Spotify constantly buffering/lagging

[michaelf1986]

i use the free version of spotify at work every day on windows 7 and have been using it for a good 6 months now. loved every minute of it until the last week!

the songs are taking forever to load now instead of instantly playing like they used to and even worse they are constantly stopping. i haven't had a song play all the way through for over a week now. it appears that the songs are buffering or similar however nothing on my end has changed lately. same computer, same internet speed (6mb/s from speedtest.net, not amazing but has been sufficient for a long time and can stream videos from youtube perfectly fine), no other new programs or settings.

so far i have been looking on the net for solutions and have so far, based on info i have found, i have tried turning hardware acceleration on/off, disabling my trend micro, doing a complete clean re-installation of spotify (including restarting the computer in between re-installation) and changing our dns server to 8.8.4.8 etc.  Nothing seems to have worked so far so does anybody have any other solutions they have tried and worked or is this not a problem on my end and the servers or something are being over taxed?? help please, this constant pausing/buffering is driving me nuts!!

[holden4th]

iiNet

Gold Coast

ADSL1 (is this an issue?) as ADSL2+ is not available from my exchange for iiNet

5791 kbps/309kbps

Have yet to read the posts on Whirlpool.

EDIT: Have now done that and am even more convinced that this has nothing to do with iiNet. Please read my post on Whirlpool for further info.

[richyvk]

Just checked out the Whirlpool post Adriano linked to. Last post on tat mentions switching to Google DNS. I just tried that and it seems to have cured the problem. Streaming perfectly in high quality.

As to whether this means there is an issue with the iinet DNS that's beyond my knowledge level.

[bishwa]

Ok I just tried changing to Google DNS too. Spotify is working perfectly at the moment in high quality mode - so far so good.

If you want to try this as a possible fix and don't know what to do, see this vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdQkPVL2ERg

I'll report back in a day or so, can others trying this fix also report back too please?

[Tw33kz0r]

Gona try changing my DNS 8.8.8.8 will give it a day or 2 then you let know.

[tropt]

I tried Googs DNS and then downloaded NameBench and basically ran with the settings it gave me for prim, sec & tert DNS servers.

http://code.google.com/p/namebench/

Still got buffering problems when HQ is enabled. Not suprising, Im downloading at 17.4KB no matter if HQ is enabled or not.

Sometimes its good... 400KB/sec download (no buffering, seems random). Othertimes, around 7KB-19KB (the norm)

Might be time for me to ditch spotify...

[tropt]

OK I've found a solution.

Click play on a song, then immediately hit pause.

Walk away for 20minutes.

Come back

Hit play. THE BUFFERING PROBLEM IS SOLVED !!!

Genius. So glad i figured that out.

[adriano]

Not having problems on a Non Iinet WiFi. At work Spotify works like a dream. I guess Spotify is not to blame. Try again Iinet service support and see what they are going to say.

[Tw33kz0r]

Is anyone having problems using spotify on wired (ie not wifi) connection? 

[Tw33kz0r]

Tried running with googles DNS (8.8.8.8) and was the same lotsa buffering/pausing etc.  will take this around to a friends house who doesn't have iinet and see how that works. 

[adriano]

@ Tw33kz0r

Iinet are trying to find a solution. Keep reading the whirpool forum topic

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=2029356&p=6

[paul_lee_au]

Hi mate, I am having the exact same issue, and I am a Premium users. It's getting unbearable. 

I've also done: (What you said) to no avail.

so far i have been looking on the net for solutions and have so far, based on info i have found, i have tried turning hardware acceleration on/off, disabling my trend micro, doing a complete clean re-installation of spotify (including restarting the computer in between re-installation) and changing our dns server to 8.8.4.8 etc.  Nothing seems to have worked so far so does anybody have any other solutions they have tried and worked or is this not a problem on my end and the servers or something are being over taxed?? help please, this constant pausing/buffering is driving me nuts!

[paul_lee_au]

High Quality is off.

[adriano]

I am in Perth (south perth exchange) and after 2 weeks of trouble today it seems not having any problems. I know that Iinet and Westnet are trying to find the cause. I am confident that they will fix it for good.

[Davidmiddo]

I am with Iinet in Brisbane and same issue.  Was fine a couple of weeks ago and now unusable.  Is Spotify or Iinet going to respond?

[adriano]

Since nobody bothers to read back this topic, here is what iinet representative John says on the whirpool forum which link I gave earlier

"We are trying to work out what has changed.

One possibility is that Spotify now know which IP addresses are used for 3G in Australia and have enabled peer to peer mode here. Spotify does client-server for 3G but P2P for everything else.

would indicate that there is some connectivity issue between iiNet and Spotify's servers.

Or with the other Spotify users that form the peer to peer distribution Spotify use to distribute content.

These are essentially two different paths in our network.

We are working on this problem and we will find a solution.

jsl"

[Peter__]

I think its unlikely that Spotify have enabled p2p mode for mobile clients for several reasons that I can think of. Firstly, such a move would almost definitely require a client update on the mobile platforms that has not occured and secondly, since mobile data is almost always limited, the p2p system would not work in theory since it relies on upload and download bandwidth. 

Peter

[psdoff]

this may not be a solution that suits everyone but it works for me

I discovered turning off my wireless adapter fixed the problem, I am now using a homeplug and the built in gigabit NIC on my dell media pc

[michaelf1986]

thanks for the feedback on my query everyone. looks to me like its an issue with iinet at the moment as i am with them at work as well. at least for now the link provided (thanks heaps) for the web based player seems to work fine in the limited testing i have done on it.

to those people that changed their DNS server, after a couple of days playing spotify has it looked like the issue has gone away or did it just come back again. i only ask because mine went away when i changed it for about 3 or 4 songs and then went back to being annoying again. hell i imght not have even changed it right anyway as i am one of 5 people in our office here all working off the same modem.

[roedene]

Same problem here, Southern England - nothing has changed except Spotify quality.

Almost every song, at some point, has a 3 or 4 second stutter, rollback, scoot forward, you name it, it does it.

Ho Hey (Lumineers) sounded very daft... Ho Ho Hey Ho, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey... etc

Oh well, Hey Ho!

Dear Spotify, paid for service, on W7, never been a problem before and now everything plays awfully.

PLEASE SORT IT, or www.dontpayforspotify.comlooms...  😉

[Tw33kz0r]

acording to the thread on whirlpool thread the problem with iinet users has been sorted, I can confirm it is now working fine since 4/1/13  for this iinet user.