Synchronising an album listening

[ShortfinMarko]

Hello everyone.
I'm new to Spotify, I've been using another streaming platform for years.
I have a Spotify Family subscription and I use Spotify on my smartphone (Android) and my PC (Windows 11), obviously with the same account.
The two devices are synchronised in terms of playlists, favourites, library, etc. but here's my problem: I start listening to an album on my smartphone, and then stop it halfway through. When I go to the PC I expect to find the album where I left it on the smartphone and instead it is not there. The album that I had previously listened to on the PC appears, but not the one 'in progress' on the smartphone.
Is this normal? (I hope not). How to solve it?

Thank you.

[Jeremy]

Hi there @ShortfinMarko,

Thank you for taking the time to post in the Community. Welcome to the Spotify family 🙂 This seems odd. Let's continue to take a closer look into this together.

To start with, can you head to this article and make sure that you've followed the steps that's provided?

Let us know how it goes so that we can continue to assist you if you need us to.

Have a great Friday and start of your weekend!

[ShortfinMarko]

Dear Jeremy, 

thank you for the reply, and sorry for the delay.

Regarding your reply, I'm not sure I understand. The article you posted is about Spotify Connect but I don't want to use one device to remotely control listening on another device. I want album listening to be synchronised across devices.

I also reinstalled the app on the PC, but the problem remains.

[Alex]

Hey there @ShortfinMarko,

Thanks for the post and the clarification.

When you listen to an album/ playlist or any song on one device you can switch to another device at any time and the playback should continue from where you paused on the other device. 

Note that if you've left the app on your phone for a few hours, for instance, and you open up the app on your PC after that, the Now Playing bar might be reset. The system saves your current listening progress, but only for a limited amount of time.

Hope this clears things up. Don't hesitate to reach out again if you have questions.

[ShortfinMarko]

"When you listen to an album/ playlist or any song on one device you can switch to another device at any time and the playback should continue from where you paused on the other device." 

Yes, the playback SHOULD continue from where I paused, but in my case it does not. That is precisely the problem I am reporting. 

I listen to a song on my mobile phone, pause it, then open the app on my PC and I don't find that song, but the song or album I had last listened to on the PC. Basically, each device keeps in memory the last track that the app played ON THAT  DEVICE.

[Vasil]

Hey @ShortfinMarko,

Thank you for the clarification 🙂
You have mentioned that you've already done a new installation.
As there are two active versions of the desktop app - from our website & from the Microsoft app store (optimized for Windows), could you try installing the one that you don't currently have?
If the issue persists afterwards, we'll take a further look into this.
Much appreciated!

[ShortfinMarko]

Thanks Vasil,

I tried installing both but the version seems to be the same: "Spotify for Windows 1.1.93.896.g3ae3b4f3".  I hope I did everything right.

The problem was not solved.

If I did something worng, which other version should I try to install?

[Alex]

hi there @ShortfinMarko,

Thanks for the post.

Could you try connecting your PC to another network, like a mobile hotspot WiFi and check if the same issue occurs.

If that doesn't help, let us know if you can see the progress of a song both on your PC and phone when it's played from one of the devices. You should see the progress bar moving on all open apps, and you should see which device it's playing on in the Spotify Connect menu.

Keep us posted.

[ShortfinMarko]

"Could you try connecting your PC to another network, like a mobile hotspot WiFi and check if the same issue occurs."

I did it but the same issue occurs.

I"f that doesn't help, let us know if you can see the progress of a song both on your PC and phone when it's played from one of the devices. You should see the progress bar moving on all open apps, and you should see which device it's playing on in the Spotify Connect menu."

Yes, when the the app is open on both the devices, I can see the progress bar moving on all apps. But if one App is playing and the other one is off, when i turn it on, this one does not retrieve the song that the other was playing, but the song appears in the "Recently played". It is so strange...

[Eni]

Hey @ShortfinMarko, 

Thanks for getting back to us and letting us know.

Would you mind checking if the OS of your devices is up to date?

If so, could you ask a friend or a relative to log in to their account on your devices and check if the same happens with a different account?

We'll be on the lookout for your reply.

[ShortfinMarko]

Hallo.

My OS is Microsoft Windows 11 Pro, version 10.0.22000 build 22000

My App version is Spotify for Windows, 1.1.93.896.g3ae3b4f3

"could you ask a friend or a relative to log in to their account on your devices and check if the same happens with a different account?"

I tried and yes, the problem is still there. 😥

[Yordan]

Hi @ShortfinMarko,

Thanks for your cooperation so far.

It's important to note that both the desktop and mobile apps can run different sessions. The data is stored locally on the device itself, so when you reopen Spotify on your phone for example, your last session on your phone would load (instead of what you were listening to just now on the desktop app before closing it).

In order for them to sync to the current session, the apps need to remain opened on both devices. Could you confirm that you keep Spotify running when you pause the music on your phone? If so, when you launch the desktop app, it should sync to the current session. If the mobile app was closed before you launched Spotify on your PC, it would load the last session you had on the desktop instead.

In case both apps are opened, but the sync won't occur, it's recommended you temporarily disable any VPN you might be using as well as log out and sign back in twice in a row, since it triggers an internal refresh. You can also check if you'd experience the same behavior using the Web Player instead of the desktop app.

Keep us posted on how you get on. Cheers!

[ShortfinMarko]

Dear Yordan what you wrote is unbelieveble: "It's important to note that both the desktop and mobile apps can run different sessions. The data is stored locally on the device itself, so when you reopen Spotify on your phone for example, your last session on your phone would load (instead of what you were listening to just now on the desktop app before closing it).

In order for them to sync to the current session, the apps need to remain opened on both devices. Could you confirm that you keep Spotify running when you pause the music on your phone? If so, when you launch the desktop app, it should sync to the current session. If the mobile app was closed before you launched Spotify on your PC, it would load the last session you had on the desktop instead."

The data is stored locally! This is bad, never had this problem with Deezer.

So, now I understand that the only way to have what I want is to remove the app from the Pc, and use instead the web player, when I'm at the pc. That's a pity.

Anyway, what I see is that:

- if both the apps are open, they don't synchronize

- if both the apps are open, and one of them is running, they do synchronize