Buffering while playing podcasts (my internet speed is not the problem)

[Lorentari]

Plan

Premium

Country

Denmark

Device

Desktop

Operating System

Windows 10

My Question or Issue

I'm having an issue with playing podcasts that took me back to the early 2000's - buffering... About every 30-60 seconds the audio will stop, buffer for 5-10 seconds and then continue for 30-60 seconds and... you get the idea.

Before you ask... my internet connection is definitely not the problem. I live in Denmark, so my internet is stable at 460/60 Mbit (enough to download GTA V in 20 minutes) connection; I'm running on Ethernet/LAN. Nor is my RAM the culprit as I still have about 8 GBs free

Please help me. Buffering only happens on podcasts, not on music (or Netflix and YouTube)

[fors82zy]

Hello Elena,

A clean reinstall on iOS does nothing re: buffering, and I’m not going to create a new account. The main issue is the constant buffering of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast on all platforms that I use. The Windows 10 app for PC is especially egregious. This is far as I go with troubleshooting, as there are absolutely no issues with other podcasts on platforms that I use, other than Spotify. This is a Spotify issue, and as I said before, it appears to be an issue for many folks that I hope you can resolve before Joe Rogan is exclusive to Spotify. For now we can listen to him on YouTube before his migration to your platform is complete.

[Kerppo]

same problem here,using laptop with windows 10. Laggy video sometimes,especially when when playing something and listening podcats on the background.

No other platform has this problem (youtube.netflix etc.) and internet speed not the problem.

[Mdbronco]

Exact same problem. Premium account, Swedish network, iPhone 11. It’s pretty pathetic.

Really wish JRE just stayed where it was. It’s unlistenable now.

[nfuri]

I have this same problem. Spotify is fine for music but sooooo bad for podcasts. This app in general is trash compared to iTunes. I also get ads even though I pay for Premium, which is b.s.

[Ryan1998]

spotify sort your **bleep**bleep** out, your a rich company allocate some **bleep**in data usage to the users so they can watch a podcast without it buffering every 5 seconds, JRE was fine on youtube, as soon as i watch on spotify its slow asf, SORT IT OUT WE PAY MONEY FOR THIS

[Romano_P]

I must say that it is pretty funny (not) that all the moderators are looking externally to fix the problem, while you surely know yourself that it has something to do with your own service.

I LOVE Spotify for their music content and never have any issues with buffering, but watching the JRE show on Spotify really is a setback. Constant buffering, suddenly the whole video stops/disappears and stays away until I restart the podcast channel and click on the video again. Only two options for the video size, quite small and full size. I loved the theater option in YouTube and would love to see that in Spotify as well.

Please, get this to work and STOP looking at external problems and making us login to other accounts/devices, or removing caches. I never had this issue on YouTube whether it is on my PC or Galaxy s10, I also have a strong internet connection here in The Netherlands via cable/4G and buffering this video should be peanuts for both connections.

What is the ETA on fixing this problem for us? For now I'm getting really annoyed by the constant buffering and it makes watching podcasts on Spotify quite obsolete. It is sad to see that you invest 100 million dollars in getting Joe Rogan on your platform, but not having the capability to run his podcasts smoothly.

[SpectreNexus]

Any update? 

I mean, my payment comes out on time without issue, yet I'm still unable to watch JRE without buffering on any device every minute or so. I'm not going to list all the info you keep requesting, because it isn't on my end, but it happens to every device I own... all of them.

Music plays fine.

It's clearly a Spotify issue.

LG G5

LG VELVET

S9

S10

S10+

ECHO SHOW 10.1"

ANDROID BOX

ASUS laptop/WIN10

HP PAVILION laptop/WIN10

GAMING PC WIN10, 8 core, 32gb ram in raid 6 running Raptor 10k ram drives and the OS is installed on an SSD.

Internet is a mesh gaming setup, with devices running both wired and wi-fi.

I can easily run 4K streaming video, on multiple devices, without issue when using any other platform.

Internet is 360/30 Mbps....

All devices are updated to newest versions. 

Web player, same issue. 

So how do you Deflect this? 

[Trikel]

Hey Spotify, 

Seems like a lot of people are experiencing similar issues with The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. 

There is a consistent lag in starting and stopping any episode. There is significant lag in the application on PC (app and web player). Since audio only streaming works fine, it is perhaps something to do with your video rendering inside the app?

Please, flag this with the relevant product department and let a developer or QA have a real look at it. Unless you're already aware and are "working" on a fix. 

[Trikel]

My particular issue was resolved by TURNING OFF HARDWARE ACCELERATION. 🙂

[smoothbrain]

anyone solved this? cause a year later and this is still a problem...what a joke.

[Vasil]

Hey @smoothbrain,

We appreciate that you've joined the thread!
Turning off hardware acceleration seems to have fixed the issue for @Trikel.

Could you test this out & let us know how it goes?
Many thanks 🙂

[Cjames7]

I am having the exact same issues on a different podcast on the iPhone app. Cache clear hasn’t helped, reinstalling app hasn’t helped, sign out everywhere hasn’t helped… desktop app is fine and the problem is exclusively on iPhone and web browser and ONLY for podcasts. No problem with music at all. 

please find a fix for this because podcasts are becoming unlistenable. This happened a couple of years ago and there was no fix suggested and then it solved itself and now it’s back…

[Kiril]

Hey @Cjames7,

Thanks for posting in the Community!

Could you please share more info about the situation with podcasts and your iPhone's mobile app. Have you done any troubleshooting so far? Does this behavior occur for all podcasts or for a specific one? If it's the later, then please share with us the link to that show/episode so we can take a closer look and advise you better. 

Also please share with us what troubleshooting steps have you done so far, so we don't make you unnecessarily repeat any. Sharing the exact Spotify version you have on, as well as the model and OS version of your iPhone, will be helpful for us to try and replicate the situation.

Keep us posted, we'll be on the lookout for your reply.

[Cjames7]

This is happening on one podcast from what I can gather. 
The episode I’m currently listening to is https://open.spotify.com/episode/1DFDciJt7hgLdRpCv0F7RB?si=eOjgoc_ZTp2wevDYZPsmgA but it happens on every episode of this podcast. 

I have deleted the cache, reinstalled the app, removed all accounts and only signed in on those that I use. These are the steps I can remember doing. 

Version 8.7.28.1589

iOS 15.4.1 on an iPhone 12 mini

Look forward to hearing from you. 

[AndresM]

Hey @Cjames7,

Thanks for your reply. 

Could you tell us if this is happening with other shows (Podcast) and when logging in with a different account on your device?

Changing tunes, let us know if the issue persists with the web player.

We'll stay tuned. 

[Cjames7]

This hasn’t happened to other podcasts as far as I have found. 
Unfortunately I don’t have access to another account to try that easily. 

[AndresM]

Hey @Cjames7,

Thanks for coming back. 

Just to confirm, is this happening with other networks such as 4/5G or WiFi?

Lastly, tell us if this happens when logging in with another iPhone device (if possible).

We'll be here standing by.

[RavenSk]

Hello, i have same problem. I am listening to podcast with mobile phone and pc.

On mobile i tried wi-fi and 5G connect. On PC i tried wi-fi and cable connection but but no difference podcast make little lag about once in a minute...

[AlejaR]

Hey @RavenSk,

Thanks for your reply and for the info shared.

Just to confirm, are you listening to the podcast while your devices are connected to a Bluetooth device?

On another note, we'd like to gather as much info as possible. Is this happening in one particular podcast episode or does it happen no matter what podcast you're listening to? If this is just happening with a particular episode, it'll help us a lot if you share with us the link to said episode. To do it, you can follow the steps of this article.

Lastly, did you notice if this started to happen after a specific event such as an OS update? If yes, please send us the details.

Keep us in the loop!

[RavenSk]

Hello @AlejaR

nope mostly listening via headphones or reproductors.

If i remember correctly it is happening on more episodes but not all the time it like when i listen to too much episodes spotifity trying to tell me to have s pause 😅 

And nope none event of that type.