Tasker cannot start a Playlist anymore, Send intent does not wrok anymore ...

[bu5q9x70qhws9bf]

Plan

Premium

Country

Germany

Device

(Samsung A5 (2017), OnePlus3t

Operating System

Android Oreo

My Question or Issue

When attempting to open/start a Playlist in Spotify via Tasker AutoSpotify plugin, it opens Spotify, but no further reaction.
Tasks I’m using since more than 6 months do not work anymore.
URIs are still correct.

This applies for ‘official’ Spotify playlists as well as for my personal playlists.
Starting an album in Spotify is still working.

I tried older versions of Spotify on own risk. I do not recommend to use outdated versions:
- 8.4.82.664 this fault does not exists
- 8.4.83.625 this fault exists
- 8.4.84.874, current actual version this fault exists

The owner of Tasker has similar reports and states, that this is a fault in the Android Spotify App and recommends to contact Spotify support.

Same behaviour (meaning: does not work anymore on youngest Spotify updates) occurs, when using following Send Intent. I suspect, that this is how AutoSpotify works, but I do notactually know:

A1: Send Intent

Action:android.media.action.MEDIA_PLAY_FROM_SEARCH

Cat:Default

Data:spotify:user:spotify:playlist:37i9dQZF1DWWMOmoXKqHTD:play

Package:com.spotify.music

Target:Activity

Additional Notes:
- I'm not logged in Spotify, except in my Smartphone.
- I restarted my Smartphone.
- There is no error showing up within the task or in the notification bar.

- Using another Smartphone from another brand and a new installation of Spotify did not help.

Could you please change back behaviour, meaning fix this fault?

I reported this fault as well towards Spotify Customer support chat. He was really interested, forwarded this to the right technicans and provided me with an engagement ID. I post it here as well to make the community aware of as well.

[mbow06]

I am having the same issues.  I have a task set up to start my workout playlist when I connect my headphones.  It was really handy to leave my phone in my pocket and have it do what I wanted.

Would it help to have multiple people report the problem to Spotify?  I have not reported anywhere yet.  I would also like to have the feature returned.

[Effegi115]

Same problem here.

Regards

[denmusic]

Did you hear anything from Spotify Customer support yet?

I think it has to do with changes made in the spotify app, it has been through large changes lately.

[bu5q9x70qhws9bf]

I understood, that a potential reaction from Spotify will be posted here ...

[atbcmw]

As of now, with the 8.4.90.722 version, I am still having this issue too..

Running on Android Nougat 7.0.

Regards

[bu5q9x70qhws9bf]

So, I did a follow up  chat with Spotify: They have internal discussed this with technicians:

Tasker is a third party product and unfortunately they do not official support this app.

I replied, that this is not a tasker problem but rather a fault or non backward compatible issue with send intents.

Likely introduced in 8.4.83.625. He will tell this the technicians so crisp as well.

The case is not closed and they will provide an answer, when the situation has been changed.

[mbow06]

Thank you for the update and for keeping it on there list of issues.

[bu5q9x70qhws9bf]

In case anybody knows how to start a dedicated Playlist in Spotify via a sent intent nowadays, it would be great, if this would be posted here.

To do this via APIs (using AutoWeb 'Start/Resume a User's Playback') has the big drawback for me, that Spotify needs to be online.

[atbcmw]

Hello,

A workaround to this situation is to replace the Send Intent Action with a Browse URL Action.

To do so, just copy the content of the data field of your Send Intent action and paste it in the URL field of the Browse URL Action. This works for me.

[Aquarius17]

Hi atbcmw,

thank you very much for this cool workaround - works fine👍🏼

Greetz - Thomas 😊

[bu5q9x70qhws9bf]

Thanks atbcmw, this workaround works perfect for playlists. Really great information.

This works as well, when Spotify is offline.

When I started this post here, open Albums using AutoSpotify or Send Intend method mentioned above were working, when Spotify was online and offline.

Now this is not the case anymore. Using the Tasker Browse URL method, this is as well working only, when Spotify is online.
For some strange reason, once an Album has been opened, when Spotify is online, this is working as well, when Spotify is offline.
But this seems to be the case for only one Album at the time.

Does anybody has a workaround to open an Albums, when Spotify is offline?

[atbcmw]

Hi,

I am glad this workaround works for you.

@bu5q9x70qhws9bf : As for albums, I suggest you create a playlist from albums you want to listen offline.

You can do as follow :

This will create a playlist named after the album like this :

From what I gathered on Spotify devs' release notes, the reason for the album vs playlist deep linking process (the process we use through the Browse URL action) being so different is that the album offline feature was released not so long ago whether the playlist offline feature has existed for a while now. Thus I guess they implemented the album offline feature differently.

I would have liked to get my hands on the Spotify Android Manifest to give further thought to this, but it is time consuming to say the least.

Anyway, I hope this other workaround answers your question @bu5q9x70qhws9bf 🙂

Bye,

Benjamin

[trohn_javolta]

Hello, I have some questions to this:

I'd just like to shuffle play everything I have in "Songs". Is this also possible? If yes, how? Or would I have to make a playlist where I'd need to save every song again in the playlist?

Until now I managed to do this way via tasker:

unlock screen

open spotify

press library, songs and shuffle button via autoinput plugin

That's not very elegant nor future proof. So I want to change that.

Would I still need to unlock screen and open the app with your method?

Also, where do I get the stuff I paste into the URL line?

Edit: Ok, figured out how to get to a specific playlist.

But how do you get spotify to start playback? I never was successfull with any other task than autoinput.

[bu5q9x70qhws9bf]

Hi,

@atbcmw: Thanks a lot for your comments and workaround. 

@trohn_javolta: "Regarding where do I get the stuff I paste into the URL line?"

Press Playlist/ sharing / Copy Link. Now you need to edit created Spotify link to the format shown in the example.

I also adapted profile to convert it. Same procedure as above, but the Spotify link is changed to the uri on the clipboard directly, no editing needed.

Regarding "Would I still need to unlock screen and open the app with your method?": I think so actually.

Regarding "I'd just like to shuffle play everything I have in "Songs"." in an "elegant"way. I think it would be good to have a list of all available Spotify URL formats, like the play example. Or a list of all send intents.

But: this seems not being wanted from Spotify and I could not find it at least. It points as well to what atbcmw wrote trying to get some information out of the Manifesto.

Anyhow: You can also try using Autoweb plugin and "Get library tracks". I guess this works only up to a certain limit.

More information might be available here:

https://developer.spotify.com/documentation/web-api/reference-beta/#endpoint-get-users-saved-tracks

[trohn_javolta]

Thx for the reply. Seems I edited mine during your answer.

Got it to open a playlist, but how do you get spotify to start playback?

I tried the media control button "play" and specified spotify as app in tasker but nothing happens.

[bu5q9x70qhws9bf]

Right: forgotten to mention, that you need to add :play the end (see example from atbcmw).

Or you change Text in the SetClipboard action to %url1:play in the profile I provided.

[bu5q9x70qhws9bf]

Just found out that following seems to work:

A1: Send Intent

Action:android.intent.action.VIEW

Cat:Default

Data:spotify:user:spotify:playlist:37i9dQZF1DWWMOmoXKqHTD:play

Package:com.spotify.music

Target:Activity

So, instead of:

Action:android.media.action.MEDIA_PLAY_FROM_SEARCH

use:

Action:android.intent.action.VIEW

It even starts the Playlist when Spotify is offline (note the :play at the end of Data).

This method is as well not working for Albums when Spotify is offline.

[trohn_javolta]

Does this play all saved songs?