Podcasts not playing on Phone or Desktop!

[yeahbaby5]

Cannot play Podcasts on any of my device apps.  Only on Web version in Windows.  

I have premium - just updated app on Macbook Air and Iphone X and DOES NOT WORK AT ALL on either of these.  When pressing play button nothing happens!  Issues happened before AND after updating.  However, I can play podcasts on a web browser on my Windows computer.  Please fix this bug! 

[MattSuda]

This is being looked into right now. You can find the latest updates here:

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Ongoing-Issues/Downtime-December-9th-2021-Issues-playing-podcasts-o...

[yeahbaby5 · Accepted solution]

Thanks,  Not sure if you did anything but it is working again on my macbook and iphone (already have most recent version which i just updated to). Thanks.

[MattSuda]

You're welcome! The amazing people at Spotify just recently fixed this issue.

Happy listening!

[Aprileah]

Hi, I'm having this issue currently. A random selection of podcasts won't play in app or in browser. Logged out and back in a couple of times. A couple podcasts I'm subscribed to will play the odd episode. Internet connection is fine.

Please help, I'm missing my Poddy's

[Jac11]

I’m having this issue on my iPhone. I have tried logging out and back in, uninstalling and reinstalling, turning my phone off and back on, and different internet connections.

[MafeG]

Hi folks,

Thank you for posting on this thread.

We'd like to investigate this, so please share with us the links to some of the podcast episodes that won't play. 

Also, let us know if this is happening with any podcast show you try to play or only with some of them.

We'll be on the lookout.

[lemon_curd]

This is also happening to me. I can't play any episodes of the BBC Global News Podcast. I've tried on my iPhone 6s, iPad, and MacBook. It's the same as other people have reported: I can tap play and the button switches to pause, but it never plays and the time never advances. On my laptop if I hit pause again I get a message saying Spotify can't play this right now and I can try importing it if I have the file. I also tried with the webapp on my laptop using Safari, which worked, but only if I wasn't logged in. I've done two clean reinstalls on my phone and the problem persisted. I've tried on two different wifi connections and on data, all with the same result. If I try to download an episode, it just circles endlessly and never downloads.

I just tried using the webapp while logged in on a Linux computer and it won't work at all in Firefox. If I use Chrome and click play then the player shows it cycling rapidly through 6 episodes (not the 6 most recent, though) and finally ending on "TPLF rebels withdraw to Ethiopia's Tigray region", at which point it behaves like above. If I log out, then I get the "Spotify can't play this right now. If you have the file on your computer you can import it." message.

I have a premium account based in Germany. I can play other music and podcasts without any issues.

[MafeG]

Hi @,lemon_curd,

Welcome to the Community and thank you for reaching out.

For what you comment, the issue seems to be generated from your account. In order to test this, can you log in with another account such as a friend's or a family member's to see if the issue persists? Alternatively, you can create a free account here, just make sure you're logged out of your own account before creating a new one. 

Also, please share with us the links to some of the episodes that won't play. This way we can take a look at them.

Keep us posted.

[JDSpinoza]

Having the same issue, podcasts like Serial Killers by Parcast, and others from the same Parcast producers are not playing on my phone, they only play when I select a different device like my echo dot. I can't even download the episodes. It has no issues playing songs or The Daily podcast by nyt. Using my iPhone 11, iOS 15.3 and Spotify version 8.6.98. But it was happening before the iOS update. 

[Ver]

Hey @JDSpinoza,

Thanks for posting here.

Could you give these steps a go and run a clean reinstall? This one is more thorough than the usual one.

In case you've tried these steps or some additional troubleshooting steps, please let us know. 

If nothing changes, could you share with us a video recording of the issue? We'll look into this further.

Keep us posted.

[KimberlyRivas]

Yeah It's April 2022 and this hasn't been resolved iv'e been wanting to get Spotify premium to listen to Crime Weekly Audio Boom studios while I work but it doesn't work in fact all the ones I tried don't work. . . 

[Slayerchick74]

I am having these issues with podcasts as well. I have logged out and logged back in and then uninstalled and reinstalled the app with no success. It is mostly the Daily podcast from the New York times for me. I cannot play it on my desk top app or from the web but seem to be able to on my phone. Another co-worker is having the same issue with the same podcast and others.

[Elizmari]

I am having the same issue with a podcast. The first few episodes played without issue, and now all the remaining episodes refuse to play or download. I also tested it on my partner’s account and it doesn’t work for him either.

[Salibina]

Unfortunately I am having the same issue. 

What can be done? None of my podcasts play 

[Vasil]

Hey folks!

Thanks for keeping us posted.
Could you let us know if you've already tried performing a clean reinstall of the app as @Ver suggested?
We'd also like to know if this happens only on the Desktop app & Web Player, or across all mobile platforms as well, and if this is affecting all podcasts for you, or only specific ones.

We'll be on the lookout for your responses.
Much appreciated!

@Salibina
@Elizmari @KimberlyRivas

[SamGrove20]

Trying to listen to Podcasts - specifically Steven Bartlett and it keeps saying video cannot play.I do not even want to watch the video I just want the audio. The play button stays on but it won't actually play.

[Yordan]

Hi @SamGrove20!

What device does this issue occur on? Are you able to play that specific podcast on another device? If possible, try logging in to another account (a friend's or a relative's who uses Spotify would do) to see if the podcast is playable there.

If you're on mobile, you can try enabling Stream audio only from the app's settings to see if that does the trick.

Keep us posted.

[Snichelle]

Just had this problem today. Spent the better part of a work day uninstalling the app on my phone, on my PC, trying to use the web browser, podcasts will not play. They asked me to restart my wifi, like how is that going to fix anything when songs play just fine?

[Airojade]

Same issue with the Something Was Wrong podcast. Won't play in the browser or my iphone. On my phone the play button acts pressed, but the time never advances. On Chrome, if you press play on an episode, it skips two ahead and does the same thing the iphone app does with the "pressed" play button and no time advancing. There's no rhyme or reason as to which podcasts this happens on. What is the fix for this? It's been a problem for a while.