Audio Glitching / Stuttering / Popping

[Stephen0vick]

Plan

Premium

Country

United States

Device

(iPhone 13 Pro Max)

Operating System

(iOS 18.1.1)

My Question or Issue

I have a strange issue with my Spotify where it skips when connected via Bluetooth and my iPhone. The audio will glitch and stutter. It becomes extremely bad gradually, but the increase is rapid. This problem ONLY occurs when I have the app actively open and my phone is connected to a Bluetooth device. If I leave the app open it will begin the glitch within one minute and then get intense before a single song can finish. The only solution I’ve came up with is clicking play and then swiping out of the app. I can still skip songs from the iPhone drop down menu, but if I want to select a new playlist I have to open the app, select the playlist, close the app because the glitching begins, then re-open the app, click play, and swipe out the app. The problem persists regardless of my WiFi connection, phone battery, Bluetooth device, or any other connection issue that would commonly cause problems. I haven’t found any regular way to resolve the issue and trust me, I’ve looked. It’s so much that the issue becomes a major problem, I would just like to be able to surf through my Spotify app while listening to music without problems.

[EJL2021]

Exact same thing that has been happening with me. Spotify version 9.0.32.638, IPhone 13 Pro Max and iOS 18.4. I have a Bluetooth device connected into my Peugeot 107 which over the past few months has been stuttering and glitching whilst playing songs. It’s not the Bluetooth device connected into the car because I have bought at least three other Bluetooth devices and it’s all doing the same thing. it only happens while playing Spotify and not on other apps such as YouTube it is also been happening on other members in my premium account. I’ve contacted Spotify before about this issue and all I got told was to do a soft reinstall, clean my cache and nothing seems to have helped. Thank you. 

[ahabib5]

iPhone 14 Pro, IOS 18.5 Beta 2, MOst recent Spotify Update

2016 Honda CR-V

Everytime I listen to anything on Spotify it stutters for no reason. It cuts out for 2 seconds and then comes back. It only happens with the Spotify app as I have tried this with countless other audio apps, including YT. I pay for this service and I would like for it not to be broken.

Connecting to the vehicle and then playing music, after about 5-20 minutes, it will begin stuttering. 

[#4]

I play from an iPhone 12 and it has only been a problem recently

[DJ031977]

I have the exact same problem.

[edevo · Accepted solution]

I've been investigating this issue for many weeks and finally resolved it by turning off the Spotify Jam feature by doing the following on my iPhone 15:

Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Bluetooth and turn off Spotify.

This setting appears to only be required by the jam feature and doesn't impact the phone's ability to use Bluetooth with the car. The jam setting in the Spotify app does not resolve the issue. 

As some people commented above, the stuttering only occurred when Spotify was on the screen, so I began looking at Bluetooth connections to my phone, discovering there were actual devices (assuming phones in nearby cars) connected to me (not just listed under Bluetooth/Other Devices).

A reddit thread (https://www.reddit.com/r/ios/comments/16a35p2/unknown_iphone_randomly_connects_to_my_own_iphone/) advised how to prevent unknown devices automatically connecting using the above steps, with the side result of resolving the Spotify stuttering.

IMO, it's a security issue having unknown devices connect to my phone without my approval. Spotify should disable the Jam feature, and Apple shouldn't allow this to happen either. 

[Stephen0vick]

Hey Edevo!

Sure seems like this is a working solution! I can’t express my appreciation, I’ll update if the problem does persist in any manner, but this is showing to be promising.

Thanks for your help!

[bethanymulkern]

It appears that this fix is working for me as well, as I was able to listen to Spotify for longer than one minute without it skipping. Thank you for doing the work and providing better tech support than Spotify does, lol. I’m still pretty beside myself that no one at Spotify could figure this out. Guess those profits are heading to the C-suite and not the techs doing the work! 

[Maddyrburns3]

iPhone 16 Pro

iOS 18.4.1

Spotify version 9.0.32.638

2014 RAV4 stock radio/bluetooth

Experiencing similar problems still as of April 18.2025. Phone connects fine to my Bluetooth and will play with app open or running in background. No problems until I’m by other cars it seems. It will cut out and then sound sped up and then return to normal. Sometimes it’s one skip, sometimes it skipps 3-5 times before it sorts itself out. I’ve tried resetting my Bluetooth on my vehicle, repairing device, clearing cache in Spotify, lowering streaming quality, no other apps have Bluetooth access in my phone settings, 5G vs LTE. No Apple Watch connected or nearby. 

I used to have an iPhone 15 PM and never experienced issues. Also I noticed this glitching maybe beginning of March. I know for a fact February 22 it was working flawlessly. I was on a trip streaming the whole time and no problems. Was in a drive thru with lots of cars and no stuttering.

Some of the “solutions” seem odd like lowering streaming quality. Shouldn’t have to do that as it was never an issue before. I have opened Apple Music and Sound Cloud and had no issues with those stuttering. Please look into this and fix. Makes me want to switch services when I’ve been using Spotify for the last decade. One thing I could possibly think of is the jam feature. Is the app always seeking out nearby Spotify users or Bluetooth connections to start a jam?? 

[keithus]

@edevo I can't tell you how many hours I've spent troubleshooting this and it's this stupid "feature" causing the problem.  Thank you!  Spotify Team, if you're reading this, this is the solution! 

[Karofalbala]

Yes!!!  This worked for me!  Thanks for the solution!  It was driving me crazy!!!

[Maddyrburns3]

Edevo I saw your post just after I made mine. That was the fix, I had seen it in the settings and thought my Bluetooth wouldn’t work anymore by turning it off. Thanks for the clarification. Anyone searching, this is it. Haven’t had a single problem since turning the Bluetooth off in the mentioned settings. 

[EJL2021]

After trying the method mentioned above, it still seems to be stuttering for me when turning Bluetooth off in privacy and security. 

[Alscott]

Also having the exact issues, trying the fix by disabling Bluetooth. Hopefully fixes it been driving me nuts 

[Lea43]

I have the same problem with my Motorola. Updated to Android 15 and it started doing this. Tried uninstalling and installing, reconnected my car Bluetooth multiple times and it still persists. No problem with listening to Audible...

[Lea43]

Hi. It's Spotify 9.0.36.697 on Motorola Edge 50 Neo connected to my Nissan Connect via Bluetooth. Problems started after Android 15 update. Regular stutter and static sound. I have no problems with Audible in the same scenario. Tried uninstalling and installing Spotify, Bluetooth reboot... Still persists....

[DreamShark]

Plan

Premium Duo

Country

United States

Device

iPhone 15 Pro

Operating System

iOS 18.4.1 (but issue has persisted across a couple OS updates)

My Question or Issue

When connecting to ANY Bluetooth device (that isn't apple airpods???) songs often stop the audio (while Spotify continues playing the song - the duration into the song continues climbing) for up to a couple seconds and when it comes back it plays ALL the audio that it missed really quickly to "catch up"??? Google says this is potentially "signal interference, poor connection quality, or hardware limitations." but I suspect it's Spotify itself!

All tests are in my car though. Unsure what could be causing it. 

I've tried:

• testing multiple bluetooth devices (my car stereo, a separate bluetooth receiver to aux connection in the car, and a Bose bluetooth speaker) Airpods seem unaffected tho??? 😞 
• tested multiple apps and only Spotify is affected (tried YouTube and BandCamp)
• reinstalling the app
• Signing out and back into the App
• Restarting my phone
• Updating Spotify
• Forgetting the Bluetooth connection entirely (both on my phone and the device itself)
• changing the audio quality (defaults to automatic, and I've tried both low and high end audio)
• clearing cache on the app
• EDIT with additional things I've tried:
  • My phone is attached to a magsafe charger in my car and I've tried 
    • unplugging the charger (including from the cigarette lighter)
    • not using the magsafe mount (just put phone in cup holder)

Yet the issue persists.

I switched to an iPhone last year and this issue didn't occur on my Android EVER and has been getting increasingly worse over the past couple months.

I'm seriously considering cancelling my 5 year long membership if Spotify continues to let this happen. A music app is useless if it can't keep a beat.

[IHasEyes]

I have this issue on my iPhone 11 and my Windows 11 laptop, with the phone I use the app, with the laptop I use the web version. On my phone when the music starts again it goes really fast to catch up to where it should be, sometimes after it catches up it stops again and starts over, on my laptop it just stops for sometimes minutes on end, and then starts randomly for like 30 seconds and off again, both times it shows it's still playing, close to getting Apple Music lol.

[Gamsy]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

iPhone 15

Operating System

iOS 18.4.1

My Question or Issue

Playing music on my iPhone 15 starts stuttering and skipping like a CD would every minute or so to varying degrees of intensity. I have tested other audio/music apps and none of them are experiencing this issue, and have also tried with and without Bluetooth connections, and on and off Wi-Fi. Only the Spotify app seems to have the issue, and it started a few months ago. The biggest oddity is when connected to Bluetooth, I have had it disconnect my entire phone from the Bluetooth device if the stuttering gets particularly bad several times now. But again, the stuttering occurs whether I'm connected to Bluetooth or not.

Once the stuttering stops, the music speeds itself up very rapidly like it's trying to catch up and then playback resumes as normal. The stuttering lasts anywhere from 5-30 seconds. The playback progress continues during the skipping. It does not pause the song or anything.

[Yojimbo1]

Plan

premium

Country

USA

Device

iphone 14

Operating System

iOS 18.4.1

My Question or Issue

i'm experiencing regular drop outs....music just stops.  When i restart music, it usually drops out again after 10-15 seconds. If i then try a different song, it doesn't drop out for a while.

I have emptied the cache and done several clean reinstalls.......still experiencing the issue

[DreamShark]

So let me get this straight, it took 84 days (almost 3 months) for someone to find a solution and it was a fellow customer, not a developer. 
It's been 20 days since that solution (and root cause?) was found and Spotify developers still haven't released a fix for it? 
They're wearing my patience thin. I swear if another app-breaking bug appears soon I'm cancelling my membership.(app breaking b/c consistently ruining the rhythm of songs makes listening to music pointless) 

the jam sessions feature is ADVERTISED as being used in a car, but that is where the issue appears. This is just awful.