No continuous play on Ecobee thermostat

[Ebkiel17]

I have played Spotify through my ecobee thermostat speakers for years. Recently, I have a problem where 1 (sometimes 2) songs will play and then the music stops. Spotify won’t continuously play and start the next song. It moves to the next song and shows on my phone which song would be next, but it shows as paused. I have to tap “play” to make the music keep playing.

This happens if I initiate via a voice command to the ecobee (“Alexa, play ABC on Spotify”) or if I start playing a song on the iPhone app and then switch the speaker to the ecobee.

This issue is present on all my ecobee thermostats, so it’s just a single thermostat issue.

The issue is only on ecobee thermostats. I don’t have the problem when playing Spotify on my phone speakers, Apple CarPlay, air pods, or to another Alexa product (echo).

I have tried:

-restarting router

-deleting / reinstalling Spotify on my phone

-removing Spotify skill from my thermostat and re-adding it

Please help!

[Novy]

Hey there @Ebkiel17,

Thanks for reaching out and letting us know what you've tried!

Would you mind sending over the exact Spotify version currently running on your phone, along with the app/firmware version of your thermostat if possible? 

It'd also be helpful if you could record a video of the issue so that we can take a better look at it. You can attach it to your next response or upload it to another platform like YouTube or Google Drive and send a link to it. Make sure to hide any personal or sensitive information, and to give it the relevant permissions if you decide to upload it somewhere else.
 

We'll be on the lookout for your reply.

[Ebkiel17]

Thanks for the reply @Novy.

Spotify version: 9.0.32.638

Thermostat: it’s an ecobee. Version 4.8.7.706

Below is a link to a YouTube video of my issue. I realized while recording this that the issue only exists when my phone is locked OR if my phone is unlocked but I don’t have the Spotify app up. If Spotify app is open on the screen, the songs keep playing. But if I minimize Spotify and open another app or my phone locks Spotify only plays 1 song and then stops.

You’ll see in the video that the playing song ends and then it moves to the next song but it never actually plays (you can tell because the song time doesn’t change).

https://youtube.com/shorts/n4CDlIbnGRo?si=LxJnHRgwaFIECpGg

Let me know your thoughts from here.

[MihailY]

Hey @Ebkiel17,

Thanks for the additional info and the video.

It sounds like the Spotify app is being restricted from running in the background. Can you make sure that Background app refresh is active for both Spotify and the thermostat app? 

If that doesn't help, try disabling Low Battery Mode under Settings - Battery and check whether you have any 3rd party battery optimizing apps installed on your phone.

Let us know how it goes.

[Ebkiel17]

Hi,

Unfortunately those steps did not help. Background app refresh is already turned on for Spotify and Ecobee (and Amazon Alexa). Low power mode is not turned on. I do not have any such 3rd party apps.

I’ll also mention again this only happens when playing through the ecobee speaker (via Alexa skill, I believe). It doesn’t happen when playing through the phone speakers, air pods, car play, or my Amazon Echo.

What else can I try?

[AlejaR]

Hey there @Ebkiel17,

Thanks for your reply and for the info shared. 

To see if you notice any difference, we think you can try the following steps:

1. Disable the Spotify skill, again, within the Alexa app:
   1. Open the Alexa app.
   2. Tap on Settings.
   3. Select Music & Podcasts.
   4. Choose Spotify from the list.
   5. Tap Disable Skill.
2. After that, clear the Spotify cache stored on your iPhone. You can learn how to do it in this article.
3. Reset your Ecobee thermostat. You can follow this Ecobee guide. In this case, we'd recommend the Reset All option.

After these, link once more Spotify to Alexa by following these steps. This whole process might help remove any stored cache that might be causing this behavior. 

We'll be on the lookout for your replies!

[Ebkiel17]

This unfortunately still did not fix the issue. What else can I try?

[Susan_GP]

Hi there @Ebkiel17,

Thanks for trying out our recommendations and for keeping us updated.

There's a couple more steps you can try. First, go to your Account Overview page > Apps, and from there 'Remove access' to the Ecobee (you might need to re-add the Skill from the Thermostat app). Once done, try doing a soft reset on the device. To do it, simply unplug the Ecobee from the power, wait a minute and plug it back in. No worries, doing it won't erase your settings.

Lastly, did you notice if this started happening after an update or recent change? 

We'll be here.

[Despa_Valentino]

Hi - I’m experiencing the same issue. I contacted ecobee support, but they were unable to provide a real solution. They ran through the same basic and advanced troubleshooting steps mentioned above, but the problem persists. They ultimately (and somewhat dismissively) offered a 20% discount on a new ecobee, which doesn’t address the actual issue.

[Susan_GP]

We appreciate your prompts replies and collaboration @Despa_Valentino,

So we can further investigate, we'll need a couple more details. What is the exact model of your Ecobee? You also mentioned having more than one, are they all the same model or different ones?

On another note, you restarted your router, but could you try connecting to a different network? You could create a mobile hotspot from your mobile device and connect one of your Ecobees to it, just to check if that makes any difference. 

Thanks!

[Ebkiel17]

No solution here. The skill/connection was already removed and reset performed from an earlier troubleshooting step mentioned earlier (it is the Alexa app connection, there is no connection to the ecobee app).

I am not aware of any recent updates or changes to the thermostat.

[Ebkiel17]

Both thermostats are Ecobee “SmartThermostat with voice control”. They are the exact same model.

I tried connecting the thermostats to my hot spot and the issue is still present.

What’s next?

[Yordan]

Hi folks,

We've forwarded this to the attention of our tech team who'll investigate further and will keep you posted as soon as we have any news to share.

In the meantime, it's worth performing a clean reinstall of the app, if you haven't already - this will get rid of any potentially corrupted cache and ensure you're running the latest version of Spotify.

Cheers 🤘

[Ebkiel17]

The clean reinstall did not fix the issue. What is the status from the tech team’s investigation?

[Ivelina]

Hey @Ebkiel17 and @Despa_Valentino,

Appreciate the cooperation and patience!

We reported this behavior to our tech team, however, they are not able to provide a timeline for a solution here. With this said, you could also report this to Ecobee in order to raise the profile of the issue with them as well.

Don't hesitate to let us know if you need assistance with anything else in the meantime.

Take care!

[El-kbo]

Hi. 

I've been experiencing the same exact issues since few months. 

I had played music on my ecobee using spotify for years without issues and recently after 1 or 2 songs the music pauses without reason. 

[Despa_Valentino]

Thanks for the response. This was reported to Ecobee back in January of this year. They haven't been able to replicate what's happening. 

[Fabpad]

Hi I have the same problem. my ecobee thermostat only plays one song. I have contacted ecobee support they escalated the case. please do the same. The issue may be with ecobee. it can be spoitify. this issue started after an update on one or both companies. My bet is ecobee.