Spotify stops playing after an ad

[Yordan]

We've received reports that Spotify pauses after an ad and the playback cannot be resumed. This seems to affect multiple platforms including desktop, mobile, and TV.

The behavior is currently being investigated.

[OscarDC]

Hey @SoulTreasure,

Thank you for keeping in contact and for the clarification.

If the Web Player is working fine with other browsers, it's possible that the issue could be browser-related. To make sure of this, it would be great if you could have someone log in with their account on your Mac - such as a friend or a family member, to see if the issue persists. In case you don't have another account available to test it, you can create a new account just for testing purposes with a different email here.

Also and if possible, could you check if the issue persists using your own account on a different device (using Safari as well)? This will give us a better look at the issue.

We'll be on the lookout. 

[fishrags]

Hi to the community/moderators and thanks for helping with troubleshooting.

I'd like to pipe up on this same issue.

I suggest that *yes* this is apparently a problem between Spotify and specifically the Safari browser. (Not an account issue.) I've had the same problem with Spotify on Safari persistently for a couple of years. I've tried everything. I keep looking back here occasionally on the community support page hoping a solution is finally found or Spotify realizes the ongoing problem and works with Apple to fix the apparent incompatibility.

Over the past couple of years, I've used Safari on 3 different Macs, with my own account and also testing with a couple of friends' accounts. In each case, I tried restarting the machine, clearing cache, using incognito, restarting the browser, logging out and back in, updating the Safari browser, turning off any tool that may block ads, etc — all of these in various orders.

I've tested my account on Chrome and it works fine, and on many different browsers on friends' Macs and PCs, and it always works.

I also tested my account on friends' Macs on Safari, and I've had my friends test their accounts on their own Safari browsers — the result is *always* the same: Spotify stops running after it hits an ad after playing the ad. Music is playing, ad comes on and plays, then Spotify stops — it's stuck at the point showing 30 seconds of ad has played, but it is no longer playing. You can't even hit the forward button to jump to the next song, and you can't click again on a song to restart music — you have to reload the web page, and then it will let you start again.

My account and all my friends' accounts work fine on other browsers.

So, why don't I just use a different browser? Well in my case it's because my workplace will only allow us to have two browsers installed: Chrome is installed by the company for using all our Google work tools and our internal network, and Safari is allowed because it comes native on the Mac. I cannot use the Chrome browser to stream music, because at my job it's dedicated only to activities on the work network.

That means I cannot use Spotify, all day long. I've had to resort to using YouTube music playlists, which never fail... but they're more troublesome to look up.

If there's anyone among the good community moderators here who has the power or connections to raise this problem with a Spotify rep and suggest this is a real problem and not operator error, I hope you can do that at this point. It's clearly a problem with some kind of conflict between the platforms.

Thank you!

[AlejaR]

Hey @fishrags,

Thanks for your reply.

We understand where you're coming from and we appreciate all the comments in this matter. In this case, we'd like to investigate this further, and for that we'll need the following details:

• Make/model and OS of the affected device.
• The exact Safari version you have running in the affected device.
• Did you notice if this started to happen after a specific event such as OS event?
• A video recording of what you kindly mentioned. You can attach it in your next reply in mp4 format, or you can also upload it to YouTube or Google drive and make it public, so we can visualize it.
• A list of all the troubleshooting steps you've tried.

Since you sent us some of the details already, it's not necessary that you send them again. Just send us the remaining ones.

Folks, if you're new here and if notice this is happening on your side, please send us the info above.

We appreciate the time you took to let us know this. Keep us in the loop!

[disgruntledtraphouse]

I am using Spotify in my safari browser, free account, US.

a couple songs will play, then an ad will render, no ad sound is played just a picture in the bottom right corner.

It will show going from 0 to 30 seconds then just stop.

The pause button is visible like it thinks its still playing the ad.

unable to toggle play/pause and have to reload the webpage to listen to songs again. 

[Vasil]

Hey @disgruntledtraphouse,

Sorry to hear this has happened!

It might be caused by a fault in your app's cached data.
You can reset it by following the steps here or you could go for a complete clean reinstall instead if that doesn't do the trick.

Mod edit: I just noticed you've mentioned that the error appears on Safari!
Safari is a supported browser so the Web Player shouldn't have any issues with it.
I'd suggest clearing the browser's cache & cookies in this situation and testing if the Web Player would open from another browser if that fails to help.

Also, please make sure that the browser is up to date 🙂

Keep us posted!

[FernandoBurmeister]

Plan

Free

Country

Brazil

Device

Samsung TV UN55NU7400

Operating System

SOFTWARE Y2VV3X8KA02087E

My Question or Issue

Spotify mutes after some time playing a playlist. I need to close it and reopen for the sound to start back again. I already restarted TV from power, reinstalled Spotify, problem persists. I was using Spotify in this TV for 3 years with no problem. This started a week ago and happens in all sessions.

[Dian]

Hey @FernandoBurmeister,

Thanks for posting in the Community.

Could you share a short screen recording of what is going on on your end? What is the Spotify App version you've installed on the TV?

Keep us posted,

Cheers!

[Danny58]

Plan

Free

Country

The Netherlands

Devices

iPhone 12, iPhone 14 pro, iPad Air, android devices

Operating System

IOS 16+

My Question or Issue

Since my spotify premium ended 4 months ago, every time an advertisement starts, the music stops on my Sonos box. It won't resume until I pause and press play again. This is very annoying. Oddly enough no one has started a topic on this community yet, but I have seen that there are many people with this problem on the sonos community: https://en.community.sonos.com/controllers-and-music-services-229131/sonos-stops-playing-spotify-com...

I was chatting today with spotify support, he gave spotify trial, and the problem is solved now.

[fishrags]

Hi Spotify support — sorry, I hadn't checked back. But yes, let me get you some info.

In my post above, I detailed my past few years and friends' testimony mainly so you would know this is Spotify/Safari problem is universal (according to all my experiences at least) — in other words: It's not due to the version of Safari, it's all Safari versions I've used. It's not due to the specific Mac or OS, it's all of them I've used. I would think with all this info, you might start running tests across several Macs using Safari. You're likely to find the same thing.

Nevertheless, here's my current info, in case your process requires you to have a single specific answer to test:

• Make/model and OS of the affected device. 
  Model: MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020) (and two other previous models: MacBook 2016, MacBook 2011, I don't recall the specific models)
  ANSWER: MacOS: 12.6.6 (21G646) (and all the versions prior to that back to 2020. (Note I have not updated to MacOS 13 because my work IT department hasn't vetted and approved it yet.)
• The exact Safari version you have running in the affected device.
  ANSWER: Version 16.5 (17615.2.9.11.6, 17615) (and all the Safari versions prior to this, back to 2020 on this Mac, and the earlier versions on my earlier Macs)
• Did you notice if this started to happen after a specific event such as OS event?
  ANSWER: No, it did not. The problem has existed for as long as Spotify has worked on Safari. (I recall there was a period of time Spotify explicitly did not work with Safari and both Spotify and Apple knew this, but I can't remember how far back that was.)

• A video recording of what you kindly mentioned. You can attach it in your next reply in mp4 format, or you can also upload it to YouTube or Google drive and make it public, so we can visualize it.
  
  ANSWER: I will link below to a screen cap video. As in my earlier description: the Spotify window plays an ad, then it stops playing anything—the ad is still showing, the ad timer is at the end, and it is stopped. No ad playing, no music playing. I click on another song to play it; the ad replays then freezes again. I try again to click another song; same thing happens. Finally I click the browser Reload. The page reloads and I can start a new song.
  
  

• A list of all the troubleshooting steps you've tried.
  ANSWER: Already provided above.
  
  Thank you!

[jyves-ca]

Same here on several devices and Os