Spotify connect feed dropping out

[Zedman]

Plan

Premium

Country

Netherlands

Device

Yamaha MusicCast wxad-10

Operating System

Windows 10, Android

My Question or Issue

For the last 2 months I have experienced random stuttering/buffering/dropouts with Spotify connect. The song playing will cut and resume with the pause between cut and resume shortening each time until the music resumes. It seems to be worse in the evening hours. It's absolutely killing my music enjoyment and not what I expect from a paid service.

- I have tried all of the "fixes" suggested

- My audio streamer is hard wired, so not a wi-fi issue

- This happens both with a mobile phone and desktop app connected controller.

- It does not happen with internet radio

- My ISP (Ziggo) has confirmed that the line is functioning perfectly. No dropouts on other (higher demand) services such as Netflix.

- I can see the download speed choke when the stutter occurs. Drops from 500-600Kbps to 10-40 Kbps and back up after the stutter stops.

- It is not time related. Not the same time interval between stutter occurrences.

- DNS is via Google as recommended

- Prior to this I have had 2 years of problem free Spotify music streaming

Nobody at Spotify seems to picking this up despite numerous posts on this forum.

Please, please, please Spotify take this seriously and get this fixed. You say "Listening is everything" so please live up to your tagline and get this fixed! Mobile streaming via Bluetooth at compressed quality is not what I bought or want.

Hope to hear something from Spotify really soon for all of the customers who are severely disappointed.

[johnkock]

Hi Zedman, what is the solution to the issue? Your link doesn’t seem to work (at least for me…)

[Zedman]

I asked Yamaha to send me the previous version of the firmware with a different packet size and that was the fix. Seems like the real workd situation is different to their test setup and the kast version was on the limit for server and internet provider glitches. They are super helpful at Yamaha so I suggest you email them. 

[Zedman]

oops,sorry about the typos.!

[harveycourt]

I did email them a week ago and I still wait for their reply.
BUT, I dont have the issue anymore for the last 4 days.

[jadui]

Can you upload that firmware somewhere? I only get a standard answer from Yamaha about routers (translated to dutch)

[Zedman]

I only have it for the WXAD-10 and I don't know if each device has different firmware. It is the 2.18 version, if you can see what you have now. (Check your diagnostics log)

Happy to send you the firmware download link if you PM me your email address.

[Zedman]

@jadui , I just emailed Yamaha asking about the status and conveyed your frustration. Let you know if they reply 

[fthofhuis]

Hi Zedman, thank you so much for all the effort you've put into this. It is a really weird and frustrating bug for me too. I have the R-N803 D as well, with a MusicCast 20 on the other side of the room. Super weird connection drops. The R-N803 D has version 3.00 and API version 2.18. The MusicCast 20 has system version 1.92 (1107) with API version 2.11, but it says the firmware is up to date (for both). 

Do you know if I should rollback to an older firmware version? Or should the 3.00 version be ok?

[Elzinga]

Still problem here. Rx-a1080. 

Someone has a link fore the previos software 

[Thomas124]

made a ticket for this problem by Yamaha yesterday, got this answer today (in Dutch)

Volgens de feedback van onze klanten, veranderen de oplossingen die we al hebben voorgesteld het gedrag van Spotify niet.
Het probleem blijft bestaan ​​en het luisteren naar Spotify vertoont nog steeds onderbrekingen in het geluid.
Nederland en Frankrijk lijken last te hebben van dit probleem, maar in andere Europese landen zijn er geen gevallen.
Aangezien het probleem niet overal aanwezig is, is besloten niet terug te gaan naar een eerdere firmwareversie.
Onze ontwikkelingsteams in Japan zijn op de hoogte van dit probleem en werken aan een oplossing.
Bedankt voor uw geduld om deze teams contact met ons op te laten nemen met een juiste oplossing.

[Zedman]

Well that sucks! The issue is 100% in the Yamaha firmware and they changed the packet request size in the 4 Oct 2021 update. I can see that by monitoring my router performance. I also ran 2 days of "packet loss" testing to make sure it was not on the provider line. 

Looks like the Yamaha test set up in Japan does not reflect the real life situation, or at least that in NL and Fr. 

Surprises me that they won't even take this into account for these 2 markets. Terrible customer service! and to point the finger at Spotify instead of working together. I'll be looking for audio streamers from other brands from now on.

[rolandduursma]

Same issue here. Yamaha R-N803D with firmware 3.00 (1923) and API 2.08 situated in The Netherlands.
Wired network connection, with stable 100Mbit fiberglass connection.

I just send an email to Yamaha Support Netherlands.

@Thomas124 can you share a ticket number which i can refer to?

Of course i hope we can get a new firmware soon, but now i'm better of rolling back to an older firmware.

Please Yamaha, fix this soon. I'm getting very unhappy faces in my house at the moment 😞

[Jens50]

found this somewhere (maybe somewhere else on this community?) 

[Chrisdude]

It seems that I'm having the same issue with my Yamaha crx n470d.

The first couple of months Spoty casting to the Yamaha worked without a glitch. But suddenly (after a firmware upgrade of the Yamaha) the issue appeared. Sometimes the music stops after a minute, sometimes after an hour. It stutters for a minute or two and then continues. But for sure it will appear at least once within a couple of hours of listening.

I'm streaming from my Android phone over WiFi with Spotify Premium. What I have done over the past months so far without luck:

- Firmware update Yamaha to the latest available

- Firmware update router to the latest available

- Reboot of all devices

- Updated Spotify to the latest version

- Reinstalled Spotify

- Used a fixed channel for Wifi (a none occupied channel)

- Set a fixed IP-address for the Yamaha

- Set wifi fixed to 2.4GHz 

- changed all kinds of WiFi settings

But to no avail....

Casting i.e. Netflix to my Chromecast gives no issues at all, so it seems the network is fine. I'm suspecting Spotify or my Yamaha.... I'm in contact with Yamaha for weeks now, but so far no solution. They replied that they get quite some reports from The Netherlands (where I'm from) and they suspect it's something regional, but what I see on the forums that's not the case.

I also checked the settings via the IP address, but things seem fine.

Unfortunately Yamaha did not respond to my request of sending me the prior firmware.

A shame, because streaming worked well, and now it gets really annoying.

Regards Chris

[Elzinga]

Probleem met Spotify connect.

Volgens de feedback van onze klanten, geven de oplossingen die we al hebben voorgesteld geen verandering in het gedrag van Spotify.
Sommige gevallen vertellen ons ook over hetzelfde probleem met Netradios.
Nederland en Frankrijk lijken te worden getroffen door dit probleem, maar er zijn geen gevallen in andere landen in Europa.
Aangezien dit probleem niet in alle landen aanwezig is, proberen onze collega's (in Japan) het probleem te reproduceren om het te verhelpen.
kunt u ons het ‘diagnose’ file van de MusicCast-app sturen (zie film om het te vinden).
Kunt u ons ook het model en de firmwareversie doorgeven van de modemrouter die u gebruikt (foto of tekst).
deze informatie zal onze teams die verantwoordelijk zijn voor het begrijpen en analyseren van het probleem helpen om het te verhelpen

Dank u en vriendelijke groeten,

Yamaha Customer Service en Support

[Chrisdude]

Dat is precies het antwoord dat ik een aantal weken geleden kreeg.
Ik heb alle instructies van Yamaha opgevolgd (en meer), maar het probleem blijft onopgelost...

Ik twijfelde nog bij toen ik melding kreeg van de nieuwe firmware: in het kader van "if it ain't broken, don't try to fix it". Maar helaas toch gedaan 😕

[Elzinga]

Raar dat er maar weinig info hierover te vinden is. Het is echt vervelend dit. 

Er is al wel een update geweest in Amerika voor een bepaalde versterker met de oplossing voor spotify. 

Hoop maar dat het eens snel wordt opgelost 

[Chrisdude]

Zou mooi zijn als we voor de time being de oude firmware kunnen krijgen. Dan hebben we in ieder geval werkende apparatuur voor de tijd dat Yamaha aan nieuwe software werkt.

Ik heb de oude versie helaas nog niet kunnen vinden als download.

[No_Spot]

Yesterday's reply from support after asking for previous firmware:

"The issues with audio drop outs when using Spotify connect are under investigation at the Yamaha development department in Japan.
A former firmware will not solve the issues. We kindly ask for your patience and confidence until the reason is found and the issues will be solved"

[Jens50]

This helped in my case, wxad-10, wired connection, last week only 1 brief moment with stutter problem.