Apple CarPlay - Audio Playback Stopping

[HelpMe2024]

Plan

Premium

Country

Australia 

Device

IPhone 12

Operating System

17.3.1

My Question or Issue

Recent bug seems to have appeared when playing audio on Spotify via apple car play. Audio will randomly pause and the user will  be unable to resume/play the audio. The UI will either display as ’playing’ with no audio or time progress appearing or it will not allow you to play.

The only fix is to open the mobile device, terminate the Spotify app and reopen it on the mobile device.

I have tried to understand the trigger of the bug but I am unsure, it appears to happen randomly. 

I have checked mobile connection in all instances and 5G/4G is available. All other applications do not encounter this issue.

[HelpMe2024]

The issue is with CarPlay its more widespread than just Spotify , problem is when the iPhone receives a notification of any kind the music is silenced but the progress bar of the song playing keeps going forcing one to exit CarPlay or disconnect/reconnect to resume , work around go to the in vehicle settings for Carplay from the touchscreen while connected in your vehicle and turn notifications off or try turning driving focus on, also if your car is equipped with Alexa try disabling it from your vehicle settings. menu. 

[gaby6100]

Hi 
I have exactly the same problem! And it started when I updated my iPhone 15 Pro to iOS 17. No one knows this bug? your message about this issue is the only one that I saw on the Net.
Hope someone from Spotify will solve this...

[Susan_GP]

Hi there folks,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community and welcome.

In this case, it's best to try some troubleshooting steps to check if the situation can be resolved. First, try going to the Spotify app on one of your devices from Settings > Storage, and select the option Clear cache. Then log out, restart Spotify, and check if the issue persists. Additionally, disable any Battery Saver or Lower Power mode from your device's Settings. 

If none of those help, we recommend reinstalling Spotify. No worries, you won't lose any content, but you might need to download your offline music again.

Lastly, would you mind sending us a video recording of this behavior? You can attach it in your next reply in mp4 format, or you can also upload it to YouTube or Google Drive and make it public, so we can visualize it.

We'll keep an eye out for your reply!

[#5]

On IOS 17.4.1. Spotify (updated last version)
If sporify opened before connection, on carplay screen, sportify app doesnt play songs. If i click a song name. Screen changes as playing but retuns to pause mode. To solve this I have to close in iphone , then open app in iphone again. Then it plays without problem. What can I do

[Shaneedser]

Premium plan

 Australia 

Device iPhone 13

pioneer car stereo with touchscreen.

Daily, sometime multiple times a day, I connect my iPhone to CarPlay and Spotify connects, but music will not play. I have tried opening other apps, Apple Music, even YouTube, but the only solution is to shut down and reboot my phone. I don’t want to have to do this every time I drive.

My Question or Issue

[vildhjarta8]

When I enter my car, my iPhone automatically connects to the car via wireless CarPlay. After that Spotify stops working and doesn't play any music. The CarPlay app and iPhone app still working in terms I can browse music and playlists, but hitting the play button does nothing. Switching songs also just change the song name and cover, but no sound at all. Also, it doesn't show song duration near the progress bar, just empty “-” signs.

iPhone 14 Pro/iOS 17.4.1, Mercedes Benz C class w206. Wireless connection. App version 8.9.26.509

Facing this issue for a week maybe, before everything was fine. The only way to fix it is to kill the Spotify app on the phone and launch it again.

[hieronymus_lex]

Having same issue. Carplay will show Spotify playing but, there will be no audio. iOS17. Very irritating to the point where I am considering switching to Apple Music. 

[scottthorntonspot]

Device

iPhone XR

Operating System

iOS 17.3.1

My Question or Issue

Spotify will not reliably play songs via Bluetooth via my car any longer.

Spotify might play songs during my morning journey in my car, but in the afternoon, it will not play any song. It will display the track name etc ( on the car radio display head unit), and I can navigate songs via my wheel controls and change them, and also change songs via the app, but there will not be any song ( with volume playing ). So I believe its connected, I just can't hear anything.

Sometimes I can force it to play by going into a different app that will play something with volume like Youtube Music, or a browser with an autoplay video. Often that will not help the issue at all.

I have removed the app, and re-installed a few times now. I have also performed the clean install steps including clearing cache etc last week, but the issue still occurs.

If it helps, the car is a Nissan X-trail 2015. I don't think there is anything I can update on the car side of things.

I hope you can offer some advice.

[ricsto]

I had exactly the same issue. Not entirely sure what the pattern was but it seems like it would occur when I was connected in car (carplay) would then disconnect and use other another device AirPods etc and then return to the car and reconnect to carplay. Its would indicate it was playing music but there was no sound. Did all the usual check, mute enabled, volume turned down etc but they were all correct. Going to the iphone and swiping the Spotify app closed would solve the problem and it would play sound again. However, I'd have to do this several times a day.

I read a solution somewhere which worked for me. Completely reboot the radio. This typically means holding down the volume button of the radio until it reboots. I'm using an RCD 330 in a VW Golf and after the reboot I've not had the annoying silence since, not once. I'm only a couple of weeks in but from having to close the app several times to not once in a couple of weeks is real progress. Your mileage my vary as will the method to reboot the radio but other members of my family confirmed that holding down volume button did reboot. Reboot typically won't lose channel settings, carplay config etc so it's usually worth a go if you've not already tried. I've genuinely no idea why my Carplay device only had issues with Spotify, Audible and PocketCasts were fine. 
I'm on iPhone 13 iOS 17.4.1 , Spotify 8.9.26

[Zmilin]

Same for me after the last IOS update. iPhone 13 Pro Max, IOS 17.4.1
I connect to Car Play in both my car and on my motorcycle, on both Spotify opens and looks like it plays but no audio. All Spotify functions work (FF, Rewind, play, pause, menus etc...) but never any audio playback even though it shows as playing. I have to shut down Spotify and reopen.  I have also noticed that at times even though Car Play is showing Spotify as playing I still need to open the app, shut it down and reopen for it to actually play music. 

Again, all this started since I upgraded to IOS 17.4

[gaby6100]

Hi I wrote about the same problem a month ago here. I have been following all the solutions that Spotify gave to me but without success. It started when I upgraded my iPhone pro 15 to iOS17.4. 
In my case, it was apparently the app "NordVPN". When I turned it off on my iPhone, suddenly Spotify started in the car. So, the apps Spotify and NordVPN "by using Apple Carplay" are incompatible for some reasons.It doesn't affect the same way when I use other sound apps like Apple Music.

[Zmilin]

I don’t have nord vpn 😔

[hieronymus_lex]

I don’t have NordVPN either. 

[tommyballgame1]

Thanks!  I removed NordVPN and it immediately solved my problem

[lunne2k6]

I have a similar issue but the solution for me this far has been to put the phone in airplane mode and start playing an offline song. When the music has started playing from my offline list I can then turn off airplane mode again and chose the desired song.

[MihailY]

Hey folks,

Apologies for the radio silence on our end.

In order for us to investigate this further, please send us whichever of the following details you haven't already:

• The models and OS versions of the affected devices.
• The exact Spotify version you're running. 
• The model of your car/car stereo.
• The troubleshooting steps you've tried (huge thanks to those who've shared what worked for them).
• A short video of the issue.

Thank you!

[JulianNL]

Plan

Premium

Country

Netherlands

Device

Iphone 15

Operating System

IOS 17.5

My Question or Issue

Hello, I have a quite annoying bug with Spotify in the car with CarPlay. Every time I connect my phone WIRED to my carplay system, I cannot start music from carplay. So when I press play, everything kind of freezes and I can't hear any music. if I disconnect carplay the problem remains. What I always do now is connect my phone and then manually press Spotify play on my phone and not via my CarPlay display. As soon as I do this on my carplay system, Spotify stops working and I have to force close Spotify via my phone. I have had this ever since I had a carplay system in my car, which has been 3 months. I thought this would be quickly resolved in an update, but now that it still doesn't work, I am writing this article. I use spotify version 8.9.32.586. I have also tried uninstalling and installing the app, but unfortunately this does not work

[hieronymus_lex]

iPhone 13 Pro Max

iOS 17.4.1

Vehicle: 2024 Lexus TX

Tried clearing cache in the app and it seems to only fix the issue temporarily. 

[gottardomatteo]

I have exactly the same problem after close app and reopen from telephone it works again

iPhone 12
ios 17.4.1

bmw 2018 CarPlay wireless

app version 8.9.32.586

reinstall app and remove device from car non resolve. 

[Clopeytier67]

iPhone 14 Pro

IOS 17.4.1

Mini Cooper SE ALL4

Spotify 8.9.32.586

Aucune solution ne fonctionne 

Aucun son alors que tout le reste marche ….