Podcast is marked as "finished" as soon as I hit play

[maccagnodenis]

Plan

Premium

Country

Switzerland

Device

iPhone 15 pro

Operating System

iOS 17.5.1

My Question or Issue

Hi guys

I‘ve been having this problem for a while now. When I hit play on a podcast that I saved in my library (my episodes), it will instantly be marked as heared and disappear from the playlist. It doesn‘t happen with every podcast, which makes it harder to understand.

Does anybody has had the same problem?

Regards, Denis

[mksmith0586]

Can you please fix your app? When I start to play a podcast it skips to finish, removes it from my podcast episode library. I then have to go back into the show page, re-add the podcast (which says I have finished the episode) and I have definitely not. I have to hit the add and download buttons about 8 times before it reloads. And then frequently that whole situation cycles through again. I love Spotify, but this is making things tough.

[TheLazyHangman]

This started happening to me since the last Android app update (9.0.30.642). I have the Unplayed filter on and the unfinished episodes don't show up anymore. They are marked as played as soon as I hit play and disappear from the list. I don't think skipping half played episodes is the expected behavior of the filter, they should be marked as played when they're finished, otherwise you have no way to resume from when you stopped.

This is not happening on the desktop (Windows) version of the app.

[Jamda10]

I have the same problem which seems to have started just a few days ago. Please return to the previous behavior otherwise the Sort by Unplayed function becomes practically useless. Thanks

[jonas_da_mjölpösen]

I've got the same problem, since maybe a week.

Everything an episode is started, it is marked as finished. Makes the filter function useless.

Maybe time to have that team start working on a solution?

[Ivelina]

Hey folks,

Welcome to the thread.

As we've gotten some recent reports of this issue, we'd like to gather some additional details in order to be able to investigate further.

It would be very helpful if you could send us the following details (in case you've not already done so):

• Is this happening with particular podcast episodes or multiple ones?
• Troubleshooting steps that you've performed.
• Device(s) this is happening on and the OS version(s).
• Exact Spotify-version you're currently using.

Thanks for the cooperation and we'll be on the lookout.

@jonas_da_mjölpösen @Jamda10 @TheLazyHangman @mksmith0586 @Phelm @Kotaroman5000

[Orion_S]

iPhone 12 Pro, up to date app

never had this issue then added new podcast to my list and started to face these issue myself. Only occurs when trying to play an episode of “Red Thread” podcast, no other podcast I listen to I suffer from this issue, only the one. 

[Dessi]

Hey @Orion_S,

Thanks for reaching out!

We've been trying to gather some info about this, but it looks like we don't have enough user reports so it looks like it's fixed for the majority. Since it only happens to a specific podcast, we would assume the issue lies with it so we'd recommend keeping the app up-to-date to not miss out on a possible future fix.

Take care.

[Brendan950]

Adding my voice to the crowd here. This has been happening for months now, across multiple app versions. Currently I am on 9.0.44.478 (latest as of writing). It is happening with both the shows I listen too (Distractible and The Official Podcast). This is especially noticable because I have these set to auto-download so I can listen to the latest episodes on the go, but the second I press play the episode gets marked as finished (though my timespot in the episode is somehow tracked accurately) and it gets removed from the offline playlist.

If the episode is "Now Playing", I can go and untag it as finished, then manually redownload it. This prevents the episode from being marked as Finished improperly. This is my temp fix. Even if I go listen to something else, when I come back the episode remains Unfinished until I actually make it to the end. It is an annoying thing to have to do, though.

From what it seems, as long as the episode doesn't start from the "start" (meaning it continues from some point in the episode, even just a second or two deep) the error doesn't persist.

There is also a bit of an audio thing worth noting. When new episodes play, it sounds like they have a "false start". I'll hear one or two words, then it cuts out and restarts again. It's when that cutout happens and the episode restarts that the bug happens.

For example, any Distractible episode will start:

"Good eve-" (half second pause) Good Evening, gentle listeners..."

I'm on Android, with a Samsung A54. This has been across multiple updates for the phone as well, so I doubt firmware is to blame. I have not tested this thoroughly enough on my PC to say if the error happens there too, but am happy too if you need that information.

[vicmolo]

Plan

Premium

Country

Argentina

Device

Pixel 9

Operating System

Last android

My Question or Issue

When i start to listen to a podcast episode some minutes, it appears on the list of episodes as "played". This is a big problem to manage what episodes are really played or not.

[akrawczyk]

For my podcasts, every episode I start to listen to will be marked as "finished," even if I've only listened for a few seconds. This makes it difficult to stop listening then come back, or switch from listening on one device to another. I've tried clean resetting or whatever that's called, making sure my app is up to date, and all the usual troubleshooting steps, but nothing yet has worked.

[El4a]

I'm having the same issue. Can confirm it happens with not-downloaded episodes too. I'm on iOS 18.5, latest Spotify version.

[MihailY]

Hey folks,

This should be fixed with the latest version of the app. Can you check for a pending update and let us know if the issue persists after installing it?

Cheers,

[C_Song]

Plan

Family Premium

Country

Malaysia

Device

iPhone 16 Pro

Operating System

iOS 26.1

Spotify Version

9.0.96.828

I am still having issue in podcast that I downloaded in "Your Episode". As soon as I hit play or when the podcast switch to a next episode. The "playing" episode will just mark as finished immediately, at the start of the podcast. This cause the podcast to be remove immediately as I have turned on removed finished episode (After playing).

The podcast that I listen and auto downloads to "Your Episode" are: The Coffee Break, The Checkup with Doctor Mike, TechLinked. The Average Not Average Podcast.

[Ivelina]

Hey there @C_Song,

Thanks for posting in the forum. We hope you don't mind that we've merged your comment in this thread as it's about the same issue you've described.

Since this should have been fixed a while ago and we've not seen other smilar reports recently, could you let us know if you've performed any troubleshooting steps?

If you've not done this already I recommend a clean reinstall with the steps here. It helps resolve different issues that are caused by corrupted cache, as well as ensures you're using the newest Spotify app version. Keep in mind that you'd have to re-download the podcast episodes after that.

Let us know if this makes a difference and we're here in the meantime if anything else comes up.

[C_Song]

Hi Ivelina,

As a precaution, I had followed the trouble shooting steps here. But the issue still remain for me. I attached a video below as refference.

[Dessi]

Hey @C_Song,

Thanks for the video!

Since the podcast episode from the recording you provided is a video one, we wanted to double-check if you're downloading it as it is or audio-only? Can you try both ways to see if there's a difference? Another thing worth testing is if clicking on the three dots and then on Mark as not started will influence the other episodes you play afterwards or not?

Keep us posted.

[C_Song]

Hi Dessi, 

Below attached is some of the result. When (audio-only downloads for video podcasts and audio-only stremaing for video podcast) is turned on. One of the short downloaded podcast when click play, it auto mark as finish. I don't see this behavior happenning on the short not download, long downloaded, long not downloaded. As for the (audio-only downloads for video podcasts and audio-only stremaing for video podcast) is turned off. All seems normal. Below attached is the video step i done. 

[MihailY]

Hey @C_Song,

Thanks for the videos.

I've checked on my end and was able to reproduce the issue, so I've now forwarded it to the relevant team for further review. We'll keep you posted on any updates in this thread.

Cheers,

[mbawkher]

Hi,

I noticed this happens only to downloaded episodes. 

My Spotify version is 9.0.98.1187 on iOS 26.1.

Can this be fixed?

 Best regards,

Maekail

[mbawkher]

This problem hasn’t been fixed! I tap a downloaded unplayed podcast episode to play it and it automatically becomes marked as finished. Writing this as of 30-Nov’25.