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.

[Thechrisr]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Iphone 16pro and 16Pro MAX

Operating System

Latest IOS updates 

My Question or Issue

My IOS playback has begun stuttering, and popping constantly (like every 5-10 minutes) on my IOS device for the past several months. It does not matter if I'm playing over blue-tooth or AirPlay or if I'm playing in my car or at home.  The issue occurring on multiple IOS devices in my family.  The issue does not occur if I play music from my PC over airplay or play in ofloine mode from my downloaded library or purely over cellular or wi-fi. 

I have tried all suggestions that I can find, such as clearing the cache, deleting and re-installing the APP or deleting all downloaded music.  Nothing fixes the issue and its VERY frustrating when you try to play music for your group or party and the SPOTIFY keeps skipping or breaking up every few songs.  Make me want to drop Spotify altogether.

[Arkfowl]

Plan

Premium

Country

United States

Device

iPhone 14 Pro

Operating System

(iOS 18.7.1

My Question or Issue

This only happens when I’m connected to my car. I’ve tried it on headphones and other devices but when I connect to my car I’ll be playing my songs and all my songs are downloaded but they will start cutting out, speeding up, and just glitching. A few times they just stop all together and I have to close the Spotify app completely but after a few minutes it happens again. 
- ive deleted and redownloaded my app and all my songs

- my music quality has been changed to lossless, high, very high and it happens on all of them. 
-cleared cache

- app version is 9.0.91.1231
- other phones don’t have issues when connected to my car

- noticed this started when the “auto invite people nearby to jam” option became a thing. 

[Attte]

It seems most of the issues about this are related to iPhones.

If you experience issues with stuttering, cutting or speeding/slowing audio playback, you can try this solution with iPhone:

For me the final fix was to go to the iPhone Settings -> Privacy and Security -> Bluetooth -> Disable from Spotify.

The Spotify does not need bluetooth permissions for the audio playback over bluetooth - the phone OS does the communication for audio signals over Bluetooth, not the Spotify app.

That bluetooth access for Spotify is most likely required only for the Jam features or other playback device discovery on the Spotify app, not for the audio playback.

[janjaap]

Plan

Premium

Country

The Netherland

Device

iPhone 13 mini

Operating System

iOS 26

My Question or Issue

Since some time now I'm having issues with the sound that is played via bluetooth in my Volvo. It started a couple of iOS updates ago and I'm not really sure if it's iOS or Spotify that causes the problems. The issue is that sound is interrupted for a fraction of a second till a couple of seconds at random times during playback. I noticed that when I download songs and set Spotify to offline mode, the interruptions are far less frequent. It also seems to be even less when I set my phone to airplane mode.

I've tried connecting my phone to another car's stereo and there the issue also occurs.

The issue does not occur when I'm connected to my headphones or living room stereo.

[deladarkskin]

Having this problem as well. I have the new 17Pro and im about to cancel my spotify seeing multiple people complaining about this. I may have to head on over to apple music. my daughter connects her phone to my car with apple music and she never has this issue. 

[Lea43]

I cancelled Spotify many months ago. Using Deezer for music and Podbean for podcasts. Never have any problems. Wish I'd done it earlier...

[pinglovpap]

Same issue here.

[EvilPuppetMaste]

I can 100% confirm that disabling Spotify’s direct access to Bluetooth in iOS settings resolves this. I’ve been having it for a couple of years and it was incredibly frustrating. It does not stop you being able to play music through the Bluetooth connection to the car because the audio connection is just directly via the OS, and doesn’t require Spotify app itself to have Bluetooth enabled. 

[Jonjony2992]

This is effecting me too, listing on PC desktop app with Bluetooth Speakers. And also with my iphone 15 pro when connected via bluetooth in carplay. It is killing me.

[Arkfowl]

I did a post and it was added to this thread and reading all the responses I definitely can confirm I have tried pretty much all these things as well. My car doesn't allow wifi connection its an older car so that isn't something I can do. I can listen to my Spotify through Bluetooth anywhere else (headphones, speakers, etc.) without any issues at all, but once I'm in my car, I get the stuttering and stopping of the music just like how CDs used to skip back in the day. I can listen to any other music app from my phone to my car speaker using bluetooth with no issues at all. I can definitely confirm this is ONLY happening with my Spotify app and I can also confirm this all started when they added the "start a jam" feature. I'm sure it sounds annoying but I will also say it, I've been a spotify member for over 10 years and this is the first time I'm having this issue. The fact that Its confirmed and has its own thread but theres no real answer when this clearly seems to be pointing to spotify adding their new jam feature is just plain dumb. Why isn't this getting more attention right now? What needs to be done for this to be looked at more instead of band aid solutions? 

[LeonHere]

Don’t know if this would help anyone but it seems Disabling Game mode on the phone worked for me and I have no more constant stutter or ringing

[prncsslly]

this prevents me from playing anything through bluetooth on spotify… what am i doing wrong??

[LeonHere]

Turn off the Game Mode On your phone. It’s hard to find the option so install a game and and the top of your phone you should see “Game Mode On” click then Turn off

[Ariannawilliams]

I did this and it disconnected my Bluetooth..

[SalaiLama]

 

This issue was driving me nuts for the longest time. Considered canceling Spotify subscription and switching to Apple Music. 
How to fix this issue: (for Apple devices)

- Go to your phone setting ands search for the Spotify app

- Turn off the Bluetooth slider. This does not affect your connection to any Bluetooth devices.

After doing this, I have not had the issue ever again and regained my sanity. No longer will my music cut while singing at the top of my lungs.

[piwikiwi1967]

@edevo thank you for sharing this solution! I was getting ready to rip out my Volvo’s factory bluetooth system before I found this!

[fadman]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!  This was driving me nuts.  

[Ivelina]

Hey folks,

Thanks to everyone who's posted so far.

We're investigating the audio issues being reported in more detail and want to gather as much information as we can to help get to the root cause. We'd really appreciate it if you could answer as many of the questions below as apply to you.

We'll be posting questions in batches, so not all of them will be relevant to everyone.

Your setup:

• Are you using headphones or speakers? If so, what make, model and connection type? (e.g. AirPods Pro, wired over-ear, Bluetooth speaker, car stereo etc.)
• What device are you listening on? Make and model (e.g. iPhone 15, Samsung Galaxy S24, MacBook Pro)
• In Spotify Settings, what is your streaming quality set to? (Automatic / Low / Normal / High / Very High / Lossless)
• In Spotify Settings, is "Normalize volume" On or Off?

If you also use Apple Music:

• Is "Sound Check" (Apple's normalization) On or Off?
• Is "Dolby Atmos" set to Automatic, Always On, or Off?
• When comparing the two services, are you using the same headphones/speakers and listening to the same track back to back?

Thanks for taking the time. We're here if anything else comes up in the meantime. 

[terryjamiahaaa]

I use Spotify on my iphone 15 pro max and connect it via bluetooth to my car stereo. My music settings are loseless and high when on cellular. Normalize volume is off. 

[pkrpmusic]

Your setup:

• Are you using headphones or speakers? If so, what make, model and connection type? (e.g. AirPods Pro, wired over-ear, Bluetooth speaker, car stereo etc.) - Apple iPhone 16 w/ bluetooth headphones (no issues), Desktop Macbook Pro (2020) M1 using Tahoe IoS via inbuilt speakers. Never had issues pre-Tahoe. 
• What device are you listening on? Make and model (e.g. iPhone 15, Samsung Galaxy S24, MacBook Pro) - Desktop Macbook Pro (2020) M1 using Tahoe IoS
• In Spotify Settings, what is your streaming quality set to? (Automatic / Low / Normal / High / Very High / Lossless) - It's on Lossless but I'm going to try it on Very High for a week and see what happens
• In Spotify Settings, is "Normalize volume" On or Off? - ON (but on many different recordings, it doesn't make any difference)

If you also use Apple Music:

• Is "Sound Check" (Apple's normalization) On or Off? Can't find this on Macbook Pro
• Is "Dolby Atmos" set to Automatic, Always On, or Off? Presumably ON
• When comparing the two services, are you using the same headphones/speakers and listening to the same track back to back? I use the same wireless headphones when listening back on either my Pro or my IPhone. The popping or glitching only seems to happen on the Pro.