Spotify can't connect to Chromecast Audio (again)

[alpenblauwtje]

Plan

Premium

Country

NL

Device

Multiple Android phones and tablets

Operating System

Most Android 10, some older

My Question or Issue

For many years Spotify has connection issues with our Chromecast Audio devices.
It might work flawlessly for weeks (or even months) and then suddenly connection errors appear.
The issue starts after selecting a Chromecast device from within Spotify. You hear the familiar connection sound from the speakers connected to the Chromecast but in the app nothing happens, you only see the blinking cast icon. Then after a minute it stops blinking, unconnected.
Sometimes if you try it again it works. Sometimes you can 'repair' the situation by starting Google Home and press Stop casting (although nothing was casted).
But over the last years there were also occasions where nothing helped. Rebooting phones and Chromecasts, reinstalling Spotify, nothing. And suddenly the next day or so it starts working again.

This is an issue FOR YEARS. VERY ANNOYING. I have a family subscription and all family members face this problem on a regular basis, which means on different phones, with different accounts and with different Chromecast devices. I'm sure it must be in Spotify (or in Spotify's Chromecast API implementation) as other apps don’t have this problem and are able to cast flawlessly when these issues appear in Spotify. Note that my network infrastructure is in a very good shape and the heaviest used Chromecast devices are connected by Ethernet.

Yesterday I (unfortunately) updated all Spotify apps on our devices (version 8 dec 2020). Initially I was able to cast to one of my devices, and now it fails to connect, on any device to any of my Chromecast devices.

Out of frustration I deleted Spotify and installed a (self backupped) version of 2019 (8.5.9.737). And this one works! Another proof IMO that it’s within the Spotify app.

If there’s a way to debug this issue (by enabling logging for example) please let me know.

[discy]

Continue here

[D1N0]

You are describing a different issue that is limited to the smartphone app. Not a continuation of this thread.

[alpenblauwtje]

@Jeremy: Today it was one of those days again. I could stream Spotify nicely to my bedroom CA (Chromecast Audio) but when I tried in my kitchen ... minutes of blinking and ... nothing.

With your message of a few days ago in mind I updated the Spotify app, and Yes! It worked! Wow!

I immediately backupped this version in my special precious APK stone.

After a few minutes I unlocked my phone and started Spotify ... it showed me a freezed image of a song that I played a few hours ago upstairs. Sigh. OK, kill the app and start fresh over again. Nothing .. still that song I played a few hours ago, completely async with the actual playing. I started Google Home, which knows exactly what was playing and I could even pause or skip to the next song. Started Spotify ... nothing. I pressed the Pause button ... 'Playback from Spotify was stopped because playback was started from another room or device' ... Uuuhhgghhhgwgrrlll.

Killed the app, restarted it. Now the whole app showed in some freeze/grayed-out mode. Holy F. I even wasted a piece of my precious APK stone for this version.

Note that my expectation levels with Spotify have been grown really really low. Even though I pay the main (family) price for it. I tell myself to compare it with some start-up company where you have to forgive some inconveniences with a painful grin sometimes. However Spotify remains a master in insulting its customers for years with ongoing outages of MAIN functionality.

[alpenblauwtje]

Totally off-topic ... but about insulting your customers: In about 50% of the cases I formulate a reply on this forum I get an 'Unexpected error' after submitting the post. And gone is your carefully composed message. The Back key doesn't recover the message. Very frustrating!

However I should have known ... it's completely in-line with the app behavior.

[alpenblauwtje]

Oh you wanted to know the version, it's 8.6.46.886 of 20 July. Cheers.

[Julian]

Hi @alpenblauwtje,

Thank you for keeping us in the loop with everything that's happening on your side. 

The current app version for Android is the 8.6.48, so please make sure to update your app and test the Chromecast connection again. 

Let us know if you still present the same issue, in order to report it to the relevant team if necessary. 

Keep us posted. 

[webhaus]

Just another premium user here, same problems as the other users here.  Issue happens to several different android, IOS and windows PC's.  I have 3 chromecast audio's and 3 regular chromecasts.  I cannot connect to any of them with any device using spotify, but I am able to connect using different apps/programs, so it seems limited to Spotify itself.  

[alpenblauwtje]

@Julian: I have 8.6.48 now, still the same problem (as an intermittent issue).

(And of course again the 'unexpected error' while attempting to post this reply.)

[Alex]

Hey there @alpenblauwtje,

Thanks for the reply.

We'd recommend you check out this Ongoing Issue thread. Don't forget to subscribe and add your +Vote.

Due to the intermittent character of this issue and the mixed reports from different troubleshooting steps, so far we aren't able to precisely pinpoint the root cause of the behavior they're experiencing.

We have however reported it to right folks, who are looking into it and rolling out improvements to the Chromecast functionality with each update. So best to upvote the OI, subscribe to the thread and keep the app updated.

Cheers.

[allroadCole]

Same exact issue here. Premium user. I'm on the latest version, seems worse with the latest version. Please fix the Spotify.

[soooch]

Hey same. Soundcloud works perfectly of course. This issue started for me after moving my Chromecast Audio with me to a different house. Casting in desktop Chrome works, as others have reported.

[racheloyvind]

This is an issue related to the Spotify ACCOUNT, not client, network or devices:

1. I had the issue today, where a Windows laptop with the Spotify windows client would suddenly no longer be able to connect to any chromecast device -- be it Chromecast, Google Nest or speaker groups.
2. I had the same issue on two different sites (different networks and devices)
3. My phone, which uses a different account (let's call it account B), worked fine on both sites
4. My other computer, which also uses account B, did not have any issues either
5. If I swapped accounts on my computers and phone, the issue followed account A, while everything worked when logged in with account B

I got it working on account A again after I tried a multitude of things, including logging out all devices using the account from the Spotify account management website (https://www.spotify.com/account/overview/).

[alpenblauwtje]

I have a brand new phone. Just setup everything, including Spotify. And guess what, Spotify can't connect to my Chromecast Audio. Another proof it's NOT in the end-users phone or any settings.

@Moderators: Please remove the tag that this issue is solved: IT IS NOT. And why on earth is everyone able on this forum to mark an issue as solved?? IMO this should only be possible for the initiator of the issue.

[StefanD]

Hi all,

Same problem here for some years already.

Somewhere I read that clearing the storage works as a workaround and it does. After a couple of days of working flawlessly, I suddenly cannot connect from my Pixel 3a to my Chromecast Audio anymore.

Workaround is to clear the storage of the Android Spotify app. After doing so, I can start the app again and it connects immediately to my Chromecast Audio. This works every time.

I'm surprised that this issue is marked as "solved", since it clearly isn't. Having a workaround is not a solution.

Phone: Pixel 3a with all latest patches

App version: 8.6.68.1225

Chromecast Audio, firmware 1.42.172094

Cheers, Stefan.

[KSpace99]

Hi

I have the same problem with Spotify running on a brand new Amazon Fire 8 HD tablet: it cannot see the Chromecast Audio device and hence cannot connect.  The workaround where you connect to the Chromecast first using Spotify on a PC works (Spotify on the tablet then sees the Chromecast and connects successfully) but this approach is not satisfactory. I am puzzled as to why this workaround approach works yet Spotify cannot seem to solve the issue. Spotify: Please raise the priority of this issue to get it fixed.  NB: This issue is not solved - please remove the 'solved' tag.

Many thanks.

[slartimitvar]

The solution suggested by D1NO worked for me

[pylevert]

Hi, I had issues with Spotify and Chromecast devices for a long time.  The list of Chromecast devices would be constantly changing and connecting to Chromecast devices was intermittent.  Everything else on my network seemed to work fine.  I have around 35 mobile and smart devices in my home and I think I was reaching the maximum number of devices on my router (Asus RT-AC86U).  I upgraded to a TP-Link Deco M9 Plus which supports up to 100 devices and now Spotify and Chromecast work flawlessly.

[MumbleBee23]

Did the clean reinstall but the problem persists. After reinstall, I can connect to my Google Home device and play music. But as soon as my phone screen locks, Spotify is out of sync. When I unlock my phone, Spotify is still on the first song, and if I control the music from Spotify, the music plays on my device and Google Home abruptly stops the music saying my account is used elsewhere. This is so bad and so persistent and I don't encounter this with other apps. 

Samsung S10

Nest Audio, Nest mini, Chromecast

Spotify version 8.6.80.1014

Android 11

[Jeremy]

Hi there folks,

Thank you for your replies and feedback.

We suggest that you head over to the ongoing issue that's been provided in this thread before. You can find it here.

You can read more about this in the statues of the ongoing issue.

Let us know if we can help you with anything else in the meantime.

Take care!

[_rightclick]

Thank you! Works like a charm. This is the go to method now to get it going again. A weekly "refresh" cast from the chrome web browser gets the mobile app casting going. Drives me nuts as well over the past few years. But at least now have a remedy. Cheers.