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Spotify doesn’t play on Bose SoundTouch anymore

Solved!

Spotify doesn’t play on Bose SoundTouch anymore

Plan
Premium

Country

USA

Device

(iPhone 11, iPad Air)

Operating System

(iOS latest update.)

 

My Question or Issue

I have a Bose SoundTouch which I can control from my iPhone or iPad using its SoundTouch app. I’ve never had an issue until a few days ago. Whenever I select a song, it just stays on the blue screen and nothing happens. No sounds, no information of the song or artist. Just blue. It’s the only music service that doesn’t work and Bose customer service says it’s 100% a Spotify issue. I’ve done most of the obvious troubleshooting so far (reset, sign out/in, reinstall, etc...). Does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you in advance!

 

 

Reply
Top Answer
jmellander
Casual Listener

As I have all my SoundTouch devices (SoundTouch 130, SA-5 and a SoundTouch Wireless adapter) in my cottage, I'm not able to test with the SoundTouch app since it doesn't present the services until it has contact with at least one compatible speaker.

 

BUT, after the fix to the bug I reported back in May got fixed (and it seems it's fixed in your version on the iPad as well) I've not had any problems.

As a wireless networking professional I can imagine that many of the problems reported in this thread are down to the network. There's often a lot of focus on the two peers in the playing: the app on the phone/table and the speaker. But the fact of the matter is that the networking infrastructure has a significant role in this as well. And though you would think that a wifi network is a wifi network, they can differ quite a bit as well.

It's not too uncommon by wifi vendors (whether it's access points (bridging devices) or routers/gateways (combined routing/NAT:ing and bridging)) to try to optimize traffic by filtering out traffic that is considered potential network hogs, and this often includes multicast traffic and/or broadcast traffic.

Since I can't look at how the SoundTouch device does discovery for the other services (the Spotify discovery is Spotify specific) I can't give the answer right now. But it could be that it uses broadcast traffic either to the global broadcast or local broadcast address (255.255.255.255 or 192.168.1.255 (if your network is 192.168.1.0/24)), and that the router/AP filters traffic for multicast but not for broadcast. What I do notice is that when using the Deezer app itself, it uses regular AirPlay discovery with mDNS. But Bose's app could use something else. (And theoretically there could be other things that affect the method chosen.)

Ideally one would do wireless packet captures to record the traffic and see what's actually sent and received. But this of course requires more skills than operating the Spotify app.

 

But until I get around to doing a more comprehensive guide  on how to record wireless traffic (not promising one, but I'm tempted to do one based on all the problems people have, and the fact that wireless packet captures are really the best way to troubleshoot things like this) I would look in the wireless router or access point admin interface and look for any kind of broadcast or multicast suppression. You can also check if different radio interfaces(2.4GHz (802.11b/g/n/(and maybe even 802.11ax, since that supports 2.4GHz as well) and 5GHz (802.11a/n/ac/ax) are not segregated/isolated. If you have the same SSID (network name) on both radios there's no real way of controlling which channel your phone and speaker connect to. Of course, the segregation scenario is not likely to apply if other music services do work from the app. (But could be applicable for those struggling to get connection at all.)

88 Replies

Similar issues to those in this thread. For a few days it's not been possible to play spotify through my wireless speaker (and the widget has also stopped working too but probably unrelated). The behaviour is as @Eg11 reported previously for their iPad:

  • When using Spotify app on my android phone, my Bose SoundTouch 10 has stopped appearing on the list of devices. 
  • When using the Bose Soundtouch app on my android phone, Spotify is there as a music service. But if I try to play a track, the blue screen appears and nothing actually plays.

Here's the info requested:

  • Exact Spotify version: 8.5.88.883
  • Device details (build/model/OS): Build a5010_43_201029 OnePlus 5T running Android v10 
  • Speaker model + firmware version: Bose Soundtouch 10 software version 26.0.1; Soundtouch app version 26.0.3 with interface version 26.0.1
  • Troubleshooting steps you tried so far:
  • Performed a quick reinstall and restart both devices
  • Made sure the Spotify version and device firmware are up to date
  • Made sure both devices are on the same WiFi network
  • Restarted router

Hope you can fix it cause it's really annoying!

Hey everyone,

 

Thanks for searching for the answer you need here.

 

While we were debugging and testing this issue, we couldn't recreate it and thus identify the cause.  This leads us to conclude that it is indeed based on the individual networking setups and the devices involved. @jmellander explained in this post some of the network restrictions he identified as likely causing this behavior. We recommend that you reach out to your internet service provider and router manufacturer for further instructions on how to lift such restrictions.

 

We'll keep monitoring this thread and if we receive an increase in reports that we're able to reproduce, we'll definitely work on improving the app, as we did with implementing the solution proposed by @jmellander.

 

Hope this shines a bit of light on the matter. We'll be here if you have any other questions.

Mihail Moderator
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Same problems as @olivia41400 but other specs.

  • Exact Spotify version: 8.5.88.883
  • Device details (build/model/OS): Build a5000_23_201029 OnePlus 5 running Android v10 
  • Speaker model + firmware version: Bose Soundtouch 20 software version 26.0.1; Soundtouch app version 26.0.3 with interface version 26.0.1

Separating network into 2.4ghz and 5ghz did not do anything for me.

Thanks for the reply. Music is now playing fine on the speaker (I didn't change anything).

However, when I switch to play podcasts the app now won't even give me the option to play it on already chosen speaker. It says 'can't play this right now'.

Also I really appreciate the effort @jmellander went to in their useful technical post, though I feel that Spotify should rewrite it into terms understandable by those who don't work in IT. 👍🤷‍♀️

Hey there @phil-kun and @olivia41400,

 

Thank you for your replies in this thread.

 

@phil-kun - can you confirm what troubleshooting steps you've taken that's been provided in this thread so far?

 

@olivia41400 - we suggest that you perform a clean reinstall. This will make sure there's no old cache files causing this. We also suggest that you have a look at the other troubleshooting steps that's been provided in the thread.

 

Keep us posted. We're always one reply away.

 

Cheers!

JeremyModerator
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Live, love, laugh and listen to music 🙂

@jeremy

I have restarted all devices, removed the wifi connection from the soundtouch and reconnected it, tried separating my connection into 2,4ghz and 5ghz and connect phone and device to the same. Thats about it, anything I havent tried?

Hey again @phil-kun,

 

Thank you for getting back in touch and for confirming the troubleshooting steps you've taken so far 🙂

 

Can you perform a clean reinstall of the app as i mentioned in the reply above? This step will clean the cache and corrupted files from previous installations that can cause issues.

 

I also suggest that you follow the troubleshooting steps that's been provided in the thread that you haven't tried yet.

 

We'll keep an eye out for your reply.

 

Cheers!

 

JeremyModerator
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Live, love, laugh and listen to music 🙂

Reinstalled both spotify and souchtouch app, reconnected everything etc, did not work. What worked was to factory reset my router....

Oh well, thanks for the help guys.

Hi @phil-kun,

 

Fantastic news! Give us a shout if it starts misbehaving again; we're always here to help 🙂

 

Have a nice day!

EniModerator
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“Music acts like a magic key, to which the most tightly closed heart opens.”– Maria von Trapp

I have been using spotify on my soundtouch for years but now when I click on a song the app gets stuck

Hey @Lpheloung,

 

Thanks for reaching out to us 🙂

 

We'd suggest you restart the devices and then to log out and log back in again. If that doesn't help, you can give these steps a go and run a clean reinstall. This one is more thorough than the usual one.

 

If the issue persists, it's a good idea to restart the router. 

 

Let us know how it goes. If you have questions, you know where to find us.

 

Ver Moderator
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I confirm this is only spotify. Amazon Music works fine and so does apple. One of the reasons why folks in North America are starting to give up on Spotify.

Also tried that and even reset the wifi connection but did not work.  Amazon music works fine though.  Just a Spotify issue it seems

Hi @rceme50942

 

Thanks for reaching out about this. 

 

Could you let us know which troubleshooting steps you've already tried? If you haven't tried running a clean reinstall yet, we suggest that you follow the steps @Ver sent previously.

 

On another note, would you mind giving it a try using a different internet connection?

 

Additionally, we recommend using Connect from a different device to check if the issue persists. 

 

Let us know how it goes - we'll be waiting for your reply!

EniModerator
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“Music acts like a magic key, to which the most tightly closed heart opens.”– Maria von Trapp

I have been having this issue for almost 12 months off and on. Will work fine for months and then just start randomly happening. Sometimes just turning the speaker off and on will solve it, I have 6 assorted Bose Soundtouch speakers and it happens to different speakers. I have done factory resets to fix it (sometimes works, sometimes doesn't), but issue will pop again. Interesting that it is with spotify only. Have used the Bose and Spotify connect apps on android, PC and iPad and all have the same issue. Is there any way to stop this other than switching streaming service?

I'm having issues with Bode Soundbar 500, firmware version 10.0.10-8565+88f8514. All other online services (e.g. Deezer) connect just fine. If I power cycle the soundbar, Spotify successfully connects a few times and then stop again.
All Spotify clients have this problem, Android, MacOS, Windows... all on latest versions.

Hey there @shmic and @veggen,

 

Thank you for your replies in this thread.

 

Would you mind try the following:

  • logging into a different account
  • connecting to a different network

@veggen it would be great if you could try using Connect from a different device to see if the issue persist.

 

If that doesn't do the trick - can you let us know which version of the app you have?

 

We'll keep an eye out for your replies.

 

Take care!

JeremyModerator
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Live, love, laugh and listen to music 🙂

Same problem with Spotify and Soundtouch 30. Works well during three years.

 

I had:

- Unplug router

- Unplug Soundtouch 30

- Reset Soundtouch 30

- Uninstall Spotify on Android

- Reset password Spotify

- Log off from all devices

- Remove/add Spotify connect on SoundTouch app

 

And same problem, Spotify stops random.

 

Help

Hey @franlongoria,

 

Thanks for reaching out to us 🙂

 

The troubleshooting steps that you're tried so far are very good. We'd like to add a few more.

 

Could you try with another account to check if there are any changes?

 

It's also a good idea to make sure that you're using the recommended WiFi settings mentioned here.

 

Let us know how it goes. If you have questions, you know where to find us.

Ver Moderator
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My problem continue with Android device.

 

I used mi PC and all work ok, so the problem could be my Android device. At night I will prove with iPhone device.

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