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,

Thanks for all the posts and shared experiences.

We're currently investigating the reasons behind this issue and would like your further input by providing the following information to pass on to the tech team:

• Is this issue podcast specific? If so, we'd need an URI to the affected podcasts.
• Which devices are affected exactly? Brand/model and OS/firmware version.

Thanks a lot for all the help,

Cheers!

[karmonia]

I'm also having this issue, but on my desktop. Music plays fine through my desktop but no podcasts will play audio. If I log out of my account, the podcasts will play, but not if I'm logged in. Works fine on my phone. And it's not on every desktop app; my home laptop works fine, just not my work computer.

[idontgiveaf___]

Which is why I keep reviving this thread. I can listen to whatever I want on the work PCs. But I have to do it through the web browser. The fact that podcasts don't work is so irritating and makes no sense.

[Yordan]

Hey @karmonia and @idontgiveaf___!

There's this recent ongoing issue about podcasts not playing were currently investigating, so feel free to check it out if you haven't already as we'll be posting updates there.

Cheers!

[Fartingspartan]

Randomly... mines had all started working now.

Can play podcasts from phone on echo devices using Spotify connect.

No idea why or how... but it's working.

[bhborba]

It’s working here too. Maybe they’ve been fixed this, finally 

[ShedOfTheEds]

Think mine's working now. Cheers Spotify for fixing it. Hope everyone else's is sorted too

[idontgiveaf___]

Web player is definitely still broken for me. Not even trying to play it through my Android device makes it work on my PC.

[Danni95DG]

It is working for me too, after months of being completely unable to play podcasts on smart speakers, now I can do it again.

[Alex]

Hi folks, 

Thanks for your replies. 

Glad to hear it's working for most of you again.

@idontgiveaf___, can you let us know what browse you're using and if you're using a VPN.

Cheers.

[Ltam]

This is a new problem for me. Only began about 3 weeks ago. 

I listen to The Daily from New York Times. Appears to be playing but now sound via AirPods, multiple models of aftershokz headsets, Bose speakers, Sonos speakers. Began after update to iOS 15.16.4. Now on iOS 16 and it continues. Podcasts such as Hidden Brain also affected. Other like npr up first work fine. 

[Ltam]

Just tested on my iPad. Same result. Interesting however, that once pressing play, the podcast timeline does not advance at all as though the episode has been paused. No effect when pressing pause , then play again. 

[OscarDC]

Hey @Ltam,

Thank you for keeping in contact.

If it's happening in more than one device when connecting to your Google Home, here's something you can try out:

1. Unlink your Spotify account from your Google Home and then link it again.
2. In the Google Home app, set the DNS server address to 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4.
3. Reboot your device.

Alternatively, you can try setting the DNS server address to 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4 in your router's settings as well.

Hope this helps. Keep us posted!

[Vasil]

Hey folks!

Could you update your apps to the latest version and check if the issue persists?
Many thanks!

[ER-MINIO]

Version 8.7.68.568 on iOS. Still unable to play on Alexa devices, tested now:

[ER-MINIO]

This is now working for me!
Thanks Spotify for finally sorting it out. 👍