Android Auto: Sound stops playing after awhile

[mkygod]

Device:

Nexus 6P and 2016 Volkswagen GTI

Operating System Version:

Android 6.0.1 and Android Auto 1.5.100945

Spotify Version:

 v4.7.0.878  (Paid subscription)

Description:

During some song skips or when the next song starts, there is no sound despite the player saying that it is playing and the progress bar is moving. 

To reproduce:

1. Plug phone into the car via USB to start Android Auto automatically.
2. Play a Radio channel or play from a playlist
3. You can either the let the songs play on its own or keep skipping songs. Eventually, you will reach a track where there is no sound, despite it showing that it is playing. This is random. Sometimes it could happen on the 2nd song; sometimes it could be the 10th song.
4. From here on out, any song that you skip to or skip back to will have no sound despite it showing that it is playing.
5. If left playing this way on its own, Android Auto will eventually disconnect or the infotainment system will restart. This will usually happen by the time the song ends.

Workaround:

 1. Unplug the phone and then plug back in to restart Android Auto.

2. Previously, i was able to switch to a different app like Google play music, play a song, and then skip back to Spotify and it would bring back the sound. This worked about 1-2 months ago, but no longer works now.

Additional information:

 This issue does not happen with any other music app that i've ised, including Google Play Music and Amazon Prime music which leads me to believe that it is the Spotify app. This happen not only for streamed songs, but it also happens with songs that are cached/available offline.

[Boris999]

Hi,

I am experiencing exactly the same issue.  It always happens when I change songs or when next song starts to play. It's quite annoying when whole infotainment system goes down, especially when you use navigation. 

Device: 

Sony Xperia Z1 Compact

Seat Leon 2015

Android Version:

5.1.1

Android Auto Version:
1.5.100945

Spotify Version:

4.7.0.878

[mkygod]

Your Seat might be using a very similar infotainment system to my 2016 VW GTI since SEAT is owned by the Volkswagen Group. There's a small chance it could be our systems, but it looks like it is Spotify to me. Have you experience this problem with any other Android Auto app?

[Boris999]

As you said, software in the car is very likely the same. I am using spotify + google maps only, so I haven't seen crash with other apps as I don't use them. 🙂 

I am currently migrating to Google Music to see if the issue persists, but I firmly believe I will come to same conclusion -> spotify specific. 

[Boris999]

Ok, much to my surprise, I am forced to change my firm believe :))). Behaviour is replicable with Google Music as well. So in my case, it's not Spotify specific.

Does it really work with Google Music in your car ? Any chance to get firmware version of the infotainment system ? Which country do you reside in ? I am wondering if the firmware version is the same across the countries.

Thanks.

[mkygod]

It doesn't happen to me with Google Music or any other Android Auto app. Im in the US. There isn't any update for my system yet.

[gnovella16]

Hey there! 

Thanks for letting us know about this. Our tech folks are working on this as we speak. Hopefully, we'll have a fix soon. In the meantime, can you try to enable crossfade on your device? That should help with this. Let us know how it goes.

Keep on dancing 🙂

[mkygod]

That's good to hear; ill try enabling crossfade to see if that helps and ill report back.

[mkygod]

I enabled Crossfade, but it still happens when I skip songs. I think crossfade only helps with the problem if i let the tracks play by themselves without skipping.

[mkygod]

I found another anamoly that MIGHT have something to do on why this is happening. 

On my way to work, i was trying to play songs on Spotify on my Android Auto in my car. Well the problem happened again and I couldn't figure out why as usual. 

Well when i got into work, my friend there told me he heard music playing from my Spotify app on my computer. Somehow, the Spotify app in Android Auto triggered the remote play (Connect to Device)  and it was playing the same song on my computer at work that I was trying to play in my car. That would explain why the Android Auto app says the song was playing but there was no sound in my car.

I had no idea that the Connect to Device function worked over the internet. I've always thought you had to be under the same network in order for it to work.

Do you think this could be a root cause of this issue? 

[jaomusiclover]

I have enabled crossfade to no avail. This is extremely frustrating and incredibly annoying. We pay a premium fee for the ability to make our own playlists and download songs for our enjoyment. However, there is no enjoyment derived from constantly having to restart songs because the app is not playing the audio, even though it thinks the song is "playing".