Podcasts not playing on external devices

[jazzpazz]

Plan

Premium

Country

Australia

Device

iPhone 12 Pro, MacBook Pro, Google Nest Hub, Google Nest Mini, Google Home Max

Operating System

iOS 15.1.1, MacOS 12.01

My Question or Issue

Spotify podcasts stopped working on Google Home connected speakers.

1. When I ask Google Home to play Spotify podcasts, or when I cast from my iPhone to a Google speaker and try to play a podcast, nothing happens.

2. When a podcast episode comes up in a playlist (e.g. Daily Drive) while the playlist is playing on a Google speaker (either direct or casting), the episode is skipped without notice and only music tracks are playing.

The issue became apparent this week but might have been present in December 2021.

Steps taken already did not resolve the problem:

- logged out on Spotify mobile

- updated Spotify on mobile

- unlinked and re-linked Spotify in Google Home app

- restarted my router

Please help!

[jazzpazz]

Hey there folks,

Thanks for posting in this thread!

We've done some further investigation and looked into this with our teams, and it seems like certain podcasts may not be playable while using the Connect feature. We constantly work on improving the app and its features, that's why we appreciate you taking the time to raise this with us.

Keeping our fingers crossed even more podcasts become available in the future!

If anything else appears, we're just a post away.

[jazzpazz]

The irony is that I'm now getting Spotify Community email updates for my now defunct account after I had to create a new account to solve this issue. Getting a 6 year badge and simultaneously being told that the account means nothing is a bit of a jarring customer experience.

[ER-MINIO]

Exactly same behaviour here.

I have a number of Echo devices, and unable to play on any of those (or the Playstation).

Premium account. I tried disconnecting/reconnecting and replacing the apps to no avail.

Asking Echo to play the podcasts is met with silence.

 

[meganfortheanimals]

why is it STILL not fixed? support is a joke and offers nothing but 3 hours of time wasting pointless troubleshooting or an account transfer. neither of these are solutions or acceptable whatsoever. my podcasts won't play since DECEMBER and i just had a support person tell me my services are fine, essentially calling me a liar. is this who you are, Spotify?? 

[meganfortheanimals]

i made a new topic about this ongoing situation and was banned for doing so. it seems spotify themselves won't acknowledge the severity of this issue and instead will silence anyone who dares to ask them WHY they refuse to FIX it.

[meganfortheanimals]

when are you going to finally FIX this issue?

[meganfortheanimals]

this is the answer i got from a "support supervisor" when i asked what is being done to compensate those of us who have paid for unusable features for months and/or wasted countless hours troubleshooting to no avail. amazing. the absolute audacity is just staggering for them to act as if they are doing us a favor? what exactly is the "rightful" amount of compensation for FRAUD, which is what this is?

[meganfortheanimals]

try SINCE 2018!!! 

[Fartingspartan]

So Spotify.... any update????

[ShedOfTheEds]

So for some reason, an episode of a podcast I have been streaming over Bluetooth from Spotify (as a result of the issue on this thread still being unresolved) repeat sections and then continue the podcast slowed down so everything is in a lower pitch too. I played the exact same episode I was listening to multiple times after restarting the app and my device then gave up after the same thing was happening and switched to Amazon music which solved the issue. Honestly beginning to think that Spotify needs to work a bit more on the podcast side of things.

Edit: after playing other episodes from different podcasts and even the same one, seems to just be a one off. That particular episode continues to play strangely, however.

[Ronsk]

Are the right teams still looking into it yeah? What a joke

[henrytherevelator]

Spotify plays just fine on my desktop and phone, it still will cast music through my Alexa's but wont play podcasts. When I press the play button on my phone, it wont play. Any fix? Tried logging in and out of Spotify and disconnected and reconnected from the Alexa app. Nothing. Please help.

[meganfortheanimals]

this has been an issue since 2018 and Spotify refuses to even address it,
let alone fix it. the "fix" according to the "support" team is to uninstall
and reinstall both Spotify and Alexa. when that doesn't work, they'll tell
you it's an issue with your account, and force you to start a brand new
account. this also doesn't work, nor should it even be an option. they
should FIX this once and for all. I will continue to contact them every
month that it's not fixed and request a refund since this is a key
advertised feature that is unavailable. I encourage everyone else
experiencing this issue to contact Spotify and request a refund,
specifically citing this reason why. they care so little about this issue
that they haven't even changed the time wasting "troubleshooting" steps in
over a year and a half. it's sad that this feature no longer works and it's
even sadder that they won't do anything about it, not even offer a discount
until it is fixed.

[klothrop]

I am having the same issues playing podcasts to speakers. This includes Sonos speakers and Google home speakers and a JBL speaker. We factory reset all the Google home speakers and I tried all the suggested troubleshooting that was mentioned above to help others, and just like them, I still can't play any podcasts on any speaker. I tried manually connecting with the cast function on Spotify and it just times out when I select the speaker. It plays music only when I use voice commands even if I ask for a podcast. This is incredibly frustrating, I hope there is a real solution to this other than starting a new account? 

Please help me play podcasts on my speakers!

[vincentbils]

Also struggling on this, pls help…

[running_photogr]

I have not been able to play podcasts on Alexa devices since December of 2021. Spotify clearly has no plan to fix this issue. 

[Danni95DG]

I'm having this problem since a few months ago and still no answer or no help. I can't believe we are paying for this.

[jbeejone]

I am also having this issue. just finished talking to a support person and got nowhere. i'm seriously considering not sticking with spotify because of this nonsense. it's literally the bare minimum.

[Anschlag]

Also, having this issue. Music works fine when I use my Roberts 93i (Spotify connect) as an external speaker. But there seems nothing I can do to play podcasts. Have tried a few things e.g. reinstall app, reboot, reconnect but reluctant to waste more time given that it seems to be a recognised and widespread problem.

[heatherlknott]

I am also having this issue and have had no way of fixing it - did you get a response? 

[meganfortheanimals]

nope, they still default to the same "troubleshooting" method that they've
been using for almost 2 years now, or will tell you it's an account issue
and to make another one. since neither of those are solutions I've been
contacting supposed each month the issue continues to request a refund.
when they ask why, I refer them to this thread. hopefully if they start
losing money (they won't) they'll care enough to fix the issue (they
won't).