Spotify crashes when controlled via Bluetooth remote (AVRCP)

[Peter77]

Hi,

Spotify crashes under certain circumstances when controlling it via Bluetooth AVRCP

To reproduce the issue:

1) Start spotify
2) Control it via Bluetooth (play/pause, next)
3) Exit and force close spotify (important!)
4) Press play/pause on the Bluetooth remote
5) Spotify crashes

Google Play Music does this the right way and starts the player service with the icon in the notification bar with the last played playlist or song. This is an issue because my phone (Nexus 5x) ends the spotify service overnight, so when I come back to my car I just want to push play/pause, but this crashes Spotify.

I sent in the a crash report, but was wondering if someone else also experiences this issue on this or other devices.

My devices:
Phone: Nexus 5X, on Android 7.0, not rooted, latest security patches
Bluetooth device: MPOW Streambot One (https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00KW0MWUE/)

Best regards,

Peter

[user-removed]

Hey @Peter77!

Thanks for reaching out to the Spotify Community. We'd like to help. 

In this case, we recommend to reinstall the app on your device. You can find the steps here. 

Also, can you let us know if this is happening if you try on a different Spotify account? We'll see what we can suggest. 

Let us know if you have any questions. We'll be here for you 🙂

Sophia, 

[Peter77]

HI Sophi12,

Thank you for your reply. I tried what you suggested. Spotify doesn't crash anymore, but it still will not open when I press the Play/Pause button on my remote and Spotify is stopped completely.

Play Music does handle this very well in the exact same situation. To reproduce you can follow the exact same steps as in my initial post, but instead of crashing Spotify does not open like expected.

The solution to the crash may also have to do with the latest Spotify update, which I have installed since my initial post.

Thanks again!

Best regards,

Peter

[Peter77]

Hi @sophi12,

This still is an issue. Today I noticed that:

1) If Spotify is fully closed, and I press the Pause/Play button on my Bluetooth device;

2) I wait for a long time;

Google Play Music will start to play (even if Spotify is the last Music Player used)! It feels like it first tries to open Spotify, but if that doesn't handle the call in the right way it will forward the request to the next music player app (Play Music in this case), which handles the broadcast like it should.

Another annoyance is that when Spotify is fully closed and I open the app, it will open in the home screen. Not in the playlist/song/album which was last opened.

Could these two issues have to do something with eachother? Maybe Spotify can't handle the Bluetooth controls because it doesn't know what to start playing?

Best regards,

Peter

[Peter77]

Even with the latest beta (6.9.0.1162) from apkmirror this problem persists. Even VLC media player can do this right: if that's the last player which was controlled via Bluetooth it will start playing when I push the Play/Pause on my Bluetooth remote (even after a reboot).

I also tested it on a Samsung X-cover 3 with Android 5.1.1 which has the same issue.

I reported this issue to Spotify directly, and they say their developers are fixing this. Let's hope they find a solution soon!

Best regards