Spotify stops playing through HEOS speakers during second song

[CK1991]

New Problem after many moons of no trouble: First song plays well on HEOS, part way in to second song, the song continues to progress in the app but no longer a sound on HEOS speakers. Other HEOS music servers (Pandora, Amazon) play without incident from same phone via HEOS app. Have reset, reinstalled, restarted, and retried (from same and different devices) with no success.

[juicer]

It has been a week since I got a reply from Denon and today I followed up with a new question to hopefully get a more precise answer as to when we can expect a fix. This is the answer I received:

"We are can confirm that we are aware that since our update that was released back in April 2022 there has been issues when playing Spotify through HEOS.

Please note that our engineering team are hard at work in getting this fixed and there will be a firmware update out at some point in the near future that will help resolve the Spotify through HEOS issue.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused you and appreciate your patience."

So, on a positive note they now say that the fix will be released "in the near future". Let us hope for this.

[SorenA]

I have had this problem for some months, so very "happy" to stumble on this thread to learn I was not alone.
Last night I configured a special WLAN for 2.4Mhz only and no mesh, and shifted all the HEOS speakers over to this WLAN. Now, when my phone is connected to this same WLAN, everything actually seems to work.

Would still like to see the update, so I don't need a special WLAN to make it work.

[SorenA]

I am sorry.. I was a bit too fast.
Seemed to work for some time, but the problems are back now.

[topper133]

Has anyone tried the new firmware 2.47.352? Any better?

i rolled back all my Gen1 devices to factory default, and everything now working perfect.

to do it turn all devices off and open denon app, disable auto update in the app.

then do 1 speaker at a time, and turn each one off again after you’ve finished configuring it until all are done, then you can turn them all on together.

Only issue is you can’t then use the denon app, I don’t really group speakers so not much of an issue for me but least Spotify working perfectly across all everything, had this working fine for 2-3 weeks now. 

fingers crossed for a working firmware upgrade soon. 

[Frustrated64]

I have been having the same problem.  songs starts and stops.  App shows that is playing then song just stops.  Spotify works in car and on computer as well as Alexa.  All other apps work for music, however as all my playlists are Spotify it would be nice if Denon could get this to function properly.

[Pwermeli]

I have the same problems with my HS1 speakers. They play for a while and disconnects. I hoop Denon fix this problem ASAP otherwise I think many with me will choose another brand next time!

[ST46]

Same Problem. My Setup – two HEOS 1 with the DENON Sub. I feel like the Group is a Troublemaker too. When i ungroup my Office Setup and only use one HEOS 1 it seems to work... (haven´t tried it for hours tho). New Generation works fine as well. My DENON Home 250 has no Problem what so ever with Spotify Connect.

[ST46]

If you need to transfer your playlists – https://soundiiz.com

If you pay you can transfer everything at once, if you don´t you will have to transfer each Playlist separately. 

[juicer]

I wrote my third mail to support, this time a bit angrier than the last two... This is the answer I got:

"Please note that the engineering team in Japan are going through the final test stages at the moment as they need to make sure that once the update is released to fix the Spotify issue that it all goes smoothly.

Rest assured that this is top of their priorities, and they are doing everything they can to get it released as soon as they can.

They are currently aiming to have it released within next 6 weeks or possibly sooner, however as always this could be subject to change.

Once again we very sorry for any inconvenience and really appreciate your patience."

I cannot see how a fix can be in "the final test stages" and at the same time be scheduled for release in six(!) weeks? I understand that a patch might be tricky to test but as they broke it in April they should be able to "unbreak it" much quicker. For example, they could do a rollback to the pre-April firmware. Denon needs to start acting like the modern software company their customers expects them to be when paying for their premium priced products.

[soady]

The link to Denon post, is it public ?   Id like to rant there as well.

[soady]

any news on the update ? July and it still isnt available

[juicer]

Soady, read my post above. A fix is expected to be released in six week, i e the first half of August. In the mean time, you can nag at Denons support here: https://support.denon.com/app/ask

[Ibewalsm]

Denon is still failing to repair Spotify Connect issues and other bugs in HEOS-app.

Are they aware that they ruin their reputation?

My solution (Android user): use ChromeCast with AUX of HEOS box. No frustrations for me anymore this summer. For this connection you need a 'HDMI audio extractor'. Don't buy the cheapest, they do not work. Simple installation, everything works really fine!

I used an older ChromeCast with Ethernet connection build in. In the newest ChromeCast that is not the case anymore. You can solve this, but it will cost some extra money. 

I'm sure Apple will have also same kind of solution. 

[Ilonavp]

I have this problem for a few years now but still no fixes. Actually it becomes worse and worse every update. I tried to take my heos 1 to other places (a close friend, my parents) to try if it changes on other networks and devices but the problem is still there. I am sure of one thing that i will never buy a Denon device ever again. Even though my soundbar works well the heos1 ruins my joy in listening to music. The only way it works is using the aux cable because however my soundbar works well it doesn't work well with spotify while spotify itself works great on my ps4 which is connected to the soundbar with the tv. THen everything works great. 

[juicer]

I fully agree, Ilonavp. This has been going on since way longer back than April. My HEOS speakers have always been unstable (I am on HS1 and HS2). After I upgraded my WiFi to UniFi things got better for a while but the last couple of months have been worse than ever, probably after some firmware update. What annoys me is that Denon really doesn't seem to put that much effort into the software, especially if you're not on their newest hardware.

[Ronny_Axelsson]

Funny "juicer", my experiences are exactly the same.
Stability has been an issue for a long long time, and like you I installed a UniFi mesh WiFi to keep it reasonably stable, but during the spring things have become completely crazy.
I solved everything last week though, by connecting one HEOS 3 via cable instead, and use it as a single speaker.
100% stable, while waiting for the miraculous update. 🤣
Hope they succeed, or I my next speaker will probably be a Sonos.

[Ilonavp]

I drag the speaker (HS1 not the soundbar 😛 ) Through the house so using a utp isn't an option but i mainly use it for my laptop and with some effort i can use an UTP there so i am going to use your temporary solution until they finaly make an update that fix this problem.

[dzlradio]

I was having the same issue!  No word from Heos that it was a firmware thing.  Thought it was my router.  Upgraded to an Asus mesh network. Still had the issue.  Thought it was bandwidth -> upgraded to Fiber.  Still didn't fix the issue!  UGH!

I finally reached out to customer support via email.  I then had a dozen email exchanges and on June 5th they told me they were aware of the situation, like everyone else said in this forum, and that the new firmware update fix would be released by the end of the month.  It's July 13th and no update.  I emailed support again and they said "we expect to push the update out by the end of the month." I said "that's what you said last month!"

I mentioned the posts on this forum about resetting to the factory firmware as a "bandaid."  The rep hadn't heard of that but took the time to walk me through that process for each device (3x Heos 1, 5, Link & Home Cinema.) After doing that that, he found the additional issue (also mentioned in this forum) of the app not allowing you to do anything without updating to the newest firmware... so we decided not to go through all that. 

The rep did offer a temporary solution for my concern (grouping speakers.) Since my 1's & 5 are both HS2 I have the bluetooth function. I can group any of my other speakers with the one I have currently connected via bluetooth and they work perfectly.  Sound quality is not as good, but it will work for now.  If you get a phone call your sound will drop so I used my iPad. Worked perfectly.

I admit that if I wanted bluetooth speakers I wouldn't have gone through the expense of purchasing the Heos products.  That said, it keeps me from having to sell all of 6 of them and cover the difference of moving on to $onos. 

If you have a HS1 product without the bluetooth dongle you can purchase a bluetooth receiver and use it through the aux input on the back.  Again, not ideal but if there really is an update coming (not holding my breath) then this is a decent workaround (for me) until then.  Maybe it will help you.  Frustrating is an understatement!

[juicer]

There are many in this thread using cable as a temporary fix. Three out of my seven HEOS units are connected by cable and the rest by WiFi. When used stand alone, all of them work (kind of) well regardless of connection type. It is when grouping them that things go to **bleep**. For example, when I tried to play Spotify yesterday there was almost a second playback delay between a group of 1xHEOS Link (ethernet), 1xHEOS 5 (WiFi), and 1xHEOS 7 (WiFi) and also stuttering and dropouts. I could try to use a group of only ethernet connected units but that would be very temporary and just for test due to how the speakers are positioned. Can anyone confirm that grouping works when all HEOS units are connected through ethernet?

[Ibewalsm]

Hi Juicer, grouping is also an issue when all your devices are connected via Ethernet. After a view attempts with a timeout warning, it succeeds. But that is not what you want. The app and firmware are highly unstable.

Also starting up takes a long time, even when you use Ethernet. Especially my 2 HEOS5-boxes need a long time to connect.

Because of my earlier mentioned solution (ChromeCast) it works for Spotify. Hands-off and praying is my solution for now :). So, this is not the answer you hoped for.