Spotify does not sync podcast time between Android and Windows correctly

[Rawalanche]

Plan

Premium

Country

CZ

Device

PC/Nokia 7 Plus

Operating System

Windows 10/Android 10

My Question or Issue

Hi,

the podcasting experience on Spotify is horrifyingly bad. There's just way too many borderline idiotic issues to list, but here's the latest one I found:

Spotify does not sync the podcast time between Windows Desktop App and Android Phone App correctly. When listening to let's say 3 hour podcast on the Windows 10 App, then, after a while, continuing the listening on the Android Phone App, when you open the Windows Desktop App afterwards, it will not sync the time from the Android app, but instead uses much older, outdated time mark, sometimes hour or more back. Once you realize it, and quickly go to the Android Phone App to check the time mark you were at, that time mark is already gone and overriden by the outdated one from the Windows Desktop App.

So now you are forced to waste several minutes by frustrating playback timeline seeking back and forth to find where you ended listening the most recent time. This is all the more devastating given the fact that spotify app on Android constantly pre-buffers video parts when seeking, wreaking havoc to your mobile data plan, and the video can't be turned off.

I am so, so sad JRE is no longer on YouTube. YouTube never ever **bleep**ed up as essential things as this 😞

[Juanespty]

Was about to post the same problem.. Please get this fixed! Also listening to JRE 😁

[Alex]

Hi there folks,

Thanks for reaching out about this in the Community!

Sorry to hear that you're having these issues with playing your favorite podcast.

We'd recommend Logging out everywhere and performing a clean reinstall of the app on all your devices. This will assure that your account is properly synced with the servers and there is no corrupted cache causing this issue.

Regarding the video on Mobile - you can switch on the option Audio only for podcasts from the Settings menu. This will enable you to save Audio Only when you download the episode to save mobile data.

Hope this helps. Don't hesitate to reach out again if you have questions.

[Rawalanche]

Did fresh reinstall on both devices, lost some settings data due to it, the problem still persists. This is ridiculous.

Regarding Audio-Only podcasts, this makes no sense whatsoever. The description of the feature in the setting is "Saves only the audio when downloading video podcasts" That is again, absolutely ridiculous. It means it will only download audio when I explicitly decide to download podcast ahead of time.

This makes so little sense. I do not want to decide which podcasts I want to listen to in advance before I decide to go somewhere. I want to be able to just pick up my phone in a middle of a train ride for example, and just select any podcast I want to listen to, and start listening to it without being worried of wrecking my mobile data cap.

Right now, this Audio-Only podcasts nonsense only applies to pre-downloaded podcast, so any podcast which has not been pre-downloaded launches a video stream immediately. What is the **bleep**ing point of having an online, on demand audio streaming service when we are getting back in time into early 2000's where you needed to manually pre-download selection of what you want to listen to to your completely offline mobile device. 

Furthermore, there is no settings parity between Android and Windows Desktop app, so this feature is not even available for me to utilize it on my Windows laptop, when I am using my phone with mobile data as WiFi hotspot. 

This is SO, INCREDIBLY, BAD!

I struggle to understand how a company with over a decade of online audio streaming experience managed to create by far the worst podcast streaming experience the world has ever seen.

[Mihail]

Hey @Rawalanche,

Thanks for getting back to us.

We're sorry to hear that the syncing issue persists after performing a clean reinstall on both devices. Just to make sure that we're on the same page - the devices we're restarted in the process, right? We recommend not to skip this step as it often helps with such issues. It's also a good idea to make sure that the Spotify app is excluded from any firewall, cache clearing and battery optimization services, as these can sometimes interfere with the cache. If that doesn't fix things you can try resetting your router or trying with another internet connection and see if your progress is synching properly there.

As to the option to disable podcast video while streaming, this is something other Spotify users mentioned they'd like to see in this idea so make sure to add your support there. The Idea Exchange is a great way for us to see what our users are interested in and how many people like a certain idea. You can read more about it here.

Keep us posted. We're always one reply away.

[Rawalanche]

Yes, both devices were restarted in the process.

This is just so insanely bad. I am back here because it has happened to me JUST now again, for like 20th time. I was listening to a podcast on my Windows computer using the Spotify Windows desktop app. I had to leave home, so I've shut down the windows PC. Then when I was on the go I wanted to continue listening to the podcast, picked up my phone, which already showed the podcast as the last played thing, but when I tapped play, I quickly realized the time mark was about 30 minutes back from the time mark I was at on my Windows PC, and I had to waste several minutes seeking the time mark on the frustratingly tiny phone timeline bar, just to find where I ended.

This is absolutely horrifying experience.

[CarlosE]

Hey @Rawalanche,

Thanks for keeping in touch.

Just to clarify, the syncing happens when both apps are open. If you're listening to a podcast on your PC, and open the app on your phone, it should sync to the specific timestamp you're currently on the PC. However, if you close the desktop app and then open the mobile app, it won't be synced to where you left the episode on your PC.

We apologize for any inconvenience. Rest assured, we'll pass your feedback on to the right folks.

If you have any questions or need a hand with anything else, give us a shout.

Cheers.

[Rawalanche]

This is not true. If both apps are running, it will still not sync. It will only sync under specific circumstances, where you first start playback on the device with the more up to date time mark, then go to other device, and switch to listening to that device using spotify connect. So user has to take 2-3 explicit, manual steps in order to preserve the correct time mark. Missing just one or missing the order of these steps results in the time mark being lost. 

This is such an incredibly inferior experience to any other podcast platform.

[satyakig]

Is there a solution to this problem yet?

[Alex]

Hi there @satyakig,

Thanks for your post.

Sorry to hear that you're experiencing this issue.

Have you tried going through the troubleshooting suggested in this thread? Let us know what you've done, so we can offer more relevant advice.

Cheers.

[WorksSomtimes]

This problem isn't limited to Android it drives me nuts when I hope in the car and try to resume listening to a LONG podcast only for it to start over again or from the last spot on that device, NOT the most recent spot on my PC or other devices.

[Dian]

Hey @WorksSomtimes,

Thanks for posting in the Community.

Could you let us know which troubleshooting steps you've tried to resolve the issue so we can avoid repeating the same steps?

It'd be best to start with a clean reinstall of the app on the affected devices. Here is how to do one.

If that doesn't bring us further, we'd need more information on your device setup. Could you tell us the brand/model and operating system of the devices together with the Spotify version installed on them?

Keep us posted,

Cheers!