Apple watch Handoff and reliability issues

[pary16]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Apple Watch 7 Cellular

Operating System

Lastest iOS

Issue #1: The Spotify watch app seems to have some issues with handoff to iphone/echo/other devices. When I go to the gym, I prefer to stream music on my AW cellular but still bring my phone with me and put it in a locker. As long as my phone is in range, even when I try to deliberately switch to listening to my watch 9/10 times it just refuses and says "something went wrong". I have to shut down my iphone to get it to properly work. When it does work, it only works for a 10 minutes and then the app decides that it wants to switch to my iPhone on it's own.

I've even had this issue on my echo. I stream to the echo and then when I press "next song" sometimes the watch switches to my phone. It's really irritating.

Issue #2: There has been many times where I'm out and even with my iphone off the app just disconnects from my 2nd gen airpods and refuses to reconnect unless i close the app and wait for about 5 minutes. When I try to connect to my airpods again it says "something went wrong". It's a mystery to me. When this happens I cannot even play my offline downloaded songs so I'm usually just left running with no music for a while until it decides to stop throwing a fit.

I hope Spotify focuses a little more on debugging the watch app, I bought a watch primarily for Spotify streaming. Also hope you guys consider a full keyboard since AW7 allows it, siri is horribly unreliable.

[OscarDC]

Hey @pary16,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community. 

We'd first recommend performing a clean reinstall of the app on your iPhone. This is often an overlooked step, but it’s more thorough than a regular one and can be helpful to get rid of any cache that might be causing trouble. Also, reinstall the app on the Watch as well to see if it makes any difference.

If the issue persists, include the Spotify version and the OS version you're currently running in your Watch and iPhone.

We'll be on the lookout. ​​​​​​​

[pary16]

Clean reinstall on both watch and phone and issues still persist. I also tried different headphones and it made no difference the default streaming mode for watch seems to be "iphone" while it's in range. Even streaming on my ipad is iffy.

I just tried to change a song from my watch that was playing on my ipad and it jumped to streaming to my phone that was downstairs.

There are a few other issues with volume controls also switching to iphone levels mid listening and changing etc but the main issue is definitely how stubborn the Spotify app is in streaming to the iphone.

watch os: 8.4.2

phone: 15.3.1

ipad: 15.4.1

[Bryce10s]

Spotify, you need to overhaul the watch app. It’s terrible. For one, when in standalone mode and listening to a podcast, the handoff when back in range of the phone causes the watch app to switch the podcast to a different episode. Also, the syncing is Non- existent. When listing on the watch, you must manually sync on the iPhone app. I’m sorry but this is unacceptable, especially when other competitors have this functionality. 

[Vasil]

Hi there people!
 

Thanks for keeping us posted 🙂
 

The AirPods connectivity issue is currently under investigation and should get fixed as soon as the root cause is identified.
We apologize for the inconveniences and recommend keeping the app up to date in the meantime.
 

@Bryce10s - have you tried any troubleshooting so far?
Could you also let us know the Spotify version and the OS version you're currently running in your Watch and iPhone?
 

Much appreciated!
We'll be on the lookout for your response.
 

Cheers!

[Bryce10s]

Hi,

I am running this software version on the iPhone: 8.7.18.1411

And on the watch: 8.7.18

I’ve followed the troubleshooting tips, including resetting and removing / reinstalling the apps. The sync functionality just doesn’t work. For whatever reason, when in standalone mode and coming back in range of the phone, the app will revert to the very first podcast episode in the series but continue playing a different podcast. When I open the app on the phone and go to the recently played podcast, it’s like it was never played. I have to then manually adjust to where I think I left off.

[Eni]

Hey @Bryce10s, 

Thanks for getting back to us.

Just to make sure, is this only happening with the podcast episodes or with the music as well?

On another note, would you mind following the steps here to see if they make the difference?

• Restart the watch
• Re-pair the watch with your phone
• Try a different internet connection

Let us know how it goes.

[Bryce10s]

Hi,

I’ve tried all the troubleshooting tips to no avail. It’s definitely a software bug.

Syncing issue only happens when listening to podcasts and when using the watch app on cellular in standalone mode. When back in range of the phone, it continues playing on the watch but the app shows a different episode (mostly the very first episode in the series). When pausing on the watch the spot where I left off is lost. Opening on the iPhone app shows that the episode has not been played. Syncing is non-existent.

[pary16]

I will say I have also experienced this bug bryce10s has been dealing with but I have also experienced delayed syncing with music. So for example I would want to like a song that was playing on my phone but my watch was still on the last song that had already finished playing.

The watch app seems to have lots of bugs unfortunately. Hope to see some more focus on it in the future as the watch becomes more independent. 

[Jeremy]

Hi there folks,

Thank you for your replies and confirmation.

We'd like to try this directly from our end, so it would be great if you - @Bryce10s and @pary16 can provide us your Spotify version?

If you'd like to know how to check your exact Spotify version you can head over to this article.

We'll keep an eye out for your replies so that we can continue to investigate this.

Take care!

[Bryce10s]

Hi,

I am running this software version on my iPhone: 8.7.20.1724

And this version on my watch: 8.7.21

Hope this helps. 

[pary16]

Mine is 8.7.21.1728

Thanks!

[pary16]

Just wanted to give you guys a shout out for addressing most of the connectivity issues. I've noticed a significantly better experience the past few weeks and appreciate you guys listening. I hope you're able to introduce a full keyboard or a way to input other than siri next. The case for that being, I cannot play foreign songs/songs from foreign artists, or artists with weird names that don't get recognized by siri. Thanks again for addressing the connectivity problems!

[pary16]

Also one more bug: 

case: listening on watch, no iphone in range

when iPhone is suddenly in range watch app crashes.

ios: 15.5

Iphone XR

AW7 ios: 8.6

using apple airpods ver 2

[bUTful]

AW6se iOS: 8.7

iPhone 13pro iOS: 15.6

AirPods pro2

When I go for a run, I leave the phone in the car and disconnect bluetooth from watch so I can use the "Downloads" songs on my watch in the spotify app to play music. As soon as I hit play it's all fine and about 15 seconds in the song stops and it refuses to play anything else. It grays out the buttons on spotify app. I've erased, installed, updated, restarted, etc and the problem still continues. 

[deletedpenguin]

I'm also experiencing this. iphone 12, with airpod pros. 

[hayyu88]

march 2023 and this issue is still happening!

[Pastordave]

Same issue! Infernally frustrating. I bought the watch just for the purpose of running without my phone. No matter how hard I try to get the watch to play directly to my AirPod pros the downloaded music on the watch it INSISTS on playing it through my iPhone. Once I’m of range … It says “something is wrong” and won’t do anything with the songs I know are downloaded.

[pabloespejo]

Agree.

Just bought an Apple Watch to avoid having the iphone in the gym, and the app Spotify for Apple Watch is a total disaster or I would rather say that is a**bleep**.

Examples:

- You can't sort the lists, so if you have 500 songs in a list and you want to hear the most recently songs, you need to go all the way until the end of the list. And this, every time you want to do this.

- The app sound suddenly stops, and starts to reproduce the songs in the iphone, even with the Bluetooth off in the iphone.

Two things that are probably extremely easy to solve, and the company do not have interest in fixing it as I see many people complaining about this.

[AmpItUp]

Same issue.  My workaround is once I am ready to head out for my exercise is to disable bluetooth on my iPhone 13 Pro Max.

When I then spark up either my Podcast app or Spotify itself, everything works fine.  When I return from my workout, I re-enable bluetooth on my iPhone so Strava can sync.

as for the currently played Spotify music - it does not sync to the iPhone upon return.

App definitely needs some debugging especially since this issue is now over a year outstanding.