Terrible audio crackling when playing music (beta)

[wiryfuture]

Plan

Premium

Country

UK

Device

Pixel 3

Operating System

Android 12 Developer preview SP2

My Question or Issue

Yesterday, I tried playing music on my phone after a spotify update and found that there was a horribly crackling whenever I played anything. I cleared storage and cache and reinstalled and found the problem persisted. This is not an issue with playback device, as I have tested with the inbuilt speakers of the phone, wired headphones and bluetooth headphones and found that the issue is consistently on beta and not build.

However, this issue is not present on the stable channel. I think this bug was merged into the beta channel in version 8.6.16.193, assuming that each patch update increments the last value by 1, as the current version is 8.6.16.194 , as it worked fine two updates ago.

Cheers!

[Sure_Why_Not]

Having this issue as well, worked fine a few updates ago for me too. Currently running beta 8.6.16.194. Crackling/distortion on headphones, phone speaker, android auto. Not sure if uploading clips of music is allowed so I'm not attaching, but I used the screen recorder to capture this issue on a song I've never played before to rule out any potential issues with files. Transferred that file to my laptop and the issue is audible in the recorded file from capturing media playback sounds.

Premium Duo | US | Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ | Android 11

[CarlosE]

Hi there @wiryfuture and @Sure_Why_Not,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community.

Just to confirm, have you tried a clean reinstall of the Spotify app on your devices? Just follow the steps in this guide, as they’re very thorough and is helpful to remove any corrupted or damaged files. These changes tend to solve issues like the one you're experiencing. Give your device a quick restart as well before you open the newly installed app.  

Keep in mind that since you're part of the beta program, you get access to features and app versions that aren't officially rolled out and issues with them are expected behavior. It's a good idea to borrow a friend's or relative's account that's not part of the program to check if the issue comes up there as well. If it doesn't, it would indicate that the behavior is due to the beta access.

We hope this helps. If you have any questions, we'll be right here.

Cheers!

[wiryfuture · Accepted solution]

Appears to have been patched as of 8.6.16.694, great!

[CarlosE]

Hey @wiryfuture,

Thanks for keeping us posted.

We're glad to know that it was sorted out on the newest version.

If you need a hand with anything else, we're always a post away.

Have a good one 🙂