consistent delay/desync between devices

[reiden1970]

Plan

Premium

Country

Argentina

Device

desktop (win10), netbook (win 10), lg m250 (android 7.0)

Operating System

Windows 10, Android 7.0

My Question or Issue

when playing a song on my desktop, my netbook shows the timestamp as -1:0-6 , when in the desktop is on 0:00, when the desktop is on 0:06 the netbook shows as 0:00.

in my phone the timestamp stay on 0:00 until my desktop goes to 0:07 then the netbook goes to 0:01. twhen looking at the lyrics on my netbook while playing the song on my desktop  i can see that the lyrics have the same delay.

when i pause the song all devices shows the correct timestamp and the lyrics show the correct line, until i start the song again and the netbook and smartphone goes back 6 seconds. 

now if i start the song on my netbook instead of my desktop, phone and netbook stay sync but my desktop is 6 seconds early. i tryed to put them in offline mode from 5-10 mins but didnt work.

also unistalling and intalling spotify again didnt work  

[reiden1970 · Accepted solution]

i fix it, my pc windows clock was going faster than it should and that was messing with spotify
i fix it using this commands on the command prompt as an administrator (1 at a time then restarted the pc and cheched with my other devices for like 5 minutes if the clocks desync)
net stop w32time
w32tm /unregister
w32tm /register
net start w32time
w32tm /resync

[TheBango]

I'm experiencing a similar issue since a couple of months, but mostly while playing podcast episodes between my Windows 11 PC, my Android Phone and an Echo Gen. 2. 

I'm running following versions:
On Windows 11 PC: Spotify für Windows (64 Bit) 1.2.38.720.ga4a70a0e

On Android Smartphone: 8.9.44.368

I didn't try the mentioned fix because the time on my PC is set to automatic and gets synched every day at the latest.

Also re-installing Spotify doesn't help, at least not permanently, so there must be something else going on.

In addition, the issue occurs on all devices in different circumstances and not only if I want to play or resume content on my PC or if I want to synch the current playlist from PC to one of the other devices or vice versa. 

Following issues occur while trying to resume content (current playlist on one of the devices) on another device:

- Either the current title gets resumed on an earlier timestamp (time gap can be between a couple of seconds up to 30 minutes). 

- An already heard title (older podcast episode of the same creator) gets replayed.

- Queue sometimes seems to create its own playlist based on the latest content of my favourite podcasts and playlists without my involvement. 

Those issues appear randomly, but often enough to affect my general user experience negatively.

Whatever the cause is, I hope the devs will find out and fix it!

[Joan]

Hi @TheBango,

Thanks for the detailed response. Have you tested if this same behaviour happens across different networks? If not, please do so, you can make a hotspot with your phone if necessary. 

Let us know how it goes.

[TheBango]

Hi Joan,

Thanks for your reply!

Unfortunately, I only have one network and I don't know how to create a hotspot on my smartphone, but furthermore, the latter probably wouldn't help much since my PC doesn't have an integrated WiFi module nor do I have any WiFi dongle to be able to do tests.

Do you have any other solutions to identify and solve the issue?

[Maria]

Hey there,

Thanks for the additional info @TheBango!

Could you double-check if you have Crossfade turned on in the app? It's also worth logging out from the app (on both devices) and then back in again twice in a row. As odd as this may sound, this should resync your account info.

However, considering the info you've provided and the steps that you've tried so far, it sounds like it could be an issue with the particular set up - as the pervious user found the solution lies with his own device and we aren't able to replicate the behavior from our end. In this case, we can't give you a specific timeframe for when it will be fixed, but we recommend keeping the app up-to-date to get the latest fixes.

We're just a post away, should you need anything else!

[TheBango]

Hi Maria,

Thanks for getting back to me!

Do you mean the "crossfade songs" function in the settings or what do you mean?

The need to relog or reinstall an app every time, whenever an issue occurs, seems to be very unfavorable.

This is probably a temporary solution, but won't fix occurring issues in long term. 

I don't know if you already can tell by the provided info I gave and maybe it doesn't make a difference, but I'm using the Spotify app from the Microsoft Store. 

Otherwise, I already reinstalled Spotify on both devices (multiple times in the past), which also includes a relog, but the issues still persist!

I also keep the apps up-to-date, normally this should happen automatically, but sometimes I've to force updating (especially apps from MS Store), but anyways, the issues still occur.

The solution provided by the OP doesn't help in my regard as the system time on my PC is set to automatic and gets synched every day at the latest. So from my POV there shouldn't be a desynch due to this.

If you still think that the issues, I discover with Spotify, are related to my particular set-up, then I would appreciate it if you would help me to find out the cause. Just let me know if you need more info in this regard!

[Ivelina]

Thanks for the detailed response @TheBango!

Let's try a bit more troubleshooting together.

Yes, when it comes to Crossfade we recommend that you disable it both in the app on your PC, as well as on your phone in order to test if that'll make any difference.

On another note, if you're currently using the app version from the MS store we recommend deleting it and downloading Spotify from our website instead as sometimes they can have different behavior. You can do so here.

Appreciate the cooperation and keep us updated 🙂

[TheBango]

The crossfade songs feature was already disabled on my devices.

So you're already aware of different behaviors between the MS Store version and the default Desktop version, but can't find a way to fix this?

However, the issues I encounter not only occur on the MS Store version but also on the Android version of Spotify.
So those issues are probably not only happening due to the fact that I'm using the MS Store version.

Another issue I've noticed (but forgot to mention) is that Spotify (Android and PC) sometimes also resets my set filter, which determines both the display and the playback order of following episodes/content. This behavior probably also leads to Spotify playing wrong content and influencing the actual queue playlist. 

[OscarDC]

Hey @TheBango,

Thank you for keeping in contact. 

To continue investigating this issue, would you mind checking if it happens when you use the Web Player instead of the desktop app?

Also, since this could be related to specific cache still stored on your PC, we'd recommend clearing any entries which contain Spotify from the host files on your computer. To do so, you can follow the instructions in this post (even if it's a different issue).

Lastly, could you confirm if you're using any VPN on your device? If so, could you turn it off to see if it makes any difference?

We'll be on the lookout. 

[TheBango]

Hi Oscar,

No, I don't use any VPN.

I tried to test it with the Spotify Web Player, but there I noticed that it doesn't provide me with the feature of filtering/changing the order of how and which episodes will be displayed (oldest, not heard). So I won't be able to check if the order I've set on the other devices will remain on the Web Player at least.

Anyways, I will try to check if the other issues do also appear if I use the Web Player.

However, I remember when I started to use Spotify I used the Web Player and there I also ran into issues, were I then got recommended by former support to use the desktop version instead. 

Regarding cleaning up the host files... based on the information in the provided link it seems like the solutions mentioned there are referring to issues occurring when using the Web Player.

Does cleaning up the host files also help fixing issues when using the desktop versions?

[TheBango]

Sorry @Oscar,

But I just realized that the Web Player is absolutely unusable for my use case because of the missing feature to filter the displayed order of podcast episodes. This makes it almost impossible for me to check if the other issues do appear or do not appear there since they are all related on the fact that Spotify has problems with continue playing oldest and not heard episodes of selected podcast, remembering my set filters and syncing the current title between multiple devices!

[MihailY]

Hey @TheBango,

Thanks for your response and the detailed info you've provided so far.

We've noted your report, however, we can't confirm when it will be addressed. In the meantime, please check your hosts file as suggested above as the effects of this troubleshooting step extend to the desktop app as well.

It's also a good idea to try the solution by @reiden1970 since the desyncing might happen even when the process is set to automatic.

We hope this helps.

[TheBango]

Hi @MihailY,

Thanks for your reply!

Okay, I will try both, check the hosts file as well as using the prompts for synching the system time, even though I think that the latter one is really unnecessary as my system time is accurately in synch with other devices (I've double checked that).

Using those prompts may would make sense if a time delay between devices is recognizable like it obviously was for the OP. 

Although, if there really were issues with system time and the hosts file, wouldn't the issues happen all the time instead of just appearing randomly?