Apple TV - I have to log in every time I use the Spotify app

[sadastronaut]

Plan

Premium

Country

United States

Device

Apple TV 4th Gen

Operating System

tvOS 14.7

My Question or Issue

I do not stay logged in on the Apple TV app. Almost every time I use the app (it may stay logged in for a few hours), it asks me to log in and gives me a pairing code. 

[sadastronaut]

Hey folks!

Thanks for the patience with this.

The issue seems to be stemming from low space on the AppleTV that causes Apple to purge the data. Our tech folks are working on a possible fix for this.

For now, please make sure your storage has enough space.
Apple doesn't provide this info on AppleTV settings, so you can use this free application to understand how much storage you have left.

Hope this helps!

[theBrady]

I just wanted to share that I have had this problem for years and it has been a constant point of frustration with Spotify. I've never launched the app and had it just be logged in to my account...

...until this week.

I think I may have finally sorted out why this kept happening to me and it is definitely something that Spotify should be able to fix. My solution is not a fix, but I did take action that likely resulted in me from constantly hitting this bug.

I believe the way that Spotify is storing user credentials on the Apple TV is being viewed as "purgeable" by tvOS. If the Apple TV is running low on storage then it will delete any data stored by apps that it believes is purgeable. Most apps store the user credentials in a way so that tvOS knows not to delete. I believe Spotify needs to review how they are storing user credentials.

I discovered this due to some odd behavior in the app Infuse (a media player). Every day or so when I'd launch that app, which I'd just recently begun to use, I'd get an alert message saying that the Apple TV was running low on space and tvOS had purged all of my local cached media information (movie posters, etc). This prompted me to go in and delete all apps except for those that actually use. I had years of games installed that I had never played (several were shown as offloaded where it would download the app on launch because it didn't have enough space to store everything). Once I deleted the unused apps I stopped receiving the error message from Infuse stating that tvOS purged my cached data. Along with that, suspecting the Spotify creds were maybe getting purged by tvOS I started trying to use the app again. It has been perfect now for over 3 weeks.

Just wanted to share this detail so that...

1) Other users here might try to see if they can recreate my success (delete all unused apps so that tvOS doesn't feel the need to purge any data it believes to be unused)

2) Hopefully this success story (at least for 3 weeks... and I couldn't ever use Spotify for more than 1 day in a row) will make it's way to the developers so they can correctly store user credentials with appropriate metadata to make tvOS aware that it is not purgeable. Again, this is assuming that this is the actual fix and I'm not stumbling on to some fluke where I've had 3 weeks of success after multiple years of failures after a day or two.

Good luck, everyone.

[Novy]

Hey folks, 

Thanks for all your reports. 

In order to provide the relevant info to the right folks, we'd like to ask you to provide the exact model of your Apple TV, along with the OS version of it and the exact Spotify version it's currently running, in case you haven't. 

We'll be on the lookout!

[DevStarr]

I've had this problem for years. I would be surprised if it ever got fixed. Spotify has some of the most counterintuitive apps that I have ever had the pleasure of being forced to use.

Apple TV Model: A1625 (32 GB)

tvOS version: 16.1 (20K71)

Spotify version: 1.34.45

[chrisfrontiero]

Hey moderator, please pass these messages along for the next Spotify update. This is not a hardware problem from the user. It’s not a smart TV OS problem or not an Apple TV problem. This is a Spotify problem. It is a great service but you have terrible apps. Absolutely terrible. Especially if you are using an Apple device. This is a coding problem that needs to be updated by the programmers at Spotify. Funny, Apple Music doesn’t have this problem at all. Coding problems. Not reset your hardware problems.

[rgarvinsound]

My experience is identical to sadastronaut's. Every time I use the app, I have to log back in. Just saying there's one more person having this issue.

[clemh]

Same problem here.  A1842 4k model.  Not using Spotify too often, but consistently need to login/pair every time.  I'm not even closing the app, just switching between apps per normal use.

[nathanbeach]

I would use Spotify so much more in my house if I didn't have to log in again every time I open Spotify on Apple TV. I can't believe no one has cared to fix this at Spotify after all this time. It's a big bug! Has to be a relatively easy solution (like extend some auth session timeout?). No other tvOS apps I use have a constant login problems like this. The iOS Spotify app works perfectly, so obviously it can work in the Apple ecosystem. Someone please fix this!

[nathanbeach]

PS: I have four AppleTV 4's in my house, mixture of 4K and HD models. All have this same problem. Can't stay logged in for more than about 24 hours.

[jmastrom]

I am jumping into this thread with many others to add to the number of frustrated Apple TV users impacted by this bug. 

Like others here have already mentioned, my Spotify app does not stay logged in for more than a few hours. Seemingly every time I open the Spotify app on any of my (4) Apple TV's I am prompted to log in and pair with an activation code. This is extremely frustrating and most of the time I just give up and use Apple Music instead. Yes, you heard that right, I would rather use SongShift to keep my Spotify and Apple Music playlists in sync to avoid having to re-login to Spotify whenever I want to use it. Users are resorting to 3rd party apps to sync 2 competing services or just switching to the competing service all together over this likely easily fixed issue. 

I really do prefer Spotify > Apple Music, but I don't need the additional frustration and friction in my life to re-login to Spotify every time I want to open the app. Like several others have mentioned, I do NOT have this issue with ANY other application I use frequently on any of my Apple TVs. 

This problem is so annoying I was sure I would find a community support thread about the issue and bingo, here we are. As a long-time Spotify premium subscriber I'm disheartened by the lack of engagement and support in this thread beyond the basic "reset your Apple TV" guidance. Can we please move past the invaluable boilerplate troubleshooting steps and acknowledge the bug/issue, and provide a roadmap for resolution? Please.   

[sadastronaut]

Hi Novy,

original poster here. You'll see the version I reported in the original post

"

Device

Apple TV 4th Gen

Operating System

tvOS 14.7"

Since that time, it's been every version of tvOS and every Spotify version (unless Spotify has been updated in the past few days - typically the TV is good about auto-updating apps). 

[trondbj]

I've also had this problem ever since I first started using Spotify on my ATV, which is at least a couple of years ago. I have auto update ON both for Apple TV OS and apps and the problem has been persistent through all versions of TVOS and the Spotify app. 

Apple TV Model: A1842 (32 GB)

tvOS version: 16.1 (20K71)

Spotify version: 1.34.4

Plan: Premium

Country: Norway

[AnnoyedAtSptifysBS]

It’s clear to me after all this time that they simply don’t care and are betting that we’ll keep subscribing regardless of their indifference because they don’t like Apple as a competitor. Well, they lost the bet for me. I cancelled 3 months ago and haven’t looked back. Every song I need is on Apple Music. Too bad, because Spotify was a brand I used to admire.

[bandtank]

This is obviously an oauth problem. Token storage and retrieval is failing, which triggers reauthentication. Fix the oauth process and the problem goes away.

[allesmatze]

Same problem since at least 2 years on Apple TV 4K with latest TvOS

[Corginator]

Same problem here. Apple TV 4K 1st gen.

[Vasil]

Hey folks!

Thanks for the patience with this.

The issue seems to be stemming from low space on the AppleTV that causes Apple to purge the data. Our tech folks are working on a possible fix for this.

For now, please make sure your storage has enough space.
Apple doesn't provide this info on AppleTV settings, so you can use this free application to understand how much storage you have left.

Hope this helps!

[bandtank]

Lol, storage space has nothing to do with the problem. My device has > 50% available space and the token is never stored correctly. You can literally see the endpoint change after expiration by watching the traffic with wireshark. Could you please give this bug report to someone who isn’t an intern?

[Kuba86]

No, it doesn’t stem from low storage space. I have 30GB free. Just fix the code. The handling of this is pathetic. Don’t tell me to reset anything. I’ll rather uninstall the app altogether.

[SoCalG]

Would also report this is happening to me as well.  Latest AppleTV with latest firmware and gigs of freespace.  Spotify is the only app among many on the AppleTV that is requiring a re-pair and relogin each time. Happens across multiple AppleTVs in the house. 

Hopefully can get eventually fixed but this is 100% a Spotify problem and the only app that has this issue on the AppleTV. Hopefully an update will fix it in the future.

[AppleTVLoginGuy]

I am also a Spotify Premium user who has Spotify installed on my AppleTV that consistently requires re-pairing the App with my account. I’ve deleted and reinstalled, reset to factory, etc. and the app consistently asks to pair in order to activate. It’s been asking for over a year. I gave up for about 3 months, then gave in and downloaded it again. Now I’m looking at the activation request again, even though I paired it last week. What gives?