[bug] Can't play current song when changing audio output

[adamjezek98]

I have a laptop winth Windows 10 x64 installed, and I use many devices for playing music (laptop's speakers, headpohones, bluetooth headphones, audio output on HDMI port, audio output on docking station). When I start playing music, it's fine, but when I switch to another audio device in Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Sound > Playback devices, spotify shows message that it can't play the current song. The progressbar keeps playing, I can switch songs, but no sound is coming out. When I switch back to previous output, spotify still doesn't play anything. 

To get it working, I have to restart Spotify to get it's sound working again. Other apps (Chrome, VLC, Skype, some games) don't have any problems with it and they plays the sound from selected device. Only Spotify can't handle changing audio devices.

I had this problem for long time (I don't remember when it happends first, but I think it worked in earlier versions). I just thought that somebody noticed it and will repair it, but after many updates and clean reinstalls (I once did clean Windows reinstall (not because of Spotify) and even this didn't solved the problem), the bug is still here.

And I'm premium.

[josephma93]

Is happening to me too.
Makes the app look like amateur made.

[mch35]

The same issue here. I have monitor with speakers connected through USB-C and headphones connected through regular jack. When the monitor is going to sleep mode speakers automatically turns off. After weaking it up everything works well except Spotify. I need to restart Spotify while monitor is awake and then it works again. 

[crajo]

Year later, same problem.  Much more noticible to me now since I'm using a bluetooth headset.  If I get out of bluetooth range, it disconnects the audio and then I get this error message.  Only way to solve is to restart Spotify

[romster100]

The problem isn't spotify the problem is windows. Some programs can handle switching audio outputs while other programs can't. Restarting spotify isn't that bad because the same song is there at the same time when you relaunch

[crajo]

That doesn't really make sense.  If some programs  work correctly and others don't, it seems like it's a problem with those programs, not the operating system.  If the developers of Chrome, Skype, etc can figure it out, then Spotify could too if they chose to.

[falcore91]

Still a problem for me today. Perhaps even more frustrating than the fact this error happens to begin with is the fact that the displayed message is a fairly generic catch all that doesn't clarify why the situation might be occurring.

[b8i]

I have the same issue on my Mac (see this thread). Spotify support is not really helpful and only suggests general "troubleshooting solutions".

In a 16 message long e-mail thread spanning 6 weeks the following unhelpful suggestions were made by Spotify support (my comments are in italic; spoiler: no suggestions solved the issue):

• Update OS software
• Turn off High Quality streaming
• Close any other apps I am not using (suggested twice)
• Restart my devices
• Restart my WiFi (suggested twice)
• Try a different WiFi connection (suggested twice)
• Try using their test account (username: cs_test_1)
• Check if this happens on a different device
• Have the Bluetooth device (the intended output device) close to the music device but away from personal computers (what?), microwave ovens and WiFi routers
• Check if Bluetooth device (the intended output device) has sufficient power
• Forget the Bluetooth device and reconnect
• Set the Bluetooth devices as the default output device
• Close Spotify while establishing Bluetooth connection (this is litterally the issue I want to solve)
• Use Spotify Connect to playback music

Workaround

I found that using the Spotify web player works around the issue. I.e.: one can play music and switch audio devices without having to restart the web player. Pausing the music is necessary though.

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@adamjezek98