becomes unusable until I restart the device.

[graccy99]

Plan 

Premium

Country 

US

  Device

  Samsung Tab S8 Ultra,  Galaxy S21

  Operating System 

Android 12  

My Question or Issue

Spotify on android (samsung) breaking after a few mins in background. Losing all media controls of the app until device restart. 

Whenever spotify goes to the background for a bit it will eventually stop working where the song/episode keeps playing but I can't pause/skip and the app doesn't show what is playing either. The only fix I have for this is to restart the device but the problem will just happen again anyways.

I attached what it looks like when it breaks, even though the music is still playing.

Is there any fixes for this? Reinstalling spotify doesn't work. This is happening with Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra every time, and S21 once in a while but not every time.

[Boavida]

It is a battery power saving conflict.
You have to go into settings/apps/spotify.  From there selet unrestricted on battery tab.  The app will not go into power save anymore and will not cut off the sound.

[TOverturf]

The newest update I got today has seemed to fix this issue for me.

[mattywhy]

I tried the battery setting too but it only temporarily fixed the issue

[not_want_register]

I had the same problem after installing the latest S22 Update about 2 weeks ago. 

Spotify would play, but I would have no way to control the songs, only change the volume using the main phone volume.

Luckily for me my problem was relating to the update of the Samsung Alarm clock app in the latest S22 Update.

I use a Spotify playlist for my wake up tune, and when setting an alarm again on Friday night, I changed the Spotify option and the Clock app asked for new permissions to control Spotify, since then Spotify has been working fine on my phone.

Hope this helps someone ❤️

[graccy99]

Anybody from spotify able to help with this? Clearly is a widespread problem so would like to get some sort of acknowledgement that this is being worked on, thanks.

[Kwicko]

My brand new S22 still does this. Yesterday I had to uninstall and reinstall the Spotify app several times just to try to listen to a podcast at work. 

I thought it was my old iPhone 6S that was the problem, but it turns out it's Spotify that's the issue. Why am I paying for Premium again?

[sbitschy]

So far this seems to work.  Not only for Spotify but also some other apps.  Hopefully this works long term.

[sbitschy]

I meant to reply to Boavida above about the battery settings.  I set Spotify background usage to unrestricted.  So far, so good.

[sbitschy]

Nevermind, sigh.  Same problem again 15 mins later.  Lose the control panel.  Can't pause or skip songs.

[sbitschy]

Samsung 21 ultra.  Android version 12.  It has been like this for at least a month. Very frustrating.  Had to laugh at an earlier post that we, the consumer, are supposed to reach out to android and/or Samsung because your app doesn't work.

[Deborah65]

I've just spoken with spotify and they said its an issue they are addressing and it'll be sorted by the next update. If it happens again go to apps> spotify and tap on force close. Then open it and it'll load properly. He assured me this is just until the next update. The latest version should be 

8.7.22.1125

[Mastodon]

An update:

About a week ago I searched Spotify in the play store and an update was available so I updated from version 8.7.20.1261 to 8.7.22.1125 (not sure why it didn't auto update). Since, although the jury is still out, many of the issues I've been experiencing have improved. I'm still noticing inconsistencies with connecting to Bluetooth but the extreme bugginess of the last version seems to be better. If you haven't checked yet, review the version you're at and update. I'm looking forward to upcoming improvements for this from Spotify. 

[shaynomack]

Having the same issue on a brand new s21 ultra. Really considering dropping my subscription when the app decides when and when not to play by its self. as much as I love dr dres i just wanna **bleep** you, having it just start playing in my pocket at a boba shop with kids around because the app cannot stay open or closed or with a play button or not is quite embarassing. Any fix for this been ove r amonth

[sbitschy]

Anecdotally, in hindsight, I haven't had much of an issue during past couple days.  I checked today and I have version 8.7.22.1125.  I haven't listened to it much so I will have to put it to the test over the next little while.

[Messapico]

I've just updated Android on my Samsung Galaxy Tab and the issue still persists... It's about time Spotify/Samsung did something to solve it for good.

[Dian]

Hey @Messapico,

Thanks for posting in the Community.

It is important to also make sure, that Spotify is set as an exception in the Samsung device care settings. You can find more on that here and guides on how to do that here.

Did it work?

Keep us posted,

Cheers!

[Tom0527]

Although
https://dontkillmyapp.com/
This didn't fix the problem, but this is the most useful link anyone has ever posted on this issue. Thank you very much.
I will try to avoid buying Samsung for the next phone/tablet so I can use Spotify to it's full extent

[Tom0527]

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Ongoing-Issues/Now-Playing-bar-missing-on-Android/idc-p/5390790#M12...

Here is a larger thread on this issue.

Please post screenshots/version number here if anyone is still having this issue to make people aware!

[Tom0527 · Accepted solution]

Hi, sorry for posting multiple times.

I hope you guys are still following the thread. I found a potential solution for Samsung devices.

I posted the answer to the main thread. Hope it helps.

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Ongoing-Issues/Now-Playing-bar-missing-on-Android/idc-p/5391512/hig...