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.

[Lee]

Hey @snapper87!

We recommend reinstalling. Updating would be fine, but a reinstall should make sure everything's nice and fresh again behind the scenes.

Let us know how it goes 🙂

Lee

[robertkennedy31]

Same issue with a brand new Skoda Superb, Galaxy S5 and Android Auto. Audio randomly cutting out until disconnect/reconnect.

[Damo]

I'm also now having the same problem with Pocket Cast as well as with Spotify. Is anyone else experiencing this?

[jkplm]

Damo, I have issues with Pocket Casts as well. Actually today once with TuneIn radio also. Yesterday a new build of Android Auto was released (v2.2). On a 10-hour drive today first hours listening Spotify without any problems. I was using Google Maps same time. Then audio muted and I had several restarts and problem occurred frequently. I removed Android Auto app and reinstalled it. That helped for the rest of the journey, but still one restart occurred. I usually use Waze on phone screen while listening music through Android Auto. Today the first restart occurred a while after starting Waze. I don't know if this has anything to do with the problem, I think I have had restarts without Waze as well.

[irmb]

Fixed the issue by going back to iphone. Apple car play works just fine

[Lee]

Thanks everyone for the extra info!

We're passing it along to our devs. We'll let you know as soon as we get any updates on our end. For now, make sure to keep Spotify, as well as the firmware on all relevant devices, fully up-to-date.

Lee

[jkplm]

This is getting even worse.. Yesterday updated AA 2.2.7108. I can't anymore skip a single track in Spotify without infotainment crash! The system is totally useless now. Also bought Cablecreation quality usb cable, didn't help..

[Jim]

@jkplm, @Damo, @robertkennedy31

Thanks for all this. We're sorry to hear you're still having issues. Rest assured the tech folks are still looking into this.

We recently updated our Android app. Just to check, are you still having trouble with this new version?

Keep us posted.

[Damo]

Hi,
Yes, still having problems I'm afraid

[jkplm]

Nope, still having the issue. But it's still weird that yesterday the problem existed, but day before didn't, even I tried to crash the system by frequently changing tracks.

But anyway, thank you Spotify guys for taking this seriously. You are the only party who clearly try to do something, at least are responsive. Google and Volkswagen group seems not to be interested. I'm afraid the problem is in their end however.