Spotify Family and Connect only works on Owner, Why?

[Siewert308SW]

Plan

Spotify Family

Country

Netherlands

Device

Samsung Galaxy S7, HTC M9

Operating System

Android Oreo, Android Nougat

My Question or Issue

So i just signed up for a Spotify Family Member ship.

This is my for Spotify experiance and it's disapoiting so far.

After i signed up i started playing some music true my Heos Hs1 in the living room.

Worked, then i signed up my daughter and wanted her to show how to play here playlists on her own Heos Hs1 in her bedroom.

Somhow her phone doesn't show any compatible devices.

She has her own Spotify account aswell as her own Heos Account.

When i login with my account on her phone then i see all available compatible devices.

Both Heos speakers are on the same network and we can stream with the heos app to those speakers.

After doing some searching i discovered the family plan fails on this point and only one account can stream.

Why the **bleep** is that or am i doing something wrong?

[Jemi]

Hey @Siewert308SW, help's arrived. 

Can you tell us a bit how you're connecting to your devices. Does your daughter have her Spotify account connected to her own Heos app and trying to connect to the speaker from there? What happens if she uses the Connect feature directly from the app while she's logged in - is that where she doesn't find any devices? 

Further, double-check that your daughter can use Premium features such as downloading music and ad-free listening. Some speakers and services require the Spotify Premium feature to work, and it's always possible that your daughter upgraded the wrong account to Premium (she may have 2 accounts). 

Lastly, make sure she doesn't have Offline mode or Private session enabled on her app's settings.

Let us know how it goes 🙂 

[Siewert308SW]

Just added a thirth phone and everything works out of the box.

At this moment i'm assuming android version 7 is the culprit.

To anwser your question:

1: Samsung S7 with Android 8.0 (mine)

Has a HEOS app with my own account and can stream to both speakers.

The latest Spotify app is installed and isn't in offline modus.

It has a newly created free profile and is the owner of the family group.

The Spotify app can connect and stream true Spotify Connect to both speakers.

Also premium is activated as i can download songs and stream without adverts.

2: Samsung j5 2017 with Android 8.1.1 (wife)

Has a HEOS app signed into my account and can stream to both speakers.

The latest Spotify app is installed and isn't in offline modus.

It has a newly created free profile and is a member the family group.

The Spotify app can connect and stream true Spotify Connect to both speakers.

Also premium is activated as i can download songs and stream without adverts.

3: HTC m9 with Android 7 (daughter)

Has a HEOS app signed into my account and can stream to both speakers.

The latest Spotify app is installed and isn't in offline modus.

It has a newly created free profile and is a member the family group.

The Spotify app can't connect and stream true Spotify Connect to both speakers.

As it doesn't show any of those speakers.

Also premium is activated as i can download songs and stream without adverts.

This evening i tried the following to rule out that it could be a account issue.

I signed into Spotify app on her phone with my account and my wife and no speakers where shown in de Spotify Connect.

Then i signed in with my daugter account on my and my wife her phone and both speakers are shown and streamable.

So it's the HTC m9 with android 7 which doesn't show the speakers in Connect.

Also uninstalled the HEOS and Spotify app on her phone and reinstalled them.

Didn't change any settings and signed in again with her account without any result.

So my opinion is that a. Android 7 is the culprit or b. her account is malfunctioning.

Hope this can be solved and i think it can as my phone and my wife are working as expected.

[Jemi]

Hey @Siewert308SW, let's see what we can do.

Given that your daughter has Premium, and that your account works better on her phone, we can assume that there might be something with her account. 

There is an option on the app's setting called 'Show local devices only'. Make sure to toggle that on and see if any devices are shown. It's also worth trying connecting to a different device. For example, she can be logged in on a computer while using the app on her phone within the same network, and see if the computer pops up as an available device.

Further, can you create a new account for your daughter with a different email address, and then invite that account to your plan? If the new account works better, you can remove the old one and she can transfer her music to the new account if you want. Steps on how to transfer can be found here. 

Keep us posted 🙂

[Siewert308SW · Accepted solution]

Thx for the heads up.

Already tried to create a new account but that didn't work.

But shame on me and should see the culprit earlier before starting a topic overhere.

Let me explain:

At home i run my own VPN server (PiVPN) in combination with PiHole on a Raspberry Pi3 to block adverts and tracking stuff.

So basicly everywhere in the world we can access our home network and enjoy PiHole by using OpenVPN to connect to PiVPN 😉

Now here comes the weirdest part of all.

PiHole somehow blocked access to Spotify Connect on my daughter her phone while on my and wifes phone it was whitlisted out of the box.

So i disabled the blacklisted Spotify Connect part and voila every works, now she can stream to every speaker in our home.