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.

[JC-bougi]

Same issue here in France. 

I never played any podcast on Spotify before so no long history.

However today, trying to play France Inter podcast. Works fine on the mobile devices (pixel 6 and 7, android 13) but refuses to play on Spotify Connect device (moode audio on raspberry) while any Spotify music plays without a glitch.

Can Spotify find and fix the root cause ?

[Mr_Fluffybottom]

Yes. Seems like mostly, if not only, ARD-podcasts are affected in Germany. Support didn’t believe me, when I told them.

[lokenos]

I've always heard podcasts like this every day but suddenly it stopped working for all Sonos and Amazon Echo Dots: 

It's not working for any of my Mac devices (iPhone, iPad, Macbook) and I really need this to work. How can I fix this? Thanks.

[radio09man]

Hi

I have a strange issue that my external speaker ( which is an evoke f3 digital radio ) will not play any podcast from my spotify premium , however all songs work fine. I am using the spotify desktop on my chrome book , and also tried with app on android phone 

i tried rest my radio and wifi, any idea? 

[BastianKa]

So there's definitely problem with ARD podcasts we've figured out. Can anyone from the support please comment on this and how it possible?

[lleistad]

I recently had this problem of podcasts not playing thru my echo dot. Music would play. I just logged in to my Alexa app, and it suddenly started working again. I'm thinking ppl are being too quick to blame Spotify. I blame Alexa.

[Appletree27]

Is there any solution to this? Seems like this thread was created in 2022 and I am facing this issue now, I have tried all the general troubleshooting suggested. I have a google home mini, I have reset it to check if it had any issues, reset my google home app too, tried different spotify accounts but none seems to help in playing podcasts. I have used different devices too. It seems only spotify podcasts are not working, all other music platforms seems to be working fine. I have searched everywhere on google dont seem to find a working solution. 

[Martin152]

I've been on contact with the support chat and with the escalation team about this. The latter one told me that "due some technical limitations with some external devices, some podcasts cannot be played on them". ARD has confirmed that nothing has changed on their end since it worked last time (this particular issue popped up for me sometime around August this year).

I think the statement of the escalation team is very vague and generic at the same time. I've tested at least 6 different devices even with chipsets of different vendors and none of them could play those podcasts. Support was not even able to tell me which devices still do work if it's only some devices that do not work. And btw, I found that some of the BBC podcasts don't work anymore either. It's really annoying - but I haven't agreed with the new monthly price yet anyway...

[ficvebanger]

Same here for Podcasts located outside the Spotify servers (which applies for most of the ARD Podcasts). Cannot play the Podcasts on Amazon Fire TV stick and not on Xiaomi MiiBox (both using Spotify connect clients). Verified with different phones and different Spotify accounts.

[Brahka]

I am trying to stream a Podcast from SWR2 Wissen on my Sonos or my car audio.

The device is greyed out and has a note: „cant play this track“

This is only for the SWR2 Wissen series - all other Podcasts work fine!

Plan

Premium

Country

Germany

Device

iPhone 14 Pro (17.1.2), iPad Air 2 6.Gen (17.1.2)

[Maria]

Hey there @Brahka,

Thanks for reaching out on the Community!

Just to check, are you able to play the podcast when not connected to another device? For example, does it work if you simply play it from your phone or on a computer?

Also, a bit of an odd request to try here, but it's worth giving it a shot as it has helped in similar situations in the past. Could you make sure Show Local Files is turned on, as this could help with the playback? Have a look at this page to see the steps on how to enable it.

Let us know how you get on.

[Brahka]

Hi Maria,

I have tried your proposal - unfortunately no success.

I am able to listen to this Podcast on my iPhone, without problems.

But am not able to stream it at all.

All other podcasts or music works fine.

I can also stream this Podcast to my Sonos, when using my Macbook.

But not with the iPhone nor my iPad…

[Brahka]

I have to correct myself.

The podcast stream to a network device does not work with any spotify app:

Mac, iPhone nor iPad.

But seems to work, when I use the webbrowser version…

[Maria]

Hey there folks,

Thanks for posting in this thread!

Could you let us know if you're still experiencing playback issues when connected to another device?

Should that be the case, we'd like to investigate this further and would appreciate if you could share the following details with us, so that we can pass the info on to the tech folks:

• Is this only happening with a specific podcast? If so, we'd need an URI/link to the podcast.
• Which devices are affected by this? Brand/model and OS/firmware version.
• Any troubleshooting steps you've tried so far.

We'll keep an eye out for your replies.

Cheers!

[Mr_Fluffybottom]

Hello,

unfortunately the issue still exists on Alexa/Echo Dot albeit with different podcasts. The ones I found are:

The problem now is Alexa. The podcasts play on iPhone, iPad and PC, but not in the Alexa app. I can stream them via bluetooth, though. I’m using the latest Alexa app, it’s on auto update. 
I tried everything Spotify customer service told me to, to no avail I might add. This includes clean reinstalling the Spotify app on all devices, resetting all Echos, resetting my routers and WiFi mesh. 
I would honestly be happy, in this issue could be resolved soon.

Merry Christmas to you all 

[ER-MINIO]

Hi Maria, thanks for following this up.

Which devices are affected by this? Brand/model and OS/firmware version.

I still have the problem with a podcast (I only listen to a couple in reality).

It happens when I am trying to stream:

FROM

iPhone 13

iOS 17.1.2 (and at least the last 5/6 releases)

Spotify version 8.8.96.395 (and a few earlier releases)

TO

Alexa Echo dot

Is this only happening with a specific podcast? If so, we'd need an URI/link to the podcast.

At the moment I am unable again to listen (again) to this podcast:

It looks like some other podcasts are streamed normally.

The podcast was streaming a few months back and then, recently, it stopped again.

Compound issue is that Echo devices (I have 3 dots, 2 echos, 1 echo link) routinely disappear from the Spotify speaker list after having issues not being able to stream stuff through them.

At the moment I am listening to this podcast via a bluetooth speaker.

Any troubleshooting steps you've tried so far.

I would normally disconnect and reconnect the Spotify Alexa skill to try to listen to podcast and to regain full list of speakers in Spotify.

Restarted the router. Replaced my router/wifi router at some point (for other reasons).

I logged out of all my devices on Spotify, updated all the apps. I am not going to move to a new account or reset everything, I've been running this account for years now.

Thanks for the help on this.

[Brahka]

Hi Maria,

to answer your questions:

• Is this only happening with a specific podcast? If so, we'd need an URI/link to the podcast.
   —> Yes, this happens only with the specific SWR2 Wissen podcast series

• Which devices are affected by this? Brand/model and OS/firmware version.   —> I am not able to stream to 

- Sonos Play 1, latest update installed

-Sonos Connect, latest update installed

- Volvo V60, 2020 with Spotify App, latest sw update installed, latest update installed

• Any troubleshooting steps you've tried so far.

—> see here:

- Rebootet all systems - same issue

- tested it with iPhone 14 Pro (17.1.2)

- tested it with iPad Air 2 (iPadOS 17.1.2) - same issue

- testet it with Macbook Pro 2019, spotify App - same issue 

- tested with several other Podcast series - no issue at all

I can play the podcast on the device itself, but not on a network device ( see above). It simply says:  „can’t play this track“ when I try to select a network device or use the Volvo Sporify App. 

any passthrough issues, maybe? 

best

Frank

[Brahka]

Hi there,

do you have any update? The problem still exists.

thanks

Frank

[Brahka]

Hello,

any idea how fix this?  i am having noe the same issue with local files in my iPhone. 🙁

please, please give me support! 

[PodPod]

Hit Parade podcast which also contains music is able to be cast though. I also experience the issue only with the 60 Songs That Explain the '90s podcast.