[iOS] Playback pausing randomly in background

[monicax2]

Plan

Free

Country

United Kingdom

Device

iPhone 11 

Operating System

iOS 14.3

My Question or Issue

This problem has been ongoing for a while so I’m not listening to much music anymore because of this.

Basically, whenever I’m trying to listen to the songs in my playlists, Spotify will randomly stop the music, and it will not show in the control centre or on the locked screen. The only way to resume listening it to open the app and press play. However it doesn’t continue where it left off, it will play the song from the beginning, which is really annoying. 

I’ve tried clearing cache, restarting the app, reinstalled the app, restarting my phone, etc. But nothing has seemed to fix this. It happens with my phone only, not on any of my other devices. I’m at a loss on what I can do to fix this, any solution would be appreciated.

[ryanh006]

This issue started happening to me within the last week or so. I believe that this started happening around the same time as the update that changed the user interface. It has happened with music and podcasts.  I do not have any kind of battery saver mode turned on. I believe that this has happened both on wifi and 4G, but it seems much more common on 4G. I am usually using spotify on 4G though, so I do not know how prevalent it is on wifi. I typically start playing spotify then lock my phone screen. This happens with my device screen locked. I always use some kind of bluetooth device to listen to spotify. Typically I can press the play/pause button on my bluetooth headphones/headset and spotify resumes playing. Sometimes spotify rewinds when it begins playing. It has gone back more than 5 minutes on at least one occasion.

I have also noticed that spotify often shows the wrong song/podcast playing when I am in the app, the play/pause button often indicates that I am paused even when a song/podcast is playing, the play/pause button in the app does not always pause when media is playing, bluetooth headsets cannot always pause media, and the spotify currently playing notification often doesn't appear or says "spotify is trying to play"  even while playing media. All of these issues started at the same time as the random pausing.

I have not tried any of the workarounds suggested by spotify in this thread. I just discovered this thread and wanted to add my experiences. I will try the workarounds and update with any success or failure. However, this seems to be a common enough problem that the app is causing it and needs an update, not a fix on my end.

Please ask me any questions that you believe will help solve this problem. I would really like it fixed so that I can enjoy using spotify again.

Spotify version: 8.6.30.889

Device: Samsung Galaxy S10

Device Software: Android 11

Plan: Spotify Family Plan

Country: US

[jfish96]

Dropping another comment. I re-downloaded Spotify to my ios device today after deleting the app from it a few weeks back. It is an iphone 8, software version 14.4.2 and I'm running Spotify version 8.6.30.968 and I had to turn the app off and re delete. Had music playing through plug in headphones sitting on my desk and it proceeded to skip ahead roughly 13 songs in the playlist then pause and play the 13th song about 5 times before it paused it for good. Tried to play a song again and it just started doing the same thing over and over and over. Unfortunately, the auto payment for this month already came out or I would be gone. Looking for a new app that isn't Apple music. 

[thatazirafella]

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app twice, restarted my phone a few times, disconnected and reconnected to my working wifi (and tried using data), and closed and reopened the app in an effort to fix the issues I'm having with the app, but nothing has worked. I'm not turning off my battery saver to use the app and I shouldn't have to, especially when I'm paying for premium every month to use all the features on the app. Frustrated that I'm paying premium and haven't been able to do the bare minimum of listening to a song or podcast all the way through without it stopping constantly. The only way to get it to play again is to wake my screen up. 

[StormyGalaxy]

I would also like to mention that I am recently having this problem as well. Yesterday it was working fine, but I think that the new update for Spotify may be causing this issue.

[stephanieuktw]

Hi, 

The same problem happens to my device after I updated the App on my mobile. Every music is disrupted within a minute, it is either replaced by other music I don't know about or just stopped playing. I have tried all the checks above, nothing works. No problem listening to other apps, eg. Deezer from my mobile. The only thing that works is through the web browser from my laptop. This might be an indication of App error? Please fix the App as soon as possible as I have just re-subscribed. Thank you.

Device: iPhone XS, iOS 14.4.2

Spotify version: 8.6.30.968

[EE76]

Hi,

The problem described in the original question does not seem iOS specific. I use Android and the problem description exactly matches my experience described in another thread in this forum here: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Ongoing-Issues/Android-Now-playing-bar-not-updating/idc-p/5217749/h....

My setup

- Device: Moto g(7) plus

- Android version 10 (1 Feb 2021 security patch level, 1 May 2021 Google Play system update)

- Spotify version 8.6.30.889 (installed from Play store today, twice)

- Spotify subscription type: Family

As per my other post I of course did the clean install, delete cache, etc etc, but the problem reappears instantly when reinstalling Spotify.

[FinlayRaphael]

This problem has been happening for me as well. I have an iPhone SE on iOS 14.6. I’ve cleared my cache, it will randomly pause most of the time I use Spotify whether connected to Bluetooth or playing off the phone. It happens with battery saver on or off and all the correct phone settings. I’ve cleared my cache and re-downloaded the app as well as reset my phone and nothing seems to work. It’s not a device issue as this never happens when I use SoundCloud. I have a premium account with my family and would hate to disrupt the whole plan but the problem has been happening for around a month now. Same problem as other people, when I go back to the app it restarts the song and once it happens once I either have to reset my phone or re-download Spotify and hope it goes away for a day. My Spotify is updated, I don’t know what else to do. I would also assume there will be some kind of refund opportunity for at the month of June as the app has been entirely unusable.

[ammalie]

Happens to me on my Samsung 20FE, and when I try to use any of my three macs (MacBook Pro 2015, MacbookPro 2019, and iMac 2011). Done everything as described over (cache, batterysaving, whatever) . Updated everything.  Reinstalled the app every day for a week. I can see that this seems to be a problem for many people (especially all the ratings on Google PlayStore for the latest days) , so I hope you´ll fix this soon!

[khughes23]

I'm having the same issue - tried on both my Macbook pro and my iphone!! Both pausing randomly while i'm watching it play!!! so frustrating! 

[Liam98]

I too am also having this same issue. Has been happening since about the middle of May this year and happens either in my car connected to Bluetooth or simply just playing music through my iPhone built in speaker in the kitchen. 

My iPhone is fully updated and is the 1st Gen SE model from around 2016. So far I have done everything possible including making a new Spotify account. The only things I haven't done, which I am not at all prepared to, is buy a new phone or purchase Spotify premium.