Spotify on mac keeps stuttering. Auto quality does not work.

[Chad_Chad_Chad]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020)

Operating System

Mac OS 12.1

I am sick of the constant stuttering/dropping out for a second all the time. 

I have searched the "community" and there is no solution that works.  It would be nice if you had actual customer service / tech support instead of just dumping it on your users, and no, the email option, that warns you it will probably never get answered, is not an option. 

This is my last try at getting this solved. I have used spotify for almost 10 years... but, I think Apple music is calling. I like spotify better, its suggestions and AI, but none of that matters if it doesn't work well. 

[mjburton]

Experiencing the same issue with an M1 iMac. 

I agree with other posters, this really is something Spotify need to engage with apple on. Apple will send us back to you as the app developer.

[peodepitte]

I have issues with black screen on startup and Spotify hanging for 2-3 minutes until I can quit. This since October last year.

Seems like Spotify for M1 Max processors are broken and they are working on a fix but no timeframe on when it will be done.

Just been told to completely reinstall Spotify once a week in "Safe Mode" is the only way to make the app work right now....

[alexjplant]

It happens worst in the Spotify desktop app and still happens (but less frequently) in a Chrome window. I only have this issue on my M1 Mac Pro.

[nathanieltravis]

Just want to chime in that I have an M1 mac and I'm experiencing the same issue - super frustrating. Constant stuttering and none of the solutions outlined here have helped. What is going on?? Is there any acknowledgement from Spotify that this is an issue??

[peodepitte]

It seems like this forum is not so helpful with these issues...

The only reply on this forum to any type of problem with the Spotify Desktop App on Mac seems to be "reinstall"... Quite frustrating for us users who tried that first and foremost. I think the app needs to be properly updated to fit with M1 processors by Spotify.

[lukelengl]

Any update on this issue from Spotify and/or Apple? I've done the clean install, cleaning out the cache, etc. That seems to fix the issue for several days, but then the issue come back again. This isn't ideal and makes Spotify a very unusable product for me. I'd prefer NOT to switch to another music streaming platform since I have so many playlists and favorites saved in Spotify, but with how frequently this is happening, I'm considering switching to something else that works on my MacBook Pro M1. No other application has this issue on this machine.

[erandersson]

It's a strange issue... seem to be some sort of overload issue in Core Audio on OS X. So What causing it? No idea. But i only have the issue in the Spotify client as well.

Here are some error logs at least:

HALC_ProxyIOContext::IOWorkLoop: skipping cycle due to overload

CAReportingClient.mm:508   message {

    HostApplicationDisplayID = "com.spotify.client";

    cause = PageFaultsOffIOThread;

    deadline = 77050586;

    "input_device_source_list" = "";

    "input_device_transport_list" = "";

    "input_device_uid_list" = "";

    "io_buffer_size" = 512;

    "io_cycle" = 264;

    "io_page_faults" = 0;

    "is_prewarming" = 0;

    "is_recovering" = 0;

    "issue_type" = overload;

    lateness = 357;

    "other_page_faults" = 16;

    "output_device_source_list" = "Internal Speaker";

    "output_device_transport_list" = BuiltIn;

    "output_device_uid_list" = BuiltInSpeakerDevice;

    "sample_rate" = 48000;

    "smallest_buffer_frame_size" = 512;

}: (

    55860344652194

)

[Chris-Psyctc]

I was using spotify on Windows 11.  After Windows upgrades earlier this week spotify has started stuttering (only a few says after I finally got the auto-autoplaying fixed).  I'm reporting it here as I have the same experience as people above that this happens on the Windoze program but, on the same internet and through the same bluetooth speaker (JBL flip 4) I get no stuttering using the Android app on my 'phone.  What is it with spotify programming?

[mr007619]

Just wanted to report this same issue with stuttering on Mac: For me, a reboot fixes the problem and it seems to work fine for a day or two - anything short of rebooting does not fix this (I have hardware acceleration disabled, I plug in directly to my network (no wi-fi) and literally everything else runs without problems.

My details - Spotify for macOS (Apple Silicon) 1.1.95.893.g6cf4d40c version
Hardware specs - Monterey 12.6, MBP 14-inch (2021) 16GB Ram

[jsunassee]

Have the exact same issue with stuttering. Rebooting temporarily fixes it. Seems to only happen when outputting USB C audio. Happens on my M1 MacBook Pro 14 but not my M1 MacBook Air

[jackattack2]

same annoying issue here 

[afrancoeur19]

macOS Monterey, Apple M2, MacBook Pro. Brand new computer, fresh install of spotify and this stuttering is the most annoying thing in the world.  Nothing recommended here has fixed it yet. When can we expect a fix? Long time subscriber and this never occurred on my older MacBook.

[dj_rmb]

Hi,

I experienced the same problem on my Mac M1 Pro machine and might have found what causes it (at leaste for me):
On my Mac I have three devices connected via Bluetooth (mouse, keyboard, headphones). The moment I disconnected either the keyboard or the mouse the stuttering went away. I tried this because I read somewhere that Macs basically only support a stable connection for two Bluetooth devices. More than two seem to cause problems (on a 2000+€  computer...).

I hope this helps some of you!

I've to find the dongle for my mouse now, in order to free up one Bluetooth connection...

[Lockstar]

Turning off Airplay Receiver appears to help my situation. May work for others?

Go to Apple menu > General > AirDrop & Handoff > Disable AirPlay receiver

Macbook Pro 14" M1 - Ventura

[JonSpectacle]

Great suggestion Lockstar. Just tried this and while it works, it's not entirely skip free (still skips every now and then, but it's far far less frequent in my experience so far). I've been plagued by the issues as everyone else here:

System specs:
14" 2021 MBP
M1 Pro
16GB
Ventura 13.0.1
No hardware acceleration turned off

Like everyone else, playing music through Spotify seems to be the only streaming service that experiences this type of stuttering/chop/skipping. I play music through a USB connection via DAC, so there shouldn't be any Bluetooth interference or other Airplay related issues. So it makes it extra weird that turning off Airplay receiving in macOS settings alleviates some of the skipping.

I hope this issue gets escalated and gets addressed.

[Lockstar]

I can confirm after the airplay change, I'm still getting occasional skip/glitch ~5-15 seconds at worst. Mostly 30seconds plus.

Though much less than with airplay receiver on.

I have MS Teams running - its been correctly updated to native Mx including the audio driver.

The only intel process on my system is 'CarbonComponetScannerXPC' 

[connsole]

Same issue here, macOS Ventura, M1 Max, Spotify for macOS (Apple Silicon) 1.1.98.691.gf759311c. Thought it was my headphones but eventually realised it wasn't happening on other devices or other applications. 

[JonSpectacle]

can a moderator or someone that can escalate this issue help us please? I spent over an hour speaking to 6 different CS agents about this issue. From them concluding that my wired headphones were to blame for the stuttering, to trying to use a cellular connection in favour of a wifi connection.

This really shouldn't be so hard to prove if you guys actually just took a little time to try it out. I'm sure the Spotify design team must use Macs. Try it on their system with headphones and let us know or something. At least acknowledge the people in this thread so we're not just speaking to a vacuum please.

[JonSpectacle]

If anyone is still interested/following this thread because they're experiencing these issues. Besides the suggestion that @lockstar shared, I've discovered a potential other solution.

If you turn off Volume Normalization, you might find that the music stops stuttering completely. I've been playing music without this feature on Mac and have so far had no instance of stuttering.

hope this works for everyone else here!

[speelurker]

I have stuttering like described in this thread when I Airplay from Spotify on MacOS on an M1 to a stereo pair of Home Pods. I tried disabling WMM on my router (from another, older thread), disabling Airplay Receiver in MacOS -> System Preferences -> Sharing and disabling Normalize volume under Spotify -> Preferences. None of that helped.

What I do for a workaround is use my iPhone to Airplay to my speakers and the desktop app to remote control Spotify on my iPhone. You may have to reconnect it after pausing a while but Spotify rarely stutters for me when used this way (which rules out my WiFi network...).

I think this problem has something to do with the desktop app being an Electron application and MacOS not giving it the multimedia priority it needs for streaming.